syntax

See also: Syntax

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French syntaxe, from Late Latin syntaxis, from Ancient Greek σύνταξις (súntaxis), from σύν (sún, “together”) + τάξις (táxis, “arrangement”), from τάσσω (tássō, “I arrange”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪn.tæks/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Homophone: sin tax

Noun

syntax (countable and uncountable, plural syntaxes)

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.).

Synonyms

• (grammar): syntaxis

Derived terms

• morphosyntax
• syntactic
• syntactician
• syntax error
• syntax highlighting

 

Related terms

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

Translations

set of rules that govern how words are combined

• Arabic: بِنَاء جُمْلَة‎ m (bināʔ jumla)
• Armenian: շարահյուսություն (hy) (šarahyusutʿyun)
• Bulgarian: синтаксис (bg) m (sintaksis)
• Catalan: sintaxi (ca) f
• Cebuano: hanaysay
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 句法 (zh) (jùfǎ), 造句 (zh) (zàojù)

• Dutch: syntaxis (nl) f
• Esperanto: sintakso
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: lauseoppi (fi), syntaksi (fi)
• French: syntaxe (fr) f
• Galician: sintaxe f
• Georgian: სინტაქსი (sinṭaksi)
• German: Syntax (de) f, Satzbau (de) m
• Greek: συντακτικό (el) n (syntaktikó), σύνταξη (el) f (sýntaxi)

  Ancient: σύνταξις f (súntaxis)

• Hindi: वक्यरचना f (vakyaracnā)
• Irish: comhréir f
• Italian: sintassi (it) f
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 統語論 (ja) (とうごろん, tōgoron), ^{(please verify)} 構文論 (こうぶんろん, kōbunron)
• Khmer: វាក្យសម្ពន្ធ (viəkyaʼsɑmpŭən)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: wetereo, tātaikupu
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Nepali: वाक्यपद्धति (wākyapaddhati), वाक्यरचना (wākyaracanā), वाक्यनिर्माण (wākyanirmāṇ)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: syntaks m

  Nynorsk: syntaks m

• Occitan: sintaxi (oc) f
• Persian: نحو‎ (fa) (nahv)
• Polish: składnia (pl) f, syntaksa f, syntaktyka f
• Portuguese: sintaxe (pt) f
• Romanian: sintaxă (ro) f
• Russian: си́нтаксис (ru) m (síntaksis)
• Scots: seentax
• Serbo-Croatian: sklàdnja (sh) f, sìntaksa (sh) f
• Slovene: skladnja (sl)
• Spanish: sintaxis (es) f
• Swahili: sintaksia
• Swedish: syntax (sv) c, satslära (sv) c
• Tagalog: palaugnayan
• Thai: วากยสัมพันธ์ (wâak-gà-yá-sǎm-pan)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: sözdizim, sentaks (tr)
• Vietnamese: cú pháp (vi)
• Welsh: cystrawen f
• Yiddish: סינטאַקס‎ m (sintaks)

formal rules of a computer language

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 句法 (zh) (jùfǎ), 文法 (zh) (wénfǎ)

• Dutch: syntaxis (nl) f
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: syntaksi (fi)
• French: syntaxe (fr) f
• Georgian: სინტაქსი (sinṭaksi)
• German: Syntax (de) f
• Greek: συντακτικό (el) n (syntaktikó)
• Icelandic: málskipan f
• Italian: sintassi (it) f
• Japanese: 文法 (ja) (ぶんぽう, bunpō), 構文 (ja) (こうぶん, kōbun), シンタックス (shintakkusu)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: syntaks m

