Syntax as a science. Syntax: what this section studies. Syntactic units, connections and relations. What does syntax study

Language is a system that consists of closely interacting levels: phonetic, morphemic, morphological, lexical, syntactic. The latter combines all the previous ones and forms a separate complex subsystem.

What is syntax in Russian. Syntax is a science that studies the structure of written and spoken language. Wikipedia gives this definition: it is a part of grammar that indicates the rules for connecting words within phrases and sentences.

What syntax studies: texts, individual sentences and phrases, their structure, composition, functions, role in oral and written speech.

The subject of science is the rules for combining words, word forms and phrases, their analysis from the point of view of communicative orientation.

To achieve this goal, researchers in this field of linguistics need to:

• form a definition for the concepts of "syntactic units", determine their structure, functions and meaning;
• study grammatical forms and categories of syntactic units, establish connections and dependencies between them;
• describe the structure and types of units of this level, determine their role;
• analyze the structural-semantic types of syntactic units;
• identify, describe and compare the means that are used for communication, explore ways of expressing relationships within and between elements.

Note! The purpose of science is to investigate the grammatical form and meaning of syntactic units.

Sections

Syntax as a branch of the science of language includes three sections that systematically study the various structural elements of speech. Syntax sections form their tasks, goals, object and subject.

Sentence

The subject of study is a unit of speech that speakers and listeners perceive as a grammatical whole. It serves to verbalize thinking.

Its structure includes:

• subject;
• predicate.

The signs of a sentence are grammatical and ideological integrity, logical completeness, predicativity (presence of at least one main member), semantic formalization.

Syntax explores the typology of these units, the ways of communication in them, the types of their elements.

Note! Distinguish between simple and compound sentences.

phrase

The doctrine of the phrase seeks answers to such questions:

• Does a phrase exist outside of contexts, or is it always secondary, isolated from a finished statement?
• Is it possible to single out predicative phrases (subject plus predicate) into a separate class?
• Is it possible to separate homogeneous members of a sentence into a separate class?

What is a phrase

Researchers of the phrase differently understand its nature. Someone singles out this unit as a syntactic unity that we isolate from a sentence. Others call this term any words that are related grammatically and in meaning.

The syntax of the phrase deals with the study of these views.

Text

This section of linguistic science studies the organization of the text, the connections between individual sentences.

Text: definition of the concept

The object of study of this section are:

• block diagrams of simple and complex sentences;
• schemes of a complex syntactic whole;
• the structure of the text;
• between sentences of a complex syntactic whole.

The syntax of the text helps to evaluate the structural features of the text, to establish a connection between them and the communicative orientation of each unit of this level. This is necessary for linguistic analysis of the text.

Basic Level Units

Sections of linguistics operate with their own units. For example, in phonetics it is a sound, in lexicology it is a lexeme.

Syntax units

In syntax, the main elements are:

• phrase - two or more words that are connected by subordinating relations. The main function is nominative;
• sentence - a particle of speech that is used to form, express and convey thoughts. Performs communicative, nominative functions;
• syntaxeme - a word in its syntactic functioning, as a carrier of a syntactic function. For example, in the statement “Evening has fallen on the city”, the word “evening” is a syntaxeme that plays the role of a predicate.

Each of them is the object of study of the corresponding section of this science.

History of study

Throughout the development of linguistics, this section of linguistics has been studied from the standpoint of the following aspects:

• logico-grammatical (beginning and end of the 17th century). It is based on the idea that a sentence is a complete analog of a logical proposition;
• psychological. Representatives - O. Potebnya, A. Fortunatov. They drew parallels between sentence and psychological judgment;
• formal grammatical (A. Peshkovsky). The language was considered as a system that operates according to its own internal laws, they studied the formal indicators of sentences;
• structural and grammatical. Representatives of this trend separated logic and psychology from this level and argued that all its units should be studied on the basis of their own knowledge, without reference to logical categories;
• communicative. This view of science and its units remains relevant to this day. The study of the sentence and its elements is carried out on the basis of their role in oral and written speech.

