Syntax

Syntax

Word Order

What is Syntax?

• Syntax - “The arrangement of words in sentences, clauses, and phrases, and the study of the formation of sentences and the relationship of their component parts.” — Encyclopedia Brittanica

• This arrangement of words is often called “Word Order”.

• The structure of syntax (Syntactic Structure) is not the same in every language.

• NOTE: Someone with a large vocabulary and no knowledge of syntax can still have trouble communicating with people who speak the same language.

Multiple Choice

What is Syntax?

• A tax you pay for sinning

• The noun in a sentence

• the arrangement of words in sentences, clauses, and phrases

• Another word for subject verb agreement

Syntactic Structure in English

• The basic order of parts of speech in English is:

• Subject —> Verb —> Object

Multiple Select

Select all the correct answers.

John _____home.

• ran

• Is

• walked

• stayed

Seems easy enough right?

• In the previous example, “John” is the subject and “home” is object.

• “But wait, aren’t they both nouns?”

• Yes, but the the subject is usually the word or phrase that does and the object is the word or phrase that has something done to it.

• In other words...

• The subject is the main noun or pronoun the verb is talking about.

• The object is the noun or pronoun the verb is influencing or affecting.

Multiple Choice

Choose the subject.

Sam and his dog run to the park.

• Sam

• His dog

• Sam and his dog

• Run

Multiple Choice

Choose the object.

The loving mother watched over her children.

• Mother

• Watched over

• Watched over her children

• children

Open Ended

We have seen with the previous examples that most sentences have more than 2 parts of speech.

In the previous question the word “loving” was used to describe the mother.

The longer a sentence is the more parts of speech you are likely to find.

Can you find the Adjective(s) in the following sentence?

“The small boy saw George with a crazy dog recently.”

Syntax Tree Diagram

• This is what is known as a Syntax Tree Diagram.

• We won’t be using it at this point (so don’t panic).

• It will help you to have a visual representation of how words are organized in a sentence.

• This will also help you to spot different parts of speech.

Multiple Select

So, let’s review. Select all that are correct.

• Syntax is the arrangement of words in sentences, clauses, and phrases

• There can be many nouns in a sentence but only one subject.

• An object cannot be more than one word.

• The main verb connects the subject to the object.

Multiple Choice

How may parts of speech are present?

”Did you work hard today?”

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4