syntax

noun [ˈsɪnˌtæks]

pronunciation

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary via pipeline/ipa-en.mjs (lemma syntax), open source

Syntax is the branch of grammar that studies how words combine in phrases and clauses, apart from morphology and from semantics.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Definitions

ling. / gram. Branch of grammar (and linguistics) devoted to how words form phrases and clauses: it describes constituent roles, dependencies among them, and established ways of building utterances, kept apart from morphology (word structure) and from semantics (sense of units).

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
hist. lex. In historical-lexical talk: Webster 1913 sense 2 treats SYNTAX as grammar dealing with how sentences are constructed and how words are arranged by established usage. Skeat 1910 glosses the lemma as word arrangement in sentences. Arct 1921 records Polish Syntax as składnia. Lexical evidence only.

source
Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (SYNTAX sense 2); W. W. Skeat 1910; M. Arct 1921 (Syntax = składnia), open source
hist. / obs. In an older English register (Webster 1913, sense 1, marked Obs.): a connected system or order; union of things; organism. The edition quotes Glanvill on the whole syntax of beings. Archaic and figurative, outside school grammar today; lexical evidence only.

source
Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (SYNTAX sense 1, Obs.; Glanvill), open source
colloq. In casual and press talk: often a loose tag for layout, order, or the way anything is arranged, without a grammatical method. Informal range, pending review confirmation.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Examples

The seminar kept syntax for how words combine in a clause, and morphology for word structure: one side asks about relations among constituents, the other about roots and affixes.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Her textbook placed syntax among the grammar branches beside phonology and morphology, and left semantics and pragmatics as peer layers of inquiry into sense and use.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
In the lecture they noted that Arct (1921) equates Polish Syntax with składnia and mutual dependence of words, that Webster 1913 gives sense 2 on sentence construction and sense 1 (Obs.) on a system of beings (Glanvill), that Skeat 1910 derives SYNTAX from Greek σύνταξις, and that Brückner 1927 links the Polish lemma to skład together with the root kład.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
A columnist warned that brushing a dispute aside as mere syntax of debate often dodges any account of constituent roles and any naming of clause relations versus word-internal form.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
She contrasted a syntactic reading of a clause with a bare catalogue of senses, asking where combinatorial structure ends and lexical meaning begins.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Usage

Casual English often confuses the lemma with morphology, or treats it as a vague tag for order. Exact prose marks four layers: disciplinary (how words form phrases and clauses; roles and dependencies), historical-lexical (Arct, Webster, Skeat on Syntax / SYNTAX; Brückner on Polish składnia from skład), archaic English (Webster sense 1 on a system of beings), and informal tags without criteria. Name the layer you mean. Otherwise the label slides into morphology, semantics, pragmatics, and bare guesswork about arrangement.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

On the English side, Webster 1913 clusters SYNTAX with Latin syntaxis and a Greek source (see Syn- and Tactics). Sense 2 develops sentence construction and the due placing of words in their required relations according to settled usage. Sense 1 (Obs.) speaks of a connected system or organism and quotes Glanvill. Related forms include syntactic, syntactical, and rare syntaxis (B. Jonson). Exact quotation sits in the etymology field; those glosses are lexical evidence only.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open source

On the etymological trail, Skeat presents SYNTAX as how words are ordered inside sentences: the path runs through Latin syntaxis to Greek σύνταξις, built from σύν (together) plus τάξις (order), from τάσσειν (to arrange); he points to Syn- and Tactics and lists the derivative syntactical. Arct 1921 records Polish Syntax as składnia and notes regular and ornate variants; OCR is often garbled. Brückner 1927 does not calque Greek at składnia: he ties the Polish noun to skład and the root kład.

source

Editorial team; facts: W. W. Skeat 1910; M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921; A. Brückner 1927, open source

Writers often reach for pairings such as syntactic analysis, sentence structure, or word order. Syntactic and syntactical are the adjectives (Webster records both). Precise usage keeps the term apart from semantics as sense of language units, from pragmatics as use in situation, from semiotics as a wider sign system, and from morphology as word-internal structure. Borders still shift by author. Brückner 1927 indexes Polish składnia under kład among compounds with skład.

source

Editorial team; facts: A. Brückner, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, 1927 (kład / skład; składnia), open source

Word forms

Regular English noun. Usually uncountable when naming the discipline (syntax is...). Countable singular appears in phrases such as a syntax of verbs or competing syntaxes. Plural syntaxes names distinct systems or traditions.

word forms

przypadek	forma
uncountable (usual)	syntax
countable singular (a theory / system / treatise)	a syntax
countable plural	syntaxes