Syntactic units

These aspects are compared with the main stages of the study of this section of science:

1. Greco-Roman period, Middle Ages (logical and grammatical campaigns).
2. Classical linguistics, "traditional" (formal-grammatical and structural-grammatical approaches).
3. Modern linguistic approaches.

At the present stage of studying this branch of science, the focus of research is on issues related to the active development of the Internet and virtual communication: media syntax, transformation of texts and their elements under the influence of social networks, non-linear syntax (means of graphical selection of words and phrases: variations of fonts, small and capital letters letters).

Syntax in literature

Syntactic ways of expression are distinguished in the literature.

There is a separate term - "poetic syntax", which combines all the means associated with the use of phrases and sentences in order to realize a certain artistic goal.

Examples of funds:

• - the use of "dissected" punctuation and intonation statements in order to focus on emotions, events, elements of the narrative. For example: “He gave me a long-awaited ring. Golden. with a huge stone. From white gold. How I dreamed";
• syntactic anaphora is the repetition of the same constructions in prose or poetry. For example: “I will hear your words. Will I hear an apology? I will only hear the rain and I will hear my broken dreams.
• epiphora - the repetition of the same words at the end of short segments of speech. Characteristic for folklore, folk songs;
• parallelism - the arrangement of elements similar in syntactic structure in adjacent poetic or prose elements of the text;
• oxymoron - a phrase in which logically uncombinable lexemes are combined (“living corpse”, “bitter sugar”, “sharp stupidity”);
• asyndeton - deliberate omission of all types of communication: unions connecting words. This gives the text dynamism, swiftness;
• polysyndeton - an intentional increase in the number of connecting words and conjunctions in a sentence. This creates additional pauses, slows down the pace of the work. For example: “What about me? But what about everything that happened? But what about the days? weeks? How is everything? With this tool, you can give the text additional tragedy and emotionality;
• rhetorical figures - questions (not requiring an answer), exclamations (transmission of emotions) and appeals (generalized);
• - violation of the order of words, in poetic language this is taken as the norm. Using inversion, you can create a rhythmic text, highlight the right words and phrases, convey emotions;
• ellipsis - omission of a linguistic element, ignoring the predicate or subject. For example, together “And I sent you a postcard” - “And I sent you a postcard.”

These means are also called poetic figures of speech. They are used for artistic expression, the transfer of expressiveness.

In the section on the question of what is studying the syntax given by the author Vadim.ru the best answer is Syntax is a branch of language science that studies phrases and sentences (including their structure)

Answer from first class[newbie]
Syntax (other Greek ???-????? - compilation) is a section of linguistics that studies the structure of phrases and sentences, and the functional interaction of various parts of speech in them. It is part of the grammar

Answer from Caucasian[newbie]
Syntax - studies the structure of sentences and phrases.

Answer from electrosleep[newbie]
Syntax (other Greek ???-????? - compilation) is a section of linguistics that studies the structure of phrases and sentences and the functional interaction of various parts of speech in them. It is an integral part of grammar. The issues studied within the framework of syntax are closely related to the field of study of morphology.

Answer from Kuekerneagrn kaerekrvkrarer[newbie]
Syntax is a branch of the science of language that studies word combinations

Answer from Nika[newbie]
Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies the structure of sentences and phrases.

Answer from Alina Konstantinovna[newbie]
Syntax (from other Greek σύνταξις - “construction, order, compilation”) is a section of linguistics that studies the structure of sentences and phrases.
The syntax deals with the following main questions:
connection of words in phrases and sentences;
consideration of types of syntactic connection;
definition of types of phrases and sentences;
determining the meaning of phrases and sentences;
combining simple sentences into complex ones.

Answer from Nikita Aksenov[newbie]
Syntax studies sentences and phrases

Answer from Anna Vardanyan[newbie]
Syntax is a section of linguistics that studies the syntactic structure of a language, namely phrases, sentences, text, ways of combining phrases into sentences, sentences into text, building simple sentences and combining them into complex ones.

