Theoretical Grammar of English

The Subject – matter of Syntax

It has been mentioned above that the syntactic level is divided into two: syntax – minor and syntax – major. The first one deals with sentence structure and the second – with text and its structure.

The term "Syntax - minor" is common one for both language and speech levels and their unit "sentence" is also one common term for language and speech.
The abstract notion "sentence" of language can have concrete its representation in speech which is also called “sentence” due to the absence of the special term. Example: “An idea of John’s writing a letter” on the abstract language level can have its concrete representation in speech: John writes a letter. A letter is written by John.
Since one and the same idea is expressed in two different forms they are called "allo - sentences". Some authors call them grammatical synonyms. Thus, sentence is language and speech units on the syntax - minor level, which has a communicative function.
The basic unit of syntax - minor i.e. sentence often consists of some word -groups (or word

• 
  combinations):
  

The roundness of the earth is known all over the world.
1 .The sentence consists of two distinct word - combinations: "the roundness of the earth" and "is known all over the world". The same word - combinations may be used without any change in other sentences. The teacher explained the pupils the roundness of the earth. This means that word - combinations can be studied as a separate unit.

2. 
   In utterances there may be simple sentences like "It was dark", "It began to rain". Sometimes they may be joined together, depending on the intensions of the speakers, as for example:
   
   1. 
      It was dark, and it began to rain.
      
   2. 
      When it was dark, it began to rain.
      

Though the structure of constituting sentences are identical when they are joined together the structure of joined units (a) and (b) are different. This means that such units (which are traditionally called composite or compound/complex sentences) may be also studied separately.
Thus syntax - minor deals with simple sentences, with a smaller unit than the simple sentence i.e. word combinations and with the bigger unit than the simple sentence - composite sentences.
In the same way the level syntax - major can be explained. The unit of this level is text - the highest level of language and speech. "Syntax- major" represents both language and speech levels due to the absence of separate term as well as "text" is used homogeniously for both language and speech units.