A proficient speaker, more often than not, is also an effective writer who varies the structures of his sentences to add interest and tone to his piece.
He can do this if he possesses a good grasp and sound understanding of grammar and syntax – the most important tools of a writer or speaker.
Many people think that grammar and syntax are one and the same and that they can be used interchangeably. How right or wrong can they be?
We are going to study these linguistic tools today and see for ourselves the truth about grammar and syntax and the improvement they can give to us. Shall we now?
What is the difference between grammar and syntax?
Grammar is a general term used to describe the system behind a language, while syntax is simply a subfield of grammar that particularly deals with how words are organized to make grammatical constructions. We could simply think that “grammar” is a whole book and “syntax” is just one chapter in it.
The tricky relationship between grammar and syntax
Grammar and syntax are two different words that cause confusion to many.
As these are two distinct yet interrelated concepts in language studies, things can be tricky.
They are not even synonymous, yet their relationship is of vital importance that, without them, words will just be words without meaning or significance.
Grammar represents the entire system of rules for a language – any language to be exact. Of all these rules, “syntax” is just one of them.
To understand it better, think of grammar as the entire book and syntax as one of the chapters of that book.
While both grammar and syntax are both study of rules, grammar is a much broader term that encompasses more specific areas of study.
Grammar being an all-embracing concept per se is somehow deceptive to the naked eye, making people think it is just a catch-all expression.
But, to be more precise, grammar actually includes the major subfields of syntax, morphology, phonology, and semantics.
Syntax, on the other hand, sets the rules on how words are put together to create sentences, clauses, and phrases.
Its main concern is the order or arrangement of words in a sentence and how they interact together to form grammatical constructions.
As we already covered the nuances behind syntax in a previous post, it might help to check Syntax – A Beginner’s Guide for more insights on this topic alone.
To put things in perspective, without the idea that languages abide by a certain system called “grammar,” the field of “syntax” meanwhile won’t exist.
Understanding “grammar”
Grammar is defined as the set of rules that a language follows in order to convey meaning.
In other words, it is a huge, complex system behind a language.
The specific areas of study under grammar include morphology, semantics, phonology, and, of course, syntax.
Morphology
Morphology deals with how words are formed by adding, removing, or even mixing word parts to make them more suitable in a larger construction.
Affixation, compounding, and abbreviation are some of the main processes tackled in this subfield of grammar.
Affixation deals with certain word elements called “bound morphemes” that are attached to a base word to form a new one.
Examples:
(prefixation) mis + interpret = misinterpret
(suffixation ) interpret + able = interpretable
Compounding is the word formation process of putting together at least two lexical elements to create a new word.
In English, we can find most compounded words among nouns, verbs, are adjectives.
Examples:
(compound noun) housekeeper, son-in-law, fabric conditioner
(compound verb) to babysit, to watch out, to proofread
(compound adjective) good-looking, red-handed, last-minute (call)
Abbreviation is the process of shortening words and phrases mainly for convenience reasons, and it can be done in three main ways.
Examples:
(acronym) NASA, CAPTCHA, ASAP (contraction) wouldn’t, I’m, you’ll
Did you know that there are many different abbreviations of “without” in English? In fact, the sine symbol “s̅” is one of them.
There are also common abbreviations on job ads that you may find helpful when applying for a job. Feel free to check them out too.
Semantics
Meanwhile, semantics is the area that deals with what words and symbols mean and refer to as well as how they relate to the truth.
Denotation, connotation, and collocation are some of the main topics discussed in semantics.
Denotation is the study of word meanings we see in dictionaries. In other words, denotation is concerned with prototype meanings to serve a general purpose.
On the other hand, the term “connotation” refers to the undertone of an expression entailed by our emotional and imaginative associations.
In actual language use, denotation and connotation are inseparable concepts because they are both necessary in sense-making.
When we say collocation, this is the area concerned with the habitual positioning of words based on language convention.
In English, the very existence of collocations tells us that a language does have a specific and unique way of being put together.
Examples:
(have) + breakfast, a drink, a holiday
(do) + business, your hair, nothing
(make) + money, a difference, room
Without semantics, word structures would be meaningless; without meaning, language would be useless.
