For example:syntaxsee also structuresyntax^1 nsyntactic adj
a major component of the grammarof a language (together with lexicon,
phonology, and semantics), syntax concerns the ways in which words
combine to form sentences and the rules which govern the formation of sen-
tences, making some sentences possible and others not possible within a
particular language. The interface between syntax and morphology (for
example, the rules for modifying words to reflect their grammatical roles in
sentences) is called morphosyntax. One of the major goals of linguistics is
to identify the syntactic rules of a language and to provide descriptions that
group together those words in a sentence which hang closely together both
formally and semantically. These groups are called constituents (see also
constituent structure, phrase structure). The study of syntax has
been perhaps the most active branch of linguistics for the past half century
and disputes concerning syntax and the ways in which it is to be represented
have been the basis of many theoretical proposals and controversies. In
government/binding theory, a number of different modules, such as
case theory, x-bar theory andbinding theory, define the constraints
on various aspects of syntax. Other variants of generative grammar and
other types of grammars handle syntax in a variety of different ways.
see also categorial grammar, lexical functional grammar, logical
form, minimalism, transformational rule
syntax^2 n
the rules which determine how the commands of a computer language
are used and how they fit together.