A grammar of sentences: syntax

The grammar of word structure, or morphology, we turn now to syntax, which we might call the grammar of sentences, the largest units to which we can assign a grammatical description. Defining a sentence, however, proves no less problematical than defining a word. Early attempts to pin the concept down required that sentences have a subject and predicate, and we therefore begin by examining traditional and modern approaches to these two key notions.

We then take a closer look at the simple sentence, which, far from being a mere sequence of words, turns out to be a highly ordered and hierarchical structure. Relations between elements within sentences are often overtly marked: these patterns of government and agreement are explored next, and we close it with a brief look at ways in which simple sentences can be combined to form composite ones.