What is Syntax? Discuss in detail with reference to IC Analysis

What is Syntax? Discuss in detail with reference to IC Analysis

With syntax, we enter into a level of linguistic analysis that is higher than morphology and lexicology. Morphology has no autonomous existence as syntactical analysis includes morphological processes.

However, the chief concern of syntax is the sentence which is the maximum unit of grammatical analysis and the minimum syntactical level is morpheme. Sentences may be analyzed Segmentally into phonological units called Phones and Syllables, into morphological units called morphemes and words into syntactic units called Phrases and Clauses. Sentences may also be described Suprasegmentally in respect of Prosodemes of length, stress and pitch and Intersegmentally in respect of the Prosodemes of syllable transition or juncture. The school of TG grammarians are trying to study the maximal linguistic units through a fusion of all these approaches. They have closely interrelated all the components of language. Thus, syntax is the core of grammar. Some linguists include morphology and semantics in syntax; however, syntax has been defined by Richard, Platt and Weber as:

“The study of how words combine to form sentences and rules which govern the formation of sentences”

Students           travel

Old       men      walk      regularly

His       elder     brother  walks    regularly            daily

Figure 1

                                                                                   

One of the established methods of analyzing sentence is the ‘Immediate Constituent Analysis’. It highlights the fact that sense is conveyed not only by the dictionary meanings of words but also by their arrangement in patterns. In IC analysis sentences are broken down into successive components. Each component has some grammatical relevance. Here the aim is to arrive at the ‘ultimate constituent’ by identifying and establishing the ‘immediate constituents’ (ICs for short). Relations between the segments of an utterance are established at different hierarchical levels. If we take a simple sentence like ‘students travel’, we can identify the two constituents ‘students’ and ‘travel’. It is possible to substitute a two-word sequence for the constituent students without changing the basic structure – ‘old men’. The immediate constituents of the first sentence is ‘students’ and ‘travel’ and of the second sentence ‘old men and travel. But at the next lower level old and men are the immediate constituents. Similarly, we can have substitution for ‘travel’ also, something like ‘walk regularly’. This can be developed further as shown in figure 1. Thus the principle of syntax, according to N.R. Cattell is that:

“A sentence is not just a linear string of words; it is a sequence grouped in a particular way. The groupings are important for understanding the sense”

Figure 2.       S = The Sentence

           

                                                                                                

               NP                                VP

           

      Dear            friend    went           away

   

Adjective           Noun    Verb               Adverb

   Dear                friend   went                 away

Figure 3.

1.     S (sentence                ¾®       NP + VP

2.    NP  ¾®       Mod (Adj) + N (Noun)

3.    VP  ¾®       Verb (MV) + PP

4.    VP  ¾®       Verb

5.    PP   ¾®       Prep. + NP

6.    NP  ¾®       Art.

7.    NP  ¾®       N           

There is another way of marking the ICs, that of bracketing. We can show this in the following manner. (((the) ((poor) (boy)) (ate) (the) (stale) (bread))). However, the inverted tree diagramming has come to be widely accepted. Immediate constituent analysis is essentially a process of pure segmentation dividing a sentence into its constituents. One of the weaknesses of this analysis is that it does not indicate the role or function of the constituent elements.  There is little in this to tell us about the grammatical function and nature of the elements. Though there is a concept ‘Labelling’ but still it is not as elaborated as Phrase-Structure Grammar. The labeling process and tree diagram is illustrated in figure 2.  Noam Chomsky developed mathematically precise methods and built up a system known as Phrase Structure Grammar. Phrase Structure Rules, or Grammar considers sentence as linear sequence of elements. The aim is to identify these elements for their functions and class them appropriately. This is, therefore, better viewed as an alternative system to the IC analysis.  For example, the sentence “Old Sam sunbathed beside a stream” can be shown as in Figure 3. Chomsky’s method aims to generate all the possible and only correct sentences that a native is able to generate with the rewrite rules.  In short, syntax is the system of the arrangement of words in meaningful sentences and all and also the descriptive rules to form new sentences. These syntactic theories have attacked traditional grammar and come up with radical ideas about grammar; notably T-G Grammar.

Write a note on Linguistic Synchrony and Diachrony

According to the method, range or scope of its study, or the focus of interest of the linguist, Linguistics can be classified into different kinds, the chief of which are noted below: Diachronic Linguistics and Synchronic Linguistics. Diachronic linguistics is the kind in which we study the historical development of language through different periods of time.

