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Before we discuss what syntagmatic relation is, let's first have a look at semiotics, saussure, and syntagms.
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Team Syntagmatic Relations Teachers
The term 'syntagmatic' is closely related to the field of semiotics. Semiotics is the study of how meanings are produced by signs.
Road signs are a good example. You can understand the meaning of the signs even though there aren't any words to explain what they mean. Look at the two road signs below. You know that the left one means 'no u-turns' and the right one means 'slippery road'.
Fig. 1 - No u-turns.
Fig. 2 - Slippery road.
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) argued that:
When a single word or element of the chain is altered, the overall meaning is also changed. This chain concept is the basis of syntagmatic relations.
Syntagmatic relation defines the relationship between words that co-occur in the same sentence. It focuses on two main parts: how the position and the word order affect the meaning of a sentence. Let's look at an example:
↤ Syntagmatic relations ↦
Paul is roasting a chicken
The syntagmatic relation in this sentence explains:
Thus, the syntagmatic relation refers to a word's ability to combine with other words, and the syntagmatic dimension (syntagm) always refers to the horizontal axis or linear aspect of a sentence.
The syntagmatic relation can also explain why specific words are often paired together (collocations), such as have + a party in 'We had a party on Saturday'. If you hear someone say, 'We made a party on Saturday', you'll probably cringe because make + a party doesn't sound right.
The opposite of syntagmatic relation is paradigmatic relation. Paradigmatic relation refers to the relationship between words that can be substituted within the same word class (on the vertical axis).
Study tip: Syntagmatic relation is about word order and position. The meaning of syntagmatic is similar to syntax (the arrangement of words and phrases in a sentence).
Some examples of syntagmatic relations are shown in the table below:
| ↤ Syntagmatic relations ↦ | ||||
| Subject | verb | Object | ||
| Determiner | Adjective | Noun | Noun | |
| The | beautiful | woman | buys | some brioche |
| handsome | man | sold | some cake | |
| tall | boy | is eating | a hotdog | |
From these sentences, the syntagmatic relations are all the relationships between words within the same sentence. That means there is a syntagmatic relation in:
Additionally, in all three sentences above, each grammatical function (ie, subject, verb, and object) is at the same level. But in some cases, if you change the order of the sentence structure, it can change the meaning completely. For example:
The two sentences use the same words (syntagms) but differ in order (syntagmatic relationship), which changes the meaning of the sentence.
Because syntagmatic relations have to do with the relationship between words, the syntagms can result in collocations and idioms.
Collocations are word combinations that frequently occur together.
1. There are three interesting facts about collocations:
2. Word substitution is possible
3. The collocation's meaning can be traced back to the meaning of each component
Here are some examples of collocations:
Verb + noun: do homework, take a risk, catch a cold.
Noun + noun: office hours, interest group, kitchen cabinet.
Adjective + adverb: good enough, close together, crystal clear.
Verb + preposition: protect from, angry at, take advantage of.
Adverb + verb: strongly suggest, deeply sorry, highly successful.
Adjective + noun: handsome man, quick shower, fast food.
Idioms are expressions that have a meaning other than their literal one.
Idioms are distinct from collocations:
1. The word combination is not interchangeable (fixed expressions).
2. The meaning of each component is not equal to the meaning of the idiom
Here are some examples of popular idioms:
Break a leg.
Miss the boat.
Call it a day.
It's raining cats and dogs.
Kill two birds with one stone.
Paradigmatic relation describes the relationship between words that can be substituted for words with the same word class (eg replacing a noun with another noun). A paradigm in this sense refers to the vertical axis of word selection. This explains why paradigmatic relation is the opposite of syntagmatic relation.
Now that we have covered the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, we can say that:
↥ Paradigmatic relations ↧ | ↤ Syntagmatic relations ↦ | ||||
| Subject | verb | Object | |||
| Determiner | Adjective | Noun | Noun | ||
| The | beautiful | woman | buys | some brioche | |
| The | unattractive | lady | buys | some bread | |
| That | handsome | man | ate | some chicken | |
Paradigmatic relation:
Let's take 'The beautiful woman buys some brioche'.
Syntagmatic relation:
Let's take 'That handsome man ate some chicken'.
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What is a syntagmatic relation?
Syntagmatic relation illustrates the relationship between words that co-occur in the same sentence. It occurs on the horizontal axis.
What is an example of syntagmatic relations?
The combination of each word in 'Paul is roasting a chicken' forms a syntagmatic relationship. This sentence means (1) It is a chicken that Paul is roasting, not something else, and (2) It is Paul who is roasting the chicken, not someone else.
What are the types of syntagmatic relations?
The types of syntagmatic relations are collocations and idioms.
What is the difference between paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations?
Paradigmatic relation is about word substitution which occurs on the vertical axis. Syntagmatic relation is about word position and a relationship between words which occurs on the horizontal axis.
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