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An anacoluthon is a rhetorical device that can be loosely defined as a change of syntax within a sentence. More specifically, anacoluthons (or "anacoluthia") are created when a sentence abruptly changes from one structure to another. Grammatically, anacoluthon is an error; however, in rhetoric it is a figure that shows excitement, confusion, or laziness. In poetics it is sometimes used in dramatic monologues and in verse drama. In prose, anacoluthon is often used in stream of consciousness writing, such as that of James Joyce, because it is characteristic of informal human thought.
In its most restrictive meaning, anacoluthon requires that the introductory elements of a sentence lack a proper object or complement. For example, if the beginning of a sentence sets up a subject and verb, but then the sentence changes its structure so that no direct object is given, the result is anacoluthon. Essentially, it requires a change of subject or verb from the stated to an implied term. The sentence must be "without completion" (literally what "anacoluthon" means). A sentence that lacks a head, that supplies instead the complement or object without subject, is anapodoton.
As a figure, anacoluthon directs a reader's attention, especially in poetry, to the syntax itself and highlights the mechanics of the meaning rather than the object of the meaning. It can, therefore, be a distancing technique in some poetry.
Examples
- Agreements entered into when one state of facts exists — are they to be maintained regardless of changing conditions? (John George Diefenbaker)
- Had ye been there — for what could that have done? (John Milton in Lycidas)
- Shakespeare uses anacoluthon in his history plays:
- "Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
- That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
- Let him depart. (William Shakespeare, Henry V IV iii 346-6).
- Additionally, Conrad Aiken's Rimbaud and Verlaine has an extended anacoluthon as it discusses anacoluthon:
Etymology
The word 'anacoluthon' comes from the Greek 'anakolouthon' which derives from the prefix an (not) combined with the root akolouthos (following), which, incidentally, is precisely the meaning of the Latin phrase non sequitur in logic. However, in Classical rhetoric anacoluthon was used both for the logical error of non sequitur and for the syntactic effect or error of changing an expected following or completion to a new or improper one.
See also
Anacoluthon is sometimes (wrongly) confused with anacoloutha, a term that denotes metaphorical substitutions.
Trivia
The word, though not the underlying meaning, has been popularized, due to its use as an imprecation by Captain Haddock in the English translations of the Tintin series of books.
External links
References
- Aiken, Conrad. Selected Poems. London: OUP, 2003. 141.
- Brown, Huntington and Albert W. Halsall. "Anacoluthon" in Alex Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan, eds., The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993. 67-8.
Anakoluth | Anacoluto | Anacoluthe | Anacoluto | Anacoluto | Anakoloet | Anacoluto | Anacolut | Анаколуф
"Anacoluthon"