Linguistics, or linguistics - the science of speech, language and communication - studies the most diverse aspects of the structure and functioning of languages. Syntax is the student of phrases, sentences and text. This article is devoted to what exactly and from what point of view specialists study.

Phrases

Phrases are such formations in a language that are constructed from ready-made units - words and phraseological units - with or without function words (prepositions) according to certain rules of a particular language. Syntax is the student of the rules by which words are combined into phrases and by what means.

To construct a phrase, it is not enough to take any two words and mechanically combine them. First, they must be connected in meaning. Let's say the words "finch" and "lop-eared" can be easily connected according to all the rules of grammar (fold-eared finch, lop-eared finches, etc.), however, the meanings of these words will resist such a connection. It can take place only if both of these words or one of them are used in a figurative sense. For example, a “chaffinch” can be called a puppy that often freezes, then everything will be all right with the phrase “fold-eared finch”. These are interesting questions, but syntax deals with them indirectly, this is more the field of the science of semantics and semasiology - the science of the meaning of words.

Syntax is a branch of the science of language that studies phrases from the point of view of their formal connection. Syntaxists are interested in the question of why some combinations of words are perceived by native speakers as grammatically correct, while others are not. The simplest example is "blue water" and "blue water". In the first case, the rule of agreement between adjective and noun is violated. In Russian, the adjective (definition) must repeat the forms of the noun (defined) in order for the phrase to be correct. Therefore, syntax is a branch of the science of language that studies the phrase from a grammatical point of view.

Sentence

Phrases are constructed from words, and phrases are combined into sentences. Syntax is a branch of the science of language that studies by what rules and according to what models this happens. There are a lot of questions to study and research, and the easiest way to see this is with the example of the difference between languages. For example, in an English sentence, the grammatical basis must necessarily include both the subject and the predicate. If the meaning of a sentence does not imply a subject, it must still be presented formally. - It (formal subject, which is not necessary in terms of meaning) is raining.

In Russian, the grammatical basis can be represented in one word: "It rains all the time"; "It is cold today"; "It gets dark quickly in autumn." In all these sentences, it is impossible to distinguish subjects and predicates, and at the same time, the main member of the sentences (rain, cold, dusk) is both the subject and the predicate (syntactic functions are realized by them syncretically). More voluminous associations - texts - are also studied by syntax.

Punctuation

Why is it important for all native speakers to understand what syntax is? Punctuation (correct placement relies on syntactic knowledge, therefore, in order to write correctly, it is necessary to understand not only the basics, but also the nuances of syntax. Let's say it is impossible to understand where to put a comma in a complex sentence without knowing what a complex sentence is and not being able to find the boundaries of its parts.

Thus, syntax is a science that studies texts, the laws of sentence formation and combining words into phrases. The knowledge of punctuation is based on syntax.

Syntax is a section of linguistics that studies how and with what help words and word forms are combined into phrases and sentences, how complex ones are formed from simple sentences. The syntax includes a typology of phrases and sentences, which describes the meanings of the most popular models.

Thought is not expressed in individual words. They are just building blocks for building a proposal. And only by including them in the statement, using them in the right form and arranging them in the right order, with the help of words, thoughts and feelings can be expressed. When constructing a sentence, we refer to the rules of syntax. There are an unusually large number of them, but we all need them. Regardless of age and profession, every person should be able to correctly build sentences and phrases.

Often there are small incidents when a person forgets about the rules of syntax. For example, "cows are waiting for their milkmaids who are grazing in the meadow." It turns out that milkmaids, not cows, graze in the meadow. In this example, the relative attributive clause was incorrectly "placed", drastically changing the meaning of the entire complex sentence. Many such examples could be cited. The main syntactic error in speech is a violation or lack of agreement, for example, the incorrect use of subordinate clauses of various types. In addition, violation of agreement occurs in phrases (“he admired her wit” instead of the correct option “he admired her wit”), as well as between sentence members (“the girl was smart, but far from beautiful” instead of the correct statement “the girl was smart but far from beautiful. Many people who reread their writings are not at all embarrassed by the speech dissonance of the statement. This is bad. If there is something wrong in the sentence, not “in Russian”, then there is an error somewhere. You need to find and correct it in order to avoid changing the meaning of the statement.

