Pustaka Ilmiah Universitas Padjadjaran

Abstrak

Understanding English Syntax

Have you ever heard the word Syntax? What is syntax on your mind? The word syntax derived from Ancient Greek s??ta??? “coordination” from s?? syn, “together,” and t???? táxis, “an ordering”. Linguistically, it can be described as the study of rules, or “patterned relations” that govern the way the words in the sentence come together. Pay attention to the following examples: (1) *Read The Fault in Our Stars Laras in her bed room. (2) *In her bed room read The Fault in Our Stars Laras. (3) *The Fault in Our Stars read Laras a in her bed room. (4) Laras read The Fault in Our Stars in her bed room. The examples (1) to (3) above have the same words in every sentence as those in the example (4). But although the first three examples have the same words as the fourth, the example (1) to (3) cannot be called sentences. The arrangement of the words in the first three sentences is not correct so that they are not accepted as sentences in English (* = expresses ungrammatical in English).