Saturday & Sundry $10 Stuff

zeugma
a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g., John and his license expired last week) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g. with weeping eyes and hearts ).

syllepsis
a figure of speech in which a word is applied to two others in different senses (e.g. caught the train and a bad cold ) or to two others of which it grammatically suits only one (e.g. neither they nor it is working ).

Those two words do appear to have overlap. We are advised that zeugma is more about semantics and syllepsis about grammar. (More on this HERE).


isocolon
a rhetorical device that involves a succession of sentences, phrases and clauses of grammatically equal length. In this figure of speech, a sentence has a parallel structure that is made up of words, clauses or phrases of equal length, sound, meter and rhythm. Isocolon is the repetition of similar grammatical forms.

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

- From The Tyger by William Blake.

(See HERE)


schesis onomaton
Wikipedia: Originally a rhetorical technique consisting of a sentence constructed only of nouns and adjectives. It later came to mean such a series of nouns and adjectives or any series of words that were synonymous expressions. In the second sense it is a rhetorical technique used to emphasize an idea by repeating it rapidly using slightly different words that have the same or a very similar meaning.
Example of first meaning:

A man faithful in friendship, prudent in counsels, virtuous in conversation, gentle in communication, learned in all liberal sciences, eloquent in utterance, comely in gesture, an enemy to naughtiness, and a lover of all virtue and godliness.
— Peacham.

Example of second meaning:

Wendy lay there, motionless in a peaceful slumber, very still in the arms of sleep.
— Robert A. Harris, VirtualSalt

Alternatively...think about the dead parrot speech from Monty Python!


There's a good $10-type piece on such things by Christopher Howse at: UK's Spectator, he is reviewing a book The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth.

Also from the above: should one ever be tempted to over-adjectivise the pudding - some advice:

Designated order of adjectives, in English:
opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose-noun.

So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac.

This knowledge is implicitly mastered by all native speakers; to see it made explicit is an enjoyable revelation, like learning to carry a tray on the flat of your hand.