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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.

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  • 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 7, 2016 at 17:48
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    "Syntactic" is the adjective from "syntax", and "syntactically" is the adverb form.
    – BillJ
    Nov 7, 2016 at 18:24
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    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 7, 2016 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 . Nov 7, 2016 at 22:14

1 Answer 1

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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.

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  • Apparently syntaxical is also a word. But not one I would use.
    – Andrew
    Nov 7, 2016 at 17:49
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    I can only imagine syntaxical being used in the expression syntaxically delicious, if that exists.
    – LawrenceC
    Nov 7, 2016 at 21:55
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    ...only if sprinkled with some syntactic sugar.
    – user3395
    Nov 8, 2016 at 0:36
  • You may wish to consider 'grammatically', depending on the context you're using it in. Nov 8, 2016 at 11:34

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