Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Arranged without any logical connection, as in disconnected literary or artistic composition. A frieze made up of independent and separate subjects may be said to be paratactic.
  • Of or pertaining to parataxis; characterized by parataxis.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Gram.) Of pertaining to, or characterized by, parataxis.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to or using parataxis.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word paratactic.

Examples

  • This is often called the paratactic account of indirect speech reports.

    Propositional Attitude Reports McKay, Thomas 2005

  • Supported by its distinctly "paratactic" nature, Hölderlin's poetry here is presented as a type of scripture that expressly foregoes the desire for closure, as evidenced by the carefully open-ended reception of "the strangers 'tongue" (die Sprache der Fremdlinge) that was "heard ... comprehended ... interpreted" (vernommen/verstanden/gedeutet). [

    Pfau, Coda & Works Cited' 1999

  • It generally uses words of Anglo-Saxon rather than Latin origin, and its sentences often have a paratactic structure — that is, they juxtapose a series of short elements, sometimes joining them with a simple conjunction (usually "and").

    Beginning With the Word Stephen Miller 2010

  • It generally uses words of Anglo-Saxon rather than Latin origin, and its sentences often have a paratactic structure — that is, they juxtapose a series of short elements, sometimes joining them with a simple conjunction (usually "and").

    Beginning With the Word Stephen Miller 2010

  • I know and use “explicate”, I know “trope”, I have a vague sense of both “quotidian” and “discursive”, and “paratactic” is a complete mystery.

    Waldo Jaquith - 5 words my poetry professor used during today’s lecture. 2008

  • It generally uses words of Anglo-Saxon rather than Latin origin, and its sentences often have a paratactic structure — that is, they juxtapose a series of short elements, sometimes joining them with a simple conjunction (usually "and").

    Beginning With the Word Stephen Miller 2010

  • On 14 February 2008 with 9 comments explicate discursive paratactic trope quotidian

    Waldo Jaquith - 5 words my poetry professor used during today’s lecture. 2008

  • [And this, in a footnote:] ‘Simple’ is often a call for syntax to be kept paratactic and straightforward.

    Missing the Vernacular : A.E. Stallings : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007

  • Readers, I think, are bored senseless with poem after poem full of expository paratactic syntax; it patronizes them, and all but accuses them of being unable to follow an argument.

    Missing the Vernacular : A.E. Stallings : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007

  • Worse, their concern for readers accustomed to short Dick-and-Jane sentences and political cliché has often led them to chop up Herodotus 'long, marvelously organized paratactic clauses, scramble his sentences, omit his oral-style repetitions altogether, pepper his text with unmarked explanatory glosses, and turn his concrete phraseology into a series of bland bureaucratic abstractions.

    The Great Marathon Man Green, Peter 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "a kind of paratactic unarticulation" Casanova, Samuel Beckett, p. 16.

    January 4, 2007

  • "The poems are full of paratactic leaps, each a desperate attempt at escape, except, we find out, escape is just another schtick, e.g., 'Adam turned aside to indulge a passion for turning aside.'"

    - Boston Review

    October 23, 2009

  • I don't see what's paratactic about the example the reviewer cites.

    October 23, 2009