Syntactic Faculty of the Concent of Saunt Muncoster

First appearance and context

The Syntactic Faculty of the Concent of Saunt Muncoster is named in an entry of The Dictionary describing Saunt Proc and his circle, and is contrasted there with the Semantic Faculty of the Concent of Saunt Muncoster. That definition states that, following the Reconstitution after the Terrible Events, Proc was made patron Saunt of this faculty.

Role and function

Within the Concent of Saunt Muncoster, the Syntactic Faculty is presented as a faculty‑level lineage rather than a specific order. The Dictionary characterizes it as the progenitor of orders that trace their descent to it, in contrast to those associated with the Semantic Faculty (patron Saunt Halikaarn). Its patron, Saunt Proc, is linked to a circle that took a strongly syntactic stance.

Doctrinal stance and the Split

Accounts of the “Split” describe a long‑running debate between Procians and Halikaarnians over “aboutness” (whether symbols and thoughts have intrinsic semantic content). In this telling, adherents tied to the Syntactic Faculty argued that apparent aboutness is an illusion producible by sufficiently advanced syntactic devices ("syndevs"), while the opposing view—associated with the Semantic Faculty—holds that thoughts possess genuine semantic content beyond mere symbol manipulation and, by some lights, relates to the Hylaean Theoric World. In discussion of the period just after the Reconstitution at Muncoster, Faan is cited as FAE of the Syntactic Faculty (Procian side).

Relationships and references

• Patron Saunt: Saunt Proc
• Parent institution: Concent of Saunt Muncoster
• Counterpart/contrast: Semantic Faculty of the Concent of Saunt Muncoster (patron Saunt Halikaarn)
• Related concepts and sources: The entry in The Dictionary; ongoing avout discussions of the Split and the Aboutness Problem (no formal definition provided in the cited sources here)

Current status

References treat the Syntactic Faculty in historical and lineage terms and do not specify its present administrative structure or which contemporary orders, if any, formally descend from it.