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”). Doublet of syntaxis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪn.tæks/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (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
• spread syntax
• 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

• Albanian: sintaksë (sq) f
• Arabic: بِنَاء جُمْلَة m (bināʔ jumla), نَحْو m (naḥw)
• Armenian: շարահյուսություն (hy) (šarahyusutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: sintaksis
• Belarusian: сі́нтаксіс m (síntaksis), сы́нтаксіс m (sýntaksis)
• Bulgarian: синта́ксис (bg) m (sintáksis)
• Burmese: အထားအသို (my) (a.hta:a.sui)
• Catalan: sintaxi (ca) f
• Cebuano: hanaysay
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 句法 (geoi³ faat³)

  Hokkien: 句法 (kù-hoat)

  Mandarin: 句法 (zh) (jùfǎ)

• Czech: syntax (cs) f
• Danish: syntaks (da) c
• Dutch: syntaxis (nl) f
• Esperanto: sintakso
• Estonian: süntaks
• 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)

• Hebrew: תַּחְבִּיר (he) m (takhbír)
• Hindi: वाक्यरचना (hi) f (vākyaracnā)
• Hungarian: szintaxis (hu)
• Icelandic: setningafræði (is) f, orðskipunarfræði f (dated)
• Indonesian: sintaksis (id)
• Irish: comhréir f
• Italian: sintassi (it) 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)
• Kazakh: синтаксис (sintaksis)
• Khmer: វាក្យសម្ពន្ធ (viəkyaʼ sɑmpŭən)
• Korean: 통어론(統語論) (tong'eoron), 구문론(構文論) (ko) (gumullon), 통사론(統辭論) (ko) (tongsaron), 신택스 (sintaekseu)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: sentaks (ku)

• Kyrgyz: синтаксис (ky) (sintaksis)
• Lao: ວາກຍະສຳພັນ (wāk nya sam phan)
• Latin: syntaxis f
• Latvian: sintakse f
• Lithuanian: sintaksė (lt) f
• Luxembourgish: Syntax f
• Macedonian: синтакса f (sintaksa)
• Malay: sintaksis (ms)
• Maori: wetereo, tātaikupu
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: өгүүлбэр зүй (ögüülber züj)

  Mongolian: ᠥᠭᠦᠯᠡᠪᠦᠷᠢ
  ᠵᠦᠢ (ögülebüri ǰüi)

• Nepali: वाक्यपद्धति (wākyapaddhati), वाक्यरचना (wākyaracanā), वाक्यनिर्माण (wākyanirmāṇ)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: syntaks m

  Nynorsk: syntaks m

• Occitan: sintaxi (oc) f
• Pashto: نحو (ps) f (nahva), سينټکس m (sinṭiks)
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: نَحْو (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:

  Cyrillic: сѝнтакса f, скла̀дња f

  Roman: sìntaksa (sh) f, sklàdnja (sh) f

• Slovak: syntax f
• Slovene: skladnja (sl), sintaksa (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Upper Sorbian: syntaksa f

• Spanish: sintaxis (es) f
• Swahili: sintaksia (sw)
• Swedish: syntax (sv) c, satslära (sv) c
• Tagalog: palaugnayan
• Tajik: синтаксис (tg) (sintaksis), наҳв (nahv)
• Thai: วากยสัมพันธ์ (wâak-gà-yá-sǎm-pan)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: sözdizimi (tr), sentaks (tr)
• Turkmen: sintaksis
• Ukrainian: си́нтаксис m (sýntaksys)
• Urdu: نَحْو (nahv)
• Uyghur: سىنتاكسىس (sintaksis)
• Uzbek: sintaksis (uz)
• Vietnamese: cú pháp (vi) (句法)
• Welsh: cystrawen f
• Yiddish: סינטאַקס m (sintaks)

formal rules of a computer language

• Belarusian: сі́нтаксіс m (síntaksis), сы́нтаксіс m (sýntaksis)
• Bulgarian: синта́ксис (bg) m (sintáksis)
• 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
• Irish: comhréir 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
• Maori: tātaikupu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: syntaks m

  Nynorsk: syntaks m

• Persian: نَحو (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:

  Cyrillic: сѝнтакса f, скла̀дња f

  Roman: sìntaksa (sh) f, sklàdnja (sh) f

• Spanish: sintaxis (es) f
• Swedish: syntax (sv) c, grammatik (sv) c
• Tagalog: palaugnayan
• Ukrainian: си́нтаксис m (sýntaksys)
• Yiddish: סינטאַקס m (sintaks)

study of the structure of phrases and sentences

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: сі́нтаксіс m (síntaksis), сы́нтаксіс m (sýntaksis)
• Bulgarian: синта́ксис (bg) m (sintáksis)
• 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 (viəkyaʼ sɑmpŭən)
• Korean: 통사론(統辭論) (ko) (tongsaron), 구문론(構文論) (ko) (gumullon), 문장론(文章論) (ko) (munjangnon), 신택스 (sintaekseu), 월갈 (wolgal), 통어론(統語論) (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: نَحو (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:

  Cyrillic: сѝнтакса f, скла̀дња f

  Roman: sìntaksa (sh) f, sklàdnja (sh) f

• Slovak: syntax f
• Slovene: skladnja (sl)
• Spanish: sintaxis (es) f
• Swahili: sintaksia (sw)
• Swedish: syntax (sv) c, grammatik (sv) c
• Tagalog: palaugnayan
• Thai: วากยสัมพันธ์ (wâak-gà-yá-sǎm-pan)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: си́нтаксис m (sýntaksys)
• 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)

See also

• grammar
• morphology
• word order

Czech

Noun

syntax f (relational adjective syntaktický)

1. (linguistics, computing) syntax

   Synonyms: syntaxe f, skladba

Declension

Declension of syntax (soft zero-ending feminine)

	singular	plural
nominative	syntax	syntaxe
genitive	syntaxe	syntaxí
dative	syntaxi	syntaxím
accusative	syntax	syntaxe
vocative	syntaxi	syntaxe
locative	syntaxi	syntaxích
instrumental	syntaxí	syntaxemi

Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsin.taks/

Noun

syntax f

1. (linguistics) syntax

Declension

Declension of syntax
(pattern dlaň)

	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 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

Declension of syntax

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	syntax	syntax
	definite	syntaxen	syntaxens
plural	indefinite	syntaxer	syntaxers
	definite	syntaxerna	syntaxernas

References

• syntax in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)