Anacoluthon

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An anacoluthon (/ænəkəˈljuːθɒn/; from the Greek anakolouthon, from an- 'not', and akólouthos 'following') is an unexpected discontinuity in the expression of ideas within a sentence, leading to a form of words in which there is logical or grammatical incoherence of thought. Anacolutha are often sentences interrupted midway, where there is a change in the syntactical structure of the sentence and of intended meaning following the interruption.^[1] As rhetorical or literary device, anacoluthon may be used to demonstrate emotion or the natural patterns of spoken discourse.^[2]

An example is the Italian proverb "The good stuff – think about it."^[3] This proverb urges people to make the best choice. When anacoluthon occurs unintentionally, it is considered to be an error in sentence structure and may result in incoherent nonsense. However, it can be used intentionally as a rhetorical technique to challenge the reader to think more deeply, or in stream-of-consciousness literature to represent the disjointed nature of associative thought.

Anacolutha are very common in informal speech, where a speaker might start to say one thing, then break off and abruptly and incoherently continue, expressing a completely different line of thought. When such speech is reported in writing, an em dash (—)^[4] or ellipsis (...) is often included at the point of discontinuity. The listener is expected to ignore the first part of the sentence, although in some cases it might contribute to the overall meaning in an impressionistic sense.