The narrator and the man who had died didn't get the chance to have their swimming rematch. The narrator and his military comrades were losers because they never received the needed information from the man that died.The man whom died had a family so the family lost someone who was very dear to them.
Okay, so I'm thinking that the answer is semantics, because syntax is the arrangement of words, learning acquisition is just the structure(I think), and grammar is the structure of language.
Hope that helped!
