Syntax & Word Order
Parenthesis
An aside inserted into a sentence and set off by dashes, brackets, or commas. It interrupts the main statement to add a comment or qualification.
"—never mind how long precisely—" — Melville
Don't confuse it with. An appositive renames the noun beside it; a parenthesis digresses without renaming anything.
Examples
Her answer—which I had not expected—changed the meeting.
The aside interrupts the main clause without renaming a noun.
never mind how long precisely
The narrator inserts an aside about the date within the account of going to sea.
Often used alongside this device
Explore devices that often appear in the same passages as parenthesis.
Litotes 8 Anaphora 7 Allusion 7 Passive Voice 6 Parallelism 6 Asyndeton 5 Antithesis 4 Metaphor 4
The rest of the family
Hyperbaton Anastrophe Periodic Sentence Cumulative (Loose) Sentence Parataxis Apposition / Appositive Zeugma Hendiadys Pleonasm Enumeration / Accumulatio Passive Voice Cleft Sentence