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paratactic phrase

Phrase
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A series of clauses or phrases linked without subordinating conjunctions

Detailed Definition
Paratactic phrases create stark, accumulative power through simple coordination (“I came, I saw, I conquered”); common in biblical and modernist poetry, they suggest equality of images or events, refusing hierarchical interpretation.
Example
Example in poetry:
She ran. The sky cracked. Thunder answered. Leaves spiraled downward. A child cried. The old man smiled. Rain began. The world kept turning; He wrote. She read. Pages turned. Time bent. Stars watched. Breath held. Silence spoke.
Additional Notes
Paratactic phrases link clauses without subordination: “He came. She left. The door closed.”; they create starkness, urgency, or trauma; used by Pound, Plath, and contemporary minimalists; avoid fragmentation without purpose—each clause should carry weight; related to clausal ellipsis and disjunctive phrase; ideal for poems of fragmentation, war, or silence.
Also Known As
parallel structure coordinate structure additive syntax
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