Consider the following sentences:

1. The book is on the table.
2. The table is on the book.
3. Is the book on the table?
4. On the table is book the table.

In each sentence, the exact same words are used, but the way they are rearranged impacts the meaning of the sentence. The first three make grammatical sense (although logically, we know that it’s unlikely that a table would be on a book), but each expresses a different idea. The fourth sentence, despite using the same words, is confusing, conveying no meaningful message. This example reveals just how important it is to use the right structure when we communicate. The arrangement of words and phrases in a specific order is known as syntax, and it greatly impacts the meaning of a phrase and whether or not we’re able to understand it.¹

Syntax is like a map that guides how words should be arranged in a sentence. The way that we speak is governed by particular rules—varying from language to language—that allow us to convey our ideas and communicate cohesively. For example, all sentences require a subject and a verb. “The cat purred loudly” is syntactically correct, whereas the sentences “Purred loudly” (missing a subject) and “The cat loudly” (missing a verb) are syntactically incorrect. One exception is commands (Go!) because we assume the person the imperative is being told to is the subject.¹

Often, we’re not consciously aware of these rules when speaking in our native tongue (or maybe we’ve just blocked out those arduous middle-school English lessons), but we are aware enough to know when a sentence is incorrect. The fact that languages are often riddled with exceptions like the earlier example makes it difficult for people to learn new languages, but at the same time, grasping syntax is what allows us to express meaningful phrases we haven’t been taught, based on our understanding of the foundational structure and rules of the language.

Sentence Structure: The way that words, phrases, and clauses are arranged in a sentence to convey meaning, also known as syntax. In the English language, there are four sentence structures/syntactic patterns: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex.¹

One of the first known explorations of syntax was over two thousand years ago by ancient Sanskrit grammarian Pāṇini, who wrote the Ashtadhyayi, a treatise that attempted to analyze how the ancient Indian language worked. In the treatise, he outlined just under four thousand rules of Sanskrit grammar, describing valid syntax, phonology, and morphology.³ 

In Medieval Europe, until the 14th century, scholars were more concerned with studying and preserving Latin grammar used in Classical and Late Antique texts and applying it to Christian texts rather than developing new linguistic theories. During the Renaissance, scholars shifted their focus to comparing different languages and analyzing their common structures, which led to theories of universal grammar: underlying rules and syntax that underlie all languages. Scholars also experimented with language at this time, developing new and creative ways to use syntax.⁴

In 1660, French scholars Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot introduced a new way to think about language in their book, Port-Royal Grammar, suggesting that syntax reflects our cognitive processes. Previously, the dominant theory presented by philosophers like Aristotle viewed language as a tool for describing an objective world, reflecting universal categories of logic rather than being shaped by human cognition. However, Port-Royal Grammar proposed that there was universal grammar and syntax because all humans think in similar patterns.⁵ 

German philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt later shifted this perspective through comparative linguistics, exploring how the culture and individuality of the speaker impact syntax and semantics, causing it to change over time. His developments paved the way for the field of ethnolinguistics, which explores the relationship between culture and language.⁶

The idea of language as a system of relationships, rather than isolated words, began in the early 20th century, marking the birth of syntax as we know it today. Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure posited language as a system of signs, linking the physical form of words to mental images they conjure.⁷ In the 1950s, during a period known as “The Chomskyan revolution,” American linguist Noam Chomsky revolutionized our theory of language by suggesting that the ability to process language is uniquely human, and that all humans innately understand grammar and syntax due to a language acquisition device. His theory was largely based on the fact that children are able to quickly and intuitively understand and use syntactic structures, and can utter phrases that follow these rules without ever having explicitly learned them before.⁸

Pāṇini

An ancient Sanskrit grammarian who is considered a foundational figure in the formalization of Classical Sanskrit. He wrote a treatise called Ashtadhyayi, where he made distinctions between spoken language and the language of sacred texts. His treatise grouped words into categories like nouns and verbs, letters into consonants and vowels, and provided rules about sentence structure. The treatise outlined just under four thousand grammar rules and is considered one of the first explorations of syntax.³

Antonie Arnauld & Claude Lancelot

French philosophers and theologians associated with the Port-Royal Abbey who developed the Port-Royal Grammar, which sought to identify the structures of thought that underlie all languages. Their work provided a structure through which words are put together into sentences and ideas are combined into propositions. The two philosophers also wrote the Port-Royal Logic, one of the most influential philosophy books from the modern period, which explored four mental operations important to the “art of thinking” in the hopes that this knowledge would allow people to better use their minds.⁴ 