Phonology
Phonology is concerned with the theoretical side of how particular language sounds are organized, hence also directly related to structures like morphology.
Syllabification, allophony, and minimal pairs are some of the main topics discussed in phonology.
In syllabification, we get to find out the number of syllables present in a word.
This makes language teaching more effective, especially for children.
Allophony deals with distinct sounds present within a particular language.
In English, for instance, studying whether sounds should be aspirated is an example of this.
Aspiration is the puffing of air when we produce certain sounds, as in “p,” “t,” and “k,” and there are rules that govern this phenomenon.
Examples:
“k” sound in the word “kind” is aspirated
“k” sound “black” is not aspirated
Minimal pairs are words that are only distinct in a phonological element but bear different meanings.
For example, the words “hat” and “had” only differ in the final consonant sound in terms of voicing.
“T” is an unvoiced sound, which means no vocal vibration occurs when it is produced, whereas “d” is a voiced consonant.
However, in terms of meaning and even lexical category, “hat” and “had” are distinct from each other, thereby making them minimal pairs in the process.
As you may figure, phonology is important in learning the grammar of the language because it helps make sense of language through sounds.
Syntax
Syntax is the study of how words are put together to create phrases, clauses, and sentences.
Through it, we get to know whether a sentence is “grammatical” or not.
Syntax, as mentioned before, is defined as that part of grammar that mainly focuses on how words are combined to form grammatical constructions.
It is the systematic statement of the laws and rules governing the grammatical arrangement of words and morphemes in a language.
Long story short, if morphology is concerned with language structures at a word level, syntax is meanwhile concerned with structures on a sentence level.
While the very point of having syntax is to study grammaticality, there are also certain types of language constructions that defy the known rules of syntax.
These are what we call absolute constructions in English grammar that are meanwhile useful in creative writing cases.
As syntax specifically deals with constructions on a sentence level, the types of sentences in English according to structures is also worth tackling.
Types of sentences in English according to structure
A sentence is a word or group of words that express a complete thought.
It is defined by the use of dependent and independent clauses and conjunctions.
The three main types of sentences on the basis of the structure itself are simple, compound, and complex.
A simple sentence is the most basic of all sentence types, consisting of only one clause with a subject and a predicate.
Examples:
Louise can sing.
Tony writes a very long letter.
A compound sentence is composed of two independent clauses that are connected by a coordinating conjunction or semi-colon.
The coordinating conjunctions that are used to make up compound sentences are mnemonically known as the “FANBOYS.”
Remember that comma usage with FANBOYS is mandatory in compound sentences if we consider the strict rules of syntax.
The comma should come before the coordinating conjunction and not after it.
Example:
You can go with him, or you can stay here.
Tony wrote the letter, but he forgot to post it.
A complex sentence is composed of one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
This sentence type is often connected by subordinating conjunctions such as since, because, although, unless, and if, to mention a few.
Comma rules also apply when making complex sentences. A comma before a subordinate clause is something we need to avoid in regular sentence structures.
Example:
The importance of syntax
The major area of concern of syntax is the “proper” and “logical” order of words and phrases in a sentence.
This is necessary because the order of words, phrases, and clauses can affect the meaning of the sentence.
Dr. Avram Noam Chomsky’s previous works on syntax are never forgotten in the field of linguistics even at present.
Let’s take a quick look at Chomsky’s most popular example sentence that depicts the importance of syntax as well as meaning.
Example:
As you can see, the example above is a perfectly grammatical sentence because it does not defy the known rules of sentence construction.
However, we can also observe that the sentence does not make any sense because of how random the words are.
Hence, correct or proper order without considering the meaning of each word used in a sentence is still pointless.
Syntax in the real world
The explanations earlier are mostly from the theoretical side. So, it would also be valuable to take a look at the practical implications of syntax.
Two sentences with the same words could convey different meanings once the order or arrangement of words is altered.
See the examples below:
Betty sincerely needs to apologize to Ned.
In the first sentence, “sincerely” suggests how the apology should be given; in the second sentence, “sincerely” describes how badly Betty needs to apologize.
See how the meaning changed as the position of the word “sincerely” was altered? That should be a clear indication of why the study of syntax is crucial in the real world.
Basic rules of syntax
Languages contain certain rules and principles that can be used to create an infinite number of ideas according to linguistic authorities.
