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What is the difference between Syntax and Grammar?

I've read the answers on what syntax is, but it sounds similar to what grammar is. What is the difference actually? I'm doing an essay to analyze language used in advertisements but I'm practically stuck in analyzing it from the syntactic aspect.

10 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Grammar consists of set rules regarding language and sentence structure, such as no splitting infinitives and no hanging prepositions.

    Syntax is how a sentence is worded and structured. It consists of the type of sentence (Declarative, Interrogative, Exclamatory, Imperative) and word order (passive vs. active voice) It also refers to length of sentences (short vs. long).

    Syntax can be used as a literary device to add extra meaning to your sentences, whereas grammar adds no greater meaning to your sentences.

    ( example:

    His long-held wish was to walk slowly through the tortuous mountain paths that his grandfather had carved out of the earth many years ago. )

    Syntax would refer to the sentence being declarative: stating a wish that the boy had. It would also refer to the length of the sentence mimicking the long twisted paths in the mountain and the long time the boy had been wishing to walk them.

    Grammar would refer to not splitting the infinitive: "to walk slowly" rather than "to slowly walk" and subject-verb agreement.

    Syntax has literary meaning and use, while Grammar just shows good form. They are two different things that can be easily confused.

  • zachar
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    Syntax Vs Grammar

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/awgSz

    Grammar means following the rules of the language you're using. Syntax is the word order in the sentence. You may have an error in one or in both at the same time.

  • 6 years ago

    as i know (grammar) has static terms while (syntax) has dynamic terms...

    In (syntax knowledge) you need creativity... syntax is literary...

    I'm not an english native and my knowledge is so less but i'll try to make a simple example for you:

    He is flying (In grammar terms this sentence is correct)

    Flying he is (something like this maybe wrong in grammar but may not wrong in syntax terms)

    Actually the above example was just a test to show you differences but as i said i'm not an english native and i'm not sure the above sentence is correct or not... it was just a spark to help you fast

    good luck :)

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Grammar consists of the rules of the language, like never ending a sentence with a preposition. However, there are many "correct" ways to express a thought, and depending on which syntax you use (active vs. passive voice, etc), the statement can have different shades of meaning.

  • nomad
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    The answer could be very long, but in short,

    Syntax is also part of grammar treating of arrangement

    of words in sentance.Grammar on the other hand,

    is the science behind the structure and usages of

    language.

  • Anonymous
    7 years ago

    Hannington Kati -M.A LING.CANDIDATE-MAKERERE UNIVERSITY

    syntax is a central aspect of grammar which concerns itself with sentence patterns and sentence formation.A word or phrase can be syntactically incorrect even when it is collocationally appropriate.

    However,grammar supercedes syntax in that it deals with set rules of sentence structure including its morphology,semantics,lexis, and pragmatic sense.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Grammar is the study of rules governing the use of language. The set of rules governing a particular language is the grammar of that language; thus, each language can be said to have its own distinct grammar. Grammar is part of the general study of language called linguistics. Grammar is a way of thinking about language.

    The subfields of contemporary grammar are phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Traditional grammars include only morphology and syntax.

    In linguistics, Syntax is the study of the rules, or "patterned relations", that govern the way words combine to form phrases and phrases combine to form sentences. The word originates from the Greek words συν (syn), meaning "co-" or "together", and τάξις (táxis), meaning "sequence, order, or arrangement". The combinatory behavior of words is governed to a first approximation by their part of speech (noun, adjective, verb, etc., a categorization that goes back in the Western tradition to the Greek grammarian Dionysios Thrax). Modern research into natural language syntax attempts to systematize descriptive grammar and, for many practitioners, to find general laws that govern the syntax of all languages. It is unconcerned with prescriptive grammar (see Prescription and description).

    Theories of syntax differ in the object of study. While formal grammars (especially in the generative grammar tradition) have focused on the mental process of language production (i-language), empirical grammars have focused on linguistic function, explaining the language in use (corpus linguistics). The latter often encodes frequency data in addition to production rules, and provide mechanisms for learning the grammar (or at least the probabilities) from usage data. One way of considering the space of grammars is to distinguish those that do not encode rule frequency (the majority) and those that do (probabilistic grammars).

  • Anonymous
    7 years ago

    Hello nadhilamazlan I was recently facing a similiar issue, I can recommend the following website http://tax-faq.net/?k=20061222213318AAMSvWM it explains a lot Best TOM

  • 1 decade ago

    syntax is spelling or using correct tense, number, and conjugation of a word in a sentence.

    but they can be used interchangably since they are so close in meaning

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