Word forms: Editorial team

Collocations

syntactic analysis

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
sentence structure

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
word order

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
clause structure

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
linguistic syntax

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Synonyms · Antonyms

Synonyms inquiry into sentence construction (editorial didactic approximation; not a full synonym in every register), arrangement of words in sentences (historical neighbour via Skeat 1910 and Webster sense 2; not a full substitute for every modern register), account of constituent relations (didactic approximation; scope to confirm at review)

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Antonyms morphology without clause relations (classroom contrast: word-internal form versus combinatorial structure; not a strict modern opposite everywhere), pure semantics without arrangement (classroom foil: sense of units against syntactic relations; editorial didactic scope), ignoring relations among words (contrastive neighbour in debate; editorial label, to confirm at review)

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Etymology

English syntax is a learned label from Latin syntaxis and Greek σύνταξις (an arrangement), from σύν (together) plus τάξις (order), from τάσσειν (to arrange). Webster 1913 prints SYNTAX with that Latin and Greek trail (see Syn- and Tactics): sense 2 on how sentences are built and how words sit in their required relations by settled usage, sense 1 (Obs.) on a connected system or organism (Glanvill quote), with related syntactic, syntactical, and rare syntaxis (B. Jonson). Skeat 1910 summarises SYNTAX as word arrangement inside sentences and derives it the same way (L. syntaxis from Gk.; Syn- and Tactics; derivative syntactical). Arct (9th ed., 1921) enters Polish Syntax as składnia (sentence build; mutual dependence of words; regular and ornate variants) and notes Syntakta and selecyzm. Brückner 1927 places Polish składnia with skład and the root kład (Lith. kłoti), without treating it as a Greek calque in that article. Linguistic syntax is not morphology and is not a vague tag for any layout. Service definitions are written apart from those dictionary wordings. The Polish counterpart noun is składnia.

source

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open source

also

W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910 (SYNTAX: L. syntaxis from Gk. σύνταξις; Syn- and Tactics; syntactical), open source

also

M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921 (Syntax = składnia; s. regularna, s. ornata; Syntakta; selecyzm), open source

also

A. Brückner, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, Kraków 1927 (kład / skład; składnia; nieskładny), open source

Related words

syntactic , adjective: relating to sentence structure (Webster 1913: SYNTACTIC / SYNTACTICAL)
syntactical , adjective: relating to syntax (Webster 1913; Skeat 1910: syntactical)
morphology , lexical neighbour (ling. / gram.): talk of word structure against talk of clause structure
semantics , lexical neighbour (ling. / philos.): talk of meaning of language units against talk of combinatorial structure
pragmatics , lexical neighbour (ling. / philos.): talk of use in situation against talk of clause structure
semiotics , lexical neighbour (ling. / philos.): talk of sign systems against talk of clause structure
logic , lexical neighbour (philos.)
rhetoric , lexical neighbour (philos.): talk of persuasive form against talk of combinatorial structure
składnia , etymologically related Polish noun (Brückner: skład / kład; Arct: Syntax = składnia)

Related entries

The same entry in Polish: składnia

Questions and answers

What does syntax mean?

It names the grammar branch that studies combinatorial structure of phrases and clauses: constituent roles and dependencies. Webster 1913 sense 2 and Skeat 1910 record that grammar trail. Informal talk often flattens the name into a vague tag for order. Context decides.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Where does the word syntax come from?

Latin supplies syntaxis from Greek σύνταξις (σύν plus τάξις from τάσσειν). Webster 1913 and Skeat 1910 print that trail. Arct 1921 enters Polish Syntax as składnia. Brückner 1927 anchors the Polish noun in skład and kład rather than in a Greek calque there.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913; W. W. Skeat 1910; M. Arct 1921; A. Brückner 1927, open source

How is syntax pronounced, and what is the IPA?

Editorial IPA on this page is /ˈsɪnˌtæks/, from the CMUdict lemma syntax via pipeline/ipa-en.mjs. Primary stress falls on the first syllable. The related adjectives syntactic and syntactical are recorded in Webster 1913.

source

Editorial team; facts: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary via pipeline/ipa-en.mjs (lemma syntax), open source

How does syntax differ from morphology, and is it the same as Polish składnia?

Linguistic syntax centres on how words combine in a clause. Morphology centres on word structure (roots, affixes, inflection, derivation). Polish składnia is the didactic counterpart of syntax in the grammar register. The contrast is editorial and didactic. Everyday speech often flattens the names.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)