Syntax
Syntax is the most important aspect of English grammar. It refers to the way words are put together in a group to create meaning as phrases, clauses or as a sentence. Studying the syntax of a sentence involves investigating the structure and relationships of its words.
Standard syntax refers to the syntax of a particular dialect of English called Standard English – this is the syntax you will read in most written texts and hear from teachers in lessons, newsreaders and in any other more formal context. Non-standard syntax is a normal part of much spoken English and is common in regional dialects. Syntax does not have to be standard for meaning to be clear such as here in the screen play from the film Star Wars when Yoda speaks:
Yoda
Ready, are you? What know you
of ready? For eight hundred years
have I trained Jedi. My own counsel
will I keep on who is to be trained!
A Jedi must have the deepest
commitment, the most serious mind.
(to the invisible
Ben, indicating Luke)
This one a long time have I watched.
All his life has he looked away…
to the future, to the horizon.
Never his mind on where he was.
Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph.
Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh!
A Jedi craves not these things.
(turning to Luke)
You are reckless.
