Syntax theory is an investigation on the rules which govern the sentences’ formation. The syntactic structure is the arrangement of words and their morphemes together in order to forming a sentence/ a phrase and clauses (Chomsky, 1966). In other words, syntax is a set of rules on how words from our speech/dialog/conversation can be conveyed to transfer/deliver a complete thought.
From another perspective, Dixon (1991) said that syntax guilds on how to combine words together. Bloomfield (1994) said that “we could not understand the form of a language if we merely reduced all the complex forms to their ultimate constituents”. He claimed that: if you want to understand well the meaning of a sentence, it is essential to identify how every single element such as words and morphemes establish more complex forms.
Syntax structures are analyzable into arrangements of syntactic types or syntactic classes, these being established on the basic of the syntactic relationships and linguistic items have with other items in a construction (Brown & Miller, 1996).
Syntax studies the rules of combining words and phrases into expressive structures in sentences in natural language (Santorini, Beatrice, and Kroch, 2007). There are two main syntax systems: VO (verb-object) and OV (object-object). In these systems, there are sub-systems related to the position of the subject.
19
Every language has a limited number of syntactic relations. Subject and object are probably universal of syntactic relations, which apply to every language. However, just as the criteria for the major words class noun and verb differ from language to language, so do the ways in which syntactic relations are noticeable (Kibrik, 2001).
Thomas (1993) stated that languages are by nature extremely complex and describing a language, any language is not an easy task. Syntax seeks to describe the way words fit together to form sentences or utterances.
Syntax or sentence structure concerns with the way words combine together in a language to form sentences. Every language has a limited number of syntactic relations. Subject and object are probably universal of syntactic relations, which apply to every language. However, just as the criteria for the major words class noun and verb differ from language to language, so do the ways in which syntactic relations are marked.
Theory of semantics
According to Hurford and Heasley (1984), “semantics is the study of meaning in language”. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, like words, phrase, signs, and symbols and what they stand for, their denotation.
Linguistic semantics is the study of meaning that is used for understanding human expression through languages. Other form of semantics includes the semantics of programing languages, formal logics and semiotics. Semantic is that level of linguistic analysis where the meaning is analyzed. It is the most abstract level of linguistic analysis, since we cannot see or observe the meaning as we can record and observe sounds. Meaning is related very closely to the human capacity to think logically and to understand. We cannot
20
accept a sentence as meaningful if it is illogical and does not communicate anything. For example:
Monday came before the day which followed it (This is a circular statement which tells us nothing.)
Then there are contradictory statements, which are false in meaning such as My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor (This statement is absurd- because a person cannot be both married and unmarried.)
According to Evan and McDowell (1976), language is a means of communication, and people use language to communicate with others by making conversations, giving information, and other things to make social relationship. Human beings have been given the capacity to talk, to communicate with each other, to make meaningful utterances, so that they are understood by other human beings. They communicate about the world in which they live, about themselves, about their thought and feeling, about what has happened, about what might happen or what they would like to happen, and a lot more. Hurford and Heasley (1984) stated: “The giving of information is itself an act of courtesy, performed to strengthen social relationships”.
Moreover, as quoted by Lyons (1977) at first defines semantics as the study of the relations of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable.
And then he revises his definition, saying that, semantics is that portion of semiotic which deals with the signification of sign in all modes of signifying.
Semantics is usually connected with pragmatics. Carnap (Lyons, 1977) says that descriptive semantics (i.e. the investigation of the meaning of expressions in “historically given natural language”), may be regarded as part of pragmatics. The reason why descriptive semantics is part of pragmatics seem
21
to have been that he believed that difference in the use of particular expressions were not only inevitable in language - behavior, but must be taken account of in the description or context. Smith, as quoted by Lyons (1977) states that “semantics studies how these signs are related to things.
And pragmatics studied how they are related to people”.
According to Leech (1984) in practice, the problem of distinguishing language and language use has centered on a boundary dispute between semantics and pragmatics. Hurford and Heasley (1984) further explain that the study of semantics is largely a matter of conceptually and exploring the nature of meaning in a careful and thoughtful way, using a wide range of examples, many of which we can draw from our knowledge. But Richards, Platt, Weber (1987, p.172) state that “the study of meaning is semantics.
Semantics is usually concerned with the analysis of the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences and sometimes with the meaning of utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text.”
Crystal (1992) defines that “semantics is the study of meaning in language”. Structural semantics applied the principles of structural linguistics to the study of meaning through the notion of semantic relations (also called sense relation), such as synonymy and antonyms. In generative grammar, the semantic component is a major area of the grammar’s organization, assigning a semantic representation to sentences, and analyzing lexical terms of semantic features.
Semantics defined in The study of language by Yule is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. In semantic analysis, there is always an attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on what a speaker might want the words to mean on a particular
22
occasion. Also, linguistic semantics deals with the conventional meaning conveyed by the use of words and sentences of a language.
In the preface of Linguistic semantics: An introduction‖, Lyons (1995) defines that semantics is the study of meaning in language‖. It is systematically encoded in the vocabulary and grammar of natural languages.
This definition of linguistic semantics, as far as it goes, is relatively uncontroversial. But it is also almost wholly uninformative unless and until one goes on to say, first, what one means by meaning and, second, what exactly is meant by encoded in this context. He also explains that those who draw a terminological distinction between semantics and pragmatics and take narrower view of meaning than he does will see his book as introduction to a broader field of linguistic semantics and pragmatics.
The theory of semantic field views vocabulary as organized into areas, within which words (lexical items) interrelate and define each other.
Theory of syntactic and semantic is carried out first with main purpose to decide the theoretical framework of the study in the chapter three.