zeugma

Zeugma (from the Greek: ζεῦγμα, zeûgma, meaning "yoke") is a figure of speech describing the joining of two or more parts of a sentence with a single common verb or noun. A zeugma employs both ellipsis, the omission of words which are easily understood, and parallelism, the balance of several words or phrases. The result is a series of similar phrases joined or yoked together by a common and implied noun or verb. A syllepsis is a particular kind of zeugma, and there is a clear distinction between the two in classical treatises written on the subject. Henry Peacham praises the “delight of the ear” in the use of the zeugma in rhetoric, but stresses that “too many clauses" should be avoided. The zeugma is categorized according to the location and part of speech of the governing word.

Prozeugma

The prozeugma (also called the Synezeugmenon or the Latin praeiunctio) is a zeugma where a verb in the first part of a sentence governs several later clauses in a series.

• “Vicit pudorem libido, timorem audacia, rationem amentia” (Cicero, Pro Cluentio, VI.15)

“Lust conquered shame, audacity fear, madness reason.” (Also an example of a tricolon)

• “Povertie hath gotten conquest of thy riches, shame of thy pride, danger of thy safetie, folly of thy wisedome, weakenesse of thy strength, and time of thy imagined immortalitie. [sic]” (Henry Peacham)

• “Mr. Jones took his coat and his leave”

• “He [Mr. Finching] proposed seven times once in a hackney-coach once in a boat once in a pew once on a donkey at Tunbridge Wells and the rest on his knees.”
  [Flora Finching] - (Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, Chapter 24)

Mesozeugma

The mesozeugma is a zeugma where a verb in the middle of the sentence governs several parallel clauses on either side.

• Both determination and virtue will prevail; both dedication and honor, diligence and commitment.

• “What a shame is this, that neither hope of reward, nor feare of reproch could any thing move him, neither the perswasion of his friends, nor the love of his countrey. [sic]”--Peacham

Hypozeugma

The hypozeugma, also called an adjunctio in Latin, is a zeugma where a verb falls at the end of a sentence and governs several parallel clauses that precede it.

• Aut morbo aut vetustate formae dignitas deflorescit.—Rhetorica ad Herennium

"Either with disease or age, physical beauty fades"

• ”through rain or sleet or dark of night, the mail must get through.”—motto of postal carriers (also contains a rhetorical bracketing and repetition of the word “through”)

• Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium palatii, nihil urbis vigilae, nihil timor populi, nihil concursus bonorum omnium, nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus, nihil horum ora vultusque moverunt? —Cicero In Catilinam I-IV.

"Does not the nightly watch of the Palatine, does not guard of the city, does not the fear of the people, does not the union of all good men, does not the holding of the senate in this most defensible place, do not the looks and faces of these people move you?"

By suspending the verb until the end, the listener is unable to determine what action the atrocities will cause, which is precisely the point Cicero intends to make. In this manner, the hypozeugma lends itself well to the forming of a periodic sentence.

• "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears."—William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

• "Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride

On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere."- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Paul Revere’s Ride"

• "The foundation of freedome, the fountaine of equitie, the safegard of wealth, and custodie of life, is preserved by lawes."—Peacham

Following a hypozeugma with a prozeugma can create a chiasmus.

In many cases an audience will try to second guess the verb that is being suspended. Thus a speaker can subvert the expectation of the listener by deliberately undermining a set up.

• "Family, religion, friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business ."—Mr. Burns, The Simpsons

Diazeugma

The diazeugma is a zeugma where a noun governs two or more verbs. Latin rhetoricians further divide the diazeugma according to the placement of the subject and verbs.

Diazeugma Disjunction

The subject appears at the beginning of the sentence and each verb follows in its respective clause.

• Populus Romanus Numantiam delevit, Kartaginem sustulit, Corinthum disiecit, Fregellas evertit.—Rhetorica ad Herennium

The Roman people destroyed Numantia, razed Carthage, demolished Corinth, and overthrew Fregella.

• Formae dignitas aut morbo deflorescit aut vetustate extinguitur—Rhetorica ad Herennium’’

Physical beauty: with disease it fades; with age it dies.

Diazeugma Conjunction

The subject appears in the middle of a sentence and may take the place of a conjunction.

• Stands accused, threatens our homes, revels in his crime, this man guilty of burglary asks our forgiveness.
• Despairing in the heat and in the sun, we marched, cursing in the rain and in the cold.

Hypozeuxis

The Hypozeuxis is the opposite of a zeugma, where each subject has its own verb.

