Hypozeuxis
Giving every clause its own subject and verb, so each stands as a complete unit.
Hypozeuxis is the opposite of zeugma. Where zeugma makes one verb serve several clauses, hypozeuxis supplies a fresh subject and verb to each, producing a series of self-contained statements.
The effect is weight and deliberateness. Nothing is shared, so nothing is subordinated; each clause lands with the same structural force as the one before it.
Political and legal prose favours it for exactly that reason. Repeated full clauses read as a list of separate commitments rather than as a single sentence with attachments.
Common mistake: overuse. Sustained hypozeuxis becomes monotonous, since the pattern that grants each clause equal weight also denies the passage any variation in emphasis.
“The board approved the budget. The auditors reviewed the books. The staff kept the doors open.”
Keep reading the glossary
A figure in which one word governs two or more others in different senses — often for wit or surprise.
A construction in which one word governs two others in different senses at once.
A prose style built from short, coordinate clauses placed side by side without subordination.
A rhetorical scheme in which successive clauses have the same length and grammatical structure.