What is Syntax?

GRADUATE PROGRAM
MAKASSAR STATE UNIVERSITY
OCTOBER 2013
 Points of Presentation
1. Preliminarry
2. Studying the World
3. Studying Language
4. Why Do Languages Have Syntax?
5. Conclusion
 English and Turkish Version :
 The right version from English :
Where are my two suitcases?
Nerede var benim iki bavullar
 The right version from Turkish:

Two suitcase-my where?

Iki bavul-in nerede?
 The Other Example :
 English version :
I am eat bakso now
Now, go where ?
Don’t what-what
 Makassar version :
Lapar ka”
etc…
 Explanation of the case :
 From all example shows is what all languages.
If you want to speak a language. A dictionary
is not enough because the meaning you are
trying to express does not because the meaning
you are trying to express does not fully
determine word choice and word order.
 Here is the additional information not
generally included in dictionaries that you need
to formulate.
1. Preliminary

What is syntax ?
 Crystal (1980;346) : syntax as the study of the rules
governing the way words are combined to form
sentences in language.

 Paul Robert (1964:1) : syntax as the area of grammar

which they are pit together to form sentences.

 Francis (1958:31) : syntax is a subdivision of grammar

which deals with the structure of word groups.
 Fromkin and Rodman (1983:200) : syntax is the part of
four linguistic knowledge which concerns with the
structure of sentences.

 Gleason (1955:128) : the principles of arrangement of

the construction formed by the process of derivation and
inflection (words) into larger constructions of various
kinds.
 Syntax is the study of the interrelationship of word
groups.
 In other words, we can say that syntax is concerned
with the structure of word group.
2. Studying the World

Mismatch
 At time.
 The gap.
 Something may seem impossible.
 Observations

Our images formed of reality rather than

reality itself.
Descriptions

Verbal rendering of observations.

 Scientific inquiry
 outside the human mind
 inside the human mind

observations are limit

3. Studying Language
a. Overview
Three basic domains of linguistic observation:
 Structure  refers to composition out of smaller part
(sounds, morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, sentences)
Structure  concern of descriptive linguistics

 Function  utility, i.e. what sentences are used for.

Function  the concern of semantics, pragmatics,
stylistics, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics
 Location  spatial and temporal context in which
sentences occur.
Location  textual, spatial, temporal, natural, social and
physiological context
b. Structure
 A sentence has a structure consisting of words which form
phrases  collection of nouns, verbs, adjective, adverbs.
 Sentence structure cannot simply be a dictionary listing of
words  different languages will have different structures.

Where are my two suitcases? appropriate in English

Nedere war benim iki bavullar?
Iki bavul-im nedere?
(Two suitcase my where?)
Johannes soll einen hut kaufen
(Jack should a hat to:buy)
Not appropriate in Turkish
appropriate in Turkish
appropriate in German
(Jack should buy a hat)

Janosnak vennie kellene egy kalapot appropriate in Hungarian

(Jack to:buy should a hat) (Jack should buy a hat)

 Mastering structure of a language means to have

performative or linguistic competence.
 Observed Sentences Descriptive Statement

(a) There is a squirrel (A) It is a well-formed

behind the trees sentence in English

(b) There is a frog behind (B) It is a well-formed

the trees sentence in English

(c) Is there a squirrel (C) It is a well-formed

behind the trees? sentence in English

(d) Is there a frog behind (D) It is a well-formed

the trees? sentence in English
 Observed Sentences Descriptive Statement
(a) There is a squirrel behind the trees (A) The unstressed there immediately precedes
the verb in declarative sentences

(b) There is a frog behind the trees (B) The unstressed there must immediately
follow the verb in questions
(c) Is there a squirrel behind the trees? (C) The verb must agree with its subject in
number

(d) Is there a frog behind the trees? (D) Nouns must occur with an article

(E) Article must precede their nouns

(F) The meaning “squirrel” maybe expressed by

the sound form squirrel

(G) Vowel must be nasal preceding nasal

consonants
c. Function
 Language is a human artifact and it does have functions. It is
a means of communication.
 Language function is related to the role of language in the
context of society or the individuals.
 Meaning of an utterance cannot be understand merely from
the language structure (lexical meaning) but also from
social, cultural, anthropological psychological context.
 Examples:
 Can you pass the salt please?
 Can you close the door from outside, please?
 Sorry love, I saw you were home. There’s a cat stuck under the
gate number 67.
 Maaf, kaki saya keinjak.
 Wah, panas sekali ya?
 Mastering function of a language means to have
communicative linguistic competence.
d. Location
 Everything – both simple and compound objects and object
without function – occurs somewhere. The location of an
object can be specified in terms of space, time and natural &
social context.
Examples:
 Boats are normally found in water
 Two legs as a means of locomotion are located in
humans and birds.
 Location of sentences is definable in reference to linguistic
and extralinguistic context.
 Sentences are generally not used in isolation, rather they
occur as parts of sentence sequences forming coherent
discourse, such as conversation, lectures, poems, or novels.
 Space  where the language is used.
 Indonesian has variations for many words such as for “you”
 anda, saudara, kamu, kau, engkau, dikau, bapak, ibu, etc.

