Used in both linguistics and semiotics to theorize the possible (i.e. meaningful) combinations of pragmatics elements. The syntagm is the deep structure of a sentence or phrase which remains unchanged even if its specific elements are changed. For example, there is no difference at the level of the syntagm between âthe boy went to the shopâ and âthe girl went to the shopâ because in both cases the structure âa person went somewhereâ is preserved. The syntagm is in effect the horizontal axis of communication, while the paradigm is the vertical axis.