Syntax: A Linguistic Overview
The basics of syntax concern the structure of sentences and which words go where, which words combine with which and which forms words can take. The study of syntax enables us to create descriptive rules that govern the operation of language. Syntacticians - experts in syntax - are interested in discovering the factors that are involved in grammar, particularly with respect to some language. It is suggested that eventually there will be rules that apply to all languages, which is why studying different languages is important.
To study the nature of language, linguists examine linguistic units or elements as well as the principles that control their behaviour and relations in forming sentences. The analysis is conducted on a basic level of a linguistic component called syntax. According to Richards et al. (1985), syntax means it refers to the study of how words group together to form sentences and the rules which govern the formation of sentences. In other words, sentences are made of clauses, clauses of phrases, and phrases of words arranged according to some norms and rules. Next, syntax studies how phrases clauses and sentences are formed in a specific area. According to Herman (2005), syntax is the study of the relevance between the part of the sentence’s structure and the study of the rules which determine the arrangement of words in the sentence. According to Gleason (1955), the syntax of a language is generally said to consist of a principle of construction and arrangement made up of the derivation process and inflection of words into an even bigger construction. According to Kridalaksana (1982), syntax is (i) a set and relation of words, or with some bigger units, or between the bigger units in the the language. (ii) A sub-system of language which includes those units assumed as parts of the grammatical unit. (iii) A branch of linguistics which studies those units.
In syntax, the most important characteristics are morphology and construction principles of sentences, as it apparently seems. In addition, syntax takes note of the difference between written language and spoken language, as the latter is often more spontaneous and does not obey rules of structure. Studying syntax enables linguists to find out more about the different word classes like how many types of verbs there are and many other mind-boggling structural phenomena like how the location of contextual information determines who a pronoun is really referring to.
Studying syntax is assumed to be relevant to many areas of linguistics. We must study syntax to learn how children acquire their language, how they start constructing sentences, and at what stage they learn the tacit syntactic rules of the language. In addition, studying syntax helps us understand how our bilingual and multilingual companions are able to create sentences patterns of sentences that follow their own language rules despite some differences. English sentence pattern is not the same as the Bengali sentence pattern!
By studying sentence structure, we learn many pieces of the puzzle when it comes to understanding how languages work. It’s also the doorway to future research and theories on all aspects of linguistics. We also analyze syntax to create fixed rules and constraints that govern the language. We refer to the constraints that define what we are permitted or disallowed to do in a language as parameters. They aid us to establish a communicative system that can effectively work. Some linguists argue all languages are governed by similar rules. Noam Chomsky developed the theory of universal grammar in the 1960s which is also known by this name. Following the ideas of linguistic parameters, we can learn, make, and teach the correct way of sentence formation.
Thus, syntax as the name suggests is a basic level of linguistics that study of the structure of sentences, which enables us to understand and use the rules to frame correct sentences in a particular language.
Refrences:
- M. Maniruzzaman. (2020). Syntactic Processes. In Introduction to Linguistics. Friends' Book Corner.