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Parataxis

Structure
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

Parataxis is a syntactic structure linking clauses or phrases coordinately (often with “and” or asyndeton), avoiding subordination to create immediacy or starkness.

Detailed Definition
Parataxis is a syntactic strategy in poetry that places clauses or phrases side by side without coordinating or subordinating conjunctions, fostering stark juxtaposition, ambiguity, or rapid associative leaps; it contrasts with hypotaxis and is central to imagist and modernist aesthetics, as seen in Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” or biblical Hebrew poetry.
Example
Example in poetry:
Parataxis in Hemingway-influenced poetry; biblical parallelism (“I came, I saw, I conquered”); Williams’ “so much depends / upon / a red wheel / barrow”; paratactic lists in Whitman’s catalogs
Additional Notes
Coordinate clauses without subordinating conjunctions. "I came, I saw, I conquered." Contrast with hypotaxis. Creates immediate, cumulative effect. Common in modernist poetry. Hemingway prose offers models.
Also Known As
coordinate syntax simple connection
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