XIII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2021

Asyndeton refers to the omission of a conjunction such as “and” or “as” from a series of related clauses. The function of asyndeton is usually to accelerate a passage and emphasize the significance of the relation between these clauses. One famous example is Julius Caesar’s comment “Veni, vidi, vici” after a swift victory in battle, translated into English as “I came, I saw, I conquered.” The use of asyndeton here works well because the rapidness of the sentence reflects the rapidness of the victory.

The word “asyndeton” comes from the Greek asundetos, meaning “not linked” or “unconnected.”

To more fully understand asyndeton, it's helpful to understand the basics of what coordinating conjunctions are. To put it simply, conjunctions in general are words that join parts of a sentence and, in joining them, define a relationship between those parts. Those relationships can be equal or unequal:

Coordinating conjunctions create equal relationships between parts of a sentence, such that the parts of the sentence are related but not dependent on each other. The most common coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so (which conveniently spells out the acronym "Fanboys" to help you remember them). The sentence "I went home and I ate dinner," is one in which the clauses are equal.

Subordinating conjunctions create a relationship in which one clause of the sentence depends on the other. For instance, in the sentence "I went home because I had to eat dinner" the meaning of the second, dependent clause ("because I had to eat dinner") only makes sense in the context of the first, independent clause.

There's obviously a lot more nuance and detail to coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. But in terms of asyndeton, you only need to know one main thing: asyndeton is the omission of coordinating conjunctions. It won't ever apply to subordinating conjunctions.

Example of Asyndeton in Literature:

ANTONY: O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low?

Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,

Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.

—I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,

Who else must be let blood, who else is rank.

‒ (Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare)

William Shakespeare used many examples of asyndeton in his plays and poems. Fittingly, he used asyndeton in his play Julius Caesar, perhaps echoing the real man’s famous asyndeton example, “Veni, vidi, vici.” In this excerpt, the character Antony uses asyndeton in the line, “Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, shrunk to this little measure?” In this example, Shakespeare has not used a conjunction so as to emphasize the relation between the concepts of conquest, glory, triumph, and spoils. Antony also uses asyndeton in the line, “I know not, gentlemen, what you intend, who else must be let blood, who else is rank.” In this example, the omission of conjunctions makes the line more poetic and creates more weight.

The definition of asyndeton is opposite that of syndeton, which refers to the use of one conjunction to connect related clauses (“When I was a child I played basketball, football, and soccer”). Asyndeton is also different from polysyndeton, which is the usage of several conjunctions where they could possibly be omitted (“I’m so hungry I could eat a salad and a soup and an entrée and dessert”).

Authors may use asyndeton to speed up a passage and propel a reader toward a conclusion. This may happen in scenes where there is much action in the plot so as not to get bogged down in details. Authors may also use asyndeton to emphasize a repeated word or phrase, such as in Winston Churchill’s repetition of “we shall” above, and in Examples 3 and 4 below. The use of asyndeton can also be to highlight the connection between words or concepts to show how they are related. Sometimes asyndeton can be a device simply to add rhetorical weight.

References:

Galperin I.R. English Stylistics. Moscow, 2014. – p. 226

Обидина Н.В. Stylistics. Московский педагогический государственный университет, 2011.

В.В. Гуревич. English Stylistics. Стилистика английского языка; учеб, пособие — 3-е изд. — М.: Флинта: Наука, 2008.

ШаховскийВ.И. English Stylistics. М.: Либроком, 2013.