In linguistics and language development, syntax is the component of language that specifies how to properly combine words into larger structures (phrases, clauses, and sentences). Every language has its own syntactic rules – for example, English typically follows a Subject-Verb-Object word order, whereas other languages may use different orders. Mastery of syntax includes understanding how different grammatical elements (like nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, etc.) can be sequenced and inflected to convey complex meaning. For speech-language pathologists, syntactic development is a key focus: children with language disorders might produce telegraphic or disordered sentences, and intervention often involves teaching them the rules for constructing well-formed, age-appropriate sentences.
Robert E. Owens Jr. Language Development: An Introduction. 9th ed. Pearson, (2016).
Noam Chomsky. Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton, (1957).
