Semiotics

Syntax
By: Ali Shimal Kzar
What is Syntax ?
 The term syntax designates the grammatical arrangement
of words in a clause or sentence. Traditionally, the term
refers to one of the two constituent parts of grammar, the
other being morphology, that is, the study of the forms of
words.
 The description of the relationship between words or
groups of words, on the other hand, and the establishment
of rules governing their organization in a sentence, belong
to syntax. Grammatical concepts like 'subject', 'object',
'predicate' or 'attribute' are thus part of the descriptive
vocabulary of syntax, just as is the classification of
subordinate clauses.
 Semiotic theory has adopted the term syntax to define one
of the two main components of semiotic grammar, with
semantics forming the other. Syntax, here, is relevant to
the three levels of meaning. Firstly, there is elementary
syntax, which together with abstract or conceptual
semantics accounts for the production, functioning and
understanding of meaning at its deepest level.

 Camus's novel L'Etranger, for instance, deals on the deep

level with the themes of 'life' and 'death'. Their relationship
and dynamics within the text, however, are illustrated by
deep-level syntax, which can be presented visually on a
semiotic square.
 Secondly, there is the level of story grammar or surface narrative
syntax, which, according to semiotic theory, underpins all
discourse, be it literary, scientific, sociological, artistic, etc.
Semiotics, here, makes use of two fundamental narrative models,
the actantial narrative schema and the canonical narrative
schema, to describe basic structures articulating the quest.
 In the fairy-tale Jack and the Beanstalk, the narrative syntax
exhibits positions and stages of action: the actant/subject Oack).
the actant/object of the quest (money and marriage), the
actant/opponent (the mayor), etc., or different stages of the
quest, for example, that of competence (getting and sowing the
bean), or that of performance (climbing the beanstalk and
defeating the giant), etc.
 Thirdly, there is discursive syntax. Here we are concerned with
the syntactical arrangement of discursive elements on the textual
surface. Narrative structures are put into words, given figurative
and linguistic shape and placed in sequence.
Martin, B., & Ringham, F. (1999). Dictionary of Semiotics. Bloomsbury

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