Syntax

				Social Sciences
				Linguistics
Element	Scope Category	Sub-Item	Definition	Syntax
1. Domain	1.1 Scope of the Domain	Boundaries	The range of phenomena the science includes and excludes.	Examines the structural organization of phrases, clauses, and sentences, and the rules, constraints, or computations determining how words combine into hierarchical structures. Includes constituent structure, dependency relations, grammatical functions, movement, agreement, case marking, word order, binding, and syntactic features. Excludes lexical semantics, discourse structure, or phonology except where they interface with syntax.
		Scale	The spatial, temporal, or organizational level at which the science operates (e.g., quantum, cellular, social, cosmic).	Operates at sub-sentential to sentence-level organization: hierarchical phrase structure, dependency networks, feature inheritance, derivational steps, syntactic domains (DP, TP, CP), and locality constraints.
	1.2 Ontological Commitments	Entities	The kinds of things assumed to exist within the domain (particles, organisms, agents, fields, etc.).	Syntactic categories (N, V, A, P), constituents (NP, VP, TP, CP), features (φ-features, case, tense, aspect), heads, specifiers, complements, traces/copies, movement chains, dependency relations.
		Properties	The fundamental attributes these entities possess (mass, charge, genotype, preference, etc.).	Hierarchical structure, constituency, c-command, agreement relations, case assignment, word-order patterns, selectional properties, locality constraints, phase structure, derivational history.
		Categories	The basic ontological types used to classify domain elements (substances, processes, relations, structures).	Phrase types, syntactic functions (subject, object), grammatical relations, movement types (A-movement, A’-movement), agreement systems, case systems, head-directionality types, configurational vs nonconfigurational languages.
	1.3 State-Variables	Variables	The measurable or definable properties that describe system conditions.	Feature values (case, tense, agreement), constituent order, structural position, movement landing sites, dependency length, phase boundaries, derivational steps, constraint violations (OT syntax), branching direction.
		Parameterization	How variables encode and represent the system’s state.	Encoded via feature bundles, tree structures, dependency graphs, derivational sequences, head-direction parameters, constraint rankings, locality domains, and case/agreement matrices.
	1.4 Admissible Idealizations	Simplifications	Conceptual reductions used to make the domain tractable (point masses, rational agents, perfect gases).	Treating competence as separate from performance; ignoring processing limitations; assuming idealized native-speaker intuitions; positing discrete movement steps; modeling syntactic categories as sharply bounded; ignoring gradient acceptability.
		Validity Conditions	The limits and contexts in which idealizations hold or break down.	Breakdowns occur in performance-heavy contexts, multilingual interference, contact-induced syntactic variation, gradient grammaticality, constructions with mixed categories, or languages with weak constituency signals.
	1.5 Domain Assumptions	Structural Assumptions	Background ontological stances such as determinism, continuity, randomness, discreteness.	Assumes hierarchical structure is universal; syntactic dependencies are rule-governed; features determine agreement and case; movement obeys locality constraints; sentence structure is generative and computable; syntactic categories are systematic.
		Implicit Commitments	Unstated but necessary assumptions that shape the field’s conceptual structure.	Assumes syntactic knowledge is mentally represented; acceptability judgments reflect underlying competence; universal constraints exist; derivations operate on symbolic structures; syntax interfaces with semantics and phonology via structured representations.
	1.6 Internal Coherence Requirements	Consistency	The demand that domain concepts do not contradict one another.	Tree structures must align with dependency relations; movement operations must obey locality; agreement features must unify correctly; case assignment must consistently map onto syntactic positions; feature-checking and derivations must not contradict one another.
		Compatibility	The requirement that entities, variables, and assumptions fit together into a unified descriptive framework.	Requires integration between constituent structure, dependency relations, feature systems, movement constraints, agreement/case systems, and cross-linguistic syntactic variation to form a coherent generative framework.
2. Evidence Layer	2.1 Observable Phenomena	Observables	The aspects of the domain that can produce detectable signals accessible to measurement.	Grammaticality judgments, constituent ordering patterns, agreement patterns, case-marking distributions, dependency distances, movement effects (gaps, traces), word-order alternations, sentence-processing times, acceptability gradients, corpus frequency of constructions.
		Detection Limits	The boundaries of what can be resolved or sensed by current instruments or methods.	Grammatical knowledge partly internal and not directly observable; performance errors obscure competence; rare constructions appear infrequently in corpora; acceptability influenced by processing load; movement chains not directly visible; underlying structure inferred rather than measured.
	2.2 Measurement Systems	Units	Standardized quantifications (meters, seconds, volts, decibels, dollars, etc.) necessary for consistent comparison.	Acceptability ratings, reaction-time units, dependency-length counts, error rates, corpus frequency per million words, node counts in trees, feature-value distributions, branching metrics, constraint-violation scores.
