In linguistics , syntax is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language. Th...
In linguistics, syntax is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language. The term syntax is also used to refer to the study of such principles and processes. The goal of many syntacticians is to discover the syntactic rules common to all languages.
In mathematics, syntax refers to the rules governing the behavior of mathematical systems, such as formal languages used in logic. (See logical syntax.)
Etymology
From Ancient Greek: σύνταξις "coordination" from σύν syn, "together," and τάξις táxis, "an ordering".
Early history
Works on grammar were written long before modern syntax came about; the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini
(c. 4th century BC) is often cited as an example of a premodern work
that approaches the sophistication of a modern syntactic theory. In the West, the school of thought that came to be known as "traditional grammar" began with the work of Dionysius Thrax.
For centuries, work in syntax was dominated by a framework known as grammaire générale, first expounded in 1660 by Antoine Arnauld
in a book of the same title. This system took as its basic premise the
assumption that language is a direct reflection of thought processes and
therefore there is a single, most natural way to express a thought.
However, in the 19th century, with the development of historical-comparative linguistics,
linguists began to realize the sheer diversity of human language and to
question fundamental assumptions about the relationship between
language and logic. It became apparent that there was no such thing as
the most natural way to express a thought, and therefore logic could no longer be relied upon as a basis for studying the structure of language.
The Port-Royal grammar modeled the study of syntax upon that of logic. (Indeed, large parts of the Port-Royal Logic were copied or adapted from the Grammaire générale.[)
Syntactic categories were identified with logical ones, and all
sentences were analyzed in terms of "Subject – Copula – Predicate."
Initially, this view was adopted even by the early comparative linguists
such as Franz Bopp.
The central role of syntax within theoretical linguistics became
clear only in the 20th century, which could reasonably be called the
"century of syntactic theory" as far as linguistics is concerned. (For a
detailed and critical survey of the history of syntax in the last two
centuries, see the monumental work by Giorgio Graffi (2001).)
