n. Grammar
The dependent or subordinate relationship of clauses with connectives.
[Greek hupotaxis, subjection, from hupotassein, to arrange under : hupo-, hypo- + tassein, tag-, to arrange.]
hypotactic hy'po·tac'tic (-tăk'tĭk) adj.
hypotaxis
| Dictionary: hy·po·tax·is |
(hī'pə-tăk'sĭs)
n. Grammar
The dependent or subordinate relationship of clauses with connectives.
n. Grammar
The dependent or subordinate relationship of clauses with connectives.
| Literary Dictionary: hypotactic |
hypotactic, marked by the use of connecting words between clauses or sentences, explicitly showing the logical or other relationships between them: ‘I am tired because it is hot.’ Such use of syntactic subordination of one clause to another is known as hypotaxis. The opposite kind of construction, referred to as paratactic, simply juxtaposes clauses or sentences: ‘I am tired; it is hot’.
See also syntax.| Wikipedia: Hypotaxis |
Hypotaxis is the grammatical arrangement of functionally similar but "unequal" constructs (hypo="beneath", taxis="arrangement"), i.e., constructs playing an unequal role in a sentence.
A common example of syntactic expression of hypotaxis is subordination in a complex sentence. Another example is observed in premodification. In the phrase "inexpensive composite materials", "composite" modifies "materials" while "inexpensive" modifies the complex head "composite materials" , rather than "composite" or "materials". In this example the phrase units are hierarchically structured, rather than being on the same level, as compared to the example "Cockroaches love warm, damp, dark places". Notice the syntactic difference: hypotactic modifiers cannot be separated by commas.
A classical example of verbal hypotaxis, unobservable in English, is the Greek phrase Molon labe.
See also
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 | Subordination (linguistics) |
| Ihab Hassan |
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Hypotaxis". Read more |
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