		Instruments	Devices and tools (microscopes, spectrometers, sensors, surveys, detectors) used to produce measurements.	Acceptability-judgment surveys, reaction-time software, eye-tracking systems, EEG/ERP for syntactic processing, corpus-analysis tools, syntactic parsers, dependency-treebanking systems, computational syntax frameworks.
	2.3 Operational Definitions	Definitions	Terms defined by specific measurement procedures, ensuring empirical clarity.	Definitions of constituency, dependency, head, specifier, complement, movement, agreement, case, binding domain, locality constraint, syntactic feature, acceptability rating.
		Procedures	The explicit steps required to perform a measurement in a reproducible way.	Collecting judgment data; annotating syntactic structures; parsing corpora; measuring reading times; coding agreement/case patterns; eliciting targeted constructions; constructing minimal pairs for hypothesis testing.
	2.4 Data Acquisition	Protocols	Formal processes for gathering data under controlled or standardized conditions.	Controlled elicitation tasks; randomized grammaticality surveys; self-paced reading experiments; eye-tracking studies; EEG/ERP syntactic-violation paradigms; corpus extraction of syntactic patterns; cross-linguistic fieldwork.
		Sampling	Rules determining which subset of the domain is measured and how representative it is.	Sampling across sentence types, syntactic environments, speakers, dialects, languages, frequency bands, complexity levels, and processing loads; sampling minimal pairs and controlled contrasts.
	2.5 Data Character & Format	Data Types	The form raw evidence takes (time series, spectra, images, counts, qualitative records).	Treebanks; dependency graphs; annotated corpora; judgment-rating tables; reaction-time datasets; eye-tracking scanpaths; ERP waveforms; feature-distribution tables; syntactic alternation lists.
		Resolution	The granularity or precision with which data is captured.	Determined by annotation granularity, parser accuracy, temporal precision of processing instruments, sampling density in acceptability tasks, corpus size, and feature-coding consistency.
	2.6 Reliability & Calibration	Calibration	Adjustment procedures ensuring instruments produce accurate results.	Ensuring inter-annotator agreement; validating treebank parses; calibrating reaction-time and eye-tracking devices; standardizing judgment instructions; verifying cross-linguistic elicitation protocols; adjusting parser parameters.
		Error Characterization	Identification and quantification of noise, uncertainty, bias, and measurement error.	Annotation errors; processing noise; inconsistent judgments; parser misanalysis; corpus sparsity; ceiling/floor effects; dialectal variation; ambiguous constituency; instrumentation drift; confounds in minimal pairs.
3. Structural Layer	3.1 Patterns & Regularities	Laws / Relations	Stable, repeatable patterns governing how observables behave across conditions.	Hierarchical constituency patterns; consistent head–complement relations; agreement and case-assignment regularities; movement dependencies; binding relations; cross-linguistic word-order tendencies (e.g., Greenbergian universals); island constraints; locality constraints.
		Invariants	Quantities or properties that remain constant under transformations (symmetries, conservation laws).	Stable phrase-structure configurations; universal dependency patterns; consistent feature-checking mechanisms; obligatory subject positions in many languages; cross-linguistic constraints on movement (e.g., Subjacency); uniform binding domains.
	3.2 Causal Architecture	Mechanisms	Underlying processes or structures that produce the observed regularities.	Merge/combinatorial mechanisms; movement and feature-checking mechanisms; agreement and case assignment; structural licensing; syntactic selection; dependency formation; derivational operations (copy & delete, head movement).
		Pathways	Organized sequences of interactions forming a causal chain or network.	Lexical item → Merge → X-bar projection → feature-checking → movement (if required) → surface structure; underlying form → derivation → PF/LF interfaces; DP formation → agreement → case assignment → interpretation.
	3.3 Theoretical Vocabulary	Concepts	Core terms that encode the domain’s structure (force, gene, equilibrium, field).	Merge, head, complement, specifier, TP, CP, DP, c-command, binding domain, movement, feature checking, case, agreement, phase, island constraint, EPP, locality, dependency.
		Classifications	Taxonomies, categories, or typologies that organize entities and relations.	Phrase categories; movement types (A, A′, head movement); syntactic functions (subject, object, adjunct); dependency vs constituency systems; configurational vs nonconfigurational languages; head-initial vs head-final orders; strong vs weak features.
	3.4 Formal Representations	Equations	Mathematical constructs expressing laws, relations, or mechanisms.	Feature-unification operations; movement-requirement equations; constraint-violation scoring (OT); dependency-graph formalisms; derivational step representations; locality-domain formulas; case/agreement matrices.
		Models	Structured representations—mathematical, computational, or conceptual—used to predict and explain phenomena.	Government & Binding; Minimalist Program; Categorial Grammar; HPSG; LFG; TAG; dependency grammar; OT syntax; computational parsers implementing syntactic grammars.
