Zeugma!
Cute zeugma (or possibly syllepsis) in a New York Times article today, about a guy who went over Niagara Falls and survived:
"The plunge defied the laws of physics and Canada."
6 Responses to “Zeugma!”
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naomi_traveller
briefly entranced by the image of physics-defying Canadians floating in defiance of gravity over starlit falls…
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SarahP
Thanks, Jed–I love learning new words!
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Nao
This reminds me of a song from Flanders & Swann, a British comedy duo from the 50’s. I grew up listening to their songs.
Anyway, here’s the lyrics. It’s, um, about a dirty old man and a sweet seventeen-year-old. Date rape, to put it bluntly. But the word play in the song is a lot of fun. And there’s several zeugmas, too.
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Jed
I really ought to listen to more Flanders & Swann. I’ve heard “Madeira M’Dear” performed at filk events at conventions; definitely lots of good zeugmata. Swann is known (somewhat) in sf circles for something else as well: he set a bunch of Tolkien poems to music. There’s apparently a new edition of the book of sheet music (The Road Goes Ever On) (which also contains a couple pages of very nice Elvish script) available in the UK; it’s not clear to me whether there’s also a CD recording of it or not. See Talking About Tolkien for slightly more info.
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SarahP
Oh, and the plural is zeugmata! Now I like it even better. Thanks for the Tolkien link, too, Jed; I’m a bit obsessed on that subject at the moment.
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Nao
Yay, Donald Swann! I was fortunate enough to see him in live concert at the Friends’ Meeting House at Swarthmore. He was sponsored by WILPF. He played and sang a mix of comedy and peace songs. And, of course, he finished up with the Hippopotamus Song.
The two songs that are much on my mind at the moment are The Gasman Cometh and Design for Living..
We’re terribly House and Garden,
And now we’ve got the chance,
The garden’s full of furniture,
And the house is full of plants.
