> struggle with the concept of syntax I agree, and I think the problem you mention is a special case of the difficulty some people have to grasp the concept o

> struggle with the concept of syntax I agree, and I think the problem you mention is a special case of the difficulty some people have to grasp the concept of definition in the mathematical sense. Unlike "dictionary" definitions, they can be arbitrary: if I say "let S be the set of prime numbers greater than 13" you pretty much have to accept it, as long as it's well-formed and consistent. On the other hand definitions need to be very precise. Natural language relies on "you know what I mean", which is a feature for most human-to-human communication, but it's not how mathematics and computer science work!