syntax

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”).

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 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. 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 8, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 410
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.