Word combinations may be classified according to their function in the sentence. This criterion divides word combinations into 1) those which perform the function of a sentence part, for example, predi­cate, object, adverbial modifier etc., and 2) those which do not perform any such function but whose function is …. equivalent of that of a […]

Beginning: Classifications of word combination Word combinations without head Word combinations with the head element are represented by word groups that form a grammatically organized structure with one element sub­ordinate to the other element. The subordinating element is called the head of the word combination. In the following examples, the head elements are underlined: green […]

Beginning: Classifications of word combination Word combinations with the head element As to word combinations without head, they do not seem to share any common structure, peculiar to all groups within this type. In other words, word combinations without the head are structurally more various than word combinations with the head. Elements in word combinations […]

In this book, we shall operate with the term “word combination”, though it should be pointed out that the syntactic terminology varies from author to author. Thus, Professor Illiysh operates with the term “phrase”. The definition given by the scholar to the phrase (“every combination of two or more words which is a grammatical unit […]

Definition of the word combination – Part 2 It must be borne in mind that a word combination as such (just like a word) has no intonation. Intonation is one of the most important features of any sentence, which distinguish it from any word combination. Thus, despite disagreements concerning the nature of the word combi­nation, […]

Saussure’s Course of general linguistics published in 1916 has become the basis for a number of other syntactic theories, besides descriptive lin­guistics and glossematics. These theories cannot be grouped into a particu­lar school, since they represent independent syntactic systems. However, they share similar views on the subject and tasks of syntactic research, based on Saussure’s […]

Post-Saussurean syntactic theories – Part 1 Analyzing syntactic theories, worked out on the basis of Saussurean work, one cannot but mention works by the leaders of the Prague Linguis­tic Circle founded in 1926. The Circle became known around the world as the Prague School. It has had significant continuing influence on linguistics and semiotics. After the World […]

Glossematics is a rigorous study of language at the level of its most basic unit or component which carries meaning, the glosseme. The term was coined by the Danish linguists, Louis Hjelmslev and Hans Jorgen Uldall, as a neologism combining glossary with mathematics to indicate a formal­ized system of study. The scientists’ ideas formed the […]

Glossematics – Part 1 Hjelmslev distinguishes three types of relations in human language: 1) interdependence; 2) determination, i.e. one-side dependence; 3) constellation, i.e. weak dependence or even no dependence. Thus, traditional linguistics that divides grammar into morphology and syntax and treats relations between words in word combinations and rela­tions between parts of speech as different […]

The term syntax, originating from the Greek words syn, meaning “co-” or “together”, and taxis, meaning “sequence, order, arrangement”, is the branch of grammar dealing with the ways in which words are arranged to show connections of meaning within a sentence. It concerns how different words (which, going back to Dionysius Thrax, are categorized into […]