Chapter CV: Section III: Figures of Syntax

A Figure of Syntax is an intentional deviation from the ordinary construction of words. The principal figures of Syntax are five; namely, _El-lip'-sis, Ple'-o-nasm, Syl-lep'-sis, En-al'-la-ge_, and _Hy-per'-ba-ton._ EXPLANATIONS.

I. _Ellipsis_ is the omission of some word or words which are necessary to complete the construction, but not necessary to convey the meaning. Such words are said, in technical phrase, to be _understood_;[477] because they are received as belonging to the sentence, though they are not uttered.

Of compound sentences, a vast many are more or less elliptical; and sometimes, for brevity's sake, even the most essential parts of a simple sentence, are suppressed;[478] as, "But more of this hereafter."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 77. This means, "But _I shall say_ more of this hereafter." "Prythee, peace."--_Shak._ That is, "_I pray_ thee, _hold thou thy_ peace."

There may be an omission of any of the parts of speech, or even of a whole clause, when this repeats what precedes; but the omission of mere articles or interjections can scarcely constitute a proper ellipsis, because these parts of speech, wherever they are really necessary to be recognized, ought to be expressed.

EXAMPLES OF ELLIPSIS SUPPLIED.

1. Of the ARTICLE:--"A man and [_a_] woman."--"The day, [_the_] month, and [_the_] year."--"She gave me an apple and [_a_] pear, for a fig and [_an_] orange."--_Jaudon's Gram._, p. 170.

2. Of the NOUN:--"The common [_law_] and the statute law."--"The twelve [_apostles_]."--"The same [_man_] is he."--"One [_book_] of my books."--"A dozen [_bottles_] of wine."--"Conscience, I say; not thine own [_conscience_], but [_the conscience_] of the other."--_1 Cor._, x, 29. "Every moment subtracts _from_ [_our lives_] what it adds _to_ our lives."--_Dillwyn's Ref._, p. 8. "Bad actions mostly lead to worse" [_actions_].--_Ib._, p. 5.

3. Of the ADJECTIVE:--"There are subjects proper for the one, and not [_proper_] for the other."--_Kames._ "A just weight and [_a just_] balance are the Lord's."--_Prov._, xvi, 11. True ellipses of the adjective alone, are but seldom met with.

4. Of the PRONOUN:--"Leave [_thou_] there thy gift before the altar, and go [_thou_] thy way; first be [_thou_] reconciled to thy brother, and then come [_thou_] and offer [_thou_] thy gift,"--_Matt._, v, 24. "Love [_ye_] your enemies, bless [_ye_] them that curse you, do [_ye_] good to them that hate you."--_Ib._, v. 44. "Chastisement does not always immediately follow error, but [_it_] sometimes comes when [_it is_] least expected."-- _Dillwyn, Ref._, p. 31. "Men generally put a greater value upon the favours [_which_] they bestow, than upon those [_which_] they receive."--_Art of Thinking_, p. 48. "Wisdom and worth were all [_that_] he had."--_Allen's Gram._, p. 294.

5. Of the VERB:--"The world is crucified unto me, and I [_am crucified_] unto the world."--_Gal._, vi, 14. "Hearts should not [_differ_], though heads may, differ."--_Dillwyn_, p. 11. "Are ye not much better than they" [_are_]?--_Matt._, vi, 26. "Tribulation worketh patience; and patience [_worketh_] experience; and experience [_worketh_] hope."--_Romans_, v, 4. "Wrongs are engraved on marble; benefits [_are engraved_] on sand."--_Art of Thinking_, p. 41. "To whom thus Eve, yet sinless" [_spoke_].--_Milton_.

6. Of the PARTICIPLE:--"That [_being_] o'er, they part."--"Animals of various natures, some adapted to the wood, and some [_adapted_] to the wave."--_Melmoth, on Scripture_, p. 13.

"His knowledge [_being_] measured to his state and place,
His time [_being_] a moment, and a point [_being_] his space."--_Pope_.

7. Of the ADVERB:--"He can do this independently of me, if not [_independently_] of you."

"She shows a body rather than a life;
A statue, [_rather_] than a breather."
--_Shak., Ant. and Cleo._, iii, 3.

