Hypotaxis

{{Short description|Concept in linguistics}} {{Refimprove|date=March 2011}} '''Hypotaxis''' is the grammatical arrangement of functionally similar but "unequal" constructs (from Greek ''hypo-'' "beneath", and ''taxis'' "arrangement"); certain constructs have more importance than others inside a sentence.

A common example of syntactic expression of hypotaxis is the subordination of one syntactic unit to another in a complex sentence.<ref>Stanley Fish, ''How to Write a Sentence'' p 51 {{ISBN|978-0-06-184054-8}}</ref>

Another example is 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 at the same level, as compared with the example "Cockroaches love warm, damp, dark places." The key difference in how they are written is that premodification doesn't have a comma between the modifiers.

John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale" has an example of hypotaxis in the second stanza: "O, for a draught of vintage! That hath been/ Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth, / Tasting of Flora and the country green" (1. 11–13). The "draught of vintage" is modified by the clauses in the successive lines.<ref name=Greenblatt>{{cite book|last1=Greenblatt|first1=Stephen|title=The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. D|date=2012|publisher=Norton|edition=9th|display-authors=etal}}</ref>

In William Blake's poem "The Clod and the Pebble", the phrase "So sang a little Clod of Clay,/ Trodden with the cattle's feet" (l. 5–6) is an example of hypotaxis; line 6 modifies the "Clod of Clay" in line 5.<ref name=Greenblatt />

==See also== *Parataxis

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Syntax Category:Figures of speech