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Siamese twins or binomials are pairs of expressions which are often conjoined. For example:

  • back and forth
  • ebb and flow
  • near and far
  • better or worse
  • do or die

Is there is a name for the rhetorical device of swapping their order? For example:

  • forth and back
  • flow and ebb
  • far and near
  • worse or better
  • die or do

One might call this device reversal or inversion, but I am wondering if there's a specific name. I couldn't find anything in Landman's Handlist of Rhetorical Terms or on web lists.

EDIT: I don't think it counts as epanados since the words have not already (by hypothesis) been introduced in their standard order.

herisson
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DyingIsFun
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    monibials? tiamese swins? – JMP Jan 06 '16 at 16:48
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    This reversal of irreversibles should fall under the more general rhetorical devices of catechresis and/or solecism. I don't think your concept has its own name since it is so rare. – Mitch Jan 06 '16 at 16:55
  • But these aren't really trespasses on semantics or grammar, which rules out catechresis and solecism, respectively. My examples are "irreversible" only insofar as reversing them causes a mild, stylistic markedness (which some would actually find refreshing). – DyingIsFun Jan 06 '16 at 16:58
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    Conjoined together? – deadrat Jan 06 '16 at 17:15
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    Hmm, anastrophe? Anastrophic binomial transposition? – Dan Bron Jan 06 '16 at 17:34
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    'But these aren't really trespasses on semantics or grammar, which rules out catechresis and solecism, respectively.' It's non-idiomaticity. Which can be equally unacceptable. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 06 '16 at 17:43
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    OED defines anastrophe as *Inversion, or unusual arrangement, of the words or clauses of a sentence.* It's usually illustrated with reference to "Yoda-speak" (messing with the standard English Subject - Verb - Object sequence), but I see no reason why it wouldn't include deliberately altering the standard order of particular nouns. The only reason I can think of for saying It's raining dogs and cats is "humour", but I have to say I'd rapidly get irritated rather than amused if someone made a habit of talking like that. – FumbleFingers Jan 06 '16 at 18:07
  • @Dan Bron and FumbleFingers, I guess anastrophe (or hyperbaton), understood in its broadest sense as emphatic inversion of normal word order, works as an answer. A specific name for it as applied to my examples might be anastrophic binomials. Good answer! Why has nobody written it up? – DyingIsFun Jan 06 '16 at 18:09
  • ... It's not a good answer. It's non-standard (and I'm glad I don't have to downvote). As is the reversal of idiomatic pairs; compare 'a boat of the desert'; 'kick the pail'. Idioms resist modification. Why dignify with a name a practice that as FF says seems designed to quickly irritate? – Edwin Ashworth Jan 06 '16 at 19:30
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    @Edwin, an idiom is, in its most common sense, a phrase whose meaning is not deducible compositionally from its constituents. My examples are not like this. They are used with their usual senses. They just happen to be often conjoined. Their reversal is less irritating to me than refreshing, esp. certain literary examples (e.g. Lawrence using "flow and ebb"). I should have specified that I'm interested in examples where the transposition is not semantically or grammatically problematic, and which has a certain rhetorical effect (e.g. maintaining meter, or bracingly defying convention, etc.). – DyingIsFun Jan 06 '16 at 19:41
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    @Fumble Fingers, another reason (besides humor), you might think to transpose a binomial, is to maintain rhyme. An example would be Billy Joel's lyric "making love to his *tonic and gin*" over "making love to his gin and tonic" in order to maintain rhyme with "the regular crowd shuffles in." – DyingIsFun Jan 06 '16 at 19:48
  • @Silenus Look up the most common usage of 'idiomatic' as given by ODO and RHK Webster's. (Non-historic dictionaries list senses in order of frequency of use). It is not sound to assume that different parts of speech manifest the same primary senses; think of telescope (n) and telescope (v). And the default sense of 'idiomatic' has been covered on ELU before. // If you prefer, 'asking for a DIY term for non-standard usages is off-topic on ELU'. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 06 '16 at 22:22
  • @Silenus: Joel's lyrics aren't exactly side-splittingly funny - but the primary effect of "making love" to a drink is at least whimsical, whether that whimsy extends to recasting the name of the drink or not. – FumbleFingers Jan 07 '16 at 13:13
  • FF, I agree. Just giving a concrete example of another reason why you might swap 'em that's not related to humor. Not citing Joel as a particularly elevated example. – DyingIsFun Jan 07 '16 at 13:32
  • @Silenus: I think you're putting the cart before the horse (or horse behind the cart, to continue the theme :) Both the primary effect and the reason for Joel's usage involve "whimsy" - and he can get away with doing it once in one song without seeming "strained", but if it happened again in the same song people would really start rolling their eyes. You can't really say the guy was "forced" to reverse the idiom for the sake of the rhyme. He could just have written something completely different. – FumbleFingers Jan 07 '16 at 14:35
  • The phenomenon isn't restricted to pairs of words connected by a conjunction. There are instances where the simple ordering of adjectives falls into a consistent pattern that proves awkward or difficult to break. Classic example: who would ever talk about an "old little lady?" –  Jan 21 '16 at 03:47
  • Good point @JDM. I tried to indicate that when I qualified that binomials are pairs of expressions "which are often conjoined". I should have given some other examples. – DyingIsFun Jan 21 '16 at 03:51

1 Answers1

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Consider

Hyperbaton

a generic term for changing the normal or expected order of words.

P. O.
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