We need syntax, it is simply necessary in everyday life. We do not notice this, but each person uses syntactic rules, or compatibility norms, ten times every day. Syntax helps us express our thoughts better and more beautifully, using all the possibilities of our native language in the normative construction of our statement. The rules are not that complicated. It is better to learn them once at school so that in the future there will be no problems with expressing our thoughts in writing and orally.

• Report Conifers Message

  Coniferous trees are one of the most adapted representatives of the plant world. They feel great, both in hot summer and winter. The main feature of coniferous trees is that instead of leaves they grow needles.

• Gymnastics - as a sport message report

  Let's start with the fact that gymnastics is one of the popular sports associated with physical exercises and has Greek roots. The main direction of gymnastics is to develop and strengthen the human body.

Subject and fundamental concepts of syntax. The term “syntax” (from the Greek syntaxis “composition”, “construction”, “order”, “system”) is used in two meanings: 1) syntactic structure, a special tier of the language, including a set of syntactic phenomena; 2) a section of grammar that studies the laws and rules for constructing coherent speech in its individual fragments.

Syntax in the meaning of "syntactic structure, a special tier of the language" correlates with "an objectively existing system of syntactic means and rules for their use, which is at the disposal of the speaking collective", "directly correlates with the process of thinking and the process of communication : units of other levels of the language system participate in the formation of thought and its communicative expression only through syntax. This is the specificity of syntax as a real phenomenon and as a scientific object.

As a section of grammar, syntax is focused on the scientific comprehension of the syntactic structure of the language, the rules for constructing speech. The object of study in syntax is communicative language means of varying complexity and their constituent parts through relation to the whole. Syntax is characterized as "the organizing center of grammar".

The term "syntax" has recently also been used to refer to subsections that are distinguished within the "Syntax" section (for example, they talk about the syntax of a phrase, the syntax of a sentence, etc.), and directions in syntactic science (structural syntax, semantic syntax, functional syntax etc.).

The fundamental concepts of syntax as a science about the syntactic structure of a language, about the laws and rules for constructing coherent speech are: “syntactic connection”, “syntactic units”, “syntactic meaning”, “syntactic function”, “syntactic form”, “syntactic category”.

These six concepts - "syntactic connection", "syntactic units", "syntactic function", "syntactic meaning", "syntactic form", "syntactic category" - are initial, cross-cutting for syntax, without them scientific description and comprehension is hardly possible. syntactic structure of the language. These concepts are closely related to each other, so any of them can be characterized only using correlative concepts.

In this introduction, the concepts of "syntactic connection", "syntactic units", "syntactic function", "syntactic meaning", "syntactic form", "syntactic category" are given the most preliminary, very abstract characteristic. The specific content of these concepts, in other words, a kind of “ascent from the abstract to the concrete” in their interpretation, will be carried out in the course of presenting the content of individual sections of the syntax.

Syntactic link- these are various kinds of formal and meaningful relationships between the components of individual fragments of speech (see the section "The doctrine of syntactic connection"). So, for example, in the phrase copper samovar words reveal a connection between themselves as meaningful (adjective copper denotes an attribute of a noun samovar), and formal (dependent adjective copper formally consistent with the reference name samovar in the masculine, singular, nominative case).

Syntactic unit- this is a certain fragment of coherent speech, characterized by a different volume and possessing to varying degrees the signs of the whole, i.e. connected speech. Syntactic units differ from each other in structural, structural, meaningful and functional features.

The indisputable syntactic units are the phrase and the simple sentence. In different university textbooks, along with the named syntactic units, other syntactic units of a higher level are also distinguished - a complex sentence and a complex syntactic whole. This book also discusses a lower-level unit called the syntaxeme.

