As we think about sentence style, it can be
really useful to have some terminology
to describe what we're seeing, and these
two terms here (parataxis and hypotaxis)
are especially useful in describing two
different styles.
First of all, "parataxis" comes from Greek
(actually, both of these words do), and we
have this little prefix "para" which means
"beside" or "near." And then the last part,
"taxis" comes from Greek as well, and
it has to do with arrangement.
Now, the idea then with parataxis
is that you have sentences, as in the
first example, that are arranged paratactically
(so the adjective is
paratactically)
and in this case you have
sentences that are next to each other,
but they're not subordinated. They're not
really linked. Each sentence is sort of
by itself, and within the sentence as
well (and this is really the crucial part,
this is what makes it paratactic), within
each sentence the clauses are not
subordinated to each other. So they're
all kind of on the same level, and we can
describe parataxis then as a kind of
coordination. In other words, sentences
are placed beside each other, but they're
not subordinated to each other.
We have an arrangement of clauses beside
each other with no sense of whether one
is more important than the other one.
Hypotaxis (we'll look at the examples in
more detail in a minute) ... hypotaxis also
comes from Greek, as mentioned, and "hypo"
means "under" or "beneath." So "hypo"
equals under or beneath and hypotaxis
refers to clauses that are
subordinated.
Let's see how this actually works. In our
first example, then, we read, "Sarah loves
NBA basketball. Her favorite team is the
Golden State Warriors, and she tries to
watch every game."
So far we've only seen one conjunction,
and that's "and," and this kind of
conjunction doesn't really say that one
thing is more more important than
another. This is a coordinating
conjunction.
It just says "here's another fact."
[continues reading] "Sarah's favorite player is Steph Curry. She
relates to the fact that he's under-
sized and (there's another "and") and has to
rely on pure skill and talent.
Sarah faces challenges too: she is
paraplegic." You can see that all of
these sentences -- they're all one after
the other, but they're not really being
subordinated to each other. And if we
look at our second example, if we rewrite
this, you can now start to see that this
becomes more hypotactic. So the
first example is an example of para-
taxis, and the second example is one for
hypotaxis. Now we're starting to use
subordinating conjunctions, so we have
"although [emphasized] Sarah is paraplegic, she loves
watching NBA basketball" and then we
have "in fact" connecting a couple of
clauses. Then we have "because"
and then we finally have an "and" as well,
which is more paratactic. What's the
difference between these two styles? Why
might you prefer one over another? Well,
first of all, neither of these styles is
necessarily the best style.
Each one has its uses. For instance, if
you read the work of Ernest Hemingway,
the great writer,
you'll find that he uses a tremendous
amount of parataxis, which creates a
really interesting stylistic effect. In
an academic essay, you often tend to use
a lot of hypotaxis because you're
trying to link ideas together much more.
What you see then in these kinds of
sentences is a difference between, with
parataxis, simple sentences and
sometimes compound sentences ... so a
compound sentence is just one that
connects a couple of independent clauses
with "and" [or another coordinating conjunction] as you can see here, and a
simple sentence is a sentence that just
has one clause. Hypotaxis consists
usually of complex sentences and these
are sentences
that have at least one independent
clause and at least one dependent clause.
And you can see that in the second
example: "Although Sarah is paraplegic" --
that's a dependent clause and it's being
linked to this later clause, the
independent one. So we can start to see
some differences then between the kinds
of clauses that are being used here. The
result then is also different. With
parataxis we tend to create an effect
that has to do more with equality than
with hierarchy.
So we're expressing a kind of
equality of ideas, whereas with hypo-
taxis we're talking about a hierarchy of
ideas. Some ideas are more important than
others, and we're linking them to each
other. We can also refer to the
difference here as being between a kind
of implicit connection and an overt
connection. If you look at the first
one here (you know, Sarah loves basketball,
she's paraplegic, she admires Steph Curry)
these these facts are not being
connected to each other. You have to
figure out that maybe she admires Steph
Curry because he's undersized and she
struggles with different things. And
that's why, you know, she has this
admiration for him. That's much less in
doubt in the second one, which is more
overt. So parataxis tends to spell
the ideas out much more. It's much more
overt -- sorry, hyptaxis
spells the ideas out much more; it's more
overt, and parataxis is more implicit.
As a result, we can really kind of
capture the difference in style by
saying that parataxis tends to create
an effect that's more choppy and more
detached, and that can be an emotional
detachment as well. If you read Hemingway,
again, the effect is often of a
journalist, a reporter, just saying, "well,
here are the facts: boom, boom, boom, boom,"
whereas with hypotaxis there's really a
sense in which we are investing
ourselves in the facts. We're
creating order, we're saying this is
important, that's less important. And so
we're less emotionally detached,
intellectually detached, we're much more
trying to arrange all of the
material in a form that makes sense to
us. So we could say then that hypotaxis is
more complex, but that also has a
downside. If all your sentences are hypo-
tactic, then it can be much more
difficult to read, because the reader has
to constantly make sense of the
relationship between clauses. The
difference then between parataxis and
hypotaxis (if you think about your own
style) is that you have to think about
your reader. Is your reader going to be
happy about having these really
complicated sentences all the time?
Or would your reader really enjoy having
this kind of clarity of parataxis, and
be able to connect the ideas him or
herself. The point, then, just to kind of
sum up, is that when you think about your
style you don't have to pick parataxis
or hypotaxis. What you need to do is
really be conscious of the different
parts of your essay, let's say, and how
you've shaped them using these different
stylistic devices, You might mix
it up, you might have a bit more of a
choppy section that moves more quickly,
you might have a section that's more
subordinated -- whatever you pick, try to
use these two style stylistic features in
a way that's pleasing, that's elegant, and
that's effective.