Moscow State University of Printing. Russian lessons: syntax - what this science studies. What syntax studies in Russian.

This article is devoted to such a section of grammar as syntax. What is he studying? Let's answer this question.

Definition

Syntax studies the rules, means and methods of combining words, word forms and predicative units, as well as the resulting units. The laws of their construction cannot be understood and interpreted in isolation from the concepts of syntactic connection and syntactic relations. Therefore, they are the basic, fundamental concepts of the “syntax” section, which studies these and other phenomena.

Syntactic units

These units arise and exist in language to designate syntactic relations - the most general typified meanings expressed by means of language and intended for the construction of real information. Let's introduce another definition from the "syntax" section. What else is he studying?

Syntactic connections

These are ways of connecting syntactic units using language to express certain semantic relationships.

There are two traditionally contrasted types of such connection: composition and subordination. In addition to them, coordination and apposition are distinguished, and within the subordinating connection - duplex.

Coordination occurs between in sentence structure. Its difference from a subordinate connection (coordination) can be quite clearly defined:

  1. Coordination is a subordinate relationship, the presence of a main and dependent component. Coordination is the correlation, mutual conditioning of the forms of the subject and predicate.
  2. Coordination occurs throughout the paradigm of the main word. Coordination - correlation of individual forms of the subject and predicate (only I. p. and conjugated form of the verb).
  3. When coordinated, a phrase is formed, when coordinated, a sentence is formed.
  4. When negotiated, the dependent component performs the syntactic function of defining. When coordinated, the syntactic functions of the main members of the sentence are the subject and the predicate.

With an appositive connection, it is impossible to clearly determine, as with subordination, the main and dependent word. The form of the application does not agree, that is, it is not similar to the form of the defined one, and the coincidence of gender and number, when it is observed, is explained not by the grammatical properties of the latter, but by the nominations of realities. The same case is explained by the forms, since they are controlled by the same predicate verb: the river is a beauty, the villain is a trap, but the newspaper Izvestia, the magazine Za Rulem, etc.

Duplex is a double subordination that occurs only in sentence structure: “He looked tired.” This connection is often used by Russian syntax, which studies similar phenomena. The word form "tired" takes the form of gender and number of the word being defined, and the choice of case depends on the verb.

Syntactic relations

With all types of syntactic connections, syntactic relationships arise between the components of syntactic units and themselves. The main way to detect them is a system of logical questions.

Syntactic relations are also what are studied in syntax. They are determinative, objective and replenishing. Objects convey the relationship between a state or action and the object to which it is directed: “writing a letter.” Determinatives arise when an object, action, phenomenon, sign, state is characterized from an internal or external quality, property, and also receives different adverbial characteristics: “a cheerful milkman”, “a house in the garden”. Complementary relations take place when some dependent word meaningfully complements the main thing: “to act nobly”, “a kilogram of bread”, “the days of late autumn”. This is what the science of syntax studies.

SYNTAX(from the Greek “structure, order”) is a section of grammar that characterizes the rules for creating sentences and phrases. The syntactic structure together with the morphological structure is the grammar of the language. The essence of grammar and morphology contributes to their distribution into sections of grammar.

Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies the syntactic structure of language, namely phrases, sentences, text, ways of combining phrases into sentences, sentences into text, constructing simple sentences and combining them into complex ones.

It is very difficult to separate syntax and morphology. Morphology studies the forms and meanings of words, and syntax studies the compatibility of words and the construction of sentences.

What is the role of syntax in modern language? Literally from the Greek word " syntax" means "order" and indicates that it is necessary to organize individual units of language - words. The presence of syntax in human life is associated with the need of people to communicate, the desire to construct their speech in such a way as to more clearly convey information and their emotions. In one word, a person cannot convey everything his thoughts and emotions, but uses more complex speech elements in his speech - this is a phrase, sentence, text.

A phrase is a group of words that are connected grammatically and meaningfully. Very often in speech there are errors in the structure of phrases, both grammatical and semantic, for example, terrible beauty, beautiful girl. The transitional element from lexico-morphological to syntactic is the syntax of phrases. By using syntax individual words are structurally formed into sentences.

A sentence is a set of words that are related in meaning and have a grammatical basis. If there is one grammatical basis, then the sentence is simple, if there is more, then it is complex. The sentence has a complete meaning and intonation completeness.

