Word.ws English Dictionary

para-hypotaxis

para-hypotaxis noun: a clause-linkage strategy intermediate between parataxis and hypotaxis, in which a proleptic subordinate clause is joined to its main clause by a coordinating conjunction.

Noun

para-hypotaxis (uncountable)

  1. (rare) A clause-linkage strategy intermediate between parataxis and hypotaxis, in which a proleptic subordinate clause is joined to its main clause by a coordinating conjunction.
    • Traditionally considered as an idiosyncratic feature of the Old Romance languages (as well as Biblical Hebrew, Greek and Latin), para-hypotaxis has recently been discovered in at least one modern, genetically unrelated language (Swahili).2012, Pier Marco Bertinetto, Luca Ciucci, “Parataxis, Hypotaxis and Para-Hypotaxis in the Zamucoan Languages”, in Linguistic Discovery, volume 10, number 1, →DOI, page 89
    • Instances of this phenomenon, often referred to as "para-hypotaxis," are reported from nearly every period of Latin literature, from Plautus onwards, but most of them go back to later times, particularly to Christian authors.2014, Giovanbattista Galdi, “Some considerations on the apodotic uses of atque and et (2nd c. BC–2nd c. AD)”, in Journal of Latin Linguistics, volume 13, number 1, →DOI, page 64

Origin of para-hypotaxis

Calque of Italian paraipotassi. From para- + ipotassi (“hypotaxis”), with para- evoking paratassi (“parataxis”), naming a construction intermediate between parataxis and hypotaxis. Coined by Italian Romance philologist Luigi Sorrento in 1929. By surface analysis, para- + hypotaxis.

Questions about para-hypotaxis

What does para-hypotaxis mean?
Para-hypotaxis means a clause-linkage strategy intermediate between parataxis and hypotaxis, in which a proleptic subordinate clause is joined to its main clause by a coordinating conjunction.
What part of speech is para-hypotaxis?
Para-hypotaxis is a noun.

Words near para-hypotaxis in the dictionary

  1. para-fascist
  2. para-fascists
  3. para-frag
  4. para-frags
  5. para-hockey
  6. para-hypotaxis
  7. para-IPA
  8. para-judo
  9. para-methoxymethcathinone
  10. para-nitrotoluene
  11. para-nordic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: para-hypotaxis (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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