Lesson 4: Syntax بناء الجملة

[ESAL SPIRIT]

Syntax

In this lesson we deal with Syntax that studies how words are combined to form phrases, clauses, etc. As we know, every language has its particular ways to form correct clauses, phrases and other syntactic units. Therefore we can define syntax as the ‘study of the structure of phrases clauses and sentences. By defining Grammar we may say that it is the overall pattern of a language that clearly includes the basic subfield of linguistics such as Morphology, Syntax and certainly other features.

On the other hand, Syntax concerns the construction of phrases and clauses, for instance, the word order which is very important, the agreement between subjects and verbs etc. Here, there are some examples: ‘The little young red cat vs The red little young cat’(uncorrect) or ‘Joseph gave a rose to Edith vs Edith a rose Joseph gave’ (uncorrect). So we must remember that Word Order in English and other languages such as Italian, French, etc are important as it carries meaning. It is the competence (or linguistic knowledge) that helps us to understand which is the well-formed sentence and which is the ill-formed sentence.

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