The constitutive syntactic features of each of these syntactic units are reflected in a specific trinity peculiar only to it "meaning - function - form". The dialectical trinity "meaning - function - form" can be represented as a set of questions "what? - for what? - how?".

syntactic meaning is an abstract content expressed in syntactic units. The essence of the concept of “syntactic meaning” can be expressed in the question “what?”: WHAT does this or that syntactic unit mean, WHAT expresses, WHAT reflects?

Syntactic units can express various syntactic meanings: definitive (attributive), circumstantial of various types (causal, spatial, target, temporal, conditional, etc.), object of various types (direct object, instrumental object, addressable object, etc.). ), the meaning of predicativity, etc. So, for example, in the phrase copper samovar defining relations are expressed in the phrase to read a book - direct object relations, etc.

The most abstract syntactic meaning inherent in any sentence is predicativity, which characterizes the content of the sentence through its relation to reality - either as a real fact that has a temporal certainty ( Children play bast shoes; The children were playing bast shoes; Children will play bast shoes), or as an unreal fact outside of temporal certainty ( Children would play bast shoes; Let the kids play lapta).

To denote the syntactic meaning, other synonymous terms are also used - “syntactic relations”, “semantic (meaningful) relations”, “syntactic meaning”.

syntax function- purpose, the role of a syntactic unit, syntactic means and categories in speech, in a communicative act, in the construction of a communicative unit. The essence of the concept of "function" can be expressed by the question "what for?": WHAT are syntactic units, syntactic means and categories in speech for? Yes, the phrase copper samovar is intended to be material for building communicative units (cf.: There was a copper samovar on the table; We drank tea from a copper samovar; Mother went out into the yard with a copper samovar in her hands etc.). As part of a sentence, each of the constituent components of this phrase performs the function of an independent member of the sentence, i.e. fit into the positional structure of the sentence. The importance of the concept of function for syntax has been noted by many modern scholars.

The concepts of "syntactic meaning" and "syntactic function" are quite close in content. Syntactic meaning can be created through functioning, so we can talk about the functional semantics of language units. On the other hand, the function of a linguistic unit can be determined by its syntactic semantics, in such cases one can speak of a semantic function.

The difference between the concepts of "syntactic meaning" and "syntactic function" is as follows. : the concept of "syntactic meaning" is aimed at the internal content of the syntactic unit, considered in isolation, without relation to the inclusive structure; the concept of "syntactic function" is focused on identifying the role of a syntactic unit in the composition of units of a higher level.

Function and meaning in some cases can overlap and be isosemic, in other cases they clearly diverge. For example: the syntactic meaning of the syntaxeme at school- adverbial place; in a sentence, it can perform different syntactic functions - as an isosemic function, i.e. the function of the circumstance of place ( At school there is a garden), as well as a non-isosemic function, for example, a function of inconsistent definition ( Garden at school very well maintained). It should be noted that in the second case the syntaxeme at school, being an inconsistent definition, still retains its internal spatial semantics.

Syntactic form- this is a concept that generalizes the structural features of syntactic units. The essence of this concept is expressed by the generalizing question “how?”: HOW is the syntactic unit constructed, HOW is it organized in a constructive way? The structural characteristics of syntactic units depend on the complexity of the structure of the latter. The more complex the syntactic unit, the greater the set of structural features it has.

The formal, structural characteristics of syntactic units include, in particular, the means of communication presented in a syntactic unit, syntactically significant ways of morphological or syntactic expression of its components, block diagrams (models) for constructing syntactic units, etc.

For example, the structural features of the phrase copper samovar can be characterized as follows: it is a two-component (binary) compound of words, consisting of a supporting noun samovar masculine, having the form of the nominative case, singular, and the adjective dependent on it copper, which is consistent with the reference word in the masculine, singular, nominative case; the connection of components is expressed using the ending of the adjective. This phrase is built according to the typical structural scheme AN, where A is the sign-symbol of the adjective (and other adjectival words), N is the sign-symbol of the noun. The syntactic form acts as a carrier of the syntactic meaning and syntactic function of a particular language unit.

