The Relationship between Semantics and Syntax from the Perspective of the Production of Written Language

Abstract

The production of written language is a field of research that
enables the formulation of the relationship between semantics,
syntax and, at the same time, that of both with discourse. As a
matter of fact, many times the meaning of a word has
repercussions on the form in which the sentence is constructed
and, simultaneously, it is the order of discourse which determines
the meaning of the units and the relationships between them.
If in the production of spoken language both processes seem to
work automatically (Igoa-García Albea, 2000), written
production of novice subjects in the fields of specialized
discourse makes evident the way in which the semantic
dimension is articulated or disarticulated with syntax and, on
the other hand, the way in which discourse enables or not the
relationships that become established between meaning and
syntax.
In order to take on the problem it is ineludible to treat the
way in which formal theories solve the problem since they have
sustained that the traits of words determine their combinatory
properties of which sentences are the result (Bosque-Gutiérrez
Rexach, 2009). However, when we observe the problem from
the point of view of performing, the limit of these theories is
automatic. From there it is interesting to discuss a different
theory whose object is semantics over syntax. I refer to the gradual model of the linguistic entity proposed by François Rastier
(2007) in whose framework a dynamics can be seen of the units
and one can systemize the contextual relationships. In this way, it
would be possible to recuperate the validity of his textual model of
the sign in order to give an account of the production tasks.