	3.5 Idealized Structures	Simplified Models	Purposeful abstractions that capture essential dynamics while omitting irrelevant detail.	Perfectly discrete categories; binary branching; noiseless movement; strict word-order adherence; fully consistent feature checking; absence of processing limits; homogeneous speaker competence; fully categorical acceptability judgments.
		Limit Conditions	Regimes where specific models or approximations hold (classical vs. quantum, linear vs. nonlinear).	Performance errors, gradient acceptability, dialectal variation, elliptical constructions, nonconfigurational languages, heavy processing load environments, contact-induced syntactic irregularity, incomplete acquisition scenarios.
	3.6 Integrative Frameworks	Unifying Theories	Higher-order structures that connect disparate laws or mechanisms under a coherent whole.	Universal Grammar frameworks; Minimalist architecture (Merge + economy); interface theories linking syntax to semantics and phonology; cross-linguistic parametric models; dependency–constituency integration frameworks.
		Interdisciplinary Links	Points where the theory connects to adjacent sciences or larger explanatory systems.	Links to semantics (interpretive structure), phonology (PF interface), psycholinguistics (parsing and processing), computational linguistics (syntax modeling), typology (cross-linguistic comparison), and neuroscience (syntax-related neural circuits).
4. Method Layer	4.1 Inquiry Design	Experimental Design	Structured plans for manipulating variables to test causal claims.	Manipulating word order, feature values, complexity, or movement environments; constructing minimal pairs to test structural hypotheses; embedding sentences in controlled contexts; eliciting contrasts across syntactic domains (TP/CP/DP).
		Observational Design	Systematic approaches for gathering non-manipulated data (surveys, field studies, natural experiments).	Observing spontaneous speech; collecting naturalistic corpora; documenting typological variation; monitoring syntactic alternations; recording child-acquisition patterns; identifying structures across dialects and registers.
	4.2 Testing & Validation	Hypothesis Testing	Procedures for evaluating whether evidence supports or contradicts specific claims.	Testing constituency via substitution/movement tests; validating locality constraints; evaluating agreement and case predictions; testing binding hypotheses; verifying feature-checking derivations; confirming dependency structures.
		Replication	The requirement that results be independently reproducible under similar conditions.	Re-running acceptability-judgment tasks; repeating parsing/processing experiments; validating corpus findings in new datasets; replicating ERP syntactic-violation signatures; re-evaluating derivational analyses across speakers.
	4.3 Inference & Evaluation	Statistical Inference	Rules for drawing conclusions from noisy or incomplete data.	Analyzing acceptability distributions; modeling dependency length; computing frequency of structural alternations; evaluating reaction-time differences; estimating probabilities of syntactic constructions; quantifying constraint violations.
		Model Comparison	Criteria (fit, simplicity, predictive accuracy, robustness) used to evaluate competing models.	Comparing constituency vs. dependency parses; Minimalist vs. HPSG vs. LFG predictions; contrasting OT syntax vs derivational syntax; comparing cross-linguistic parameter settings; evaluating parser outputs against human judgments.
	4.4 Error Management	Error Analysis	Identification and quantification of random and systematic errors.	Identifying misparses; correcting annotation inconsistencies; detecting ambiguous constituency; managing performance effects on judgments; diagnosing confounds in minimal pairs; addressing dialectal interference; filtering corpus noise.
		Bias Control	Methods for minimizing subjective, instrumental, or procedural biases.	Randomizing judgment tasks; balancing sentence types; screening participants for linguistic competence; avoiding leading instructions; ensuring representativeness across dialects; calibrating annotation teams for consistency.
	4.5 Adjudication & Revision	Peer Scrutiny	Collective evaluation of claims through critique, review, and debate.	Independent treebank reannotation; external review of derivations; cross-linguistic reanalysis; critique of movement or feature-checking assumptions; re-evaluation of theoretical predictions; replication of experimental syntax results.
		Theory Revision	Procedures for modifying, replacing, or discarding models based on new evidence.	Updating movement constraints; revising φ-feature systems; modifying phase-theoretic assumptions; adjusting word-order parameters; refining binding theories; integrating new typological evidence; replacing failed constraint systems.
	4.6 Integrity Conditions	Transparency	Requirements to disclose methods, data, assumptions, and limitations.	Full disclosure of judgment-task instructions, corpus sources, annotation protocols, parser settings, theoretical assumptions, exclusion criteria, and analytic pipelines used in syntactic research.
		Ethical Standards	Norms ensuring responsible conduct in experimentation, data handling, and publication.	Respecting speaker communities; protecting linguistic data privacy; avoiding prescriptive bias; accurately representing dialects/languages; obtaining informed consent for experimental tasks; ensuring fair and unbiased theoretical interpretation.