ABSTRACT
1.1. Syntax, in the sense in which it is taken in this book, looks at grammatical faots from within, that is to say from the side of their meaning or signification. It is contrasted with Morphology, which looks at the same phenomena from without, from the side of their form. Morphology treats tinder one head the same change of form wherever it occurs, for instance the addition of -s in cats and eats in one place, and the vowel-mutation in geese and feed as compared with goose and food in another place, asking in each case only secondarily what the influence of these changes is on the meaning of the form. Syntax, on the other hand, starts from such grammatical sense-categories as number or tense, and groups together the various means of expressing plurality: -s in cats, mutation in geese, -en in oxen, etc.; then it deals with the meanings and uses or functions of plurality, which, of course, are the same in all plurals, no matter how formed. Under a different head the form eats is treated together with the other third person singulars of verbs {eateth, can, etc.). The full significance of this system will appear from the whole of this work; arguments in favour of this way of dealing with grammar will also be found in a forthcoming smaller work to be called "The Philosophy of Grammar". — Cf. below, p. 485 f.
