Home › Glossary › Letter R

Reversed syntax

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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 literary technique of rearranging standard syntax for artistic effect.

Detailed Definition
Reversed syntax, also known as anastrophe, is the deliberate inversion of standard word order (e.g., “him I saw” instead of “I saw him”) to create emphasis, rhythmic variation, or archaic tone; poets use this technique to foreground key images, conform to metrical constraints, or evoke heightened emotional or dramatic effect within lyrical expression.
Example
Example in poetry:
The common use of inversion in older poetry to maintain meter or rhyme, such as: "His hand the plow did guide." (Instead of "His hand guided the plow."); The deliberate displacement of an adjective to follow the noun for emphasis: "A garden of beauty, rare." (Instead of "A rare garden of beauty."); Beginning a sentence with the object instead of the subject: "That cold house, I did see." (Instead of "I did see that cold house."); The placing of a verb before the subject: "Wandered the sheep across the hill." (Instead of "The sheep wandered across the hill.").
Additional Notes
Reversed syntax (also anastrophe or hyperbaton) is the inversion of the typical word order in a sentence (e.g., "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood"); it emphasizes certain words and creates a formal, archaic, or heightened tone.
Also Known As
Inverted syntax backward sentence form reversed grammar Anastrophic inversion Reversed order
Skip to main content