Writing Help 129 | - Freelance Writer
Mar 29, 2013 | #1
Using Advanced Rhetorical Devices to Surprise and Delight
Before we dig into this interesting rhetorical term, I think a note about the prefix a is in order. This might seem a little strange, but I have heard educated people applying this prefix incorrectly so often that I feel it needs to be addressed, and I can see no better time than in conjunction with a term that employs the vexing little letter a. Read the following statement, note where the a prefix stands, and see if you can figure out why it is not right in this context: "His actions were so amoral that there is no way he can be forgiven." If you spotted the a at the start of amoral as the offender in this sentence, reward yourself with ten points. Amoral is a proper and acknowledged English word, but it means "without consideration of morals, having nothing to do with morality, not being properly considered in terms of morals." The a prefix is used to indicate that what follows it is simply not present and not applicable, so in the above example, what is really being said is that the person's actions had nothing to do with morality, cannot be evaluated by moral standards, and had no moral element. What is really intended here is immoral, which features the popular and effective prefix im, connoting that the term it modifies is being inverted. Impossible for example, means not possible. It is the opposite of possible, and so immoral is the opposite of moral. Unless you are speaking of an advanced ethical system or philosophy, amoral is likely the wrong word.
That being said, we turn back to asyndeton with a clear idea of what its prefix means at the very least. A means without or lacking, and thinking back to the previous article on polysyndeton, we remember that syndeton has to do with conjunctions and joining. So, a lack of conjunctions is what is suggested by the roots of the term, and that is a fine description of what asyndeton is. It is the mirror of polysyndeton, and if you remember that poly means many while a means no or none, you will have no trouble keeping these terms straight in your mind.
The following example of asyndeton should make clear what the term is used to describe:
"We chased them on land, at sea, in the air. We hunted them in the forest, the jungle, the dessert, the mountains. We searched the ends of the earth. We found nothing."
In the first sentence, note that the three items are separated by commas, but and does not make its expected appearance between the last two items. This makes the sentence grammatically problematic, but note that there is no problem with the comprehensibility of the sentence, and a more dramatic effect is created. Asyndeton tends to speed up the passage, causing us to read more quickly, resulting in a feeling of being washed over by the stream of words that are pouring out. Items get piled up, and their accumulation draws us into the sentence, forcing our attention and making us anticipate what will come next, and when it will end. The second sentence uses the device the same way, but notice that between all of the sentences, especially between the last two, there is no coordination even though there well could be since the sentences are all dealing with the same topic. Asyndeton therefore is not merely a device that adheres within a given sentence, but also one which appears (through a noticeable absence) between them, refusing to coordinate. Here, the reader is left to make the connections, and although they are often obvious, this serves to involve the reader more directly, which means the reader is more likely to get swept up in the flow of the words.
Asyndeton
Before we dig into this interesting rhetorical term, I think a note about the prefix a is in order. This might seem a little strange, but I have heard educated people applying this prefix incorrectly so often that I feel it needs to be addressed, and I can see no better time than in conjunction with a term that employs the vexing little letter a. Read the following statement, note where the a prefix stands, and see if you can figure out why it is not right in this context: "His actions were so amoral that there is no way he can be forgiven." If you spotted the a at the start of amoral as the offender in this sentence, reward yourself with ten points. Amoral is a proper and acknowledged English word, but it means "without consideration of morals, having nothing to do with morality, not being properly considered in terms of morals." The a prefix is used to indicate that what follows it is simply not present and not applicable, so in the above example, what is really being said is that the person's actions had nothing to do with morality, cannot be evaluated by moral standards, and had no moral element. What is really intended here is immoral, which features the popular and effective prefix im, connoting that the term it modifies is being inverted. Impossible for example, means not possible. It is the opposite of possible, and so immoral is the opposite of moral. Unless you are speaking of an advanced ethical system or philosophy, amoral is likely the wrong word.
That being said, we turn back to asyndeton with a clear idea of what its prefix means at the very least. A means without or lacking, and thinking back to the previous article on polysyndeton, we remember that syndeton has to do with conjunctions and joining. So, a lack of conjunctions is what is suggested by the roots of the term, and that is a fine description of what asyndeton is. It is the mirror of polysyndeton, and if you remember that poly means many while a means no or none, you will have no trouble keeping these terms straight in your mind.The following example of asyndeton should make clear what the term is used to describe:
"We chased them on land, at sea, in the air. We hunted them in the forest, the jungle, the dessert, the mountains. We searched the ends of the earth. We found nothing."
In the first sentence, note that the three items are separated by commas, but and does not make its expected appearance between the last two items. This makes the sentence grammatically problematic, but note that there is no problem with the comprehensibility of the sentence, and a more dramatic effect is created. Asyndeton tends to speed up the passage, causing us to read more quickly, resulting in a feeling of being washed over by the stream of words that are pouring out. Items get piled up, and their accumulation draws us into the sentence, forcing our attention and making us anticipate what will come next, and when it will end. The second sentence uses the device the same way, but notice that between all of the sentences, especially between the last two, there is no coordination even though there well could be since the sentences are all dealing with the same topic. Asyndeton therefore is not merely a device that adheres within a given sentence, but also one which appears (through a noticeable absence) between them, refusing to coordinate. Here, the reader is left to make the connections, and although they are often obvious, this serves to involve the reader more directly, which means the reader is more likely to get swept up in the flow of the words.