syntagm

syn·tag·ma

S0970725 (sĭn-tăg′mə) also syn·tagm (sĭn′tăm)n. pl. syn·tag·mas or syn·tag·ma·ta (-tăg′mə-tə) also syn·tagms 1. A sequence of linguistic units in a syntagmatic relationship to one another.2. A sequence of words in a particular syntactic relationship to one another; a construction.

[New Latin, from French syntagme, from Greek suntagma, suntagmat-, arrangement, syntactic unit, from suntassein, suntag-, to put in order; see syntax.]

Thesaurus

Noun

syntagm - a syntactic string of words that forms a part of some larger syntactic unitsyntagmagrammatical constituent, constituent - (grammar) a word or phrase or clause forming part of a larger grammatical constructionlinguistic string, string of words, word string - a linear sequence of words as spoken or written

Translations

syntagm

(LINGUISTICS) any combination of words in a ‘chain of speech’. see SYNTAGMATIC AND PARADIGMATIC.

Syntagm

in a broad sense, any sequence of linguistic elements linked by the relationship of dependent member to governing member. This is F. de Saussure’s concept of syntagm.

A syntagm may be a sequence of words (external syntagm) or a sequence of morphemes (internal syntagm). For example, dom-ik forms an internal syntagm in which the element dom- (“house”) is the dependent member and ik (diminutive suffix) the governing member. This syntagm corresponds to the external syntagm malen’kii dom, in which dom is dependent and malen’kii (“small”) is governing.

In a narrower sense, a syntagm is a phrase within a sentence; it may be predicative, attributive, or objective. In this same sense, the sentence is a chain of consecutive syntagms. L. V. Shcherba defined a syntagm as an articulated phonetic unit organized by intonation, expressing a single meaningful whole, and consisting of one or several rhythmic groups. A sentence may be divided into syntagms in various ways, depending on shades of meaning, logical emphasis, or syntactic homonymy. An example is vchera/bylo zharko as contrasted to vchera bylo/zharko (“yesterday/it was hot”—”yesterday it was/hot”).

REFERENCES

Kartsevskii. S. O. Povtoritel’nyi kurs russkogo iazyka. Moscow-Leningrad, 1928.
Saussure, F. de. Kurs obshchei lingvistiki. Moscow, 1933. (Translated from French.)
Vinogradov, V. V. Poniatie sintagmy v sintaksise russkogo iazyka. In the collection Voprosy sintaksisa sovremennogo russkogo iazyka. Moscow, 1950.
Bally, C. Obshchaia lingvistika i voprosy frantsuzskogo iazyka. Moscow, 1955. (Translated from French.)
Shcherba, L. V. Fonetika frantsuzskogo iazyka, 7th ed. Moscow, 1963.

V. A. VINOGRADOV

syntagm

syn·tag·ma

syntagm

syntagm

Syntagm

REFERENCES

syntagm

Synonyms for syntagm

noun a syntactic string of words that forms a part of some larger syntactic unit

Synonyms

Related Words