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Desis

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

In dramatic or narrative poetry, the phase of rising action where conflicts intensify and complications bind characters toward crisis or climax.

Detailed Definition
Desis (Greek for “binding”) denotes the narrative or dramatic complication phase in a poem’s structure, where tensions, conflicts, or questions are introduced and developed before resolution; in lyric poetry, it may manifest as emotional or philosophical entanglement that the poem seeks to unravel through its progression.
Example
Example in poetry:
Desis: "The knot of plot tension before resolution—e.g., Hamlet’s indecision" (dramatic buildup); "In sonnet: problem posed in octave, tightened in sestet" (lyric tension); "Poem’s central conflict braided through recurring images" (symbolic entanglement); "Desis as emotional tangle: jealousy, doubt, desire intertwined" (psychological knot)
Additional Notes
In Greek drama and rhetoric, the complication or binding of plot. In poetry, the intensification before resolution. Opposite of lysis (resolution). Study alongside dramatic structure in narrative verse.
Also Known As
complication plot binding
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