syntactically
syntactically — adverb
1. with respect to how words are ordered and linked together to form well-formed se
with respect to how words are ordered and linked together to form well-formed sentences that follow a language's grammar rules.
The sentence 'Him ran fast' is syntactically wrong because the subject pronoun should be 'He'.
adverb modifying 'wrong' to mean 'from a grammar perspective'
Wei's essay was syntactically well-formed, but the ideas were hard to follow.
The grammar checker flagged the sentence as syntactically incorrect, though native speakers understood it.
In the linguistics class, Tamar learned to analyse how clauses connect to each other syntactically.
- grammatically
more common in everyday use; 'syntactically' specifically focuses on word order and sentence structure, while 'grammatically' can also cover tense, agreement, and spelling.
用法筆記
Commonly paired with adjectives like 'correct', 'incorrect', 'well-formed', or 'ambiguous' to evaluate a sentence from a grammar standpoint rather than a meaning standpoint.
常見錯誤
2. according to the rules that define valid statement structure in a programming la
according to the rules that define valid statement structure in a programming language, including correct punctuation, keywords, and syntax ordering.
The compiler stopped because the code was syntactically wrong — a closing bracket was missing.
adverb modifying 'wrong' in a programming context
Minh's Python script was syntactically correct but kept crashing because of a logic error.
collocation: syntactically correct
Even a single misplaced semicolon can make a syntactically perfect-looking Java program fail to compile.
A syntactically valid program may not work correctly, the teaching assistant reminded the class.
用法筆記
Distinguish from sense 1 (GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE): this sense applies to computer languages rather than human languages. The collocations overlap ('correct', 'incorrect', 'valid') but the domain makes the meaning clear.
syntactically — adjective
- syntacticallypositive
- more syntacticallycomparative
- most syntacticallysuperlative
1. relating to the rules that govern how words are arranged to form grammatically c
relating to the rules that govern how words are arranged to form grammatically correct sentences in a language.
The professor explained the syntactic differences between English and Japanese sentence structure.
adjective modifying 'differences' to mean 'relating to word-order rules'
Syntactic analysis helps linguists understand how speakers combine words into meaningful phrases.
collocation: syntactic analysis
Children acquire syntactic rules naturally by listening to the people around them.
The parser broke the sentence into a syntactic tree showing the relationship between each part.
Nellie found the syntactic patterns of Mandarin very different from those of her native Spanish.
- grammatical
broader in meaning, covering all aspects of grammar including morphology and spelling; 'syntactic' is limited to word-order and sentence-structure rules.
用法筆記
This adjective is the base form; the adverb 'syntactically' is more common. 'Syntactic' is typically used before nouns like 'structure', 'rules', 'analysis', or 'category'.