syntactic construction
C1-C2Academic, Technical, Formal
Definition
Meaning
A specific arrangement of words and grammatical elements that forms a meaningful unit within a sentence.
A phrase, clause, or entire sentence structure defined by its grammatical properties and the relationships between its constituent parts.
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
The term belongs to the specialized vocabulary of linguistics and grammar. It's a countable noun (constructions). It refers to both the abstract grammatical pattern (e.g., 'passive construction') and the concrete instance of that pattern in a text.
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
No significant lexical or grammatical differences. The technical term is identical in both varieties.
Connotations
Neutral and technical in both contexts. It carries no additional cultural or stylistic connotations.
Frequency
Used with identical frequency in academic and linguistic contexts in both varieties. Virtually non-existent in everyday conversation.
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
[Adjective + Noun] constructionthe construction of [Noun Phrase]a construction involving [Gerund/Noun]Vocabulary
Synonyms
Strong
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Usage
Context Usage
Business
Not used.
Academic
Core term in linguistics, grammar studies, and formal language analysis. E.g., 'The paper analyzes a rare syntactic construction in Old English.'
Everyday
Virtually never used. A layperson might say 'sentence structure' or 'the way it's phrased'.
Technical
Precise term in computational linguistics, natural language processing, and theoretical grammar. E.g., 'The parser failed to resolve the ambiguous syntactic construction.'
Examples
By Part of Speech
verb
British English
- To construct syntactically is a complex cognitive process.
American English
- The linguist sought to deconstruct the clause's syntactic formation.
adverb
British English
- The phrase was syntactically constructed to allow for dual interpretations.
American English
- The sentence is syntactically well-constructed but semantically odd.
adjective
British English
- The syntactical analysis revealed several elliptical constructions.
American English
- Syntactic constructional differences between dialects were minimal.
Examples
By CEFR Level
- The passive voice is a common syntactic construction in formal reports.
- Can you identify the syntactic construction used in this clause?
- The professor's research focuses on diachronic changes in relative clause syntactic constructions.
- This ambiguous syntactic construction, known as a garden path sentence, often causes processing difficulty for readers.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Think of 'syntax' as the rules for building sentences, and a 'construction' as something that is built. A 'syntactic construction' is a sentence-part built according to syntactic rules.
Conceptual Metaphor
LANGUAGE IS ARCHITECTURE / LANGUAGE IS A BUILDING (constructions are built, have structure, can be complex or simple).
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Avoid direct translation of 'construction' as 'конструкция' in a non-linguistic sense (e.g., building). In this context, it's a grammatical term.
- Do not confuse with 'синтаксическая конструкция' – this is a correct loan translation, but the English term is much more specific to academic/technical registers.
Common Mistakes
- Using it as a synonym for any long sentence in non-technical writing.
- Misspelling as 'sintactic' or 'syntactical construction' (though 'syntactical' is a less common variant adjective).
- Treating it as an uncountable noun (e.g., 'much syntactic construction').
Practice
Quiz
In which context is the term 'syntactic construction' MOST appropriately used?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
In most linguistic contexts, yes, they are used interchangeably. 'Syntactic construction' is slightly more precise, as it explicitly references syntax (sentence structure), while 'grammatical' can encompass morphology (word structure) as well.
It would sound highly technical and unnatural. In everyday talk, use phrases like 'sentence structure', 'the way this is written', or 'this phrase' instead.
The 'if-then' conditional (e.g., 'If it rains, then the match will be cancelled') is a classic example of a syntactic construction with specific rules for clause order and verb forms.
Typically, no. A construction implies a combination of multiple elements (words, phrases) into a structured whole. A single word is a lexical, not a syntactic, unit.