Grammar: syntax to text
Andrew John Merrison, Aileen Bloomer, Patrick Griffiths · 2006
INTRODUCTION The phrases fresh strawberries and cream, patient transport service and good children’s jokes are ambiguous because each can be understood in more than one way. The pictures demonstrate possible meanings of each phrase. If you understand the ambiguity, then you have a clear understanding (implicit if not explicit) of syntax or grammar as the ambiguity in each of them is, in some way, based on grammar rather than on lexical features ($ Unit 5). Many people use syntax and grammar as virtual synonyms. Grammar traditionally has been used quite broadly to cover any aspect of the structure of the language including semantics and phonetics. Syntax is more narrowly defined as the structure of sentences, clauses and phrases (see Figure 7.1).