Wilhelm von Humboldt

A German language scholar and philosopher with a particular interest in how culture and language intersect. His contributions laid the foundation for the emergence of ethnolinguistics, a subfield of anthropological linguistics, which studies how cultural behavior and language affect one another. Humboldt believed that language should be studied through comparative and historical analysis to see how it connects to individuals’ worldviews.⁶ 

Ferdinand de Saussure

A Swiss linguist often referred to as the founding father of modern linguistics. He revolutionized semantics with his theory that we use a language of signs, made up of its physical form (signifier) and the mental image which it invokes (signified). His belief that language is a relational system contributed to the development of structural linguistics, a branch that views language as a system of interconnected structures (syntax).⁷ 

Noam Chomsky

An American professor and linguist whose theories on a uniquely human language acquisition device provided a basis for the idea of universal grammar. Chomsky believed that there are underlying syntactic categories and grammatical features present in all languages because everyone is born with a mechanism that allows us to process language and intuitively understand its rules of use. Many of his theories rested on the fact that children can quickly learn language and use phrases they have never heard before because they have an innate understanding of syntax and semantics.⁸ 

Syntax plays a crucial role in ensuring clear communication and preventing misunderstandings. When applied correctly, it can enhance language comprehension, decision-making, and even the development of technology.

Speech & Language Therapy

Many children who have delays or challenges in speech struggle with understanding syntax. Aphasia, a speech disorder caused by damage to the language processing center of your brain, impacts one’s ability to understand and produce grammatically correct sentences, suggesting it impacts syntax.⁹ Speech therapy is not just about helping people expand their vocabulary or learn how to sound out letters, but also helping them to understand these deeper structures that govern language.

It’s important for speech therapists to help children deconstruct and understand syntactic structures to support their language development. The Informed SLP, a platform that summarizes current research in speech-language pathology, states that syntax interventions have been shown to improve language development more than other therapy protocols, enhancing children's linguistic and literacy skills.¹⁰ Therapists can use tools like tree structure diagrams, grammar parsing exercises, or unscrambling sentences to teach children the underlying structures of language. 

Law and Policy Writing

Understanding syntax is critical in drafting laws, contracts, and policies. Misplaced clauses or vague syntax can cause huge legal loopholes. Grammar is an important part of syntax, and if proper rules are not followed, it can lead to misinterpretation. In one famous case, O’Connor v. Oakhurst Dairy, a missing Oxford comma cost the company over $10 million in overtime pay. The Maine Revised Statutes Law stated that the following activities were exempt from overtime pay:

“The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:

1. Agricultural produce;
2. Meat and fish products; and
3. Perishable foods”

As there was no comma after “shipment,” delivery drivers asserted that the law could be interpreted as exempting packing for either shipment or distribution, but not distribution itself. The drivers argued that since they do not engage in packing, their activities were eligible for overtime pay. As the syntactic structure was unclear, the judge ruled in favor of the drivers, forcing the dairy company to pay them for the overtime work they had completed.¹¹

Syntax Analysis in AI

For AI tools like chatbots, applying semantic structure to text through syntax allows the models to better interpret prompts and respond to queries. The tools will use part-of-speech tagging to label each word in a sentence (e.g., noun, adjective, or verb) or produce tree structures to better analyze text.¹² Without applying these syntax methodologies, the chatbots may misinterpret what the user is asking for support with, especially as words often have different meanings depending on the context in which they are used.

Imagine asking a chatbot, “Book my flight for tomorrow.” By tagging each word, it can identify “book” as the verb and “flight” as the noun, understanding that you are making a request for travel assistance instead of thinking that you are asking about a physical book. 

The study of syntax has sparked multiple debates and controversies in the field of linguistics, particularly concerning the role of syntax in meaning, the origins of grammatical rules, and the ability of AI to truly understand language.

Which Matters For Meaning: Syntax or Semantics?

One linguistic debate revolves around whether syntax, the structure of sentences, or semantics, the meaning of words and sentences, primarily determines how we use and understand language.

Chomsky argued that syntax forms the backbone of language processing. He used the example of the sentence, “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.” This sentence, although nonsensical, follows syntactic rules, showing that a sentence can be syntactically correct even if it lacks meaningful content.¹³ Maybe you pictured something like this:

This suggests that our ability to recognize structure in language doesn't depend entirely on the meanings of individual words.

Proponents of the importance of semantics, on the other hand, believe that meaning can still be conveyed when improper syntactic rules are used. Consider the sentence, “Dog go outside now.” We understand what this sentence means even though it is missing articles and contains the incorrect verb form. The sentence carries the same meaning as if proper syntax were used: “The dog goes outside now,” lending support to the idea that meaning takes precedence over grammar in communication. 

