Syntax VS Grammar

The Difference

Grammar is the study of rules governing the use of language. In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that governs the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural 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. 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. In Linguistics syntax is “the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages” .It consists of the type of sentence (Declarative, Interrogative, Exclamatory, and 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.

“Syntax is the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages. Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis.”

(Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures, 1971)

Syntax? Grammar?

Syntax is simply the way words are organized structurally. This can be either grammatically correct or incorrect, it is still syntax. Sometimes, in a grammatical analysis, linguists might refer to an ‘underlying syntax’, which would be a normalized structure of the words in a sentence, and not necessarily the actual structure used. The word order ‘noun (subject)- verb- noun (object)’ would be a simple example of syntax. The order “Come here!” would be analyzed as having the explicit syntax ‘verb- adverb’, but might be analyzed as having the underlying syntax of ‘noun (subject)- verb- adverb’, as in “(‘You’- implied) come here”.

Grammar refers to the sets of rules that are used regarding HOW syntax should be structured. This is typically divided into proscriptive grammar (dictating/enforcing arbitrary rules for how to ‘correctly’ organize a sentence) or descriptive grammar (an analysis of how speakers ACTUALLY structure the language). Some examples of grammar would be the rule “the verb should always follow the subject”, or ” the ‘to’ in an infinitive verb construction must always be followed immediately by the verb”.

Grammar might also have a relatively larger scope, since it would include the rules for any lexical variations (differences in spelling of the same base word), as well as rules for capitalization, punctuation, etc. Syntax usually involves only the structure of various TYPES of words in relation to one another (although some semantic analyses might be more specific than others).

Syntax                        : The way in which words are put together to form phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Grammar       : the set of rules that explain how words are used in a language. ( ex. Tenses in English). Grammar also is the framework of a language. It is a study or science that has two parts: morphology (the forms of words) and syntax (the combination of words into sentences).

Syntax deals with their functions in sentences – subjects, objects, attributes etc.
Example: “To know you is to love you.”

To know, to love are both verbs (infinitives) – (morphology)
But they have different functions: to know is the subject, to love is part of the predicate – (syntax)
In short, syntax is HOW words are structured; grammar is WHY they are structured that way.

Source(s): Doctoral student in Linguistics

The Similarity

While the term “grammar” is often used in the context of speaking about syntax, the two are not coterminous. Syntax is the study of the rules and structures of a language or languages as a branch of linguistics. Grammar is a set of rules in a given language. So, to begin with syntax is descriptive (that is, it only observes the rules) whereas grammar is prescriptive (that is, it sets the rules). Additionally, syntax refers to the structure of how linguistic utterances (a sentence, for example) are ordered which grammar might actually include. Grammar could also include things like conjugations (different forms of verbs) and declensions (different forms of nouns) which would be outside of the realm of syntax.

Grammar is a little more encompassing that syntax with respect to language. Grammar also takes into account the way in which sentences should be read. For example, recursive grammar is the application of an explanatory clause within a matrix clause in a sentence. It is also interesting to note that syntax only refers to organization about the horizontal axis; that is, how words are strung together to form sentences. Organization about the vertical axis, or paradigmatic organization, refers to the way in which words can be interchanged in a sentence. In English, which is a word order language, one could say, “I love you.” It is also correct to say, “I love him.” This is an example of paradigmatic organization.

Both grammar and syntax are usually focused at the level of words-in-sentences (a level above pronunciation, a level below prose-style) but can spill over into these and other subfields. Grammar and syntax are the knowledge of making a good phrase, clause, and absolutely in making a correct sentence. Both of them are very closely related. They are bound tightly in making a correct sentence.

Both “grammar” and “syntax” are used in a abstract way, and also to refer to the structure of a single language, and in either case “syntax” is a subset of “grammar”. In addition “grammar” is used in a different way, to mean the prescriptive grammar of a language”.

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