syntax

A set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences.

Noun

  1. A set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences.
    • 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...
  2. The formal rules of formulating the statements of a computer language.
  3. The study of the structure of phrases, sentences, and language.
    • [Otto] Jespersen, a language professor known for his expertise in syntax and language development, stated that headlinese is not really grammatical writing. - 2021 May 29, Richard Nordquist, “What Is Headlinese?”, in...

Origin

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

Forms

syntaxes syntaces syntices

Synonyms

syntaxis

Related

grammar morphology word order

Derived

lexicosyntax macrosyntax metasyntax microsyntax morpho-syntax morphosyntax nanosyntax phonotax protosyntax spread syntax syntactic syntactician syntaxeme syntax error syntax highlighting syntaxist syntaxless zoosyntax