Syntaktikos

Syntaktikos is a term derived from Greek συντακτικός, meaning "related to arrangement" or "syntactic." The root is συντάξις or σύνταξις "arrangement, ordering" from σύν "together" and τάξις "order." In linguistics and grammar, syntaktikos denotes matters of syntax—the rules by which words combine to form phrases and sentences.

In classical Greek grammar, syntaktikos was used to describe the branch of grammar concerned with sentence structure, word order, agreement, and the relationships among words within clauses. It functioned as a counterpart to etymology (morphology) and phonology in grammars of the period.

In modern usage, the adjective συντακτικός in Greek is normally translated as "syntactic" or "grammatical" depending on context. In English-language linguistics, the term syntaktikos is uncommon; when referring to a person who studies syntax, scholars usually use "syntactician." The transliterated form also appears in some scholarly works on Greek grammar and philology to reflect the original Greek terminology.

The concept of syntaktikos thus sits at the intersection of linguistic theory and philology, denoting the structural layer of language—the arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and larger units—distinct from meaning or sound. It underpins modern analyses of sentence structure, grammatical relations, and parsing, while retaining its historical roots in Greek grammar.