Syntax
المؤلف:
Bronwen Martin and Felizitas Ringham
المصدر:
Dictionary of Semiotics
الجزء والصفحة:
P129
2025-07-06
418
Syntax
The term syntax designates the grammatical arrangement of words and syntagms in a clause or sentence. Traditionally, the term refers to one of the two constituent parts of grammar, the other being morphology, that is, the study of the forms of words. The description of the relationship between words or groups of words, on the other hand, and the establishment of rules governing their organization in a sentence, belong to syntax. Grammatical concepts like 'subject', 'object', 'predicate' or 'attribute' are thus part of the descriptive vocabulary of syntax, just as is the classification of subordinate clauses.
Semiotic theory has adopted the term syntax to define one of the two main components of semiotic grammar, with semantics forming the other. Syntax, here, is relevant to the three levels of meaning. Firstly, there is elementary syntax, which together with abstract or conceptual semantics accounts for the production, functioning and understanding of meaning at its deepest level. Camus's novel L'Etranger, for instance, deals on the deep level with the themes of 'life' and 'death'. Their relationship and dynamics within the text, however, are illustrated by deep-level syntax, which can be presented visually on a semiotic square.
Secondly, there is the level of story grammar or surface narrative syntax, which, according to semiotic theory, underpins all discourse, be it literary, scientific, sociological, artistic, etc. Semiotics, here, makes use of two fundamental narrative models, the actantial narrative schema and the canonical narrative schema, to describe basic structures articulating the quest. In the fairy-tale Jack and the Beanstalk, the narrative syntax exhibits positions and stages of action: the actant/subject Oack). the actant/object of the quest (money and marriage), the actant/opponent (the mayor), etc., or different stages of the quest, for example, that of competence (getting and sowing the bean), or that of performance (climbing the beanstalk and defeating the giant), etc.
Thirdly, there is discursive syntax. Here we are concerned with the syntactical arrangement of discursive elements on the textual surface. Narrative structures are put into words, given figurative and linguistic shape and placed in sequence. The actant/subject of Jack and the Beanstalk becomes 'Jack' and adopts the thematic roles of 'son' and 'lover'. His actions are arranged in chronological order and placed in a particular space, for instance, at the bottom of the beanstalk or at its top.
See also actantial narrative schema, canonical narrative schema, discursiv ization, semantics and semiotic square.
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