syntagmatic (adj.)

A fundamental term in LINGUISTICS, originally introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure to refer to the SEQUENTIAL characteristics of speech, seen as a STRING of CONSTITUENTS (sometimes, but not always) in LINEAR order. The relationships between constituents (syntagms or syntagmas) in a CONSTRUCTION are generally called syntagmatic relations. Sets of syntagmatically related constituents are often referred to as STRUCTURES. Syntagmatic relations, together with PARADIGMATIC relations, constitute the statement of a linguistic UNIT’s identity within the LANGUAGE SYSTEM. For example, the function of /p/ in English PHONOLOGY can be summarized by identifying its syntagmatic relationships (e.g. p-it, ni-p, a-p-t . . . ) and the paradigmatic relationships it contracts with other elements (e.g. p-it, b-it, n-it . . . ). Syntagmatic relationships can be established at all LEVELS of analysis. In TAGMEMIC GRAMMAR, however, the term syntagmeme is used in a restricted sense, referring to a unit in a grammatical HIERARCHY seen from the viewpoint of the ELEMENTS (or tagmemes) it includes; e.g. the SENTENCE is a syntagmeme for the CLAUSES that constitute it.

In PSYCHOLINGUISTICS, the term is sometimes used to refer to a class of ASSOCIATIVE responses which people make when hearing a stimulus word, viz. those which fall into a different WORD-CLASS from the stimulus, in that the response word could precede or follow the stimulus word in a sentence. A syntagmatic response or association would be drive following car, sheep following black, etc. The syntagmatic/paradigmatic shift refers to a change in the patterns of response noted in children at around age seven, when the earlier pattern (of primarily syntagmatic associations) develops into the more adult-like pattern primarily involving PARADIGMATIC associations.