Syntacticize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To arrange elements according to the rules of sentence structure; to analyze or impose a grammatical framework on a sequence; to transform into a syntactic form
2. To organize components following principles of grammar; to interpret or systematize according to syntax; to convert into a structure conforming to syntactic norms
3. To apply sentence-structure rules to parts of language; to provide a linguistic framework that governs order and relationship; to render into a form defined by syntax conventions

Etymology: "Syntacticize" is a plain formation: the adjective "syntactic" with the verb-forming suffix "-ize" added to it. "Syntactic" itself comes from "syntax," which traces back through Latin "syntaxis" to Greek "syntaxis," meaning "an arranging together," built from "syn-" ("together") and "tassein" ("to arrange"). The Greek sense was originally about putting things in order, and the grammatical meaning of sentence arrangement came later, when the term was applied to the ordering of words in a sentence. The "-ize" ending, from Greek "-izein" through Latin "-izare," is a productive suffix that turns nouns and adjectives into verbs meaning "to make into" or "to treat in the manner of." That is why "syntacticize" can mean both to arrange something according to sentence rules and to convert something into a syntactic form. The verb is a modern coinage built on this existing machinery, and its sense follows directly from the noun it grows from.

Synonyms: syntaxize, formalize syntax, structure linguistically