Editing Syntactic

In [[linguistics]], '''syntax''' (from [[Ancient Greek]] σύνταξις "arrangement" from σύν ''syn'', "together", and τάξις ''táxis'', "an ordering") is "the study of the principles and processes by which [[Sentence (linguistics)|sentences]] are constructed in particular [[natural language|languages]]".

In addition to referring to the overarching discipline, the term ''syntax'' is also used to refer directly to the rules and principles that govern the sentence structure of any individual language, for example in "the [[Irish syntax|syntax of Modern Irish]]." Modern research in syntax attempts to [[Linguistic description|describe languages]] in terms of such rules. Many professionals in this discipline attempt to find [[Universal grammar|general rules]] that apply to all natural languages. 

The term ''syntax'' is also used to refer to the rules governing the behavior of mathematical systems, such as [[formal language]]s used in [[logic]] (see [[Syntax (logic)|logical syntax]]).

== Early history ==
Works on [[grammar]] were written long before modern syntax came about; the ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'' of [[Pāṇini]] (c. 4th century BC) is often cited as an example of a premodern work that approaches the sophistication of a modern syntactic theory. In the West, the school of thought that came to be known as "traditional grammar" began with the work of [[Dionysius Thrax]].

For centuries, work in syntax was dominated by a framework known as ''grammaire générale'', first expounded in 1660 by [[Antoine Arnauld]] in a book of the same title. This system took as its basic premise the assumption that language is a direct reflection of thought processes and therefore there is a single, most natural way to express a thought. (That ''natural way'', coincidentally, was exactly the way it was expressed in French.)

However, in the 19th century, with the development of [[historical-comparative linguistics]], linguists began to realize the sheer diversity of human language and to question fundamental assumptions about the relationship between language and logic. It became apparent that there was no such thing as the most natural way to express a thought, and therefore logic could no longer be relied upon as a basis for studying the structure of language.

The [[Port-Royal-des-Champs|Port-Royal grammar]] modeled the study of syntax upon that of logic (indeed, large parts of the [[Port-Royal Logic]] were copied or adapted from the ''Grammaire générale''). Syntactic categories were identified with logical ones, and all sentences were analyzed in terms of "Subject – Copula – Predicate". Initially, this view was adopted even by the early comparative linguists such as [[Franz Bopp]].

The central role of syntax within theoretical linguistics became clear only in the 20th century, which could reasonably be called the "century of syntactic theory" as far as linguistics is concerned. For a detailed and critical survey of the history of syntax in the last two centuries, see the monumental work by Giorgio Graffi (2001).

== Modern theories ==

There are a number of theoretical approaches to the discipline of syntax. One school of thought, founded in the works of [[Derek Bickerton]], sees syntax as a branch of biology, since it conceives of syntax as the study of linguistic knowledge as embodied in the human [[mind]]. Other linguists (e.g. [[Gerald Gazdar]]) take a more [[Philosophy of mathematics#Platonism|Platonistic]] view, since they regard syntax to be the study of an abstract [[formal system]]. Yet others (e.g. [[Joseph Greenberg]]) consider grammar a taxonomical device to reach broad generalizations across languages.

=== Generative grammar ===
''See Main Article [[Generative grammar]]''

The hypothesis of generative grammar is that language is a structure of the human mind. The goal of generative grammar is to make a complete model of this inner language (known as ''[[i-language]]''). This model could be used to describe all human language and to predict the [[grammaticality]] of any given utterance (that is, to predict whether the utterance would sound correct to native speakers of the language). This approach to language was pioneered by [[Noam Chomsky]]. Most generative theories (although not all of them) assume that syntax is based upon the constituent structure of sentences. Generative grammars are among the theories that focus primarily on the form of a sentence, rather than its communicative function.

Among the many generative theories of linguistics, the Chomskyan theories are:
* [[Transformational grammar]] (TG) (Original theory of generative syntax laid out by Chomsky in ''Syntactic Structures'' in 1957)
* [[Government and binding theory]] (GB) (revised theory in the tradition of TG developed mainly by Chomsky in the 1970s and 1980s)
* [[Minimalist program]] (MP) (a reworking of the theory out of the GB framework published by Chomsky in 1995)

Other theories that find their origin in the generative paradigm are:
* [[Generative semantics]] (now largely out of date)
* [[Relational grammar]] (RG) (now largely out of date)
* [[Arc pair grammar]]
* [[Generalized phrase structure grammar]] (GPSG; now largely out of date)
* [[Head-driven phrase structure grammar]] (HPSG)
* [[Lexical functional grammar]] (LFG)
* [[Nanosyntax]]