The debate exists because many linguists believe that our brain processes semantics and syntax sequentially, so one must come first. However, studies that use fMRI to examine brain activity have found that we process semantic and syntactic features of a sentence simultaneously. This suggests that form and meaning are both vital and interdependent in language comprehension.¹⁴ 

Generative and Cognitive Grammar vs Structural Grammar

Syntax explores the rules and guidelines that govern languages and sentence structure, but where do these rules come from? 

There are opposing views in the linguistic field. Proponents of the generative grammar theory believe that there are universal grammar rules of syntax that the human brain has the innate capacity to understand and implement when using language. Generative grammarians are interested in finding the foundational principles that describe how we all use language.¹⁵ Linguists who take the cognitive grammar approach similarly believe that syntax reveals something about the nature of humanity, focused on how our perception and conceptualization of the world guides syntax. Instead of being born with predefined rules, cognitive grammarians believe we learn from our experience, and the rules of syntax align with our cognitive processes. 

On the other side are structural grammarians, who reject the idea of universal grammar rules. They believe that each language is a unique system of communication that should be studied independently. They are more interested in finding patterns in how language is used from culture to culture than in uncovering abstract mental rules that govern all language.¹⁶ 

Can AI Really Understand Syntax?

AI models use syntax, but it’s difficult to know whether machines have the ability to actually understand syntax or if they are simply mimicking human language patterns. Although AI uses syntax correctly, this may be because it is trained on vast amounts of linguistic data and is able to apply learned patterns to language generation. A 2024 study tested seven different AI models to see how they performed in identifying grammatical and syntactic errors in language comprehension prompts. For example, the model would be asked if there were any errors in a sentence like, “The doctor the nurse the clinic had hired met Jack,” where there is a verb missing. The study then gave the same test to 400 humans to compare which group performed better. The results showed that AI models performed at chance levels and were outperformed by humans, suggesting that they leverage information from training data instead of having the innate ability (as humans do) to understand written text.¹⁷

Syntax in American Sign Language

Even in sign language, syntax is important to help people communicate effectively. The syntax rules in American Sign Language (ASL) are different from English, but are equally important, as syntax affects the meaning of the sentence. For example, while in English we would say “I am going to the store,” with the verb before the noun, in ASL, the usual syntax structure is subject-verb-object, and people sign “Store I go.” While ASL interventions usually focus on vocabulary or basic communication, as do speech therapies, teaching proper syntax may be the key to supporting the communicative abilities of deaf people.

In a 2024 study, researchers found that helping children learn syntax structures improved their communication. The researchers worked with two deaf children who had not acquired a complete first language, using a targeted syntax intervention to help them learn the subject-verb-object structure. The researchers used visual aids to teach word orders and used games and storytelling to produce more complex sentences. The researchers used positive reinforcement, encouraging the children when they used syntax correctly, and not criticizing them when they mixed up the order. After 6-10 intervention sessions, the children had improved, using more syntactically complete and correct ASL sentences and, importantly, not just repeating sentences their therapist had used, but modeling syntax in free conversations and storytelling, suggesting they hadn’t just memorized the structure but had come to deeply understand it.¹⁸ 

Importance of Syntax in Translation

When tools like Google Translate operate without a proper understanding of syntax, they often will produce translations that lose or distort the meaning of the initial phrase. When Amazon launched in Sweden in 2020, it received widespread media attention because of multiple incorrect translations of product descriptions.

For example, “Russian infantry figurines” was translated to “Russian toddlers.” The AI translation tool had incorrectly classed “infantry” as an adjective describing an “infant,” not realizing that the complete word has nothing to do with infants in English.¹⁹ Another mistake was translating a Star Wars product that featured the Death Star into “Dead Star” in Swedish, as the system had not correctly categorized “death” as a noun instead of an adjective.²⁰

Amazon’s big blunder demonstrates how important syntax is for conveying meaning, as lacking proper syntactic analysis can result in humorous, confusing, or even lewd translation errors. 

The Whorf Hypothesis

Cognitive grammarians believe that language reflects the way that we perceive the world, but can it influence our perspective? The Whorf hypothesis suggests that the way we speak shapes how we think and may actually impact what thoughts we are capable of having. In this article, we explore the origins of the Whorf hypothesis, describe the strong and weak versions of the hypothesis, and discuss how, if true, the hypothesis would dispel the notion of universal cognitive processes. 

Political Persuasion: Rethinking The Rhetoric That Resonates

If we abide by syntax rules, we should be effective communicators. However, it’s not only about the speaker: how the receiver interprets the message impacts whether or not the intended meaning lands. Studies show that our age, gender, race, socio-economic status, and even political affiliation change how we interpret and react to language. In this article, our writer Kaya Foster explores why we should focus on using simple, ordinary words, where there is less room for misinterpretation, especially for political figures trying to persuade the public of their ideology.

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