APA Dictionary of Psychology

the theory that syntax is an autonomous component of language that operates independently of meaning (semantics) and function (pragmatics). Such a view explains how a sentence with no meaningful content or communicative function can nevertheless be recognized as grammatical by native speakers (see grammaticality). It also explains why syntactic rules, such as number agreement between subject and verb, operate regardless of the semantic relationship between the sentence elements. For example, in the two sentences The boy is slamming the doors and The doors are being slammed by the boy, the verb takes different forms to agree with the grammatical subject in each case (boy is; doors are), regardless of the fact that in both cases the boy is the agent of the action, and the doors are its patient. See case grammar. [introduced by Noam Chomsky]