hyperbaton
- noun
- /ˌhaɪpərˈbeɪtɒn/
- Literature
:
hipérbato
- A classic example of hyperbaton is Yoda's speech in Star Wars, where he says, 'Powerful you have become.'
Examples
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In poetry, hyperbaton can create emphasis, as seen when the phrase 'To the market, she will go' shifts the expected order.
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The phrase 'In the garden, the cat sleeps' is an instance of hyperbaton, reversing the usual subject-verb-object order for effect.
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Terms such as hyperbaton, anastrophe, and inversion are defined, explained, and illustrated solely on the basis of word order, not word proximity.
Academic text (2005) -
HYPERBATON: see Zimmerman, "Catalogue" (749-50).
Academic text (1999) -
Hyperbaton: the rearrangement or inversion of normal word order (subject, verb, object) usually for a specific effect, often emphasis:
Academic text (1997) -
Hyperbaton, Longinus observes, contributes to a sublime style, for it is a departure "in the order of expressions or ideas from the natural sequence."
Academic text (1997) -
A second hyperbaton occurring in the phrase "at what period soever of life," which reverses the normal order of "at whatsoever period of life," further underpins these transpositions.
Academic text (1997) -
"Hyperbaton can be used as another figure of vehemence; indeed, Dupriez says, 'Most theorists ... have been content to return to the definition of hyperbaton as an inversion which expresses 'a violent movement of the soul' (Littre)" (214).
Academic text (1997) -
"Hyperbaton can be used as another figure of vehemence; indeed, Dupriez says, 'Most theorists ... have been content to return to the definition of hyperbaton as an inversion which expresses 'a violent movement of the soul' (Littre)" (214).
Academic text (1997) -
Just as Emerson's use of vivid imagery both reinforces abstract notions and moves readers, his employment of hyperbaton not only supports the paradoxes charging the passage but also agitates the reader.
Academic text (1997)
Synonyms
1
7.0
Putting words in an unusual order to add emphasis
A change of the usual word order to make a word or phrase stand out
To reverse the order of matching words in two parts of a sentence to show contrast
Surface Forms
Etymology
Hyperbaton comes from Greek parts hyper- ('over') and bainein ('to step' or 'to go'), and the hyper- is the same 'over' you see in hyperactive. Think of it as 'stepping over' the normal word order, so a writer moves words out of place to make a line more dramatic or to stress a word.