SYNTAX, is the part of grammar, or the subsystem of a grammar, that deal with the position, order, and function of words, and larger units in sentences, clauses, and phrase. The “rules” of English syntax are so numerous and complex that they will never be fully codified. They control our verbal EXPRESION over a vast range of free choices and choices required by the rules of grammar—from the construction of complex sentences, to the precise patterns required for questions and passive constructions, to the very subtle ordering of modifiers and nouns. The terms “subject,” “predicate,” “object,” and the like are syntactic designations.

句法，是语法的一部分，或是处理单词位置、顺序和功能，以及在句子、从句和短语中较大单元的语法子系统。英语句法的“规则”是如此的众多和复杂，以至于从未将它们完全编入法典。它们用多种多样的自由选择以及由语法规则要求的选择来控制我们的语言表达---从复杂的句子结构，到疑问句和被动结构所需要的精确模式，再到修饰词和名词极微妙的顺序。“主语”，“谓语”，“宾语”等等这些术语都是句法的名称。

Where our choices have to do not so much with “correctness” as with beauty and force of EXPRESSION, syntax merges with stylistics. It also merges with morphology. The use of a possessive, as in “the girl’s hat,” involves not only the choice of a distinctive form, which is the province of morphology, but also a syntactic choice, since the possessive form shows the relation between “hat’ and “girl.” Linguists find it difficult to define the exact limits of syntax, but the meaning of the Greek syntassein (to arrange; to put in order), from which “syntax” derives, provides and good basis of understanding.

我们的选择与“正确性”没多大关系，与表达的美和力，句法与文体的融合相关。它还融合了词法。所有格的使用，如在“女孩的帽子”中，不仅涉及到对词法领域独特形式的选择，而且也涉及到句法的选择，因为所有格的形式显示了“帽子”与“女孩”之间的关系。语言学家们发现，要定义句法的精确界限很难，但明白了“句法”源自希腊语syntassein（安排；排列）的意思，就为理解提供了良好的基础。

                                        ROBERT L. CHAPMAN

                                          Drew University

                                         2022年7月24日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第26卷，第182页）