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Hyperbaton

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

Hyperbaton is a deliberate disruption of ordinary word order in a sentence. Poets use it to emphasize particular words, shape rhythm, or create a formal, dramatic, or unsettled effect.

Detailed Definition
Hyperbaton moves words away from their expected syntactic positions, producing an arrangement that readers must actively reconstruct. An adjective may follow its noun, a verb may be delayed, or a phrase may be inserted between closely related words. Poetry often uses this departure from ordinary order because line length, meter, rhyme, and emphasis demand flexibility. The resulting tension can foreground a key image or emotion, imitate agitation or grandeur, and make familiar language seem newly charged.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Bright was the moon above the hill,” reversing ordinary word order for emphasis; “Gone are the ships beyond the foam,” placing the predicate before the subject; “Into the dark forest walked the king,” delaying the subject to heighten suspense; “Sweet is the rain on wounded fields,” using inversion to make the adjective prominent
Additional Notes
Hyperbaton is especially useful in verse because altered syntax can accommodate meter, rhyme, or emphasis. Readers should identify the underlying ordinary order before interpreting the effects of the disruption.
Other Meanings of “Hyperbaton”
Also Known As
Word-Order Disruption Syntactic Transposition Violent Hyperbaton Dislocated Syntax
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