Syntactic Context Definition

Words are a complex element in life to define, but the best way to explain it is “words are labels for what we know” (Cleary and Linn, 577). As individuals learn words, they are not only growing their vocabulary, but also extending their overall knowledge at the same time. What is the most efficient way for one to extend his or her vocabulary and fully understand the meaning of different words? People tend to believe that knowing the definition is all that an individual needs to know about a word. There is so much more than just knowing the definition in order for someone to incorporate a word into his or her everyday communication. Teachers tend to make the mistake in just having their students memorize a definition of a word instead of having them understand the word in its context. According to the
Syntactic context helps an individual with figuring out the form and function of an unknown word. Identifying whether the word is a noun, verb, or another part of speech is determined by where the word is located. In addition to syntactic context, semantic context is another meaningful type of context clue and this “focuses on the various meanings interrelated in context” (580). In semantic context the other words throughout the sentence are used to help the reader comprehend the word that he or she is did not know. Syntactic and semantic contextual clues seem to go hand in hand because if a student understands what part of speech a word is, along with using the other words within the sentence, the meaning of the word will become much easier to pinpoint. Sentences at times are contradictory, so just knowing the meaning of the word is not compensating the student when it comes to understanding the meaning of the sentence as a whole. It is necessary for the students to understand the semantic context affiliated with the unknown