Syntax Flashcards
Reversal of the usual, logical, or normal order of the parts of a sentence
Anastrophe
The deliberate omission of conjunctions, builds momentum and tension
Asyndeton
The deliberate use of many conjunctions, slows down the rhythm of a sentence
Polysyndeton
Sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence, and builds and adds on
Cumulative (loose) sentence
Sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end
Periodic sentence
The arrangement of words, phrases or clauses of increasing importance [let a man acknowledge obligations to his family, his country, and his God]
Climax
Opposite of climax- The arrangement of words, phrases or clauses of decreasing importance
Anticlimax
Questions that have no real answer but are meant for the audience to think deeper
Rhetorical question
The repetition of words and successive clauses, and reverse grammatical order: [one should live to eat, not eat to live]
Antimetabole
(The “criss-cross”) reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases [his time is a moment, and a point, his space]
Chiasmus
Inverted order of words in a sentence (variation of the subject-verb-object order)
Inversion
Use of two different words in a grammatically similar way, the producing different, often incongruence meanings [he carried a strobe light and the responsibility to the lives of his men]
Zeugma
The use of the word understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs [The ink, like our pig, keeps running out of pen]
Syllepsis
A sudden breaking off in the middle of a sentence, resulting from unwillingness or inability to proceed
Aposiopesis
The repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses
Anaphora
