If we consider the effect of signs when they are grammatically combined to form discourse, we detect two semiotic processes which are not reducible to each other, and which might be called “linking” and “nesting”.
- Weinreich (1963), a pag.130

'In all languages a combination of signs takes the form of either linking or nesting,and all languages use both patterns in kernel sentences. No further patterns are introduced by transformations. While the number of levels is not theoretically limited, linking on more than three and nesting on more than four is very rare'.
- Weinreich (1963), a pag.134

n. 31 […] ‘Linking’ and ‘Nesting’ are taken as “metarelations” between a relation and an argument [...].
- Weinreich (1963), a pag.158

Nesting, like linking, may involve a multiplicity of “levels”.
- Weinreich (1963), a pag.132