| name | grammar-syntax |
| description | Grammar and syntactic structures across human languages -- word order typology (SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OVS, OSV), morphological systems (isolating, agglutinative, fusional, polysynthetic), agreement patterns (gender, number, case, person), phrase structure, clause embedding, and cross-linguistic universals. Covers constituent analysis, dependency vs. constituency grammars, grammatical relations (subject, object, oblique), ergativity vs. accusativity, tense-aspect-mood systems, and how grammar encodes meaning differently across language families. Use when analyzing sentence structure, comparing grammar systems, teaching grammatical concepts, or understanding why a learner makes transfer errors from their L1. |
| type | skill |
| category | languages |
| status | stable |
| origin | tibsfox |
| modified | false |
| first_seen | "2026-04-11T00:00:00.000Z" |
| first_path | examples/skills/languages/grammar-syntax/SKILL.md |
| superseded_by | null |
Grammar & Syntax
Grammar is the structural system that governs how words combine into phrases, clauses, and sentences to express meaning. Syntax is the subfield concerned specifically with sentence structure -- the rules for word order, phrase formation, and clause combination. This skill treats grammar as a cross-linguistic phenomenon: every human language has grammar, but the specific mechanisms vary enormously. Understanding these patterns as a meta-skill accelerates learning any particular language.
Agent affinity: chomsky-l (generative grammar, universals, parameter theory), krashen (acquisition order, natural grammar development)
Concept IDs: lang-word-order-typology, lang-morphology, lang-agreement-systems, lang-syntactic-structures
Typological Overview
Word Order Typology
Languages are classified by the default order of Subject (S), Object (O), and Verb (V) in a simple declarative transitive sentence.
| Order | Frequency | Examples | Correlates |
|---|
| SOV | ~45% of languages | Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Hindi, Basque, Quechua | Postpositions, noun-genitive, adjective-noun |
| SVO | ~42% | English, Mandarin, French, Russian, Swahili, Indonesian | Prepositions, genitive-noun (variable), noun-adjective (variable) |
| VSO | ~9% | Arabic (Classical), Irish, Welsh, Tagalog, Maori | Prepositions, noun-genitive, noun-adjective |
| VOS | ~3% | Malagasy, Tzotzil, Fijian | Prepositions, noun-genitive |
| OVS | <1% | Hixkaryana, Urarina | Postpositions |
| OSV | <1% | Warao (in some constructions) | Rare and debated |
Greenberg's universals (1963) established that word order correlates with other structural properties. SOV languages strongly tend to use postpositions ("the house in" rather than "in the house"), while SVO and VSO languages tend to use prepositions. These are statistical tendencies, not absolute rules.
Morphological Typology
Languages differ in how much information is packed into a single word.
Isolating (analytic). Each word carries one morpheme. Little or no inflection. Mandarin Chinese is the canonical example: "I go" is "wo qu" -- no verb conjugation, no plural marker, no case marking.
