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Syntax is the study of the structural rules of language and how elements of a sentence can be arranged to express different meanings. It is part of linguistics, which includes morphology and phonology. Syntax allows speakers to communicate complicated thoughts by arranging small, simple units in meaningful ways.
Syntax in linguistics can refer both to the study of the structural rules of language and to the bodies of the rules themselves. It is part of the branch of linguistics that deals with the form and structure of natural languages, such as the order of words in spoken English or the sequence of physical gestures in American Sign Language. The branch of linguistics that includes syntax also includes morphology, which is the study of word formation, and phonology, which is the study of the sound system of a language.
Linguistics is the scientific discipline dedicated to the study of human languages and includes three main subfields. The first focuses on the forms of languages and includes syntax, morphology and phonology. The second concerns meaning in languages and includes studies of semantics and pragmatics. In the third branch of linguistics, researchers deal with languages in different contexts, including history, human evolution and neuroscience.
The word “syntax” comes from the Greek syntax, which means “arrangement.” Syntax in linguistics deals with the ways in which elements of a sentence or sentence can be arranged and rearranged to express different meanings. For example, in spoken and written English, sentences are often constructed following a subject with a verb and direct object. Word positions convey the subject-object relationship. For example, a sentence like “The dog bit the cat” conveys a different meaning from “The cat bit the dog,” even though they contain exactly the same words.
Researchers and students of syntax in linguistics analyze languages by breaking sentences and phrases into units known as “syntactic atoms”. A syntactic atom could be a single word, or it could be a sentence that communicates meaning. In the example above, the word “the” is not a syntactic atom, but “the cat” is. In the sentence “The dog bit the little black cat who lives in the neighbor’s stable”, the whole sentence “the little black cat who lives in the neighbor’s stable” is a single syntactic atom.
In some languages, sentence structure is not used to convey the relationships between words. Rather, the forms of the words themselves change to communicate those relationships and the order of the words within the sentence is irrelevant. For this reason, syntax in linguistics is closely related to morphology: the study of how words are formed and how these formations change within the structure of a language. What is communicated syntactically in English might be communicated morphologically in another language.
Syntax allows speakers to communicate complicated thoughts by arranging small, simple units in meaningful ways. In English, for example, a sentence can be a simple one-word interjection, or it can be a long composition with multiple clauses strung together. Human language is unlimited, because even within the rules of syntax, humans can generate new sentences or phrases to express new ideas or experiences.
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