• "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!"—Winston Churchill

Syllepsis

Syllepsis is a particular type of zeugma in which the clauses are not parallel either in meaning or grammar. The governing word may change meaning with respect to the other words it modifies. This creates a semantic incongruity that is often humorous. Alternatively, a syllepsis may contain a governing word or phrase that does not agree grammatically with one or more of its distributed terms. This is an intentional construction in which rules of grammar are bent for stylistic effect.

Distributed term changes meaning

The governing term can change meaning in its distribution, sometimes to comical effect.

• alter cum res gestas tum etiam stadium atque auris adhibere posset.

Cicero, Pro Archia Poeta (The other was able to lend not only his achievements, but also his support and ears.)

• Here Thou, great Anna! whom three Realms obey,
  Dost sometimes Counsel take - and sometimes Tea.

Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (Pope was speaking of Queen Anne and Kensington Palace; note that in Pope's time, "tea" was pronounced "tay" and thus rhymed with "obey.")

• He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men.

Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

• And he said, as he hastened to put out the cat,
  The wine, his cigar and the lamps:
  "Have some Madeira, m'dear..."'

Michael Flanders "Have Some Madeira M'Dear"

• She lowered her standards by raising her glass,
  Her courage, her eyes and his hopes.

Ibid.

• When he asked "What in Heaven?" she made no reply,
  Up her mind, and a dash for the door

Ibid.

Syllepsis can be used with idiomatic phrases to achieve a similar result:

• You held your breath and the door for me.

Alanis Morissette, "Head over Feet"

• I got a part-time job at my father's carpet store, laying tackless stripping and housewives by the score.

Warren Zevon, "Mr. Bad Example"

• I took her hand and then an aspirin in the morning,

Eve 6, "Girl Eyes"

• "Oh, flowers are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in London."

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (Cecily is making a catty remark to Miss Fairfax, a Londoner, by using "common" in two senses, namely "numerous" and "vulgar" as in the expression "common thief.")

• "The Russian grandees came to Elizabeth's court dropping pearls and vermin."

Thomas Babington Macaulay

• "Are you getting fit or having one?"

From the television program M*A*S*H

• "You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit."

From the television program Star Trek: The Next Generation

• "She was a thief, you got to believe: she stole my heart and my cat."

From the film So I Married an Axe Murderer

• "I called her a whore and myself a cab."

Sleazy Jesus, "Girl on Girl"

Syllepsis with ambiguous grammar

A syllepsis may contain a governing word which does not agree grammatically with one or more of the words or clauses to which it is distributed.

• "Loud lightning and thunder shook the temple walls."

Here, neither "loud" nor "shook" agree with "lightning", a purely visual effect.

• "The sky—and my hopes—is falling."
• "Our son's diaper—and your excuses—is stinking."

The first subject is brought to our attention more ominously by the verb with which it agrees.

Examples of syllepsis

• [She] went straight home in a flood of tears, and a sedan chair. - Charles Dickens
• Just a dissipated creep who wears a Rolex on his wrist/On her nerves, too much cologne, and down her power to resist.

Did she turn down the wrong hallway, his advances, or the sheet? - Bob Kanefsky, "The Girl Who Had Never Been ..."

• ... and covered themselves with dust and glory. - Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. - Groucho Marx, from Duck Soup
• Come the (computer) revolution, all persons found guilty of such criminal behavior will be summarily executed, and their programs won't be!--Numerical Recipes
• My teeth and ambitions are bared; be prepared! - Scar, from The Lion King with lyrics by Tim Rice
• The levees were broken and so were the promises. - Anderson Cooper, Dispatches from the Edge
• The word “Arms” would have two different meanings at once: “weapons” (as the object of “keep”) and (as the object of “bear”) one-half of an idiom. It would be rather like saying “He filled and kicked the bucket” to mean “He filled the bucket and died.” Grotesque. - Justice Scalia's majority opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller, rejecting the notion that the phrase "bear arms" was used as an idiom in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.554 U.S. ____ (2008), slip op. at 13.
• Monica had exploded, and I had a mystery, and pieces of her pancreas, on my hands. - entry to the 2001 Lyttle Lytton Contest

See also

• Figure of Speech
• Rhetoric
• Humour
• Antanaclasis
• Asyndeton

Sources

• Pseudo-Cicero, ‘’Rhetorica ad Herennium’’ (with an English translation by Harry Caplan 1954) Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, (ISBN 0-674-99444-2)
• Quintillian, Institutio Oratoria : Books I-III (edited by H. E. Butler 1980) Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, (ISBN 0-674-99138-9)
• Henry Peacham, The Garden of Eloquence Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, Inc. 1977 (ISBN 0-8201-1225-9)
• Dr. Gideon O. Burton, Silva Rhetoricae, websource 2003
• Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 683. ISBN 0-674-36250-0. 

External links

• Some examples of zeugma as a synonym for syllepsis
• Perseus Project with links to original sources on rhetoric