14

Instead of saying, "they are the same in syntax", how to say it the other way, e.g., "they are *syntaxly* the same"?

http://www.tfd.com/syntax has no entry of its adverb form either. Thanks.

xpt
  • 2,288
  • 8
  • 29
  • 39
  • I was going to say something rude about that dictionary, but apparently many of them fail to make the connection between syntax and syntactic. Weird. – Andrew Nov 07 '16 at 17:48
  • 5
    "Syntactic" is the adjective from "syntax", and "syntactically" is the adverb form. – BillJ Nov 07 '16 at 18:24
  • 2
    There are a number of similar English words ending in -axis, Greek in origin, which entered English via medieval Latin. E.g. praxis, parataxis, anaphylaxis, prophylaxis. Their adjectival forms all become -ctic-. Practical, paratactic, anaphylactic, prophylactic. – TimR Nov 07 '16 at 19:14
  • @TRomano nice! Also (words ending in -exis) like lexis. Although lectic is not found at dictionaries (lexical is), eclectic and dialectic have the same original Greek root -lex . – ypercubeᵀᴹ Nov 07 '16 at 22:14

1 Answers1

27

That's syntactically:

according to the rules of syntax

Remember that the adverb-forming suffix -ly is usually attached to adjectives rather than nouns. The adjectives corresponding to syntax are syntactic and syntactical.

Whenever there's a pair of collateral adjectives ending in -ic and -ical, the corresponding adverb ending in -ically is preferred over the one with -icly even if the adjective ending in -ic is more common.

J. Siebeneichler
  • 1,767
  • 12
  • 10