ABSTRACT
The analysis of sentences discloses only with difficulty the structure of syntax. Unlike morphology, syntax cannot be analysed into regular paradigms. Further, syntactic sequences are more open to pragmatic variation than are those of morphology and phonology. For the purpose of phonological variety, we may select unusual forms and also unusual patterns of sound, as in producing rhymes or alliteration; but typically we choose unmarked patterns in both phonology and morphology for general conversation. Syntax, however, we modify readily, placing objects at the beginning of sentences, like this one, for emphasis of the displaced segment. As a result of the multiple possibilities in syntax, linguists long failed to recognize the basic structures of syntax. Instead, they described phrases, clauses and sentences, identifying their components and the categories to which they belong, as well as their uses. Variant patterns were treated in stylistics.