=== Categorial grammar ===
''See Main Article [[Categorial grammar]]''

[[Categorial grammar]] is an approach that attributes the syntactic structure not to rules of grammar, but to the properties of the [[syntactic categories]] themselves. For example, rather than asserting that sentences are constructed by a rule that combines a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP) (e.g. the [[phrase structure rule]] S → NP VP), in categorial grammar, such principles are embedded in the category of the [[head (linguistics)|head]] word itself. So the syntactic category for an [[intransitive]] verb is a complex formula representing the fact that the verb acts as a [[function word]] requiring an NP as an input and produces a sentence level structure as an output. This complex category is notated as (NP\S) instead of V. NP\S is read as "a category that searches to the left (indicated by \) for a NP (the element on the left) and outputs a sentence (the element on the right)". The category of [[transitive verb]] is defined as an element that requires two NPs (its subject and its direct object) to form a sentence. This is notated as (NP/(NP\S)) which means "a category that searches to the right (indicated by /) for an NP (the object), and generates a function (equivalent to the VP) which is (NP\S), which in turn represents a function that searches to the left for an NP and produces a sentence).

[[Tree-adjoining grammar]] is a categorial grammar that adds in partial [[tree structure]]s to the categories.

===Dependency grammar===
See Main Article [[Dependency grammar]]

[[Dependency grammar]] is an approach to sentence structure where syntactic units are arranged according to the dependency relation, as opposed to the constituency relation of [[phrase structure grammar]]s. Dependencies are directed links between words. The (finite) verb is seen as the root of all clause structure and all the other words in the clause are either directly or indirectly dependent on this root. Some prominent dependency-based theories of syntax:

* [[Algebraic syntax]]
* [[Word grammar]]
* [[Operator grammar]]
* [[Meaning–text theory]]
* [[Functional generative description]]

[[Lucien Tesnière]] (1893–1954) is widely seen as the father of modern dependency-based theories of syntax and grammar. He argued vehemently against the binary division of the clause into [[subject (grammar)|subject]] and [[predicate (grammar)|predicate]] that is associated with the grammars of his day (S → NP VP) and which remains at the core of all phrase structure grammars, and in the place of this division, he positioned the verb as the root of all clause structure.

=== Stochastic/probabilistic grammars/network theories ===
Theoretical approaches to syntax that are based upon [[probability theory]] are known as [[stochastic grammar]]s. One common implementation of such an approach makes use of a [[neural network]] or [[connectionism]]. Some theories based within this approach are:
* [[Optimality theory]]
* [[Stochastic context-free grammar]]

=== Functionalist grammars ===
''See Main Article [[Functional theories of grammar]]''

Functionalist theories, although focused upon form, are driven by explanation based upon the function of a sentence (i.e. its communicative function). Some typical functionalist theories include:
* [[Functional discourse grammar]] (Dik)
* [[Prague linguistic circle]]
* [[Systemic functional grammar]]
* [[Cognitive grammar]]
* [[Construction grammar]] (CxG)
* [[Role and reference grammar]] (RRG)
* [[Emergent grammar]]

== See also ==
* [[Grammar]]
* [[List of syntactic phenomena]]
* [[Musical syntax]]
* [[Semiotics]]
* ''[[Simpler Syntax]]'' (book)
* [[Syntactic category]]
* ''[[Syntax (journal)|Syntax]]'' ([[academic journal]])
* [[Syntax (programming languages)]]
* [[Usage]]