The phrase itself defines a phenomenon, action, object, and the sentence already reproduces emotions, thoughts, desires. Syntax is a universal tool that contributes to the correct construction of human speech. Sometimes it is very difficult to understand the speech of a small child or a foreigner who does not know the basic rules syntax.

A sentence is the minimum unit of communication. The syntactic properties of words are manifested not only in sentences, as an element of communication, but also in phrases, as semantic and grammatical combinations of words. Syntax studies the structure of sentences, their grammatical properties and types, and a phrase as the smallest combination of words connected grammatically. Thus, we can distinguish between the syntax of a sentence and the syntax of a phrase.

Syntax this is a reflection of the creative component of language. After all, in the process of communication, new sentences are constantly being built, new phrases arise. Syntax is an area of ​​grammar that studies the emergence of a huge number of phrases and sentences from a finite set of words.

In the section on the question that studies the syntax asked by the author Vadim.ru the best answer is Syntax is a branch of the science of language in which phrases and sentences are studied (including their structure)

Answer from First class[newbie]
Syntax (ancient Greek ???-????? - composition) is a branch of linguistics that studies the structure of phrases and sentences, and the functional interaction of various parts of speech in them. Is an integral part of grammar


Answer from Caucasian[newbie]
Syntax - studies the structure of sentences and phrases.


Answer from electrosleep[newbie]
Syntax (ancient Greek ???-????? - composition) is a branch of linguistics that studies the structure of phrases and sentences and the functional interaction of various parts of speech in them. It is an integral part of grammar. The issues studied within the framework of syntax are closely related to the field of study of morphology.


Answer from Kuekerneagrn kaerekrvkrarer[newbie]
Syntax is a branch of the science of language in which word combinations are studied


Answer from Nika[newbie]
Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies the structure of sentences and phrases.


Answer from Alina Konstantinovna[newbie]
Syntax (from ancient Greek σύνταξις - “construction, order, composition”) is a branch of linguistics that studies the structure of sentences and phrases.
The syntax addresses the following main issues:
connection of words in phrases and sentences;
consideration of types of syntactic connections;
identifying types of phrases and sentences;
determining the meaning of phrases and sentences;
combining simple sentences into complex ones.


Answer from Nikita Aksenov[newbie]
Syntax studies sentences and phrases


Answer from Anna Vardanyan[newbie]
Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies the syntactic structure of language, namely phrases, sentences, text, ways of combining phrases into sentences, sentences into text, constructing simple sentences and combining them into complex ones.

The term “syntax” (goes back to the Greek word syntaxis - ‘construction, arrangement, structure’) is defined as the science of language, which explores and formulates the rules of speech formation; Thus, at the syntactic level, the relationship between language (system) and speech (implementation of the language system) is most clearly manifested.

The history of syntax as a science goes back to the teachings of ancient Greek philosophers (the term “syntax” was first used by the Stoics in the 3rd century BC when describing the logical content of statements), whose focus was the study of speech and mental processes, therefore the concepts they used reflected different sides of one phenomenon: logical, morphological and syntactic.

The works of Apollonius Discolus (2nd century AD), which described the connections between words and word forms in a sentence, laid the foundation for the interpretation of linguistic phenomena proper, although its syntax had a morphological basis and Apollonius Discolus did not propose a special system of syntactic concepts. In the XIII-XVI centuries. in universal (philosophical) grammars and in the “Grammar of Port-Royal” (XVII century), the categories of syntax were called universal (A. Arnaud and C. Lanslot), since syntax itself was defined as the content area of ​​grammar, while phonetics and morphology was relegated to the plane of expression rather than content. Syntax was considered as the study of ways of expressing thoughts and contained a description of sentences and their parts (members of a sentence).

This direction was reflected in Russian grammatical science, the beginning of which V.V. Vinogradov traces back to the grammarians Lavrenty Zizaniy (1596) and Melety Smotritsky (1619) and the development of which we find in the works of M.V. Lomonosov, then I.I. Davydov , K.S. Aksakova, F.I. Buslaeva. They considered a sentence as a linguistic expression of a judgment, a subject as a linguistic expression of a subject, a predicate as a predicate, and a complex sentence as an inference. M.V. Lomonosov in “Russian Grammar” (1755) defined a sentence as follows: “The addition of significant parts of a word, or utterances... produces speeches that compose a complete mind in itself through the combination of different concepts.” An indication of the connection between syntax and thinking was included in the definition of syntax until the beginning of the 20th century.

