Syntax & Word Order
Hyperbaton
Breaking normal word order — object first, verb delayed, adjective after noun — so the displaced word lands with extra force. English word order is strict, so every violation is loud.
"Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall." — Measure for Measure
Don't confuse it with Anastrophe. Anastrophe is the mild, single-pair inversion; hyperbaton covers more violent or extended derangements.
In the Reader — 8 excerpts
Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me,
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
He knew that the moment he allowed himself to feel to its fullness how they lived, the shame and misery of their lives, he would be swept out of himself with fear and despair.
bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind.
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.
Travels with
Devices that share a passage with hyperbaton most often — company reveals character.
Asyndeton 7 Passive Voice 6 Litotes 6 Anaphora 6 Parallelism 5 Synecdoche 4 Polysyndeton 4 Isocolon 4
The rest of the family
Anastrophe Periodic Sentence Cumulative (Loose) Sentence Parataxis Parenthesis Apposition / Appositive Zeugma Hendiadys Pleonasm Enumeration / Accumulatio Passive Voice Cleft Sentence