Syntax is the law of language that determines the word order and basic sentence structure
within the different languages.
Each language has a specific syntax that tells the speaker and the listener which parts of
the sentence come first to help them make sense of what’s being said.
It’s the guidelines we use when speaking and writing so that sentences are understandable
and coherent.
Be wary of confusing syntax or semantics with diction.
These form the backbone of sentence construction, so let’s break these definitions down.
Syntax, as just mentioned, is the order of the words in a sentence.
Diction is the specific word choice meant to express certain meanings.
Semantics is the meaning conveyed by the particular words used.
We’ll be focussing on syntax for this video.
In the English language, there is a word order that is set in stone for most types of sentences.
Of course, there are always exceptions, but most of the time, standard English sentences
will follow an SVO word order.
Subject - Verb - Object
As in: The boy looks outside of the window.
In this example sentence we have the Subject: boy
the Verb: looks and the Object: outside
This image is of an English grammar syntax tree used by linguists to plot the structure of sentences.
You may not often encounter a syntax tree, but knowing how to draw one is rather useful
and will help you understand sentence structure.
In the chart, you can see that the sentence is broken down into its parts: verbs, nouns,
articles, and prepositions.
After this step, the words are grouped together to determine which parts of the sentence are
noun phrases, prepositional phrases, or verb phrases.
Fun fact: SVO is not the only word order structure.
Other languages vary word order and even include additional components in their syntax.
In the example given with the syntax tree, the subject is cat, the verb is sat, and the
object is mat.
This second picture is another way in which syntax can be written out.
This diagram takes the sentence, "The dog loved the girl," and breaks it down into articles.
(D), nouns (N), verbs (V), noun phrases (NP), and verb phrases (VP) just like the previous
example.
In this sentence, the subject is dog, the verb is loved, and the object is girl.
Again, the syntax trees are not to be intimidating but are used to better understand the structure
of a sentence and to reveal each part’s purpose within the sentence.
An additional use for syntax trees is that whenever a different word order is used for
a sentence, it can be “decoded” by charting it out like the examples above.
For example, if you are hearing a sentence in a foreign language that follows a VSO order
or some other variation, creating a syntax tree for that sentence can help you to put
the words in SVO order so that you might understand what’s being said.
Let’s have a recap!
1. Syntax is the sentence structure.
2. Diction is the choosing of words to relate a certain meaning.
3. Semantics is the meaning that is expressed from the words used.
4. Syntax trees are a neat graphing tool to chart sentence structure and make sense of word
order and how its functioning in the world of English.
Thanks for joining us for this syntax tutorial!
If you found this video to be helpful, checkout the rest of our channel for additional help.
See you next time!