In the 2nd half of the 19th century. a psychological direction in linguistics was formed, represented in Russia by A.A. Potebnya. A.A. Shakhmatov in “Syntax of the Russian Language” wrote: “Syntax is that part of grammar that considers ways of detecting thinking in a word.” He noted that “in language, being was first received by sentences; later, by dividing sentences based on their mutual comparison and influence, phrases and words were separated from them for independent ... existence and use ... ". This interpretation led to the understanding of syntax as a section of grammar in which the phenomena of language are analyzed in the direction from meaning (function) to form.

However, at the end of the 19th century. With the awakening of linguists' interest in the national specifics of morphology, syntax began to be defined as the study of the functions of classes of words in a sentence. This point of view was adhered to by F.F. Fortunatov, who considered the main task of syntax to be the study of the ability of words to spread, defined the phrase as the basic unit of syntax, and the sentence as a type of phrase. This understanding of the subject and tasks of syntax determined the development of this section of grammar in the 20s. XX century

The result of the turbulent period of development of syntax in the middle of the 20th century. is a classic grammatical description - “Grammar of the Russian Language” (AG-54), in the introduction to the 2nd volume of which Acad. V.V. Vinogradov formulated the problem that faced syntaxists: whether to include a phrase in the syntactic description, whether to expand the repertoire of units to a super-phrase unity (SPU), paragraph, text, while the grammar itself retained the traditional description of syntactic units. The works of V.V. Vinogradov determined the development of the main aspects of the description of syntax in the 2nd half of the twentieth century: along with the traditional structural, semantic, functional and communicative syntax were formed.

“Grammar of the modern Russian literary language” (AG-70) and “Russian grammar” (RG-80), which attempt to consistently describe the structural and formal aspect of syntactic units, are fundamentally different from AG-54, but these descriptions cannot be considered indisputable and comprehensive. A largely different understanding of the syntactic structure of the language, including Russian, is presented in the 6-volume “Theory of Functional Grammar” and in the “Communicative Grammar of the Russian Language” by G.A. Zolotova, N.K. Onipenko, M.Yu. Sidorova.

A diachronic description of syntax and a study of the dynamics of development of syntactic phenomena make it possible to highlight controversial and new phenomena in modern syntax and interpret syntactic structures in the context of ethnic culture and philosophy.

Currently, different interpretations of the same syntactic units and phenomena coexist, and the goal of a university syntax course is to introduce students to them.

Syntax of the modern Russian language / Ed. S. V. Vyatkina - M., 2009

Language is a system that consists of closely interacting levels: phonetic, morphemic, morphological, lexical, syntactic. The latter combines all the previous ones and forms a separate complex subsystem.

What is syntax in Russian. Syntax is a science that studies the structure of written and spoken language. Wikipedia gives the following definition: this is a part of grammar that indicates the rules for combining words within phrases and sentences.

What syntax studies: texts, individual sentences and phrases, their structure, composition, functions, role in oral and written speech.

The subject of study of science is the rules for combining words, word forms and phrases, their analysis from the point of view of communicative orientation.

To achieve this goal, researchers in this area of ​​linguistics need:

  • formulate a definition for the concepts of “syntactic units”, determine their structure, functions and meaning;
  • study grammatical forms and categories of syntactic units, establish connections and dependencies between them;
  • describe the structure and types of units at this level, determine their role;
  • analyze structural and semantic types of syntactic units;
  • identify, describe and compare the means that are used for communication, explore ways of expressing relationships within and between elements.

Note! The goal of science is to study the grammatical form and meaning of syntactic units.

Sections

Syntax as a branch of the science of language includes three sections that systematically study different structural elements of speech. Sections of syntax form their own tasks, goals, object and subject.

Offer

The subject of study is a unit of speech that speakers and listeners perceive as a grammatical whole. It serves to verbalize thinking.

Its structure includes:

  • subject;
  • predicate.

The features of a sentence are grammatical and ideological integrity, logical completeness, predicativeness (the presence of at least one main member), semantic design.

Syntax explores the typology of these units, the methods of communication in them, and the types of their elements.

Note! The syntax of simple and complex sentences is distinguished.

Collocation

The study of phrases seeks answers to the following questions:

  • Does a phrase exist outside of contexts, or is it always secondary, isolated from a ready-made utterance?
  • Is it possible to separate predicative phrases (subject plus predicate) into a separate class?
  • Is it possible to separate homogeneous members of a sentence into a separate class?

