Definition:
Phrases or clauses arranged independently: a coordinate, rather than a subordinate, construction. (Contrast with hypotaxis.) Adjective: paratactic. See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "placing side by side"Examples:
- "I came; I saw; I conquered."
(Julius Caesar) - "Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better--splashed to their very blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling one another's umbrellas, in a general infection of ill-temper, and losing their foothold at street corners."
(Charles Dickens, Bleak House) - "I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun."
(Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely) - "I remember walking across Sixty-second Street one twilight that first spring, or the second spring, they were all alike for a while. I was late to meet someone but I stopped at Lexington Avenue and bought a peach and stood on the corner eating it and knew that I had come out of the West and reached the mirage. I could taste the peach and feel the soft air blowing from a subway grating on my legs and I could smell lilac and garbage and expensive perfume and I knew that it would cost something sooner or later . . .."
(Joan Didion, "Goodbye to All That," Slouching Towards Bethlehem) - "Twenty-two years old, weak, hot, frightened, not daring to
acknowledge the fact that he didn't know who or what he was . . .
with no past, no language, no tribe, no source, no address book,
no comb, no pencil, no clock, no pocket handkerchief, no rug, no
bed, no can opener, no faded postcard, no soap, no key, no
tobacco pouch, no soiled underwear and nothing nothing nothing to
do . . . he was sure of one thing only: the unchecked monstrosity
of his hands."
(Toni Morrison, Sula)
Pronunciation: PAR-a-TAX-iss
