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Andrew (aindreas) wrote in linguaphiles,
2013-02-18 23:01:00

what do you call it when ...

Is there a name for when, usually in song, two sentences are joined by one element? There are a kajillion examples, but I heard it most recently in this Christina Perri song:

"Right from the start I knew that I'd found a home for my heart beats fast."

Obviously because of how the music is written, the break between "... home for my heart" and "my heart beats fast" is nicely apparent. My questions is if there is a name for this device? Any experts on poetry or song who can help?
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  • 10 comments

spamsink

February 18 2013, 23:08:58 UTC 3 months ago

In Jeopardy!, it's called "Before and After".

muckefuck

February 18 2013, 23:09:41 UTC 3 months ago

If I understand what it is you're asking, you're talking about a zeugma.

5x6

February 19 2013, 03:00:44 UTC 3 months ago

maybe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesura ?

mamculuna

February 19 2013, 03:15:15 UTC 3 months ago

Are you talking about how the words "my heart" change from being the object of "for" in the first sentence to being the subject of "beats fast" in the second? I don't know the name of it, but it's interesting.

aindreas

February 19 2013, 22:54:41 UTC 3 months ago

I'm trying to get at how there are two sentences: 1) "... I knew that I'd found a home for my heart." and 2) "My heart beats fast." It obviously doesn't make grammatical sense, as keestone pointed out, but I figured there had to be a name for what seems to me to be not a completely obscure stylistic device.

houseboatonstyx

February 19 2013, 10:57:08 UTC 3 months ago




houseboatonstyx

February 19 2013, 13:51:18 Local
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I don't know name for it, but here's a lead. Two lines in this poem read that way, and some of the footnotes may lead you to more information about it.


Sir Patrick Spens

The king sits in Dunfermline toune

Contented thair to dine:

"O whar will I get guid sailor,

To sail this schip of mine?"

Up and spak an eldern knicht,

Sat at the kings richt kne:

"Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor

That sails upon the se."

The king has written a braid letter,

And signed it wi his hand,

And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens,

Was walking on the sand.
[....]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Patrick_Spens

If there's a 'who' understood in the 'knight [[who] sat ', and in 'Spens [who] was walking', would it still count as a whatsis?

aindreas

February 19 2013, 23:01:39 UTC 3 months ago

The "to Sir Patrick Spens, was walking on the sand" seems to be closer to what I'm thinking of, especially because "spak an eldern knicht, sat at the kings richt kne" is grammatically correct as an entire unit. I know I hear it quite frequently in songs; just none other are coming to mind at the minute and it's not really something I can google! Grrr.

keestone

February 19 2013, 12:47:22 UTC 3 months ago Edited:  February 19 2013, 12:48:17 UTC

Bad grammar. Okay, okay, changes in tense aside, I think the closest we're getting here so far is semantic syllepsis, which is described in the link to Zeugma that muckefuck provided. (The inconsistency in tense is just really irking me today.)

Syllepsis

As mentioned above, the meaning of syllepsis varies. Here, it is used for the kind of zeugma where a single word is used in relation to multiple other parts of a sentence despite
(a) grammatically or logically applying only to one of them or
(b) having to change its meaning in relation to each.

semisweetsoul

February 19 2013, 19:05:37 UTC 3 months ago Edited:  February 27 2013, 17:57:37 UTC

I've been looking for the answer for an hour, now. The closest definition I've found would simply be an ellipsis of the second my heart or what keestone said a syllepsis, which is what muckefuck found, a form of zeugma.

If someone has the definite answer,I'd be interested to know what it really is.

semisweetsoul

February 27 2013, 18:01:43 UTC 2 months ago Edited:  February 27 2013, 18:02:29 UTC

Me again! I have the answer, I think. It is a syllepsis (a form of zeugma as we said) and it's called an amphibology. The English wiki article is rather confusing, but the one in my native French made me think of that. Funny enough, it says it's easier to do in English than in French, go figure!

I hope that helps. :)