What is a phrase

Researchers of the phrase have different understandings of its nature. Someone identifies this unit as a syntactic unity that we isolate from a sentence. Others call this term any words that are related grammatically and in meaning.

The syntax of the phrase is the study of these views.

Text

This branch of linguistic science studies the organization of text and the connections between individual sentences.

Text: definition of concept

The objects of study of this section are:

  • structural diagrams of simple and complex sentences;
  • diagrams of a complex syntactic whole;
  • text structure;
  • between sentences of a complex syntactic whole.

The syntax of the text helps to evaluate the structural features of the text, to establish a connection between them and the communicative orientation of each unit of this level. This is necessary for carrying out linguistic analysis of the text.

Basic Level Units

Branches of linguistics operate with their own units. For example, in phonetics it is a sound, in lexicology it is a lexeme.

Syntax units

The main elements in the syntax are:

  • phrase – two or more words that are connected by subordinating relationships. The main function is nominative;
  • a sentence is a particle of speech that is used to form, express and convey thoughts. Performs communicative, nominative functions;
  • syntaxeme is a word in its syntactic functioning, as a carrier of a syntactic function. For example, in the statement “Evening has fallen on the city,” the word “evening” is a syntax that plays the role of a predicate.

Each of them is the object of study of the corresponding section of this science.

History of the study

Throughout the development of linguistics, this section of linguistics has been studied from the perspective of the following aspects:

  • logical-grammatical (beginning and end of the 17th century). It is based on the idea that a sentence is a complete analogue of a logical proposition;
  • psychological. Representatives: O. Potebnya, A. Fortunatov. They drew parallels between a sentence and a psychological judgment;
  • formal-grammatical (A. Peshkovsky). Language was considered as a system that operates according to its own internal laws, and the formal indicators of sentences were studied;
  • structural and grammatical. Representatives of this direction separated logic and psychology from this level and argued that all its units should be studied based on their own knowledge, without reference to logical categories;
  • communicative. This view of science and its units remains relevant to this day. The study of a sentence and its elements is carried out based on their role in oral and written speech.

Syntactic units

These aspects are compared with the main stages of studying this section of science:

  1. Greco-Roman period, Middle Ages (logical and grammatical campaigns).
  2. Classical linguistics, “traditional” (formal-grammatical and structural-grammatical approaches).
  3. Modern linguistic approaches.

At the present stage of studying this branch of science, the focus of research is on issues related to the active development of the Internet and virtual communication: media syntax, transformation of texts and their elements under the influence of social networks, non-linear syntax (means of graphically highlighting words and phrases: variations of fonts, small and capital letters).

Syntax in literature

In the literature, syntactic methods of expression are distinguished.

There is a separate term - “poetic syntax”, which unites all the means associated with the use of phrases and sentences in order to realize a specific artistic goal.

Examples of funds:

  • – the use of “dissected” punctuation and intonation statements to focus attention on emotions, events, and elements of the narrative. For example: “He gave me the long-awaited ring. Golden. With a huge stone. Made of white gold. As I dreamed";
  • syntactic anaphora is the repetition of identical structures in prose or poetry. For example: “Will I hear your words. Will I hear an apology? I will only hear the rain and I will only hear my broken dreams.”
  • epiphora - repetition of identical words at the end of short segments of speech. Characteristic of folklore and folk songs;
  • parallelism - the arrangement of elements similar in syntactic structure in adjacent poetic or prose elements of the text;
  • oxymoron – a phrase that combines logically uncombinable lexemes (“living corpse”, “bitter sugar”, “sharp stupidity”);
  • asyndeton - deliberate omission of all types of connections: conjunctions, connecting words. This gives the text dynamism and speed;
  • polysyndeton - a deliberate increase in the number of connecting words and conjunctions in a sentence. This creates additional pauses and slows down the tempo of the piece. For example: “What about me? But what about everything that happened? What about the days? Weeks? How is everything?” Using this tool, you can add additional tragedy and emotionality to the text;
  • rhetorical figures - questions (not requiring an answer), exclamations (transmission of emotions) and appeals (generalized);
  • – violation of word order, in poetic language this is accepted as the norm. Using inversion, you can create a rhythmic text, highlight the necessary words and phrases, and convey emotions;
  • ellipsis - omission of a linguistic element, ignoring the predicate or subject. For example, together “And I sent you a postcard” - “And I sent you a postcard.”


These devices are also called poetic figures of speech.
They are used for artistic expression and conveying expressiveness.

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