8. Of the CONJUNCTION:--"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, [_and_] joy, [_and_] peace, [_and_] long suffering, [_and_] gentleness, [_and_] goodness, [_and_] faith, [_and_] meekness, [_and_] temperance."--_Gal._, v, 22. The repetition of the conjunction is called _Polysyndeton_; and the omission of it, _Asyndeton_.

9. Of the PREPOSITION:--"It shall be done [_on_] this very day."--"We shall set off [_at_] some time [_in_] next month."--"He departed [_from_] this life."--"He gave [_to_] me a book."--"We walked [_through_] a mile."--"He was banished [_from_] the kingdom."--_W. Allen_. "He lived like [_to_] a prince."--_Wells_.

10. Of the INTERJECTION:--"Oh! the frailty, [_oh!_] the wickedness of men."--"Alas for Mexico! and [_alas_] for many of her invaders!"

11. Of PHRASES or CLAUSES:--"The active commonly do more than they are bound to do; the indolent [_commonly do_] less" [_than they are bound to do_].--"Young men, angry, mean less than they say; old men, [_angry, mean_] more" [_than they say_].--"It is the duty of justice, not to injure men; [_it is the duty_] of modesty, not to offend them."--_W. Allen_.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--Grammarians in general treat of ellipsis without _defining_ it; and exhibit such rules and examples as suppose our language to be a hundred-fold more elliptical than it really is.[479] This is a great error, and only paralleled by that of a certain writer elsewhere noticed, who denies the existence of all ellipsis whatever. (See Syntax, Obs. 24th on Rule 22d.) Some have defined this figure in a way that betrays a very inaccurate notion of what it is: as, "ELLIPSIS is _when_ one or more words are wanting _to complete the sense_."--_Adam's Lat. and Eng. Gram._, p. 235; _Gould's_, 229. "ELLIPSIS is the omission of one or more words necessary _to complete the sense_."--_Bullions, Lat. Gram._, p. 265. These definitions are decidedly worse than none; because, if they have any effect, they can only mislead. They absurdly suggest that every elliptical sentence lacks a part of its own meaning! Ellipsis is, in fact, the mere omission or absence of certain _suggested words_; or of words that may be spared from utterance, _without defect in the sense_. There never can be an ellipsis of any thing which is either unnecessary to the construction or necessary to the sense; for to say what we mean and nothing more, never can constitute a deviation from the ordinary grammatical construction of words. As a figure of Syntax, therefore, the _ellipsis_ can only be of such words as are so evidently suggested to the reader, that the writer is as fully answerable for them as if he had written them.

OBS. 2.--To suppose an ellipsis where there is none, or to overlook one where it really occurs, is to pervert or mutilate the text, in order to accommodate it to the parser's or reader's ignorance of the principles of syntax. There never can be either a general uniformity or a self-consistency in our methods of parsing, or in our notions of grammar, till the true nature of an ellipsis is clearly ascertained; so that the writer shall distinguish it from a _blundering omission_ that impairs the sense, and the reader or parser be barred from an _arbitrary insertion_ of what would be cumbrous and useless. By adopting loose and extravagant ideas of the nature of this figure, some pretenders to learning and philosophy have been led into the most whimsical and opposite notions concerning the grammatical construction of language. Thus, with equal absurdity, _Cardell_ and _Sherman_, in their _Philosophic Grammars_, attempt to confute the doctrines of their predecessors, by supposing _ellipses_ at pleasure. And while the former teaches, that prepositions do not govern the objective case, but that every verb is transitive, and governs at least two objects, expressed or _understood_, its own and that of a preposition: the latter, with just as good an argument, contends that no verb is transitive, but that every objective case is governed by a preposition expressed or _understood_. A world of nonsense for lack of a _definition!_

II. PLEONASM is the introduction of superfluous words; as, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat _of it_."--_Gen._, ii, 17. This figure is allowable only, when, in animated discourse, it abruptly introduces an emphatic word, or repeats an idea to impress it more strongly; as, "_He_ that hath ears to hear, let him hear."--_Bible_. "All ye inhabitants of the world, and _dwellers on the earth_."--_Id._ "There shall not be left one stone upon another _that shall not be thrown down_."--_Id._ "I know thee _who thou art_."--_Id._ A Pleonasm, as perhaps in these instances, is sometimes impressive and elegant; but an unemphatic repetition of the same idea, is one of the worst faults of bad writing.

