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syntactic reversal

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

Inverting standard syntactic order to create emphasis or preserve meter.

Detailed Definition
Syntactic reversal involves inverting standard word order—placing object before subject, verb before noun, or adverb before adjective—to create emphasis, archaic tone, or rhythmic variation; common in poetic diction for metrical convenience or rhetorical effect, it can also signal psychological disorientation or mystical insight, as in the prophetic inversions of Blake (“Tyger Tyger, burning bright”) or the Latinate constructions of Donne.
Example
Example in poetry:
Syntactic reversal inverts normal word order: “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” (imperative fronting); “Sweet the night air” (inversion of “The night air is sweet”); “Never have I seen such beauty” (auxiliary fronting); “Dark the path ahead” (poetic inversion for emphasis).
Additional Notes
syntactic reversal|The inversion of the usual or expected word order in a sentence (e.g., placing the verb before the subject), often for the sake of rhyme, meter, or emphasis; common in older poetry.
Also Known As
Inverted syntax Reversed grammar Structural reversal Anastrophe Backward figure
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