We do not randomly combine words when we form sentences, rather we follow certain guidelines and principles that determine how words are to be arranged to form grammatical sentences, in a language. This brings us to the study of syntax in linguistics.
What is Syntax?
Syntax is the branch of linguistics that focuses on the structure and formation of sentences. It is concerned with the principles that determine how words or phrases should be combined in a language to form grammatical sentences.
Native speakers of a language typically have the highest level of proficiency in the use of their language: because it is their language, but they cannot account for why certain words must be arranged in specific ways to form grammatical sentences.
This is where linguists come in. For linguists to determine the grammar of a language, they would study the native speakers of such language: observe their sentence formation processes to come up with theories that account for the grammar of that language.
Now take for instance: in the English language, this sentence would be considered grammatical by a native speaker;
John kicked the ball.
This is because, the sentence follows the SVO pattern of sentences in English, which is subject, verb, and object, where "John", is the subject, "kicked" is the verb, and, "the ball" is the object. Natives can tell the sentence is an acceptable combination of words in their language but they cannot account for why that is, other than it is the norm in their language.
If the sentence was structured in this manner:
Kicked John the ball.
The message may be understood but a native speaker would be able to tell that things are amiss, because that is not how sentences are formed in the English language. The only issue is that they cannot tell exactly why such sentence would be ungrammatical except that the combination is wrong.
However, linguists can account for the grammaticality of the sentence by applying the theories they came up with on the grammar of the language, after close study and observation. Some of the theories include: transformation generative grammar, and systemic functional grammar.
Syntax teaches how words or phrases should be arranged in a language for them to be grammatical, and not necessarily acceptable. Take for instance; the famous example you already know:
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
While the sentence above is grammatical because its word order is consistent with the rules of the English language, it does not make any sense nor express a reasonable thought, yet we cannot say that it is ungrammatical because of that.
This shows how important a role, word order plays in the understanding of syntax. Since word order refers to the arrangement of words in a language to form grammatical sentences, it is important that you understand the word order system of a language, to be able to form grammatical sentences in such a language.
Not only the ordering of words in a language is necessary for forming grammatical sentences, but also the relationship between those words. Since syntax studies the structure of sentences, it is important to note that the words combined to form sentences often share a relationship. Take for instance, the sentence below:
The big tree is a national figure.
How would you break this sentence down into meaningful units?
If done correctly, this is what it would look like: "The big tree", "is", and, "a national figure".
I have been able to break that one sentence into three phrases to reveal the small meaningful units, that combine to form it. The first unit is a noun phrase and you would agree that they are meaningful in isolation, so they belong together, the same applies to the one-word group, 'is", which is a verb phrase, and the noun phrase that accompanies it, "a national figure".
The point is that, the words combined to form sentences have to share certain relations with each other. The first noun phrase which occupies the subject position: "The big tree", has a headword, "tree", and the modifiers that precede it: "the", and "big", share a relationship with it because they tell us what type of tree is being referred to.
So you see that there has to be a connection between the words that are arranged to form sentences for them to be grammatical and meaningful too.
Syntax deals with all the rules that guide the formation of grammatical sentences in a language like, subject verb agreement also known as concord, tenses, voice, punctuation, word class, etc.,. All the concepts associated with forming grammatical sentences in a language are grouped under syntax.
So syntax is the aspect of language study where the main focus is the formation of grammatical sentences according to native speaker intuition. It has to do with the acceptable arrangement of words to form grammatical sentences in a language, and how those words should share a relationship with each other. Understanding syntax will better inform you on how to form sentences like a native speaker of a language.
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