 Time  when the language is used.

 English has tenses (present, past and future) to indicate te
time, whereas in Indonesian we need additional expression:
• I go to the campus
• I went to the campus
• I will go to the campus

 Natural & social context.

 Eskimo languages have an extensive set of terms for various
kinds of snow.
 Shona people of Zimbabwe and Mozambique have at least
20 different words for “walking”.
 Indonesian has some terms to refer “rice”: padi, gabah,
beras, nasi.
 Sample case
Javanese has three major styles which are recognized and named by
speakers of the language as ‘KRAMA’ (high), ‘MADYA’ (middle) and
‘NGOKE’ (low).
Expressing a question “Are you going to eat rice or cassava now?” has five
levels of expressions depending who is the speaker and who is the listener.
Geertz (1960)
Level Are you going To eat Rice And Cassava Now Complete Sentence
Menapa pandjenengan bade
3a Pandjenengan dahar dahar sekul kalijan kaspe
samenika?
Menapa bade kalijan samenika
Menapa sampeyan bade neda
3 sekul
sekul kalijan kaspe samenika?

Napa sampeyan adjeng neda

2 Napa Sampeyan adjeng neda kaspe saniki
sekul lan kaspe saniki?

Apa sampeyan arep neda sega

1a lan
lan kaspe saiki?
Apa arep sega saiki
Apa kowe arep mangan sega
1 Kowe mangan
lan kaspe saiki?
 4. Why Do Languages Have
Syntax?
Grammar consists of three major components:
(1) phonology
(2) Semantics
(3) Lexical

 Phonology (describing the sound form of sentences)

 For example,
• the word spill words like /spil/ and none like /psil/ the /s/
must be precede by /p/
Semantic (describing the meaning of sentences)
For example : Joe wrote a letter
 Wrote is a predicate
 Joe and a letter are arguments
 And the tense is past

Lexical (relation sound form and meaning)

For example:
In the system of traffic lights, the colours – red, green,
amber . They have symbolize of the meanings , wait,
go, and prepare to stop
Do these three types of rules suffice
to describe what well-formed
sentences are like?

The answer is NO !
There are two reasons that we need to know
to make well-formed sentences:
Firstly : morphology
Secondly : syntax
 Morphology
What the morphology rules do?
Knowledge of morphology includes knowledge or
individual morphemes, their pronunciation, and
their meaning, and knowledge of the rules for
combining morphemes into complex words .
Syntax
Syntax is complements the other
components of grammar- semantic,
phonology, the lexicon, and morphology
 The syntax rules:
1. The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases
into sentences. The rules specify the correct word order for a
language. For example, English is a Subject–Verb Object
(SVO) language.
2. The rules of the syntax also specify the grammatical relations
of a sentence, such as subject and direct object.
3. The rules of yntax also specify the grammatical relations of a
sentence, such as subject and direct object.
4. Grammatical judgements are neither idiosyncratic nor
capricious, but are determined by rules that are shared by all
speakers of a language.
5. The ules tell us how words form groups in a sentences.
Syntax
Syntax (describe the correspondence between
sentence structure and sentences meaning)
Syntax deals with the relation of words to each
other as component parts of a sentence, and with
their proper arrangement to express clearly the
intended meaning.
Why do languages have syntactic rules?
 most sentences consist of more than one
word
 the selection and order of the words in
sentences are not free
 the sum of the word meanings does not
always equal the meaning of the entire
sentences and the sum of the word forms
does not always equal the phonological
form of the entire sentences.
5. Conclusion
 On Science
Linguistics is a branch of science which can be analyzed based on scientific
approaches.

 On Descriptive Linguistics
Linguistics is a science dedicated to the study of the structure, function and
location of sentences. Descriptive linguists focus on language structure and
aim at providing general analytic descriptions called grammar.

 On Syntax
Syntax describes the selection and order of words that make well-formed
sentences and it does so