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Eng 406: New Trends in Syntax - Draft Lecture Notes 1 ENG 406: NEW TRENDS IN SYNTAX - DRAFT LECTURE NOTES 1 DEFINING GRAMMAR/SYNTAX The term syntax is derived from the late 16th century French word “syntaxe”, or via late Latin from Greek “suntaxis”, from sun- ‘together’ + tassein ‘arrange’. The word grammar (from the Greek term grammatikē technē, which means "art of letters") is sometimes used for syntax in these senses: the logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases and words in any given natural language. the study of rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases and words in any given natural language. Note that whereas the first definition sees grammar as the elements of language, the second considers grammar as a field of study that is not limited to rules of language but that includes morphology and syntax. We can find other definitions like: Syntax is the branch of linguistics that studies or explains the interrelationships or words in sentences of a given language. A syntactic theory purports to describe or explain the rules governing the combination of words, phrases and clause to form sentences in a language Syntax can refer to the theoretical descriptions of the elements involved in the composition of sentences and their permutations in the production of different sentences in a language. Note that in linguistics, there is a distinction between morphology (the rules for combining morphemes to form words) and syntax (the rules for combining words to form sentences). The two are not the same but are related because we use the products of morphology as building blocks in syntax. In addition, you have to understand that every language has its own grammar in the sense of sets of logical rules that govern the combination of words to create phrases, clause or sentences. In modern usage, the term syntax is used with the same meaning as grammar in both the senses of rules in a language and the study of those rules. EVOLUTION OF THE STUDY OF GRAMMAR The study of the grammar of languages has ancient roots as it developed out of a long tradition of describing the structures of language which began in different regions of the world. We will only give brief accounts of some of these traditions here. Page 1 of 8 Sanskrit Grammar Sanskrit is an Indo-European language, an ancient language of South Asia that is believed to be the ancestor of languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Sinhalese, Punjabi, Bangla (formerly called Bengali) and Romany. Though Sanskrit was the official language of ancient India, it eventually ceased to be a widely spoken language in India and only survived as the language of Hindu classical literary and religious texts and, nowadays, it is used only by a tiny minority for religious or scholarly purposes, by those who learned their Sanskrit from grammars, dictionaries and teachers akin to those who might learn Latin or Greek today. Sanskrit survives as the language of the Vedas and other Hindu scriptures, Hindu classical literature and a vast body of ancient Hindu scientific, philosophical and religious scholarship. Sanskrit’s cultural influence is much more prominent compared to its small number of modern speakers. It is noteworthy that developments in comparative and historical linguistics in the 19th century led to a passionate interest in Sanskrit. This fact can be attributed to the position of Sanskrit as the religious language of ancient northern India. Hindu religious scriptures were written in Sanskrit and likewise religious rituals were done in it. It thus attained the position of a sacred language. Of great interest to linguistic study is the fact that the Hindu religion paid great attention to retaining ritual purity such that to the Hindu, it was absolutely essential that Sanskrit language be pronounced and inflected correctly to the last detail. As such, inspiration for Sanskrit studies in ancient India originated from the desire to preserve religious ritual and the orally transmitted texts of the earlier Vedic period (1200–1000) from phonetic, grammatical and semantic erosion (Booij, 2005:220). Arabic Grammar In the case of Arabic, the description of Arabic by Sibawayhi (who died in late eighth century AD), remains unsurpassed for its completeness and scientific adequacy (Carter 2010). Arabic grammatical theory can be summarized as involving three descriptive/analytical categories: (1) systematic description/analysis (2) categorical (3) functional Systematic description/analysis focuses on correctness whereby each item in an utterance has a given ‘status’ (manzila) and a related ‘place’ (mawdu‘i). Using words in a given place appropriate to their status creates correct usages. Furthermore, the principle of ‘amal (effect) applies such that every element operates on the next element according to its status. This operation is syntagmatic and involves sequentially showing the effect of an ‘operator’ (‘a mil) on another element that is ‘operated on’ (ma‘mul