To characterize the various aspects of the formal structure of syntactic units, the concepts of "syntactic structure", "syntactic construction", "structural scheme" can also be used.

The concepts of "syntactic meaning", "syntactic function", "syntactic form" together constitute the dialectical trinity "meaning - function - form", reflecting the relationship and interaction of meaningful, functional and structural features of syntactic units.

Syntactic category- this is a concept denoting the unity of a certain syntactic meaning and the totality of the many different forms of its expression. If we proceed from the fact that a linguistic category is “any group of linguistic elements distinguished on the basis of some common property”, then a syntactic category can be defined as any group of syntactic elements distinguished on the basis of the commonality of any of their syntactically significant properties. And any commonality (uniformity) also implies the presence of distinctive properties in the combined elements. So, for example, the syntactic category of modality is the unity of the syntactic meaning of reality/irreality and the totality of forms of expression of this meaning (shapes of mood, intonation, particles, etc.); the syntactic category of subjectivity is the unity of the syntactic meaning of the carrier of the predicative feature and the many different ways of expressing it: the nominative case ( I AM feel chills), dative or accusative subject ( to me cold; Me shivering), creative subject ( The house is worth carpenters ), personal verb endings( Loved Yu wander through the autumn forest).

Comparative characteristics of syntactic units. It should be noted that the question of the number of syntactic units has not received an unambiguous solution either in scientific or educational literature. In different university textbooks and manuals, the number of syntactic units ranges from two to five. At the same time, it is possible to identify a different degree of recognition of the distinguished syntactic units. If only two syntactic units are distinguished, then this must be a phrase and a sentence. If we are talking about three syntactic units, then, as a rule, this is a phrase, a simple sentence and a complex sentence. If we are talking about four syntactic units, then, of course, a phrase, a simple sentence, a complex sentence and a complex syntactic whole are recognized as such.

The logic of the movement of thought in the selection of syntactic units also involves the identification of an elementary syntactic unit from which phrases are built, and also, in part, simple sentences. Such an elementary syntactic unit received a terminological designation through the concept of “syntaxeme” (or “syntactic form of a word”) and is described in detail in the works of G.A. Golden.

Given the above, in our book a five-component system of syntactic units is adopted : syntaxeme, phrase, simple sentence, complex sentence, complex syntactic whole. Let us present a preliminary, most general description of the five listed syntactic units.

syntaxeme(or syntactic form) refers to the primary, elementary units of syntax, from which syntactic units of a higher order are formed and divided into - phrases and simple sentences: in the closet, out of fear, according to the law, out of clay, read, run, man, books etc. Syntaxemes are carriers of elementary syntactic meanings - subjective, objective, attributive, spatial, causal, target and other types of relations. The systematized repertoire of syntaxemes as elementary syntactic units received a lexicographic representation in the Syntactic Dictionary of G.A. Golden.

A syntaxeme is a unit that links morphology and syntax : it is a morphological form considered from a syntactic perspective, i.e. as an element of syntactic constructions. For example, the word form due to illness when viewed through the prism of syntax, a causal meaning is attributed. In accordance with this meaning, this word form can function as part of a sentence as a circumstance of a cause ( He didn't come to class due to illness.), as an inconsistent definition with an additional causal meaning( Absence due to illness is not punished.). As a syntactic unit, the syntaxeme has its own formal features, syntactic meaning (it is the carrier of elementary meaning), and functional properties.

phrase- this is the minimum syntactic unit in which the signs of coherent speech are presented explicitly. A phrase is a combination of two or more significant words, grammatically formed by means of a subordinating connection, resulting from the spread of any key word: blue scarf, laughing merrily, river bank. In their form and syntactic meaning, syntaxemes and phrases cannot perform a communicative function, they participate in the construction of communicative units and only within their framework participate in the communication process. Therefore, the syntaxeme and the phrase are syntactic units up to the communion and to the -t and in the n about the level. Within the framework of syntax, they perform a nominative function, being the names of individual fragments of situations designated in sentences.

