Thursday word: paraprosdokian
Feb. 11th, 2016 07:55 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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1word1dayparaprosdokian (pa-ra-prohz-DOH-kee-an) - n., a figure of speech in which the latter part of a phrase or sentence causes the listener/reader to reinterpret the first part.
The key being that the end is surprising. When done well, you get good comedy: "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." "I haven't slept for ten days because that would be too long." When done badly, you get a garden path sentence: "The girl told the story cried." "The raft floated down the river sank." "Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms" (which is a real headline, the one for which crash blossoms were named). As for the word itself, like most rhetorical terms, it was adopted from Greek (literal meaning: "beyond expectation") -- the ancient Greeks loved analyzing how to speak.
---L.
The key being that the end is surprising. When done well, you get good comedy: "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." "I haven't slept for ten days because that would be too long." When done badly, you get a garden path sentence: "The girl told the story cried." "The raft floated down the river sank." "Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms" (which is a real headline, the one for which crash blossoms were named). As for the word itself, like most rhetorical terms, it was adopted from Greek (literal meaning: "beyond expectation") -- the ancient Greeks loved analyzing how to speak.
---L.
