Hendiadys
Richard
Nordquist is a freelance writer and former professor of English and Rhetoric
who wrote college-level Grammar and Composition textbooks.
Updated June
06, 2017
Hendiadys
(pronounced hen-DEE-eh-dis) is a figure of speech in which two words joined by and
express an idea that is more commonly expressed by an adjective and a noun. Adjective: hendiadic. Also known as
the figure of twins and pseudo coordination.
Critic Frank
Kermode described hendiadys as "a way of making a single idea strange by
splitting an expression in two" (Shakespeare's Language, 2000).
William
Shakespeare used hendiadys "almost compulsively" in several of his
plays (J. Shapiro, 2005). More than 60 instances of the figure appear in Hamlet
alone (e.g., "a fashion and a toy in blood," "the perfume and
suppliance of a minute").
Pronunciation
hen-DEE-eh-dis
Alternate Spellings
endiadis,
hendiasys
Etymology
From the Greek,
"one by means of two"
Examples and Observations
"[Hendiadys is
the] expression of an idea by two nouns connected by 'and' instead of a noun and
its qualifier: 'by length of time and siege' for 'by
a long siege.' Puttenham offers an example: 'Not you, coy dame, your lowers and
your looks,' for 'your lowering looks.' Peacham, ignoring the derivation of the
term, defines it as the substituting, for an adjective, of a substantive with the same meaning: 'a man of
great wisdom' for 'a wise man.' This redefinition would make it a kind of anthimeria."
(Richard
Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. University of California Press,
1991)
- "Finally, my father said, 'I'll tell you what, Sharla. Just go and visit for a few hours; you don't have to spend the night, all right?'”(Elizabeth Berg, What We Keep. Random House, 1998)
- "Penny waited until she knew her father had left the house before taking Kelly upstairs to give her a good wash and to try and do something to tidy her hair before taking her out."(Rosie Harris, Love or Duty. Severn House, 2014)
The Hendiadic Formula
"We
frequently join adjectives on the pattern of nice and warm, good and loud,
big and fat, sick and tired, long and leggy. Each of these pairs represents
a single concept in which the general idea contained in the first adjective is
explained or specified or opened up by the second; and, insofar as such
expressions may be continually invented, the pattern seems the closest thing to
adjectival hendiadys in English. Formulaic phrases such as nice and and good
and may be completed by virtually any adjective (or at least any pithy one)
in the language. Being formulaic, however, they lack the elements of surprise,
or improvisation, and of eccentric coordination that we find in classical
hendiadys."
(George T.
Wright, "Hendiadys and Hamlet." PMLA, March 1981)
Rhetorical Effect of Hendiadys
"[H]endiadys
has the effect of using language in order to slow down the rhythm of thought
and perception, to break things down into more elementary units, and thereby to
distort normative habits of thought and put them out of joint. Hendiadys is a
kind of rhetorical double take, a disruptive slowing of the action so that, for
example, we realize that the hatching of something is not identical with its
disclosure (Hamlet 3.1.174), or that 'the expectation and rose of the
fair state' (Hamlet 3.1.152), rather than the merely expectant rose,
define two distinctive aspects of Hamlet's role as heir apparent."
(Ned Lukacher, Time-Fetishes:
The Secret History of Eternal Recurrence. Duke University Press, 1998)
Pseudo-Coordination
"For present-day English, [Randolph] Quirk et al. [A
Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, 1985] comment on the
similarity between expressions like come and see, go to visit, try to do.
They remark that 'the semantic relation is alternatively realized by
coordinated clauses, especially in rather informal usage.' Quirk et al.
(1985:987-88) return to the topic of hendiadys under the heading of
'pseudo-coordination,' noting that I'll try and come tomorrow is
'roughly equivalent' to I'll try to come tomorrow, and that they sat
and talked about the good old times is 'similar in meaning' to they sat
talking about the good old times. . . .
"[H]endiadic
verbal expressions cover a spectrum that extends from 'core' examples like go
and, come and, come along and, come up and, stand there and, sit around and,
try and to a plethora of occasional types such as take a chance and,
plunge in and, wake up and, go to work and, roll up one's sleeves and, and
very many others that could be characterized as hendiadic in a broader
sense."
(Paul Hopper,
"Hendiadys and Auxiliation in English." Complex Sentences in
Grammar and Discourse, ed. by Joan L. Bybee and Michael Noonan. John
Benjamins, 2002)
The Lighter Side of Hendiadys
Elwood: What kind of
music do you usually have here?
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