A notion called “recursion” enables users of the language the reposition noun and verb phrases in sentences.
To demonstrate, take note that the sentence “ Luke met John” can be transformed into “Mary told me that Luke met John.”
The first sentence was added to another and the two became one sentence. And yet, you can add more to that with “Grace said that Mary told her that Luke met John.”
This can go on and on and on, and that’s because of the fact that language is a recursive entity.
Some other rules in syntax include pronominalization, question formation, tagging, coordination, and passivization.
Pronominalization
Pronominalization is a rule stating that you can replace a word or a number of words and turn them into corresponding pronouns.
Example:
He is standing on the road.
Our subject, “the man” suggests a masculine grammatical gender. This then allows us to pronominalize the sentence to give another idea by changing “that man” into “he.”
Pronominalization helps language users to steer away from repetitively using one word over and over again in texts and conversations.
Question Formation
This is a specific case of pronominalization due to the fact that a specific type of pronoun can be used to create questions.
Questions can be created out of statements or declarations, such as in the next example.
Example:
Q1: Who wears a polka-dot bikini?
Q2: What is the girl on the beach wearing?
Q3: Which (type of) bikini does she wear?
Tagging
Tagging is adding confirmatory fragments at the end of declarative or imperative sentences to change their original purpose.
Tag questions or mini questions are formed by reversing the verb form (from positive to negative or negative to positive) and pronominalizing the pronoun.
Example:
The sky is blue, isn’t it? (with tag)
The dog is not yours.
The dog is not yours, is it? (with tag)
Coordination
Coordination is combining two sentences into one to enable users to convey more of their ideas at once and thus avoid the bothersome repetition.
Example:
Allison dances beautifully.
These two sentences can be combined using coordination and the coordinated sentence becomes “ Sue and Allison dance beautifully”.
To coordinate sentences properly, subject-verb agreement must be strictly observed. Singular subjects must take singular verbs, and plural subjects must take plural verbs.
Passivization
Passivization is the process of shifting the focus of sentence construction from the subject to the object.
Example:
Some quail eggs were found by my dog. (passive)
With passivization, we can actually make sentences more indirect or polite, especially if we want to avoid naming a subject.
Prescriptive Grammar vs. Descriptive Grammar
Grammar can be classified either as prescriptive or descriptive, in which the former is relatively more rigid than the latter.
Prescriptive grammar represents how the rules of a language should be used in order that an ideal or grammatically correct language results.
Descriptive grammar describes or represents how the rules of language are actually applied (or not applied) by the writer or speaker.
Descriptive grammar does not judge those non-standard practices or those who broke the rules of prescriptive grammar but simply describes them.
Example:
According to prescriptive grammar, the sentence in the example above would be incorrect due to the “no double negative” rule.
However, with descriptive grammar, it would be recognized that the sentence represents a common use of language, despite its double negatives.
Therefore, notwithstanding that a rule was broken, the usage would still be allowed because those who are involved in the particular conversation would most likely understand the meaning of the speaker.
Frequently Asked Questions on “Grammar vs. Syntax”
What is the difference between grammar and punctuation?
Grammar is a broad term that refers to the system behind a language. Punctuation is a more specific set of rules that deals with how punctuation symbols and words interact to make grammatical constructions.
Is punctuation part of grammar or syntax?
Punctuation is part of syntax, and syntax is part of grammar. Grammar is an umbrella term that deals with many aspects of language, including syntax and punctuation.
Is grammar syntax or semantics?
Syntax and semantics are both subfields of grammar. Syntax deals with word order and structure, while semantics deals with sense and meaning. Thus, syntax and semantics belong in the larger study of grammar.
Conclusion
Grammar is a comprehensive system of rules intended for users of the language in order to convey meaning.
The way that words are ordered is just as important as the words themselves.
Syntax is what defines that order. Syntax is a vital element of grammar and without syntax, words will be just meaningless and of no value at all.
Hey fellow Linguaholics! It’s me, Marcel. I am the proud owner of linguaholic.com. Languages have always been my passion and I have studied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics and Sinology at the University of Zurich. It is my utmost pleasure to share with all of you guys what I know about languages and linguistics in general.