Syntax and Semantics

The textbook (pages 441-2) talks about language being used in the sense of SYNTAX as well as SEMANTICS. The former refers to the string of letters, characters or words that are used to designate a statement in any language, and the grammar rules governing the way in which the characters interact. For example, "I like doughnuts, but they can be fattening." is a syntactically accurate statement in the English language.

However, the same statement when rewritten slightly differently as, "Me like doughnuts, but they fattening." is syntactically incorrect. The use of the first-person singular accusative pronoun ("Me") being used in place of the first-person singular nominative pronoun ("I"); and also the lack of a modal verb ("can") or a regular verb ("be") rendering the second phrase of the rewritten statement without a verb are both reasons why the second statement is syntactically incorrect.

Semantics can be identical between two statements even though their syntaxes are different. For example, the statements, "At this point in time, we do not offer that service" and "At this time, we do not offer that service" have the same meaning and hence the same semantics, because "at this point in time" means the same thing as "at this time" ("point in" is redundant in this case).