Catena (linguistics)

Catena (in linguistics) is a fancy word that means "chain." It's a way of thinking about how language works: When we are speaking or writing, each word is like a link in a chain. All the words that come before it in the sentence affect the meaning of the word - so all the words are connected in a kind of chain. This helps us figure out what a sentence means, because each word has a meaning based on the words around it.