Communicative units (or units of the communicative level of syntax) include a simple sentence, a complex sentence, and a complex syntactic whole. It is these units that, in their meaning and structure, are intended to perform a communicative function.

Simple sentence- this is a minimal, monopredicative communicative unit, which has in its composition one grammatical core, in which a single relation of the entire content of the sentence to reality is expressed. For instance: Flying lime haze hovered over the lowland(L. Leonov); Silence in the stuffy air(F. Tyutchev); I'm tired of waiting(N.V. Gogol); The forest was quiet and damp(V. Nabokov).

Difficult sentence is a communicative polypredicative syntactic unit, the components of which are simple sentences connected to each other by one or another type of syntactic connection. The polypredicativity of a complex sentence is due to the fact that each of the simple sentences in its composition has its own predicativity, represented in its predicative core by the categories of time and mood, and the entire complex sentence as a whole expresses multiple reference to reality. For instance: The sun rose higher and higher, the city was evenly illuminated, and the street came to life ...(V. Nabokov); The silence of the taiga and mountains would have crushed people, if not for the river - it alone roared for the whole district(V. Shukshin).

Complex syntactic integer- this is a minimal fragment of the text, consisting of simple and complex sentences, interconnected by means of interphrase communication and united by a common micro-theme. For instance: The dispute of generations is the law of life. Each new generation begins by challenging the experience of the previous one. This law is valid not only on a wide social scale.(K.Ya. Vanshenkin).

Between the named five syntactic units - syntaxemes, phrases, simple sentences, complex sentences, complex syntactic wholes - hierarchical relationships are established for sequential entry into each other (when viewed from below) and sequential division of more complex syntactic units into simple ones until the limit of their division is obtained ( when viewed from above).

In the five-component system of syntactic units, a simple sentence occupies a central place. This is determined primarily by the fact that a simple sentence is the minimum communicative syntactic unit intended to convey relatively complete information. In addition, a simple sentence is a kind of starting point for a complex sentence and a complex syntactic whole (since a simple sentence is involved in their formation) and an end point for a phrase and syntaxe (since it is in its composition that the named units find their application). The centrality of the position of a simple sentence in the system of syntactic units is also due to the fact that it is on the material of a simple sentence that many theoretical concepts of a sentence are built, developed within the framework of the vast majority of scientific areas in syntax.

The structure of syntax as a branch of the science of language. Syntax as a section of grammar has its own internal structure. In this book, the syntax is presented as a complex of eight sections, each of which is united by the unity of the subject of description:

1. The doctrine of syntactic connection.

2. The syntax of the syntaxeme.

3. Syntax of the phrase.

4. Syntax of a simple sentence.

5. Syntax of a complicated sentence.

6. Syntax of a complex sentence.

7. Syntax of a sentence with direct speech.

8. Syntax of a complex syntactic whole.

The first section of the syntax is devoted to the description of the syntactic relationship. The doctrine of syntactic connection is highlighted in the first section, since the subject of syntax is connected speech and the initial concept of syntax is the concept of connection.

The sections "Syntax of the syntax", "Syntax of the phrase", "Syntax of a simple sentence", "Syntax of a complex sentence", "Syntax of a complex syntactic whole" are highlighted in accordance with the types of syntactic units.

A separate section is "Syntax of a Complicated Sentence". It should be noted that the complicated sentence is not qualified as a special syntactic unit in any of the known textbooks on syntax. However, a complicated sentence has its own theory, its own system of terms, its structural, semantic and functional features, which allows us to raise the question of the possibility of isolating the corresponding type of sentence as a special syntactic unit.

The selection of the section “Sentence syntax with direct speech” is due to the fact that this type of sentences, due to its specific content, constructive, functional properties, cannot be unconditionally included either in the system of complex sentences or in the system of a complex syntactic whole. Due to the fact that sentences with direct speech are in a transformational relationship with sentences with indirect speech, this section is supposed to describe the general rules for transforming sentences with direct speech into complex sentences with indirect speech.

