asyndeton
- noun
- /əˈsɪndɪtɒn/
- Literature
:
asíndeton
- In her speech, the use of asyndeton emphasized her determination: "I will work, I will fight, I will succeed!"
Examples
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Asyndeton and spacing gaps are regularly used in the code to set off the separate enactments and provisions, with only occasional doubts about the lawmakers' intentions.
Academic text (1991) -
Don Quijote's use of asyndeton might recall to us Picrochole's motto of "passons oultre," which conveys essentially the same impulse to accelerate the flow of time from future to past.
Academic text (1998) -
The antithetical scheme is asyndeton.
Academic text (1997) -
Longinus includes asyndeton in a list of figures that loosen the links that stifle the energy of language, emitting energy and passion at great speed (101).
Academic text (1997) -
PARATAXIS: a scheme involving phrases or independent clauses set one after the other without subordination and often without coordinating conjunctions (such as and, but, or) -- the opposite of hypotaxis and similar to asyndeton:
Academic text (1997) -
The phrase "I came, I saw, I conquered" showcases asyndeton by omitting conjunctions for dramatic effect.
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The poet's use of asyndeton made the lines more impactful, presenting the idea with phrases like, "Sound, silence, chaos, peace."
Antonyms
How Connected
Surface Forms
Morphology
asyndeton = syndeton (semi-transparent) = a + syndeton
The meaning is the privative prefix 'a-' + 'syndeton' (i.e., 'without conjunctions'), but 'syndeton' is a technical/rare term, so the relation may not be obvious to average learners.
Etymology
Asyndeton comes from old Greek parts: a- meaning 'not' and syn- meaning 'together', so it literally means 'not joined together'. A helpful image is a list or phrase where the writer leaves out 'and' or other 'connectors', which is exactly what asyndeton describes.
