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Diazeugma

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

A single subject governs several verbs in a series, creating swift accumulation of action.

Detailed Definition
Diazeugma is a rhetorical figure where a single subject governs multiple verbs in different clauses (e.g., “She laughed, cried, and left”), creating dynamic, economical narration; in poetry, diazeugma accelerates pace and reveals psychological complexity through action clusters, as in the rapid gestures of Catullus or the emotional volatility of Sylvia Plath’s confessional stanzas.
Example
Example in poetry:
Caesar’s “Veni, vidi, vici” is classical diazeugma; Shakespeare: “He took his breath, his throne, his life”; Milton: “Him the Almighty Power / Hurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal sky”; Contemporary example: “She lost her keys, her temper, her way home.”
Additional Notes
Single subject governing multiple predicates in succession. Rhetorical device creating branching syntax. Related to zeugma; study with parallel structures and grammatical yoking.
Also Known As
Single yoke Common verb construction Shared predicate
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