syntaxuele

Syntaxuele is a theoretical concept in linguistics that describes the interaction between syntactic structure and multimodal signals in conveying meaning. It treats syntax not merely as a rule-based skeleton for word order but as a carrier of discourse functions such as focus, topic, stance, and evidentiality when combined with prosody, gesture, or sign morphology. The term blends the idea of syntax with elements of value or use in communication, signaling an emphasis on how sentence structure participates in communicative goals.

Origins and scope: The term syntaxuele emerged in discussions about interfaces between syntax and discourse, especially in multimodal communication contexts. Researchers using this framework analyze how syntactic choices align with information structure and how accompanying nonverbal cues reshape interpretation. The approach is跨-linguistic, applying to spoken and sign languages alike, and draws on methodologies from theoretical syntax, pragmatics, corpus linguistics, and experimental psycholinguistics.

Key concepts: Core ideas include syntactic signaling (how word order and clause type encode discourse aims), information structure alignment (topic/comment, focus) and stance marking (attitudes, speaker commitments) through syntax in combination with gesture or facial expression. The framework also investigates how different languages encode these functions and how multimodal cues interact with syntactic constraints.

Relations and critiques: Syntaxuele intersects with syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and multimodal communication. Critics argue that many of its questions overlap with established fields such as information structure and discourse analysis, while proponents contend that it highlights essential interactions across modalities that traditional syntax alone overlooks.

See also: syntax, pragmatics, information structure, multimodal communication, sign language linguistics.