SYNTACTICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES

Syntactical SD deal with the syntactical arrangement of the utterance.

There are several syntactical SD:
1) Inversion (a) complete - the displacement of the predicate – Women are not made for
attack. Wait they must. (J.C.) b) partial - the displacement of the secondary members
of the sentence – Out came the chaise – in went the horses – on sprung the boys – in
got the travelers. (D.).
Occasionally, students protested at the unrelenting stress, and a few dropped out….
(M.W.)
Up came the file and down sat the editor, with Mr. Pickwick at his side. (D.)
2) Rhetorical question (the statement in the form of a question);

3) Ellipsis (the omission of one of the main members of a sentence) – And if his feelings
about the war got known, he’d be nicely in the soup. Arrested, perhaps – got rid of,
somehow. (A.) ‘Very windy, isn’t it?’ – said Strachan, when the silence had listened
some time. ‘Very’, said Wimsey. (D.S.) One step forward, one step back. (J.C.)

4) Detachment (secondary members of the sentence are isolated from the rest of the
sentence) – She narrowed her eyes a trifle at me and said I looked exactly like Celia
Briganza’s boy. Around the mouth. (S.)

And Fleur – charming in her jade-green wrapper – tucked a corner of her lip behind a
tooth, and went back to her room to finish dressing. (G.)

5) Aposiopesis (sudden break in the narration) – If you go on like this …

Paritt: Well, they’ll get a chance now to show – (Hastily) I don’t mean – But let’s
forget that. (O.’N.)

‘She must leave – or – or, better yet – maybe drown herself – make away with herself
in some way or –’ (Dr.)

6) Suspence (holds the reader in tense anticipation, is often realized through the
separation of predicate from subject or from predicative – the author deliberately
introduces a phrase, a clause or a sentence between them) - ‘If’ by R. Kipling.

All this Mrs. Snagsby, as an injured woman and the friend of Mrs. Chadband, and the
follower of Mr. Chadband, and the mourner of the late Mr. Tulkinghorn, is here to
certify. (D.)

I have been accused of bad taste. This has disturbed me, not so much for my own sake
(since I am used to the slights and arrows of outrageous fortune) as for the sake of
criticism in general. (S.M.)
“…. The day on which I take the happiest and best step of my life – the day on
which I shall be a man more exulting and more enviable than any other man in
the world – the day on which I give the Bleak House its little mistress – shall be
next month, then,” said my guardian. (D.)
7) Repetition:
a) Ordinary repetition of a word or phrase. There were big palms and the green
benches in the public garden. … Artists liked the way the palms grew… (E.
H.);

b) Anaphora (the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several sentences)

– Be bold. Be brief. Be gone.
So many places, so little time.
We came, we saw, we conquered (J. Caesar)
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … it was the epoch of belief … it
was the season of Light … (C.D.)
Her favourite flowers filled the room. Her clothes were in the wardrobes in her
room. Her brushes were on the table. (D. du M.)
Scheme: a … a … a …
c) Epiphora (the repetition of a word/ a phrase at the end of several sentences) – The
United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war.
We do not now expect a war.
It is so natural to be scared in a case like that. You are sure to be petrified in a
case like that.
It was made of bronze and glistened in the rain. ..The sea broke in a long line
in the rain. (E. H.)
Scheme: … a, … a, … a.

d) Framing. (the repetition both at the beginning and at the end of a unit)
Poor Mary. How much Jack loved her! What will he do now? I wish it hadn’t
happened. Poor Mary.
He ran away from the battle . He was an ordinary human being that didn’t want to kill
or be killed, so he ran away from the battle. (St. H.)
Scheme: a … a.

e) Anadiplosis (catch repetition)

Scheme: … a, a … b, b … c etc.
The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator
who defied an emperor. (Gladiator movie)
Hopeless minutes turned into hours, hours into days… (J.A.)

f) Chain repetition
Scheme: …a. a…d. d…c. c…
Failure meant poverty, poverty meant squalor, squalor led, in the final stages,
to the smells and stagnation. (D. du M.)
At first he looked shocked. Then, as realization hit him, he began to smile, the
smile grew into grin, the grin worked its way into laughter. (C.A.)

g) Morphological repetition – He unchained, unbolted and unlocked the door. (A.B.)

8) Parallelism (repetition of the structure of the sentence. Complete – identical structures:

I am American. She is Bulgarian. He is British. Partial – Their anxiety is so keen, their
vigilance is so great, their excited joy grows so intense as the signs of life strengthen,
that how can she resist it! .. (D.)
 “If you are sorrowful, let me know why, and be sorrowful too; if you waste away
and you are paler and weaker every day, let me be your nurse and try to comfort
you. If you are poor, let us be poor together; but let me be with you.” (D.)

9) Chiasmus (reversed parallelism (two sentences. The 2nd repeats the structure of the 1st)
– I know the world and the world knows me. (D.)

There are so many sons who won’t have anything to do with their fathers, and so
many fathers who won’t speak to their sons. (O.W.)

10) Polysyndeton (the repetition of conjunction or connecting words) – And the

coach, and the coachman, and the horses, rattled, and jangled, and whipped … (D.)

11) Asyndeton (no conjunctions or connecting words) – He yawned, went out to look
at the thermometer, slammed the door, patted her head, unbuttoned his waistcoat
yawned … (S.L.)
Through his brain, slowly sifted the things they had done together. Walking
together. Dancing together. Sitting silent together. Watching people together. (P.
A.)