Definition:
An incoherent statement (a type of dysfluency also known as a syntactic blend) or a deliberate rhetorical effect (a figure of speech) created by an abrupt change in a sentence to a second construction inconsistent with the first. Plural: anacolutha.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "inconsistent"Examples and Observations:
- "I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall--I will do such things,
What they are, yet I know not."
(William Shakespeare, King Lear) - "A plank that was dry was not disturbing the smell of burning and altogether there was the best kind of sitting there could never be all the edging that the largest chair was having."
(Gertrude Stein, "A Portrait of Mabel Dodge," 1912) - "John McCain's maverick position that he's in, that's really prompt up to and indicated by the supporters that he has."
(Sarah Palin, vice presidential debate, Oct. 2, 2008) - "[Heinrich] Lausberg's definition makes anacoluthon a figure of style rather than a (sometimes expressive) stylistic weakness. As an error in style it is not always obvious. Ex: 'He couldn't go, how could he?' Anacoluthon is only frequent in spoken language. A speaker begins a sentence in a way implying a certain logical resolution and then ends it differently. A writer would begin the sentence again, unless its function were to illustrate confusion of mind or spontaneity of reporting. Both functions are characteristic of interior monologue, and to the extent that Molly Bloom's monologue [in Ulysses, by James Joyce] consists of a single unpunctuated sentence, it contains hundreds of examples of anacoluthon. '. . . I suppose she was pious because no man would look at her twice I hope Ill never be like her a wonder she didnt want us to cover our faces . . .'"
(B. M. Dupriez and A. Halsall, Dictionary of Literary Devices, Univ. of Toronto Press, 1991)
Pronunciation: an-eh-keh-LOO-thon
Also Known As: a broken sentence, syntactic blend
