Microsoft Word Theoretical Course of English Grammar

Lecture 2 
Dimensions and levels of linguistic analysis: syntagmatic
and paradigmatic relations between lingual units.
Hierarchical structuring of language system. 
By virtue of their potentiality of occurrence in a certain context lingual units enter into 
relations of two different kinds. When elements combine with others along a horizontal 
dimension, they enter into syntagmatic relations. 
Syntagmatic relations are immediate linear 
relations between lingual units of the same level in a segmental sequence (string). For example:
“A very beautiful girl is talking to my brother in the yard.”
In this sentence syntagmatically connected are the words and word-groups: 
a girl
, 
a beau-
tiful girl
, 
is talking
, 
a beautiful girl is talking
, 
is talking to my brother
, 
is talking in the yard
. 

---

Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
Script by prof. 
Nino Kirvalidze
9
Morphemes within the words are also connected syntagmatically. E.g.: beauti/ful, talk/ing. 
Phonemes and graphemes are connected syntagmatically within morphemes and words.
The combination of two words or word-groups in a segmental sequence, one of which is 
modified by the other, forms a unit which is referred to as a syntactic “syntagma.”
There are 
four main types of notional syntagmas: 
1.
predicative syntagma, which represents a combination of a subject and a predi-
cate. For instance:
A very beautiful girl is talking
or 
a girl is talking
.
2.
objective syntagma, which represents a combination of a verb and its object. For 
instance: 
is talking to my brother
.
3.
attributive syntagma, which represents a combination of a noun and its attribute. 
For instance: 
a beautiful girl
; 
my brother
. 
4.
adverbial syntagma, which represents a combination of a modified notional 
word, such as a verb, adjective or adverb, with its adverbial modifier. For in-
stance: i
s talking in the yard 
( a verb with its adverbial modifier of place); 
very 
beautiful
(an adjective with its adverbial modifier of degree).
Different from the rest of syntagmas, 
in a predicative syntagma the connection between 
its members is of reciprocal (i.e. mutual) nature: 
that is, the subject dominates the predicate 
determining the person and number of predication (e.g. is talking = 3
rd
person, singular), while 
the predicate dominates the subject, ascribing to it some action, state or quality ( A girl is 
talking). 
Since syntagmatic relations are actually observed in utterances, they are described by 
the Latin formula as relations 
“in praesentia”
(“in the presence”).
The other type of relations, opposed to syntagmatic and called paradigmatic, exists be-
tween elements of the system outside the strings where they co-occur. 
Elements enter into 
paradigmatic relations when they have the same potential to appear in the same context and 
functionally substitute each other. We have syntagmatic elements in a sequence along the 
horizontal dimension, while along the vertical dimension we have paradigmatic elements in 
substitution 
(Haspelmath 2002: 165)
. 
Consider, for example:
Nick
was offensive. 
The word on the wall
was offensive. 

---

Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
Script by prof.