=== Syntactic terms ===
<div style="-moz-column-count:3; column-count:3;">
* [[Adjective]]
* [[Adjective phrase]]
* [[Adjunct (grammar)|Adjunct]]
* [[Adpositional phrase]]
* [[Adverb]]
* [[Anaphora (linguistics)|Anaphora]]
* [[Answer ellipsis]]
* [[Antecedent (grammar)|Antecedent]]
* [[Antecedent-contained deletion]]
* [[Appositive]]
* [[Argument (linguistics)|Argument]]
* [[Article (grammar)|Article]]
* [[Grammatical aspect|Aspect]]
* [[Attributive adjective]] and [[predicative adjective]]
* [[Auxiliary verb]]
* [[Binding (linguistics)|Binding]]
* [[Branching (linguistics)|Branching]]
* [[c-command]]
* [[Grammatical case|Case]]
* [[Syntactic category|Category]]
* [[Catena (linguistics)|Catena]]
* [[Clause]]
* [[Closed class]] word
* [[Comparative]]
* [[Complement (linguistics)|Complement]]
* [[Compound (linguistics)|Compound noun and adjective]]
* [[Grammatical conjugation|Conjugation]]
* [[Conjunction (grammar)|Conjunction]]
* [[Constituent (linguistics)|Constituent]]
* [[Coordination (linguistics)|Coordination]]
* [[Coreference]]
* [[Crossover effects|Crossover]]
* [[Dangling modifier]]
* [[Declension]]
* [[Dependency grammar]]
* [[Dependent-marking language|Dependent marking]]
* [[determiner (linguistics)|Determiner]]
* [[Discontinuity (linguistics)|Discontinuity]]
* [[Do-support]]
* [[Dual (grammatical number)|Dual]] (form for two)
* [[Ellipsis]]
* [[Endocentric]]
* [[Exceptional case-marking]]
* [[Syntactic expletive|Expletive]]
* [[Extraposition]]
* [[Finite verb]]
* [[Function word]]
* [[Gapping]]
* [[Grammatical gender|Gender]]
* [[Gerund]]
* [[Government (linguistics)|Government]]
* [[Head (linguistics)|Head]]
* [[Head-marking language|Head marking]]
* [[Infinitive]]
* [[Inverse copular constructions|Inverse copular construction]]
* [[Inversion (linguistics)|Inversion]]
* [[Lexical item]]
* [[m-command]]
* [[Measure word]] (classifier)
* [[Merge (linguistics)|Merge]]
* [[Modal particle]]
* [[Modal verb]]
* [[Grammatical modifier|Modifier]]
* [[Grammatical mood|Mood]]
* [[Syntactic movement|Movement]]
* [[Movement paradox]]
* [[Nanosyntax]]
* [[Negative inversion]]
* [[Non-configurational language]]
* [[Non-finite verb]]
* [[Noun]]
* [[Noun ellipsis]]
* [[Noun phrase]]
* [[Grammatical number|Number]]
* [[Object (grammar)|Object]]
* [[Open class (linguistics)|Open class word]]
* [[Parasitic gap]]
* [[Part of speech]]
* [[Grammatical particle|Particle]]
* [[Periphrasis]]
* [[Grammatical person|Person]]
* [[Personal pronoun]]
* [[Pied-piping]]
* [[Phrasal verb]]
* [[Phrase]]
* [[Phrase structure grammar]]
* [[Plural]]
* [[Predicate (grammar)|Predicate]]
* [[Predicative expression]]
* [[Preposition and postposition]]
* [[Pronoun]]
* [[Pseudogapping]]
* [[Raising (linguistics)|Raising]]
* Relation ([[Grammatical relation]])
* [[Restrictiveness]]
* [[Right node raising]]
* [[Sandhi]]
* [[Scrambling (linguistics)|Scrambling]]
* [[Selection (linguistics)|Selection]]
* [[Sentence (linguistics)|Sentence]]
* [[Separable verb]]
* [[Shifting (linguistics)|Shifting]]
* [[Grammatical number|Singular]]
* [[Sluicing]]
* [[Small clause]]
* [[Stripping (linguistics)|Stripping]]
* [[Subcategorization]]
* [[Subject (grammar)|Subject]]
* [[Subject-auxiliary inversion]]
* [[Subject-verb inversion]]
* [[Subordination (linguistics)|Subordination]]
* [[Superlative]]
* [[Grammatical tense|Tense]]
* [[Topicalization]]
* [[Uninflected word]]
* [[V2 word order]]
* [[Valency (linguistics)|Valency]]
* [[Verb]]
* [[Verb phrase]]
* [[Verb phrase ellipsis]]
* [[Voice (grammar)|Voice]]
* [[Wh-movement]]
* [[Word order]]
* [[X-bar theory]]
</div>

== Notes ==

== References ==

== Further reading ==


== External links ==
* [http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/syntax-textbook The syntax of natural language: An online introduction using the Trees program]—Beatrice Santorini & Anthony Kroch, [[University of Pennsylvania]], 2007

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[[Category:Grammar]]
[[Category:Philosophy of language]]
[[Category:Semiotics]]
[[Category:Syntax| ]]