colligation

Etymology

From Latin colligātiō; surface analysis, colligate + -tion.

noun

1. A binding together.
2. (logic) The formulation of a general hypothesis which seeks to connect two or more facts.
   In order to have knowledge of the physical world, we use our ideas and concepts as the "thread" on which we string the facts about the world, the "pearls." We do this by a process Whewell called colligation. 2011, Laura J. Snyder, The Philosophical Breakfast Club Broadway Books, page 252 (in a discussion of William Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon Their History (1840))
3. (linguistics) The co-occurrence of syntactic categories, usually within a sentence.