OBS.--Strong passion is not always satisfied with saying a thing once, and in the fewest words possible; nor is it natural that it should be. Hence repetitions indicative of intense feeling may constitute a beauty of the highest kind, when, if the feeling were wanting, or supposed to be so, they would be reckoned intolerable tautologies. The following is an example, which the reader may appreciate the better, if he remembers the context: "At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down; at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell down dead."--_Judges_, v, 27.

III. SYLLEPSIS is agreement formed according to the figurative sense of a word, or the mental conception of the thing spoken of, and not according to the literal or common use of the term; it is therefore in general connected with some figure of rhetoric: as "The _Word_ was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld _his_ glory."--_John_, i, 14. "Then Philip went down to the _city_ of Samaria, and preached Christ unto _them_."--_Acts_, viii, 5. "The _city_ of London _have_ expressed _their_ sentiments with freedom and firmness."--_Junius_, p. 159. "And I said [to backsliding _Israel_,] after _she_ had done all these things, Turn _thou_ unto me; but _she_ returned not: and _her_ treacherous _sister Judah_ saw it."--_Jer._, iii, 7. "And he surnamed them _Boanerges, which is_, The sons of thunder."--_Mark_, iii, 17.

"While _Evening_ draws _her_ crimson curtains round."--_Thomson_, p. 63.

"The _Thunder_ raises _his_ tremendous voice."--_Id._, p. 113.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--To the parser, some explanation of that agreement which is controlled by tropes, is often absolutely necessary; yet, of our modern grammarians, none appear to have noticed it; and, of the oldest writers, few, if any, have given it the rank which it deserves among the figures of syntax. The term _Syllepsis_ literally signifies _conception, comprehension_, or _taking-together_. Under this name have been arranged, by the grammarians and rhetoricians, many different forms of unusual or irregular agreement; some of which are quite too unlike to be embraced in the same class, and not a few, perhaps, too unimportant or too ordinary to deserve any classification as figures. I therefore omit some forms of expression which others have treated as examples of _Syllepsis_, and define the term with reference to such as seem more worthy to be noticed as deviations from the ordinary construction of words. Dr. Webster, allowing the word two meanings, explains it thus: "SYLLEPSIS, _n._ [_Gr._ syllæpsis.] 1. In _grammar_, a figure by which we conceive the sense of words otherwise than the words import, and construe them according to the intention of the author; otherwise called _substitution_.[480] 2. The agreement of a verb or adjective, not with the word next to it, but with the most worthy in the sentence."--_American Dict._

OBS. 2.--In short, _Syllepsis_ is a _conception_ of which grammarians have _conceived_ so variously, that it has become doubtful, what definition or what application of the term is now the most appropriate. Dr. Prat, in defining it, cites one notion from Sanctius, and adds an other of his own, thus: "SYLLEPSIS, id est, _Conceptio_, est quoties Generibus, aut Numeris videntur voces discrepare. Sanct. l. 4. c. 10. Vel sit Comprehensio indignioris sub digniore."--_Prat's Lat. Gram._, Part ii, p. 164. John Grant ranks it as a mere form or species of _Ellipsis_, and expounds it thus: "_Syllepsis_ is _when_ the adjective or verb, joined to different substantives, agrees with the more worthy."--_Institutes of Lat. Gram._, p. 321. Dr. Littleton describes it thus: "SYLLLEPSIS [sic--KTH],--A Grammatical figure _where_ two Nominative Cases singular of different persons are joined to a Verb plural."--_Latin Dict._, 4to. By Dr. Morell it is explained as follows: "SYLLEPSIS,--A grammatical figure, _where_ one is put for many, and many for one, Lat. _Conceptio_."--_Morell's Ainsworth's Dict._, 4to, Index Vitand. IV. _Enállagè_ is the use of one part of speech, or of one modification, for an other. This figure borders closely upon solecism; and, for the stability of the language, it should be sparingly indulged. There are, however, several forms of it which can appeal to good authority: as,

1. "_You know_ that _you are_ Brutus, that _say_ this."--_Shak._

2. "They fall _successive_[ly], and _successive_[ly] rise."--_Pope_.

3. "Than _whom_ [who] a fiend more fell is nowhere found."--_Thomson_.

4. "Sure some disaster has _befell_" [befallen].--_Gay_.

