User:Hollybscott/sandbox

I would like to expand the "courantes de syntaxe" section based on the English article. I would also like to add the sections on early history and modern theories that are not present in the French article.

La syntaxe est, à l'origine, la branche de la linguistique qui étudie la façon dont les mots se combinent pour former des phrases ou des énoncés dans une langue. On distingue la syntaxe, qui concerne les expressions [les mots], de la sémantique, qui concerne ce qui est visé par les expressions [le sens, la signification/les choses]. Le terme de syntaxe est aussi utilisé en informatique, où sa définition est similaire, modulo une terminologie différente. Ainsi, la syntaxe est le respect, ou le non-respect, de la grammaire formelle d'un langage, c'est-à-dire des règles d'agencement des lexèmes (en informatique, ce sont des entités lexicales d'un langage informatique) en des termes plus complexes, souvent des programmes. Dans la théorie des langages formels, ce qui joue le rôle de lexème est en général appelé lettre ou symbole, et les termes produits sont appelés mots. D'un point de vue purement linguistique, la syntaxe étudie1,2 : L'ordre des mots — par ex. : en français, celui-ci peut changer le sens de la phrase : Jean frappe Paul par rapport à Paul frappe Jean ; Les catégories grammaticales ou parties du discours — par ex. : dans la phrase Il fait beau, le mot Il est un pronom impersonnel, fait beau est une locution verbale ; Les phénomènes de rection — par ex. : dans la phrase Le petit chat dort, le verbe dort régit le nom chat qui lui-même régit le déterminant le et l'adjectif petit. Cette hiérarchie peut être représentée par un parenthésage : [le] [[petit] chat dort] ou par des liens de dépendance ; Les fonctions grammaticales — par ex. : dans la phrase Je mange à la cantine, le pronom Je est le sujet de mange, à la cantine est complément circonstanciel de lieu. Il existe plusieurs courants de syntaxe : La grammaire générative, inaugurée par Noam Chomsky ; La syntaxe fonctionnelle d'André Martinet ; La syntaxe guillaumienne de Gustave Guillaume ; La syntaxe structurale de Lucien Tesnière ; etc.

_________________ SYNTAX- ENGLISH In linguistics, syntax (/ˈsɪntæks/[1][2]) is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language, specifically word order and punctuation. The term syntax is also used to refer to the study of such principles and processes.[3] 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.)

Contents [hide] 1 Etymology 2 Sequencing of subject, verb, and object 3 Early history 4 Modern theories 4.1 Generative grammar 4.2 Categorial grammar 4.3 Dependency grammar 4.4 Stochastic/probabilistic grammars/network theories 4.5 Functionalist grammars 5 See also 5.1 Syntactic terms 6 Notes 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