fihi). Morphological categories are few, limited to three classes of words: Noun, (ism), Verb (fi’l) and Particle (harf). The functional categories reveal the ultimate preoccupation of Arabic linguistics with speech as behaviour. There are more than 70 terms for the various ways in which words can be used, ranging from the decisions of the speaker at the highest level. Page 2 of 8 Chinese Grammar In the case of Chinese grammar, it has been recorded that Xun Zi (said to have lived between the years 313 – 238 BCE) is regarded as China’s first major philosopher of language, contributed to this debate in a work titled Zheng Ming (Rectification of Names), which addresses the origin of names (Hansen, 1983; Malmqvist, 1994). The Chinese grammatical focus on the idea of ‘rectification of names’ is said to have originated in the work Analects by the Chinese philosopher Confucius. The perspective of grammar taken there is functional – as the work says that use of words or language should reflect reality. Japanese Grammar From many studies of Asian linguistics, it has been agreed that in Japanese grammar, the focus is mainly on the analysis of words and the rules of their arrangement – that is, morphology and syntax. In Japanese grammar, such a study is done by examining the combinatorial features as well as the functions of two structures. These are: various verbal and adjectival suffixes postpositions or particles The Japanese grammarian, Fujitani Nariakira (1738 –1779), has been credited with developing the first comprehensive grammatical framework using the metaphor of clothing. He is said to have categorised nouns as ‘names’, verbs and adjectives as ‘clothes’, adverbs as ‘hairpins’ and postpositions and suffixes as ‘binding cords’. His best known works are the Kazashishô [On hairpins] (1767) and the Ayuishô [On binding cords] (1773). (Furuta and Tsukishima, 1972) Other important milestones in the development of grammar include: Tamil grammar said to began around the first century BC with the Tolkāppiyam. Grammar of Irish which originated in the seventh century with the Auraicept na n-Éces. Arabic grammar that emerged from the eight century with the work of Ibn Abi Ishaq and his students. Hebrew grammar which appeared in the Middle Ages in the context of exegesis of the Hebrew Bible. In the Western grammatical tradition, grammar was studied as a core subject of the trivium of the seven liberal arts throughout the Middle Ages. Towards the end of the 18th century, grammar came to be understood as a subfield of modern linguistics. Some of the grammars that emerged during that period include: a. The Serbian grammar by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić in 1814 b. The Deutsche Grammatik of the Brothers Grimm in 1818 c. The Comparative Grammar of Franz Bopp in 1833 Page 3 of 8 THE EVOLUTION OF TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR It began with the grammars written by ancient Greek scholars, though initially their concerns were more with philosophical speculations about the nature of language rather than with descriptions of language structure. At much the same time as Panini the Greeks embarked on the codification of their language in a long series of works culminating in the Techne grammatike of Dionysius Thrax (c. 100 BC). Thereafter emerged Roman grammars which are largely derived from the Grecian grammatical works. A prominent example is the work of Priscian in the sixth century which adapted Greek grammar to Latin. Priscian Grammar Priscian’s work is divided into eighteen books of which the first sixteen, called Priscianus major in medieval times, deal with morphology, and the last two, called Priscianus minor, deal with syntax. In Priscianus minor, Priscian defined eight parts of speech: 1. The noun is a part of speech that assigns to each of its subjects, bodies, or things a common or proper quality. 2. The verb is a part of speech with tenses and moods, but without case [the noun is inflected for case], that signifies acting or being acted upon . 3. The participles are not explicitly defined, but it is stated that they should come in third place rightfully, since they share case with the noun and voice and tense with the verbs. 4. The pronoun is a part of speech that can substitute for the proper name of anyone and that indicates a definite person. 5. A preposition is an indeclinable part of speech that is put before others, either next to them or forming a composite with them. (This would include what we would distinguish as ‘prepositions’ and ‘prefixes.’) 6. The adverb is an indeclinable part of speech whose meaning is added to the verb. 7. The interjection is not explicitly defined, but is distinguished from an adverb, with which the Greeks identified it, by reason of the syntactic independence it shows and because of its emotive meaning. 8. The conjunction is an indeclinable part of speech that links other parts of speech, in company with which it has significance, by clarifying their meaning or relations.
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