5. "So furious was that onset's shock,
Destruction's gates at once _unlock_" [unlocked].--_Hogg_.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--_Enallage_ is a Greek word, signifying _commutation, change_, or _exchange. "Enallage_, in a general sense, is the change of words, or of their accidents, one for another."--_Grant's Latin Gram._, p. 322. The word _Antimeria_, which literally expresses _change of parts_, was often used by the old grammarians as synonymous with _Enallage_; though, sometimes, the former was taken only for the substitution of one _part of speech_ for an other, and the latter, only, or more particularly, for a change of _modification_--as of mood for mood, tense for tense, or number for number. The putting of one _case_ for an other, has also been thought worthy of a particular name, and been called _Antiptosis_. But _Enallage_, the most comprehensive of these terms, having been often of old applied to all such changes, reducing them to one head, may well be now defined as above, and still applied, in this way, to all that we need recognize as figures. The word _Enallaxis_, preferred by some, is of the same import. "ENALLAXIS, so called by _Longinus_, or ENALLAGE, is an _Exchange_ of _Cases, Tenses, Persons, Numbers_, or _Genders_."--_Holmes's Rhet._, Book i, p. 57.

"An ENALLAXIS changes, when it pleases,
Tenses, or Persons, Genders, Numbers, Cases."--_Ib._, B. ii, p. 50.

OBS. 2.--Our most common form of _Enallage_ is that by which a single person is addressed in the plural number. This is so fashionable in our civil intercourse, that some very polite grammarians improperly dispute its claims to be called a _figure_; and represent it as being more ordinary, and even more literal than the regular phraseology; which a few of them, as we have seen, would place among the _archaisms_. The next in frequency, (if indeed it can be called a different form,) is the practice of putting _we_ for _I_, or the plural for the singular in the _first person_. This has never yet been claimed as literal and regular syntax, though the usages differ in nothing but commonness; both being honourably authorized, both still improper on some occasions, and, in both, the _Enallage_ being alike obvious. Other varieties of this figure, not uncommon in English, are the putting of adjectives for adverbs, of adverbs for nouns, of the present tense for the preterit, and of the preterit for the perfect participle. But, in the use of such liberties, elegance and error sometimes approximate so nearly, there is scarcely an obvious line between them, and grammarians consequently disagree in making the distinction.

OBS. 3.--Deviations of this kind are, _in general_, to be considered solecisms; otherwise, the rules of grammar would be of no use or authority. _Despauter_, an ancient Latin grammarian, gave an improper latitude to this figure, or to a species of it, under the name of _Antiptosis_; and _Behourt_ and others extended it still further. But _Sanctius_ says, "_Antiptosi grammaticorum nihil imperitius, quod figmentum si esset verum, frustra quæreretur, quem casum verba regerent_." And the _Messieurs De Port Royal_ reject the figure altogether. There are, however, some changes of this kind, which the grammarian is not competent to condemn, though they do not accord with the ordinary principles of construction.

V. _Hyperbaton_ is the transposition of words; as, "He wanders _earth around_."--_Cowper_ "_Rings the world_ with the vain stir."--_Id. "Whom_ therefore ye ignorantly worship, _him declare I_ unto you."--_Acts_, xvii, 23. "'_Happy_', says _Montesquieu, 'is that nation_ whose annals are tiresome.'"--_Corwin, in Congress_, 1847. This figure is much employed in poetry. A judicious use of it confers harmony, variety, strength, and vivacity upon composition. But care should be taken lest it produce ambiguity or obscurity, absurdity or solecism.

OBS.--A confused and intricate arrangement of words, received from some of the ancients the name of _Syn'chysis_, and was reckoned by them among the figures of grammar. By some authors, this has been improperly identified with _Hyper'baton_, or elegant inversion; as may be seen under the word _Synchysis_ in Littleton's Dictionary, or in Holmes's Rhetoric, at page 58th. _Synchysis_ literally means _confusion_, or _commixtion_; and, in grammar, is significant only of some poetical jumble of words, some verbal _kink_ or _snarl_, which cannot be grammatically resolved or disentangled: as,

"_Is piety_ thus _and_ pure _devotion_ paid?"
--_Milton, P. L._, B. xi, l. 452.

"An ass will with his long ears fray
The flies that tickle him away;
But man delights to have _his ears
Blown maggots in by_ flatterers."
--_Butler's Poems_, p. 161.