Asyndeton
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Asyndeton (, ; from the el, ἀσύνδετον, "unconnected", sometimes called asyndetism) is a literary scheme in which one or several conjunctions are deliberately omitted from a series of related clauses. Examples include ''
veni, vidi, vici ''Veni, vidi, vici'' (, ; "I came; I saw; I conquered") is a Latin phrase used to refer to a swift, conclusive victory. The phrase is popularly attributed to Julius Caesar who, according to Appian, used the phrase in a letter to the Roman Senate ...
'' and its English translation "I came, I saw, I conquered". Its use can have the effect of speeding up the rhythm of a passage and making a single idea more memorable. Asyndeton may be contrasted with
syndeton :''"The Syndeton Experiment" is a spinoff audio episode of the ''Blake's 7'' British science fiction television series'' Syndeton (from the Greek συνδετόν "bound together with") or syndetic coordination in grammar is a form of syntactic coor ...
( syndetic coordination) and
polysyndeton Polysyndeton (from Ancient Greek πολύ ''poly'', meaning "many", and συνδετόν '' syndeton'', meaning "bound together with".) is the deliberate insertion of conjunctions into a sentence for the purpose of "slow ngup the rhythm of the ...
, which describe the use of one or multiple coordinating conjunctions, respectively. More generally, in
grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
, an asyndetic coordination is a type of coordination in which no coordinating conjunction is present between the conjuncts. ''Quickly, resolutely, he strode into the bank.'' No coordinator is present here, but the conjoins are still coordinated.


Examples


Omission of conjunction "and"

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
wrote in his ''
Rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
'' that this device was more effective in spoken oratory than in written prose: *"Thus strings of unconnected words, and constant repetitions of words and phrases, are very properly condemned in written speeches: but not in spoken speeches — speakers use them freely, for they have a dramatic effect. In this repetition there must be variety of tone, paving the way, as it were, to dramatic effect; e.g., 'This is the villain among you who deceived you, who cheated you, who meant to betray you completely'". Aristotle, ''Rhetoric'', Book III, Chapter 12 (trans. W. Rhys Roberts). Aristotle also believed that asyndeton can be used effectively in endings of works, and he himself employs the device in the final passage of the ''Rhetoric'': *"For the conclusion, the disconnected style of language is appropriate, and will mark the difference between the oration and the peroration. 'I have done. You have heard me. The facts are before you. I ask for your judgement'". Aristotle, ''Rhetoric'', Book III, Chapter 19 (trans. W. Rhys Roberts). Several notable examples can be found in American political speeches: *"...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth".
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
,
Gettysburg Address The Gettysburg Address is a speech that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, now known as Gettysburg National Cemetery, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on the ...
*"...that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
''Inaugural Address'', 20 January 1961. Another frequently used example is
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
's address, "
We shall fight on the beaches "We shall fight on the beaches" is a common title given to a speech delivered by the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 4 June 1940. This was the second of three major sp ...
": *"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. . ."


Omission of conjunction "or"

An asyndeton of "or" before a
polysyndeton Polysyndeton (from Ancient Greek πολύ ''poly'', meaning "many", and συνδετόν '' syndeton'', meaning "bound together with".) is the deliberate insertion of conjunctions into a sentence for the purpose of "slow ngup the rhythm of the ...
of "and": * "A parson or what looked like one was laboring over the crest of the hill and coming toward them with one hand raised in blessing, greeting, fending flies. He was dressed in a dusty frockcoat and carried a walking stick and he wore a pair of octagonal glasses on the one pane of which the late sun shone while a watery eye peered from the naked wire aperture of the other." (
Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr., July 20, 1933) is an American writer who has written twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays and three short stories, spanning the Western and post-apocalyptic genres. He is known for his gr ...
, ''
Outer Dark ''Outer Dark'' is the second novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy, published in 1968. The time and setting are nebulous, but can be assumed to be somewhere in Appalachia, sometime around the turn of the twentieth century. The novel tells o ...
'', 1968)


See also

* Apo koinou construction *
Parataxis (grammar) Parataxis (from el, παράταξις, "act of placing side by side"; from παρα, ''para'' "beside" + τάξις, ''táxis'' "arrangement") is a literary technique, in writing or speaking, that favors short, simple sentences, without conju ...
*
Reduced relative clause A reduced relative clause is a relative clause that is ''not'' marked by an explicit relative pronoun or complementizer such as ''who'', ''which'' or ''that''. An example is the clause ''I saw'' in the English sentence "This is the man ''I saw''. ...
, relative clause not marked by an overt complementizer * Zeugma


Footnotes


Sources

* Baldrick, Chris. 2008. ''Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms''. Oxford University Press. New York. * Corbett, Edward P. J. and Connors, Robert J. 1999. ''Style and Statement''. Oxford University Press. New York, Oxford. * Forsyth, Mark. 2014. ''The Elements of Eloquence''. Berkley Publishing Group/Penguin Publishing. New York. {{ISBN, 978-0-425-27618-1


External links


Asyndetic Coordination @ The Internet Grammar of English
Rhetorical techniques Figures of speech Grammar