It adjoins "Syntax" as a section of the science of language "Punctuation", which, along with "Spelling" and "Graphics", is included in the "Theory of Written Speech".

Syntax in the language system. In the sphere of syntax, those linguistic means are concentrated that directly serve for communication and without the use of which communication cannot be carried out. To formulate a thought, it is not enough to know only words, their forms, it is necessary to establish connections between them, to correlate what is reported with reality.

The direct connection of syntax with thinking, communication determines the place of syntax in the system of tiers of the language. The language is divided into tiers phonetic, lexical, derivational, morphological, syntactic. Syntax is the highest tier, "crowning the multi-story building of the language."

Like the top tier of a language, syntax builds on the lower tiers. As we move from the lower tiers of the language towards syntax, syntactically significant characteristics of language units, categories, phenomena studied in Phonetics, Vocabulary, Word Formation, Morphology are accumulated.

The syntactic side of the language begins to be studied in phonetics. The syntactically oriented element of the phonetic structure of a language is intonation. Intonation formation is a necessary feature of any communicative unit. Through intonation, communicatively significant components of statements are also distinguished.

The syntax detects links to vocabulary. The syntactic features of lexical units are taken into account in their communicatively oriented semantic classification. The typical meanings of lexical units predetermine the most frequent types of their functioning within a sentence. So, for example, words with a temporal meaning often function as adverbs of time: summer, winter, hour, year, minute and etc.: In a year he goes to the army; They came to us last winter; After a minute the bell will ring. Words with a spatial meaning are oriented towards frequency functioning as an adverb of place: On the way to a winter, boring trio of greyhounds runs; Near the forest there is a small village; in the meadow horses graze. The lexical factor also determines the different functioning of the same morphological forms. Wed: come up to the table (the circumstance of the place) and come up By the evening (time circumstance) , talk with excitement (the circumstance of the course of action) and talk with friend (addition) .

The nature of the lexical meanings of words determines their syntactic activity or passivity. Syntactically active words have strong syntactic connections, or valences. Without the implementation of a strong connection, syntactically active words cannot function in speech. For example, in the phrase nail a picture to the wall support verb nail requires mandatory compatibility with word forms that answer the question what? and why? Words with strong connections are called relative. The number of relative words in the vocabulary of the language is large. The distribution of relative words by dependent word forms in the composition of a sentence is thus determined by two factors: a) the need to implement their strong connections and b) the need to provide information in the most complete way.

Syntactically passive words do not require mandatory distribution ( be silent, table and etc.). They can be used as part of a proposal without distributors, i.e. absolute (cf. Everyone was silent; There was a table in the corner of the room). Such words are called absolute. Absolute words used in a sentence can be extended to expand information (cf.: In the corner of the room stood a large table with a vase).

Syntax detects links and word formation. Syntactically significant derivational features of words are prefixes in verbs; they dictate the prepositional case form of dependent names: in go v House, before drive before villages, you go from rooms, at beat To wall etc. Syntactically oriented is transpositive word formation, or the so-called syntactic derivation: bold - courage, walk - walking, walking. This type of word formation carries out, for example, a formal translation of an indicative concept into a noun and gives this concept the opportunity to function like an objective concept; compare: brave hunter and I am amazed at the courage of the hunter.

The closest connection is between syntax and morphology. Morphology, which studies the parts of speech, their categories and forms, essentially serves the syntax, all morphological means and categories are designed to function in a sentence. So, the categories of gender, number, case serve to establish a connection between words in a phrase and a sentence. The verbal categories of person and voice participate in the constructive organization of the sentence (the person of the verb forms the predicative core of a two-part or one-part sentence; the voice forms active and passive constructions); mood and tense form the category of predicativity as the main, constitutive feature of the sentence. Service parts of speech (conjunctions, prepositions, particles), interjections and modal words reveal their true existence only in the sphere of syntax.

Thus, the syntactic properties of language units begin to be studied long before the Syntax section.