Etymology[edit] The word syntax comes from Ancient Greek: σύνταξις "coordination", which consists of σύν syn, "together," and τάξις táxis, "an ordering". Sequencing of subject, verb, and object[edit] A basic feature of a language's syntax is the sequence in which the subject (S), verb (V), and object (O) usually appear in sentences. Over 85% of languages usually place the subject first, either in the sequence SVO or the sequence SOV. The other possible sequences are VSO, VOS, OVS, and OSV, the last three of which are rare. Early history[edit] Works on grammar were written long before modern syntax came about; in Ancient India, 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.[4] 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] 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.[5]) 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).)[6] Modern theories[edit] There are a number of theoretical approaches to the discipline of syntax. One school of thought, founded in the works of Derek Bickerton,[7] sees syntax as a branch of biology, since it conceives of syntax as the study of linguistic knowledge as embodied in the human mind. Other linguists (e.g., Gerald Gazdar) take a more Platonistic view, since they regard syntax to be the study of an abstract formal system.[8] Yet others (e.g., Joseph Greenberg) consider syntax a taxonomical device to reach broad generalizations across languages. Generative grammar[edit] Main article: Generative grammar The hypothesis of generative grammar is that language is a structure of the human mind. The goal of generative grammar is to make a complete model of this inner language (known as i-language). This model could be used to describe all human language and to predict the grammaticality of any given utterance (that is, to predict whether the utterance would sound correct to native speakers of the language). This approach to language was pioneered by Noam Chomsky. Most generative theories (although not all of them) assume that syntax is based upon the constituent structure of sentences. Generative grammars are among the theories that focus primarily on the form of a sentence, rather than its communicative function. Among the many generative theories of linguistics, the Chomskyan theories are: Transformational grammar (TG) (Original theory of generative syntax laid out by Chomsky in Syntactic Structures in 1957)[9] Government and binding theory (GB) (revised theory in the tradition of TG developed mainly by Chomsky in the 1970s and 1980s)[10] Minimalist program (MP) (a reworking of the theory out of the GB framework published by Chomsky in 1995)[11] Other theories that find their origin in the generative paradigm are: Arc pair grammar Generalized phrase structure grammar (GPSG; now largely out of date) Generative semantics (now largely out of date) Head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG) Lexical functional grammar (LFG) Nanosyntax Relational grammar (RG) (now largely out of date) Categorial grammar[edit] Main article: Categorial grammar Categorial grammar is an approach that attributes the syntactic structure not to rules of grammar, but to the properties of the syntactic categories themselves. For example, rather than asserting that sentences are constructed by a rule that combines a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP) (e.g., the phrase structure rule S → NP VP), in categorial grammar, such principles are embedded in the category of the head word itself. So the syntactic category for an intransitive verb is a complex formula representing the fact that the verb acts as a function word requiring an NP as an input and produces a sentence level structure as an output. This complex category is notated as (NP\S) instead of V. NP\S is read as "a category that searches to the left (indicated by \) for an NP (the element on the left) and outputs a sentence (the element on the right)." The category of transitive verb is defined as an element that requires two NPs (its subject and its direct object) to form a sentence. This is notated as (NP/(NP\S)) which means "a category that searches to the right (indicated by /) for an NP (the object), and generates a function (equivalent to the VP) which is (NP\S), which in turn represents a function that searches to the left for an NP and produces a sentence." Tree-adjoining grammar is a categorial grammar that adds in partial tree structures to the categories. Dependency grammar[edit] Main article: Dependency grammar

