syntax

See also: Syntax

English

Etymology

Partly from Late Latin syntaxis and partly from its etymon, Ancient Greek σύνταξις (súntaxis), from σύν (sún, together) + τάξις (táxis, arrangement), from τάσσω (tássō, I arrange).[1] Doublet of syntaxis.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsɪn.tæks/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Homophone: sin tax

Noun

syntax (plural syntaxes or syntaces or (proscribed) syntices)

  1. A set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences.
    • 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 8, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 410:
        The incorporation of a rule of V MOVEMENT into our description of English Syntax turns out to have fundamental theoretical implications for our overall Theory of Grammar: it means that we are no longer able to posit that the syntactic structure of a sentence can be described in terms of a single Phrase-marker representing its S-structure. For, the postulation of a rule of V-MOVEMENT means that we must recognise at least two different levels of structure in our Theory of Grammar — namely, a level of D-structure (formerly known as ‘Deep Structureʼ) which serves as input to the rule, and a separate level of S-structure which is formed by application of the rule.
  2. (computing, countable) The formal rules of formulating the statements of a computer language.
  3. (linguistics) The study of the structure of phrases, sentences, and language.

Usage notes

The joke plural syntices occasionally occurs in blogs (by false analogy with matrix etc.); the rare plural syntaces may also be formed using that analogy. (In Latin, the plural of syntaxis is syntaxes.)

Synonyms

Derived terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *teh₂g- (2 c, 0 e)

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

References

  1. ^ syntax, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Czech

Noun

syntax f (relational adjective syntaktický)

  1. (linguistics, computing) syntax
    Synonyms: syntaxe f, skladba

Declension

Slovak

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsin.taks/

Noun

syntax f

  1. (linguistics) syntax

Declension

Declension of syntax
(pattern dlaň)
singularplural
nominativesyntaxsyntaxe
genitivesyntaxesyntaxí
dativesyntaxisyntaxiam
accusativesyntaxsyntaxe
locativesyntaxisyntaxiach
instrumentalsyntaxousyntaxami

Derived terms

Further reading

  • syntax”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

Swedish

Noun

syntax c

  1. a syntax, a (formal) grammar

Declension

References