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- 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.
- 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.
- 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.[1] 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.
- 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: "Syllepsis [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.
- 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,
- "You know that you are Brutus, that say this."—Shak.
- "They fall successive[ly], and successive[ly] rise."—Pope.
- "Than whom [who] a fiend more fell is nowhere found."—Thomson.
- "Sure some disaster has befell" [befallen].—Gay.
- "So furious was that onset's shock,
Destruction's gates at once unlock" [unlocked].—Hogg.
- ↑ [480] Who besides Webster has called syllepsis "substitution," I do not know. Substitution and conception are terms of quite different import, and many authors have explained syllepsis by the latter word. Dr. Webster gives to "SUBSTITUTION" two meanings, thus: "1. The act of putting one person or thing in the place of another to supply [his or] its place.—2. In grammar, syllepsis, or the use of one word for another."—American Dict., 8vo. This explanation seems to me inaccurate; because it confounds both substitution and syllepsis with enallage. It has signs of carelessness throughout; the former sentence being both tautological and ungrammatical.—G. B.