A syntactic parse of "Alfred spoke" under the dependency formalism Dependency grammar is an approach to sentence structure where syntactic units are arranged according to the dependency relation, as opposed to the constituency relation of phrase structure grammars. Dependencies are directed links between words. The (finite) verb is seen as the root of all clause structure and all the other words in the clause are either directly or indirectly dependent on this root. Some prominent dependency-based theories of syntax are: Recursive categorical syntax, or Algebraic syntax Functional generative description Meaning–text theory Operator grammar Word grammar Lucien Tesnière (1893–1954) is widely seen as the father of modern dependency-based theories of syntax and grammar. He argued vehemently against the binary division of the clause into subject and predicate that is associated with the grammars of his day (S → NP VP) and which remains at the core of most phrase structure grammars. In the place of this division, he positioned the verb as the root of all clause structure.[12] Stochastic/probabilistic grammars/network theories[edit] Theoretical approaches to syntax that are based upon probability theory are known as stochastic grammars. One common implementation of such an approach makes use of a neural network or connectionism. Functionalist grammars[edit] Main article: Functional theories of grammar Functionalist theories, although focused upon form, are driven by explanation based upon the function of a sentence (i.e. its communicative function). Some typical functionalist theories include: Cognitive grammar Construction grammar (CxG) Emergent grammar Functional discourse grammar (Dik) Prague linguistic circle Role and reference grammar (RRG) Systemic functional grammar See also[edit] List of language disorders List of syntactic phenomena Musical syntax Semiotics Simpler Syntax (book) Syntactic category Syntax (academic journal) Syntax (programming languages) Usage Syntactic terms[edit] Adjective Adjective phrase Adjunct Adpositional phrase Adverb Anaphora Answer ellipsis Antecedent Antecedent-contained deletion Appositive Argument Article Aspect Attributive adjective and predicative adjective Auxiliary verb Binding Branching c-command Case Category Catena Clause Closed class word Comparative Complement Compound noun and adjective Conjugation Conjunction Constituent Coordination Coreference Crossover Dangling modifier Declension Dependency grammar Dependent marking Determiner Discontinuity Do-support Dual (form for two) Ellipsis Endocentric Exceptional case-marking Expletive Extraposition Finite verb Function word Gapping Gender Gerund Government Head Head marking Infinitive Inverse copular construction Inversion Lexical item m-command Measure word (classifier) Merge Modal particle Modal verb Modifier Mood Movement Movement paradox Nanosyntax Negative inversion Non-configurational language Non-finite verb Noun Noun ellipsis Noun phrase Number Object Open class word Parasitic gap Part of speech Particle Periphrasis Person Personal pronoun Pied-piping Phrasal verb Phrase Phrase structure grammar Plural Predicate Predicative expression Preposition and postposition Pronoun Pseudogapping Raising Relation (Grammatical relation) Restrictiveness Right node raising Sandhi Scrambling Selection Sentence Separable verb Shifting Singular Sluicing Small clause Stripping Subcategorization Subject Subject-auxiliary inversion Subject-verb inversion Subordination Superlative Tense Topicalization Tough movement Uninflected word V2 word order Valency Verb Verb phrase Verb phrase ellipsis Voice Wh-movement Word order X-bar theory Notes[edit] Jump up ^ "syntax". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2016-01-22. Jump up ^ "syntax". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Jump up ^ Chomsky, Noam (2002) [1957]. Syntactic Structures. p. 11. Jump up ^ Fortson IV, Benjamin W. (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction. Blackwell. p. 186. ISBN 978-1405188968. [The Aṣṭādhyāyī] is a highly precise and thorough description of the structure of Sanskrit somewhat resembling modern generative grammar...[it] remained the most advanced linguistic analysis of any kind until the twentieth century. Jump up ^ Arnauld, Antoine (1683). La logique (5th ed.). Paris: G. Desprez. p. 137. Nous avons emprunté...ce que nous avons dit...d'un petit Livre...sous le titre de Grammaire générale. Jump up ^ Giorgio, Graffi (2001). 200 Years of Syntax: A Critical Survey (googlebook preview). John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 9789027284570. Jump up ^ See Bickerton, Derek (1990). Language and Species. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-04610-9. and, for more recent advances, Derek Bickerton; Eörs Szathmáry, eds. (2009). Biological foundations and origin of syntax. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01356-7. Jump up ^ Ted Briscoe, 2 May 2001, Interview with Gerald Gazdar. Retrieved 2008-06-04. Jump up ^ Chomsky, Noam. 1957. Syntactic Structures. The Hague/Paris: Mouton, p. 15. Jump up ^ Chomsky, Noam (1981/1993). Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures. Mouton de Gruyter. Jump up ^ Chomsky, Noam (1995). The Minimalist Program. MIT Press. Jump up ^ Concerning Tesnière's rejection of the binary division of the clause into subject and predicate and in favor of the verb as the root of all structure, see Tesnière (1969:103–105). References[edit] Brown, Keith; Miller, Jim, eds. (1996). Concise Encyclopedia of Syntactic Theories. New York: Elsevier Science. ISBN 0-08-042711-1. Carnie, Andrew (2006). Syntax: A Generative Introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 1-4051-3384-8. Freidin, Robert; Lasnik, Howard, eds. (2006). Syntax. Critical Concepts in Linguistics. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24672-5. Graffi, Giorgio (2001). 200 Years of Syntax. A Critical Survey. Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 98. Amsterdam: Benjamins. ISBN 90-272-4587-8. Talasiewicz, Mieszko (2009). Philosophy of Syntax—Foundational Topics. Springer. ISBN 978-90-481-3287-4. An interdisciplinary essay on the interplay between logic and linguistics on syntactic theories. Tesnière, Lucien 1969. Éleménts de syntaxe structurale. 2nd edition. Paris: Klincksieck.