Picked up unpopular duty creating structure of language (6)
I believe the answer is:
syntax
'language' is the definition.
(syntax language is a kind of language)
'picked up unpopular duty creating structure' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'duty' could be 'tax' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'tax' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'syn' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for syntax that I've seen before include "Way in which words are arranged to form sentences" , "Rules governing formation of words into sentences etc" , "Sentence structure" , "branch of linguistics" , "Rules for sentence construction" .)
