catataxis

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κατάταξις (katátaxis, “ordering, arranging”).

Noun

catataxis

1. A confusion between hierarchical levels; a two-way dependency relation, such as that between a subject and a finite verb.
   • 2001, Lars Heltoft, Recasting Danish subjects, in Jan Terje Faarlund, Grammatical relations in change, page 176:

     No content distinction will be needed that does not find its own mark at the level of expression. One way dependency relations (hypotaxis) will not suffice. In the vein of Jespersen and Hjelmslev I shall employ two way dependency relations as well (nexus or catataxis). The relations between subject, finite verb and object are the aim of our analysis and simple enough to serve as our example, too.

     Dependency relations can be seen as abstract relations of governance between syntactic categories, […] . Viewed at the level of abstract categorial^[sic] dependency or governance, the relation between subject and finite verb is catataxis, the relation between finite verb and direct object is hypotaxis:

     (4) Subject ↔ Verb → Object

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:catataxis.

Coordinate terms

• hypotaxis
• parataxis