Syntax (from the Greek to "ar range in order," as the ranks and divisions of an army, is the name given to the department of grammar that treats of the due ordering of words in the construction of the sentence. Here the one demand that must in some way be met in every language is, that the sentence shall dearly indicate: (1) What is spoken of ; (2) What is said about it.
These indispensable constituents of the sentence we name the subject and the predicate. All the devices of grammar have no other end but to keep these absolutely clear, adding incidentally to either such force or effect as may be possible.
In seeking this result one of the chief de-. ments to be determined is, whether the subject of the sentence is to be viewed as the subject or the object of the action; as, "The engine draws the train," or "The train is drawn by the engine." This gives for the verb the active and the passive voice and for the noun or pronoun the various cases, as the Nominative or the Objective (also called the Accusative) case. Other cases may indicate other relations. In an inflected language like Greek, Latin and others, the cases are indicated by the form of the noun or pronoun, which may, accordingly, be placed almost anywhere in the sentence. In an uninflected language, like English, as there is little distinction of form, the case relation is ordinarily determined only by the position of words, so that the order of words becomes a grammatical element of supreme im portance. In the inflected languages it is nec
essary to learn a vast number of forms (de clensions, conjugations, etc.) in order that the meaning intended may be correctly expressed. In an uninflected language grammar spends its force in the due adjustment of largely un changing forms for the same purpose, that the meaning intended may be correctly expressed. The task and the triumph of grammar in any language is to teach such combination of words in sentences that the thought of speaker or writer shall be conveyed without change or loss to the mind of hearer or reader. See GRAMMAR, ENGLISH ; LANGUAGE, SCIENCE OF.
Consult Benfey, 'Geschichte der Sprachwis senschaft' (Munich 1869) ; Baumann, 'Sprach psychologie und Sprachunterricht, eine kritische Studie' (Halle 1906) ; Bernard,Leroy, 'Le lan gage, essai sur la psychologie normale et pathol ogique de cette fonction' (Paris 1905); Fink, 'Die Sprachstanime des Erdkreises' (Leipzig 1909) ; Giles, 'Manual of Comparative Phi lologie' (London 1901); Mauthner, 'Die Sprache' (Frankfurt 1906) ; Nausester, 'Den ken, Sprechen und Lehren) (2' vols., Berlin 1901-06) ; Moncalm, 'Origin of Speech and Thought' (London 1905) ; Paul, 'Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte) (4th ed. Halle 1909) ; Tucker, 'Introduction to the Natural History of Languages' (London 1908).