Devices for Variations in Grammar/Syntax

1. Devices for Variations in Grammar/Syntax

2. Parallelism—The most common • Uses the same grammatical structure for similar items • Helps reader understand that ideas in parallel construction are equal in weight or importance • Parallelism of words: Exercise psychologists argue that body-pump aerobics sessions benefit a person’s heart and lungs, muscles and nerves, and joints and cartilage. • Parallelism of phrases: Exercise psychologists argue that body-pump aerobics help a person breathe more effectively, move with less discomfort, and avoid injury. • Parallelism of clauses: Exercise psychologists argue that body-pump aerobics is the most efficient exercise class, that body-pump participants show greater gains in stamina than participants in comparable programs, and that body-pump aerobics is less expensive in terms of equipment and training needed.

3. More parallelism • Zeugma. • A figure of rhetoric in which more than one item in a sentence is governed by a single word, usually a verb • Ex: “Kill the boys and the luggage!” –Shakespeare Henry V • The verb “kill” connects to both the boys and the luggage.

4. Chiasmus • Reversing the order of repeated words or phrases to intensify the final formation, to present alternatives, or to show contrast. • All work and no play is as harmful to mental health as all play and no work. • Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

5. Climax • Arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance, often in parallel structure. • Miss America was not so much interested in serving herself as she was eager to serve her family, her community, and her nation. • Use antimetabole in your climax, and you have a technique called “climbing the ladder”

6. Asyndeton and Polysyndeton • Asyndeton: Omission of conjunctions between clauses • I came; I saw; I conquered –Caesar • Polysyndeton: Using many conjunctions between clauses • I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's dead all right," and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was all right only she was full of water.—Ernest Hemingway, "After the Storm”