syntax

C1 Topic:Language & Linguistics

US /ˈsɪn.tæks/ See IPA manual

Freq #36301

Meanings

1

noun
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 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

noun
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.
3

noun
the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences
4

noun
studies of the rules for forming admissible sentences

Thesaurus

Synonyms

3 noun · the grammatical arrangement... phrase structuresentence structure

More syntaxis

Word family

Derived forms morphosyntaxsyntacticsyntactician

Related forms grammar morphology

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

syntax error
a mistake that breaks the grammatical rules of a programming language

Noun + noun

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, “to arrange”). Doublet of syntaxis.

Topics

Language & Linguistics General Vocabulary

External links

# syntax

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈsɪn.tæks/
**Frequency rank:** 36301

## Meanings
1. A set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences.
2. The study of the structure of phrases, sentences, and language.
3. the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences
4. studies of the rules for forming admissible sentences

## Examples
- 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.
- [Otto] Jespersen, a language professor known for his expertise in syntax and language development, stated that headlinese is not really grammatical writing.

## Synonyms
- syntaxis

## Derived Forms
- morphosyntax
- syntactic
- syntactician

## Related Forms
- grammar
- morphology

## 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, “to arrange”). Doublet of syntaxis.

## Topics
- Language & Linguistics
- General Vocabulary

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