SYNTAX

SYNTAX

1. The part of the grammar that represents a Speaker's knowledge of sentences and their structure is called Syntax

2. The Study of the combination of words

3. Is grammaticality based on determined rules of the language

   • *Rules that reflect speakers' knowledge of syntatic facts. * The grammar of all languages include rules of syntax whether language specific or language universal
     • WHAT THE RULES DO
       • • The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases into sentences.
       • The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases into sentences.
       • • The rules specify the correct word order for a language.
   • Syntatic rules permit speakers to produce and understand a limitless number of sentences never produced or heard before.
     • Syntatic rules account for at least: 1. The gramaticality of sentences 2. Word order 3. Hierarchical organization of sentences 4. Grammatical relations such as subject and object. 5 Whether different structures have differing meaning or the same meaning. 6 The creative aspect of language.

4. Syntatic Knowledge determine the grammatical relations in a sentence such as Subject and Direct Object, and how they are to be understood.

   • EXAMPLE: 1Mary hired Bill 2 Bill hired Mary
     • In 1 Mary is the subject and is understood to be the employer that did hiring. Bill is the direct object, and as we would expect the meaning changes so what we understand to be employee
     • In 2 Bill is the subject and Mary is the direct object, and as we would expect so that we understand Bill to be Mary's employer