anacoluthon
/ˌanəkəˈluːθɒn
/ /ˌanəkəˈluːθ(ə)n/noun (plural anacolutha /ˌanəkəˈluːθə/)
A sentence or construction in which the expected grammatical sequence is absent, for example while in the garden, the door banged shut.The poem's ruins are a kind of anacoluthon in stone, a failed statement, the shattered vessels that once held the noisy social world of the noble warrior, from which the speaker is cut off and to which he cannot return....
- He takes no thought for style, and his work is marked by frequent pleonasm, anacoluthon, etc.
- This constraint shows itself in the repetition of words and phrases; in the verbal oppositions and anacolutha of St. Paul; in the short sentences of St. John.
Derivatives
anacoluthic
- His theoretical interests include the cyclical nature of desire and the engagement of anacoluthic time.
- However he points out that the recourse to syntactic norms yields an anacoluthic sentence in that the substantive ‘riverrun’ lacks some kind of article.
- The cast includes this actress, as the season's most adorable waif, whose anacoluthic lament for a hot-rod lover creates a haunting innocence amid squalor.
Origin
Early 18th century: via late Latin from Greek anakolouthon, from an- 'not' + akolouthos 'following'.