The branch of linguistics that deals with the grammatical arrangement of linguistic elements (words and other morphemes) in sentences, clauses, and phrases. Some languages have an SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) word order (e.g., English) and others have an SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) word order (e.g., Japanese, Turkish). See Action syntax, Closed-class words, Copula, Discourse analysis, Double object nouns, Grammaticization …
Author Archives: Brian Hopkins
Syntactic bootstrapping
A hypothesized learning procedure involving the use by children of the syntactic frames in which a novel verb appears (i.e., the number of associated noun phrases and their syntactic arrangements) to narrow in on the kind of meaning it is likely to express. Thus, the child would infer that a novel verb, say, a ‘gorp’, has …
Synesthesia
Brain damage studies
Synergy
In muscle physiology, the correlated activation of several muscles underlying functional movements . See Coordinative structure
Synergistic
Two or more processes that facilitate the actions of one another, as when enzymes, hormones, or behavioural priming enhance the effectiveness of other factors.
Synergetics
The so-called European or Stuttgart version of non-linear dynamics, founded by Herman Haken, and sharing similarities with irreversible thermodynamics. It is a theory of pattern formation in complex, open systems. Originally used to study the behavior of physical systems such as the laser, it is now being increasingly applied to account for structures or patterns …
Synecdoche
A form of metaphor in which the part (the less inclusive) stands for or replaces the whole (the more inclusive term). An extreme example, but one that might have some adherents, is “Cognitive psychology is psychology”. Some rhetoricians do not distinguish between a synecdoche and a metonymy. See Analogy, Metaphor, Metonymy, Simile, Trope
Syndrome
A collection of minor of major somatic anomalies or a collection of abnormalities with a known cause. Down’s syndrome, for example, is a collection or mixture of minor or major abnormalities and anomalies with one known cause. See Congenital abnormalities, Congenital anomalies, Down’s syndrome, Edward’s syndrome, Rett’s sydrome
Synaptogenesis
making a synapse, the site of chemical-to electrical transmission between neurones. Synapses are generated in both development and adulthood. Synaptogenesis begins in week 12 and is mostly completed by prior to birth. The cerebral cortex and basal ganglia, however, continue to manufacture synapses postnatally, with the most period being from birth to about 5-6 years …
Synaptic stabilization
The phenomenon of change in the lability of connections between neurones after learning, caused by loss of the receptors that promote synapse generation and removal. See MECP2 gene, Synapse, Synapse elimination, Synaptogenesis