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Syntax: A Definition
and Explanation
You may have thought you had looked at a word in its entirety when you considered its morphology, but you are not done yet. What do you suppose it means to say that words “behave grammatically?” If you said that a word (shoe, for example) is a noun when it represents a person, place, or thing, or a word (jump, for example) is a verb because it shows action, etc., you would be close to the mark. You are able to identify that different words represent different parts of speech. You understand that words come in a variety of forms. BUT . . . there is more to it than that. Part of recognizing the complexity of a word is understanding that words also have functions – they do something in a sentence (ex: The shoe is too big . . . “shoe” acts as the subject of the sentence). What words do depends largely on where they are placed within a sentence. Syntax is the study of how words are put together in a sentence to create meaning. Let’s explore this in greater depth and think about why an understanding of syntax can inform the work you do with English language learners.
Source: Curzan & Adams (2012), pp. 129-130
You may have thought you had looked at a word in its entirety when you considered its morphology, but you are not done yet. What do you suppose it means to say that words “behave grammatically?” If you said that a word (shoe, for example) is a noun when it represents a person, place, or thing, or a word (jump, for example) is a verb because it shows action, etc., you would be close to the mark. You are able to identify that different words represent different parts of speech. You understand that words come in a variety of forms. BUT . . . there is more to it than that. Part of recognizing the complexity of a word is understanding that words also have functions – they do something in a sentence (ex: The shoe is too big . . . “shoe” acts as the subject of the sentence). What words do depends largely on where they are placed within a sentence. Syntax is the study of how words are put together in a sentence to create meaning. Let’s explore this in greater depth and think about why an understanding of syntax can inform the work you do with English language learners.
Source: Curzan & Adams (2012), pp. 129-130