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Syntax vs Vocabulary - What's the difference?

syntax | vocabulary |

As nouns the difference between syntax and vocabulary

is that syntax is a set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences while vocabulary is a usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.

syntax

English

(wikipedia syntax)

Noun

(syntaxes)
  • 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 Structure?) which serves as input to the rule, and a separate level of ''S-structure which is formed by application of the rule.
  • (computing, countable) The formal rules of formulating the statements of a computer language.
  • (linguistics) The study of the structure of phrases, sentences and language.

    • Usage notes

    The joke plural syntices occasionally occurs in blogs (by false analogy with matrix etc.)

    Derived terms

    * morphosyntax * syntactic * syntactician

    Related terms

    * syntax error * syntax highlighting

    See also

    * grammar * morphology ----

    vocabulary

    English

    Noun

    (vocabularies)
  • A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.
  • The collection of words a person knows and uses.
    • My Russian vocabulary is very limited.
  • The stock of words used in a particular field.
    • The vocabulary of social sciences is often incomprehensible to ordinary people.
  • The words of a language collectively.
    • The vocabulary of any language is influenced by contacts with other cultures.
  • A range of artistic or stylistic forms or techniques

    • Derived terms

    * defining vocabulary * controlled vocabulary * extended vocabulary

    Coordinate terms

    * dictionary * lexicon * wordhoard (obsolete)

    Synonyms

    * (l) * (l) * (l)