Syntax is important because in effective communication both the listener and speaker must be familiar with grammatical rules of the language being used. Children will start to grasp the basic syntactic rules intuitively through exposure to language and conversations. This can be observed through children's use of word order in simple sentences such as "me give" and "give me". In this example from Hill (2006) it is obvious the child has some understand that by changing the order of their words the meaning is also changed. By the age of two years most children will be able to successfully combine the phonological and syntactic components of language, as a result their ability to communicate will begin to increase rapidly. (Hill,2006) However, if children stop development at this stage without any understanding for the last two components of language their capacity to effectively communicate would be greatly hindered. .
Semantics is defined by Fellowes and Oakley (2006) as "referring to the meaning of individual words as well as the sentences which are constructed." For a person to be able to comprehend the information being communicated through language they first need to understand the meaning of the individual words being used. However semantics is also greatly depended on syntax as the meaning of a word can be changed depending on how it is used within a sentence. In the English language many words have more than one meaning thus, the intended meaning can only be determined once it is placed in a comprehendible sentence. Fellowes and Oakley use the word fast to demonstrate this idea;.
Jenny ran fast and won the race.During the fast Hassan ate only one meal a day.
Semantics is achieved through word choice, order, intonation and stress placed on certain words. (Hill,2006) As such a child must first have an understanding of phonology and syntax before they start to appreciate the semantics of language.