  Nynorsk: syntaks m

• Persian: نحو‎ (fa) (nahv)
• Polish: składnia (pl) f, syntaksa f, syntaktyka f
• Portuguese: sintaxe (pt) f
• Romanian: sintaxă (ro) f
• Russian: си́нтаксис (ru) m (síntaksis)
• Serbo-Croatian: sklàdnja (sh) f, sìntaksa (sh) f
• Spanish: sintaxis (es) f
• Swedish: syntax (sv) c, grammatik (sv) c
• Tagalog: palaugnayan
• Yiddish: סינטאַקס‎ m (sintaks)

study of the structure of phrases and sentences

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: синтаксис (bg) m (sintaksis)
• Cebuano: hanaysay
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 句法學／句法学 (geoi³ faat³ hok⁶), 語法學／语法学 (jyu⁵ faat³ hok⁶)

  Mandarin: 句法學／句法学 (zh) (jùfǎxué), 語法學／语法学 (zh) (yǔfǎxué)

• Czech: syntax (cs) f, syntaxe f
• Dutch: zinsleer (nl) f, syntaxis (nl) f
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: orðalagslæra f
• Finnish: lauseoppi (fi), syntaksi (fi)
• French: syntaxe (fr) f
• Georgian: სინტაქსი (sinṭaksi)
• German: Satzlehre (de) f, Syntax (de) f
• Greek: συντακτικό (el) n (syntaktikó)
• Hungarian: mondattan (hu)
• Icelandic: setningafræði (is) f, (dated) orðskipunarfræði f
• Irish: comhréir f
• Japanese: 統語論 (ja) (とうごろん, tōgoron), 構文論 (こうぶんろん, kōbunron), 統辞論 (とうじろん, tōjiron), シンタックス (shintakkusu)
• Khmer: វាក្យសម្ពន្ធ (viəkyaʼsɑmpŭən)
• Korean: 통사론 (ko) (tongsaron), 구문론 (ko) (gumullon), 문장론 (ko) (munjangnon), 신택스 (sintaekseu), 월갈 (wolgal), 통어론 (tong'eoron)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: syntaxis f
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: wetereo
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Nepali: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: syntaks m

  Nynorsk: syntaks m

• Persian: نحو‎ (fa) (nahv)
• Polish: składnia (pl) f, syntaksa f, syntaktyka f
• Portuguese: sintaxe (pt) f
• Romanian: sintaxă (ro) f
• Russian: си́нтаксис (ru) m (síntaksis)
• Serbo-Croatian: sklàdnja (sh) f, sìntaksa (sh) f
• Slovak: syntax f
• Slovene: skladnja (sl)
• Spanish: sintaxis (es) f
• Swahili: sintaksia
• Swedish: syntax (sv) c, grammatik (sv) c
• Tagalog: palaugnayan
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: cú pháp học (vi)
• Welsh: gwyddor cystrawen f
• Yiddish: סינטאַקס‎ m (sintaks)

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

Translations to be checked

• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} sintakso
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} syntaxe
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} sintassi (it) f
• Persian: ^{(please verify)} جمله‌شناسی‎ (jomle-šenâsi), ^{(please verify)} نحو‎ (fa) (nahv)

See also

• word order

See also

• grammar
• morphology

Czech

Noun

syntax f

1. (linguistics, computing) syntax

   Synonym: syntaxe f

Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsin.taks/

Noun

syntax f (genitive singular syntaxe, nominative plural syntaxe, genitive plural syntaxí, declension pattern of dlaň)

1. syntax (linguistics)

Declension

Declension of syntax

	singular	plural
nominative	syntax	syntaxe
genitive	syntaxe	syntaxí
dative	syntaxi	syntaxiam
accusative	syntax	syntaxe
locative	syntaxi	syntaxiach
instrumental	syntaxou	syntaxami

Derived terms

• syntaktický
• syntakticky

Further reading

• syntax in Slovak dictionaries at slovnik.juls.savba.sk

Swedish

Noun

syntax c

1. a syntax, a (formal) grammar

Declension

Declension of syntax
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	syntax	syntaxen	syntaxer	syntaxerna
Genitive	syntax	syntaxens	syntaxers	syntaxernas

References

• syntax in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)