Zeugma

Zeugma Definition
Zeugma, from Greek meaning “yoking” or “bonding,” is a discern of speech wherein a word, generally a verb or an adjective, applies to multiple noun, blending together grammatically and logically different thoughts.

For instance, inside the sentence, “John misplaced his coat and his mood,” the verb “lost” applies to each the nouns “coat” and “mood.” Losing a coat and dropping mood are logically and grammatically different thoughts, which might be added collectively in this sentence. Zeugma, while used skillfully, produces a unique inventive effect, making the literary works greater interesting and powerful as it serves to embellish expressions, and to add emphasis to thoughts in stunning style.

Zeugma and Syllepsis
The Zeugma is now and again differentiated from “syllepsis.” Like zeugma, syllepsis also employs the technique of the use of a unmarried verb for a couple of element in a sentence, but wherein that unmarried verb applies grammatically and logically to only one. For example, in the sentence, “They saw plenty of thunder and lightning,” the verb “noticed” is logically correct only for the lightning, as thunder is “heard.”

Similarly, Tennyson’s line from Ulysses, “He works his work, I mine” is an example of syllepsis, because the verb “works” is grammatically correct with the first character pronoun “he,” but it is incorrect grammar to say “I works mine.” Despite this distinction, syllepsis is frequently considered a form of zeugma. Bryan A. Garner gives his views approximately the difference between zeugma and syllepsis in The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style:

“Although commentators have historically tried to differentiate between zeugma and syllepsis, the distinctions have been confusing and contradictory. We’re higher off using zeugma in its broadest feel and not puzzling matters by means of introducing syllepsis, a little-known term the meaning of which even the specialists can’t agree on.”

Zeugma Examples from Literature
Example #1: The Holy Bible, Exodus 20:18 (By the Prophet Moses)
“And all of the people saw the thundering, and the lightning, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people noticed it, they removed, and stood afar off.”

Example #2: Julius Caesar (By William Shakespeare)
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”

Example #3: Of Studies (By Francis Bacon)
“Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; common sense and rhetoric, able to contend.”

Example #4: The Rape of the Lock, Canto III (By Alexander Pope)
“Here Thou, splendid Anna! Whom 3 Realms obey,
Dost once in a while Counsel take – and every so often Tea.”

Example #5: The Rape of the Lock (By Alexander Pope)
“Whether the nymph shall ruin Diana’s law,
Or some frail China-jar receive a flaw,
Or stain her honour, or her new brocade.”

Example #6: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (By Mark Twain)
“[They] included themselves with dust and glory.”

Example #7: The Pickwick Papers (By Charles Dickens)
“Miss Bolo […] went straight home, in a flood of tears and a sedan-chair.”

Example #8: Oliver Twist (By Charles Dickens)
“[H]e was alternately cudgelling his brains and his donkey whilst, passing the workhouse, his eyes encountered the bill at the gate.”

Example #9: Essay on Man (By Alexander Pope)
“Who sees with same eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or structures into damage hurled,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.”

Example #10: The Hundred Secret Senses (By Amy Tan)
“We were partners, not soul mates, separate people who came about to be sharing a menu and a life.”

Example #11: Have Some Madeira, M’Dear (By Flanders and Swann)
“She reduced her standards via elevating her glass,
Her courage, her eyes and his hopes.”

Example #12: The Things They Carried (By Tim O’Brien)
“But Ted Lavender, who became scared, carried 34 rounds when he become shot and killed out of doors Than Khe, and he went down below an excellent burden, extra than 20 kilos of ammunition, plus the flak jacket and helmet and rations and water and bathroom paper and tranquilizers and all the rest, plus an unweighed fear.”

Function of Zeugma
The above examples of Zeugma display that this literary device may also create puzzling or dangling sentences. However, if used correctly, it adds flavor to literary texts because it helps produce a dramatic effect, which could possibly be stunning in its result. Zeugma examples are also in literary works of well-known writers and poets from numerous centuries ago, to add vividness and conciseness to their texts.

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