Syntax


 * Syntax** is the discourse of examining the rules and standards of language which dictate how the sentence is structured cohesively. While morphology looks at how individual sounds are put together to generate complete words, syntax looks at the structures of words to create a sentence. Syntax is not an objective approach as to how sentences should be formed, rather it looks at how language is used and tries to come up with rules that take into consideration the various language communities - be it grammatical or non-grammatical.

One aspect of syntax, known as inflection, is used at the end of the word to tell the listener the role that the word is undergoing. For example:

Shirley ate.
We know that this describes Shirley's actions in the past tense.

Shirley is eating.
We know that this is not past tense.

In the context of interactive technology and computers, syntax also refers to programming language. Computers are inflexible machines that will only perform what you type in the exact form that the computer expects. This expected form is called the syntax.

Every computer's syntactical rules are different and define their own style or grammar for proper functioning, whilst using whatever words and punctuation is deemed necessary.

Syntax can also refer to the language used in programming to communicate to computers that tells it what to do in the form of text and punctuations. There are two levels to programming with syntax: form and atom.
 * Syntax and computers**
 * A form is either an atom or a sequence of forms surrounded by parentheses.
 * An atom is either a symbol, a number, a character, a string, or a quoted form.

For example:

code < while-statement> ::= while ; code

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Encryption Encoding & Decoding
 * Related Terms**:

Reference:
 * //syntax// (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2008, from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/syntax.html
 * //What is Syntax?// (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2008, from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-syntax.htm

For more information, visit: "Syntax of programming language." __Universitie Bordaux__. Retrieved Feb, 20 2008, from 

Glossary definition added by: zerosammi. Added on by: ShirleyN