I am lost! sintáctica - sintagmática

Question

Well, I was studying Las funciones del sintagma nominal. And it says:

1- Funciones sintagmáticas en el interior de un sintagma

2- Funciones sintácticas, en la oración

If sintagma is phrase, and sintaxis is syntax, this means sintagma is something that belongs to a sentence, right? Okay, I am lost what is the difference between sintagmática and sintáctica? Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

I doubt that phrase and syntagm are exactly the same, because I think that phrases should have a noun but not contain a verb, while this does not apply to syntagms. Besides, not all grammars agree on the same terminology.

According to the jargon I am most used to, "Sintagmas" in Spanish are groups of words forming one unit that can represent a syntactic function, i.e. to work as verbs, adjectives, nouns, or adverbs. Other grammarians call this "grupos sintagmáticos" instead, but this term is rarely used in most of my grammars.

In any case, your book is probably using "sintagmático" for the combinations between words , and "sintáctico" for the relationship between parts of a sentence. The Greek root means in both cases "arrange together", akin to "taxonomy".

P.D. In my grammars, "sintáctico" appears 80 times more often than "sintagmático".

arrange together - 0074b507, Jan 9, 2011

I noticed it and I corrected it while you wrote your message, but thanks anyway. - lazarus1907, Jan 9, 2011

Edit: fixed arrage -> arrange - pesta, Jan 14, 2011

Answer 2

Sintagmática is an adjective used to indicate that the noun or noun phrase being modified is of or related to the idea of sintagma (syntagm–a particular type of syntactic relationship/structural relationship such as a verb phrase or noun phrase, etc) or exhibits characteristics of such.

Sintáctica is an adjective use to indicate that the noun or noun phrase being modified is of or related to the idea of sintaxis (syntax–a term used to describe the way in which words are structured within a given language in order to form phrases and sentences).

One way of looking at it is that the structural relation between words and sintagms (phrases etc) are the fundamental building blocks on which the studies of syntax are based.

Do you find these explanations somewhere, or you are a living encyclopaedia? You amaze me sometimes. - lazarus1907, Jan 9, 2011

Answer 3

I could be wrong, but sintagma appears to be being used to mean phrases (groups of words) functioning together as a single unit. I'm not totally sure how to express this idea in Spanish, but in English it's like this...

Swimming in deep water is not a good idea if you are a novice.

In this sentence, the whole phrase "swimming in deep water" is functioning as a single noun in general and as the subject of the sentence specifically. We call this a noun phrase (sintagma nominal?).

But we can further break apart the phrase "swimming in deep water" and find that the prepositional phrase (sintagma preposicional?) "in deep water" is functioning as an adverb modifying the gerund (a noun that also has all the properties of a verb) "swimming." So, "in deep water" is not only a prepositional phrase but also an adverbial phrase (sintagma adverbial?).

I don't know if that helps or confuses...because I really had trouble understanding exactly what was meant by "...previa transposición de categoría y, por lo tanto..."

(...previous category transposition and, therefore,...? If that's what it meant, I didn't understand how that made any sense...I shall have to look at it again later)

Cheers.

Answer 4

I doubt that phrase and syntagm are exactly the same, because I think that phrases should have a noun but not contain a verb, while this does not apply to syntagms. Besides, not all grammars agree on the same terminology.

According to the jargon I am most used to, "Sintagmas" in Spanish are groups of words forming one unit that can represent a syntactic function, i.e. to work as verbs, adjectives, nouns, or adverbs. Other grammarians call this "grupos sintagmáticos" instead, but this term is rarely used in most of my grammars.

In any case, your book is probably using "sintagmático" for the combinations between words , and "sintáctico" for the relationship between parts of a sentence. The Greek root means in both cases "arrage together".

P.D. In my grammars, "sintáctico" appears 80 times more often than "sintagmático".

For example it says:

1- Funciones sintagmáticas en el interior de un sintagma

--como adyecente del núcleo de un sintagma nominal, previa transposición de categoría y, por lo tanto, precedido de preposición: La mesa de madera

--como adyecente del núcleo de un sintagma adjetival, previa transposición de categoría y, por lo tanto, precedido de preposición: Satisfecho de mi trabajo;

(Hay unas más...)

2- Funciones sintácticas, en la oración

-- como sujeto: Mi hermana vive fuera

--como complemento circunstancial: Ayer salí con mi hermana.

etc. etc.

For the first thing: the combinations you were talking about were these?

For the second: this, I get it I think, it's the relationship.

That's exactly what I meant, yes. - lazarus1907, Jan 9, 2011

Okay thanks. - culé, Jan 9, 2011