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Enallage

Rhetorical Devices
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

Enallage is the intentional substitution of one grammatical form for another, such as a tense, person, gender, number, or part of speech. It can give a line emphasis, compression, or an unusual voice.

Detailed Definition
Enallage deliberately departs from ordinary grammar by exchanging one form for another, as when a poet shifts from first person to third person, uses a singular verb with a plural subject, or substitutes an adjective for an adverb. Such changes can intensify a statement by making familiar language briefly unfamiliar. In poetry, enallage helps writers fit rhythm and sound, imitate older or vernacular speech, or reveal instability in a speaker’s perspective. Its grammatical surprise can make identity, time, and emotion feel fluid rather than fixed.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The plowman sings, and the field answers” uses a singular verb with a collective image; “The moon look down on the harbor” shifts standard agreement for poetic effect; “Me and the river is one” deliberately uses nonstandard case and agreement; “The flowers was dancing in the rain” uses altered grammar to give a childlike voice
Additional Notes
Enallage makes grammatical irregularity expressive rather than accidental. A shift in tense may make the past feel immediate, while a shift in person or number can unsettle identity or enlarge a private voice into a collective one. Read it as a purposeful deviation from expected grammar.
Other Meanings of “Enallage”
Also Known As
Grammatical Substitution Syntactic Shift Figure of Exchange
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