The study of syntax

Benmamoun provides a definition of syntax as follows: “Syntax is the study of phrasal and sentential patterns of natural language. It is the engine that combines the sound/gesture and meaning components of language. Syntax deals primarily with how words combine to form phrases and sentences, and the dependencies that obtain between the constituents of the phrase or sentence” (2009: 391). Thus, the study of syntax deals with phrase structure and clause structure – the way that words interrelate to form coherent, meaningful, and grammatically acceptable sentences. “A linguist … will try to characterize the principles that determine the formation of [Arabic] sentences. The goal will be to provide a systematic description of [Arabic] sentence formation, the grammar of [Arabic]” (after Haegeman 1994: 4). In order to undertake the study of syntax, it is necessary to make certain distinctions between form and function of lexical items within sentences for discussing surface structure phenomena.

A first step is to distinguish labels of linguistic “forms” or “form classes” (such as noun, verb, adjective) from the labels of their linguistic functions in context (e.g., terms such as subject, object, predicate). This enables discussion of the nature of individual words (such as their derivation, meaning, or inflection) separately from the syntactic slots or functions that they fill when used in context, as syntactic constituents. At a more abstract level of analysis, constituency may be viewed from a number of angles that involve hierarchical relations, semantic relations, and various theories of dependency.