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zeugmatic phrase

Phrase
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 construction where one word governs two or more others in different senses

Detailed Definition
Zeugmatic phrases generate wit, pathos, or surprise by yoking disparate meanings under one verb or preposition (“He lost his coat and his temper”); they exploit grammatical economy to reveal hidden connections or ironies.
Example
Example in poetry:
Zeugmatic phrase: She lost her keys, her temper, and her way; he carried his burden, his grief, and his guitar; the poet wrote with ink, with blood, and with silence; the zeugmatic phrase binds disparate things with one verb.
Additional Notes
Zeugmatic phrases use one word to govern two or more in different senses: “She lost her keys, her temper, and her way”; they create irony, compression, and unexpected connections; used by Donne, Austen, and modern poets for wit or emotional depth; avoid forced cleverness—each linkage must reveal truth; related to synecdoche, antithesis, and paradox; effective in poems of collapse, irony, or layered loss.
Also Known As
zeugma syntactic parallelism governing word construction
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