Hyperbate is the name of figure of speech where the breaking the logical structure of the statement and hence it is also known as inversion. Its name comes from the Greek and means “transposed” or “in reverse”, since it inverts the position of the terms that make up the statement. This inversion requires more attention from the reader to understand the speech.
Read too: Irony – figure of speech responsible for suggesting the opposite of what is stated
hyperbatic examples
Hyperbate is relatively common in songs and poems in the search for rhymes, but it is also very common in everyday oral speeches, especially when we want to emphasize something and, for that, we break the rigid structure of the utterance due to the spontaneity of speech. Let's look at some examples:
"I wanted to use, Who knows, a straitjacket or a venus.” (Zé Ramalho)
In this verse of the song composed by Zé Ramalho, the term “who knows” interrupts the statement “I wanted to use a straitjacket or a venus jacket”. Therefore, there is hyperbato, that is, the period was interspersed with another element that would not normally be there or, in this case, does not belong to that period.
"There followed one of those silences, which, with out lie, if you can call it a century, such is the length of time in great crises.” (Machado de Assis)
In this other example, we see that the utterance “what can be called a century” was interspersed with the element “no lying”, which appears between commas.
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Hyperbate and Anacolute
Both the hyperbatic and the anacolutton are figures of speech related to change insyntax of the utterance, that is, in the position of the elements that make up the discourse. However, there is a difference between these two style features.
O hyperbatic is the separation of constituent terms through the intercalation of other elements, as we saw earlier. Thus, any inversion or transposition of elements between terms that would normally come together in the discourse is considered hyperbolic.
O anacolutton, in turn, is a type of "topicalization" of a term at the beginning of the utterance to emphasize it, omitting any connector. Thus, the term has no syntactic function, since it is not directly linked to the statement. See an example of an anacolutton below:
“Carlos, he he never knows what he wants out of life.”
In the example above, the element “O Carlos” is said at the beginning of the statement, as if it were a topic, to highlight this element. However, in the sequence, the term "he" takes on the function of subject. The element “O Carlos” is thus disconnected from the sentence and has no syntactic function. Note that it is very common to use the anacoluto in oral language, when we change the speech in the middle of the speech. Let's look at another example:
“some books that were on the shelf, we studied with them.”
In the statement above, "some books" would be, initially, the verb complement “studied”. However, “a few books” was allocated at the beginning of the prayer and lost its function when the element “with them” took the place of complement.
Read too: Hyperbole - figure of speech characterized by deliberate exaggeration
Anastrophe and synchisis
Anastrophe and synchisis are two others language figures related to syntax change of the utterance.
anastrophe
THE anastrophe refers to the change in the order of successive constituent terms, ie, between a given term and yours determinant. Usually, the determining term precedes the term determined by it. However, when there is anastrophe, this order is inverted or is interspersed with other elements. Let's look at an example:
"The best teacher the failure is."
The prayer above was said by Master Yoda, character of the saga Star Wars, famous for his speeches in unusual syntax, that is, “out of order”. As we can see, the common statement would be something like "failure is the best teacher", having "failure" the role of subject and "the best teacher" role of subject predicative. THE inversion of order of elements, putting subject and verb last and the subject's predicative at the beginning, is an example of an anastrophe.
Note that, unlike the anacoluto (whose transposition ends up losing its syntactic function and becoming disconnected from the rest of the utterance), the anastrophe keeps the transposition connected and with the same syntactic function, being just a change in her position within the statement.
The anastrophe also features a change of position more subtle than that of hyperbato, since the former intersperses elements between the statements, while the former tends to maintain the structure without intercalations, just transposing what would be at the end to the beginning, before its determinant.
Synchisis
THE synchisis is the radical mixing of the position of several or all elements of the utterance., failing to follow any expected syntactic ordering. Synchisis can make interpretation so difficult that the speech seems chaotic and meaningless. In the example below, we have a classic case of synchisis:
"They heard the placid shores from Ipiranga
From a heroic people the resounding cry"
The Brazilian National Anthem causes many doubts about interpretation not only because of the flowery expressions, but also because it is full of synchsis, which intensifies its poetic expression at the expense of its literal understanding. Rearranging the statement according to the common syntax, we would have something like: "The placid banks of the Ipiranga heard the resounding cry of a heroic people."
Note that the synchisis presents a much more abrupt reordering than the one present in the anastrophe and in the hyperbato.
Also access: Metaphor - figure of speech that establishes an implicit comparison
Summary
Let's look at the practical difference between these four figures of speech. Let's have as an example the following construction and its respective modifications:
"I decided to move house before things got harder."
Hyperbate: "I decided, before things got harder, moving home." – The passage “I decided to move house” was interrupted by the transposition “before things got more difficult”.
Anacoluto: “The decision, I decided to move house before things got harder.” – The element “The decision” lost its syntactic function and was not connected to the rest of the statement.
Anastrophe: "I decided from house to change before things got any more difficult.” – The transposition of the element “from house” (determined) to before “change” (determinant) generated the inversion of what would be like “to move house”.
Synchsis: “From home I decided before the hardest things got to change.” – Many elements relocated to the point that the interpretation of the statement was compromised.
solved exercises
Question 1 - Identify the figure of speech present in the excerpt below:
"And the sun of freedom, in blazing rays, shone in the sky of the motherland at that moment."
A) Anastrophe
B) Synchisis
C) Hyperbate
D) Anacoluto
Resolution
Alternative A. The utterance syntax appears, for the most part, as expected, not generating much difficulty in interpreting the period in question. However, there is an intercalation: the element “in shining rays” appears between the subject “the sun of freedom” and its complement “shine in the sky of the motherland”. The common order might be "And the sun of freedom shone in brilliant rays in the sky of the motherland at that instant." So it's anastrophe.
Question 2 - Check the alternative that contains the correct classification of the figures of speech used in each utterance:
( ) "You don't need me anymore."
( ) "In me so many daydreams, frustrations are over"
( ) "There is no room, in my opinion, for so much."
( ) “It seems to me that the worst is over.”
(1) Anacoluto
(2) Synchisis
(3) Hyperbate
(4) Anastrophe
A) 1, 2, 3, 4.
B) 1, 3, 2, 4.
C) 4, 2, 3, 1.
D) 4, 3, 2, 1.
Resolution
Alternative C. The first utterance presents anastrophe, since the element “from me” was transposed to the beginning of the sentence, but kept its connection with it and the syntactic function; the second statement presents synchisis, because several elements were exchanged, generating greater difficulty in understanding the statement; the third utterance presents hyperbate, as the element “in my opinion” appears in the middle of the utterance “there is no room for so much”, breaking its syntactic structure; the fourth utterance presents anacolutton, since the element "me" was moved to the beginning of the utterance to highlight it and ended up losing its syntactic function due to the repetition with the use of the pronoun “me” after “seems”, which already takes up the idea of “me” (“it seems to me” or “it seems to me”).
By Guilherme Viana
grammar teacher