For example, we study how French and Italian have grown out of Latin. The changes that have occurred in language with the passage of time, are also studied under this kind of linguistics; therefore, it is called historical linguistics. Synchronic linguistics is not concerned with the historical development of language. It confines itself to the study of how a language is spoken by a specified speech community at a particular point of time. It is also called 'descriptive' linguistics. Diachronic linguistics studies language change, and synchronic linguistics studies language states without their history. According to C.F. Hockett:

                "The study of how a language works at a given time, regardless of its past history or future                 destiny, is called descriptive or synchronic linguistics. The study of how speech habits change as time goes by is called historical or diachronic linguistics”

The distinction synchrony and diachrony refers to the difference in treating language from different points of view.  Though the historical character of a language cannot be ignored, its present form being the result of definite historical processes, changes and transformations, it is necessary for a complete understanding of it to concentrate on the units of its structure at the present moment. Some scholars do not see the two approaches apart. They assert that it is a mistake to think of descriptive and historical linguistics as two separate compartments. However, on the whole the two areas are kept apart and one is studied to the exclusion of the other. Synchronic statements make no reference to the previous stages in the language. Linguistic studies in the nineteenth century were historical in character; they originated as part of the general historical investigations into the origins and development of cultures and communities, especially West Asia, Egypt, etc. Such philological researches viewed language at different stages of its progress and attempted to understand relations among different languages. Language families were discovered and genetic affinities identified. For Zhirmunsky, Diachronic linguistics was a great discovery of the 19th century:

                “Which developed so powerfully and fruitfully from the 1820s to the 1880s. This discovery enabled  linguists to explain modern languages as a result of law-governed    historical development”

On a closer look one realizes that without a good synchronic (descriptive) work, valid historical (diachronic) postulations are not possible; in other words, a good historical linguist needs to be thorough descriptive scholar too.

The figure above shows the distinction. Diachronic axis (x-y) has been considered moving and the synchronic axis static. It was Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Sassure who first coined these terms and established the distinctions. As the Russian linguist V.M. Zhirmunsky observes, ‘In de Saussure’s conception, synchrony is language considered as a system of static oppositions resting on a single temporal plane, a static two dimensional cross-section”.  The principles that introduce this dichotomy enable us to obtain, according to Wilkins, ‘particularly accurate information about a language in its current usage’.  For Saussure, Historical considerations are irrelevant to the investigation of particular temporal states of a language. But Saussure’s analogy of chess breaks at the point that players determine the course of any particular game that is being played in opposition to one another and with reference to a recognized goal. As far as we know, there is no directionality in the diachronic development of languages.

Characteristics and Features of Language

Language is, today, an inseparable part of human society. Human civilization has been possible only through language. It is through language only that humanity has come out of the stone age and has developed science, art and technology in a big way.  Language is a means of communication, it is arbitrary, it is a system of systems. We know that Speech is primary while writing is secondary.

Language is human so it differs from animal communication in several ways.  Language can have scores of characteristics but the following are the most important ones: language is arbitrary, productive, creative, systematic, vocalic, social, non-instinctive and conventional. These characteristics of language set human language apart from animal communication. Some of these features may be part of animal communication; yet they do not form part of it in total.

Language is Arbitrary: Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no inherent relation between the words of a language and their meanings or the ideas conveyed by them. There is no reason why a female adult human being be called a woman in English, aurat in Urdu, Zen in Persian and Femine in French. The choice of a word selected to mean a particular thing or idea is purely arbitrary but once a word is selected for a particular referent, it comes to stay as such. It may be noted that had language not been arbitrary, there would have been only one language in the world.

Language is Social: Language is a set of conventional communicative signals used by humans for communication in a community. Language in this sense is a possession of a social group, comprising an indispensable set of rules which permits its members to relate to each other, to interact with each other, to co-operate with each other; it is a social institution. Language exists in society; it is a means of nourishing and developing culture and establishing human relations.

Language is Symbolic: Language consists of various sound symbols and their graphological counterparts that are employed to denote some objects, occurrences or meaning. These symbols are arbitrarily chosen and conventionally accepted and employed. Words in a language are not mere signs or figures, but symbols of meaning. The intelligibility of a language depends on a correct interpretation of these symbols.

Language is Systematic: Although language is symbolic, yet its symbols are arranged in a particular system. All languages have their system of arrangements. Every language is a system of systems. All languages have phonological and grammatical systems, and within a system there are several sub-systems. For example, within the grammatical system we have morphological and syntactic systems, and within these two sub-systems we have systems such as those of plural, of mood, of aspect, of tense, etc.

Language is Vocal: Language is primarily made up of vocal sounds only produced by a physiological articulatory mechanism in the human body. In the beginning, it appeared as vocal sounds only. Writing came much later, as an intelligent attempt to represent vocal sounds. Writing is only the graphic representation of the sounds of the language. So the linguists say that speech is primary.

Language is Non-instinctive, Conventional: No language was created in a day out of a mutually agreed upon formula by a group of humans. Language is the outcome of evolution and convention. Each generation transmits this convention on to the next. Like all human institutions languages also change and die, grow and expand. Every language then is a convention in a community. It is non-instinctive because it is acquired by human beings. No body gets a language in heritage; he acquires it because he an innate ability.

Language is Productive and Creative: Language has creativity and productivity. The structural elements of human language can be combined to produce new utterances, which neither the speaker nor his hearers may ever have made or heard before any, listener, yet which both sides understand without difficulty. Language changes according to the needs of society. 

Finally, language has other characteristics such as Duality referring to the two systems of sound and meaning, Displacement which means the ability to talk across time and space, Humanness which means that animals cannot acquire it, Universality which refers to the equilibrium across humanity on linguistic grounds, Competence and Performance which means that language is innate and produced is society and furthermore, language is culturally transmitted. It is learnt by an individual from his elders, and is transmitted from one generation to another.  Thus using J. Firth’s term, language is a ‘polysystametic’. It is also open to be studied from multifaceted angles.