Paraprosdokian

"Paraprosdokian" derives from Greek παρά "against" and προσδοκία "expectation".{{Cite book|last=Ph.D |first=Rod L. Evans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bVH4YNnJQCYC|title=Tyrannosaurus Lex: The Marvelous Book of Palindromes, Anagrams, and Other Delightful and Outrageous Wordplay |date=2012-06-05|publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-101-58863-5|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2014-05-18|title=Paraprosdokian - Definition and Examples of Paraprosdokian|url=https://literarydevices.net/paraprosdokian/|access-date=2021-08-31|website=Literary Devices |language=en-US}} The noun prosdokia occurs with the preposition para in Greek rhetorical writers of the 1st century BCE and the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, with the meaning "contrary to expectation" or "unexpectedly."{{cite book |title=Demetrius On Style, The Greek text of Demetrius De Elocutione |author-link=Demetrius of Phalerum |author=Demetrius |editor=Roberts, W. Ryhs |publisher=BiblioBazaar |at=para. 153 |isbn=978-1-113-67981-9}}{{cite book |title=On Method of Forceful Speaking |author-link=Hermogenes of Tarsus |author=Hermogenes |chapter=34. On Speaking in Comic Style |year=2005 |volume=Invention and Method |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |isbn=978-1-58983-121-6}}{{cite book |title=De Figuris |author=Tiberius (Rhetor.) |date=January 2010 |language=Latin |publisher=Nabu Press |at=para. 16 |isbn=978-1-141-72928-9}}{{cite book |title=On Choices and Avoidances |author-link=Philodemus |author=Philodemus |language=Italian |editor1-first=Giovanni |editor1-last=Indelli |editor2-first=Voula |editor2-last=Tsouna-McKirahan |publisher=Bibliopolis |at=para. 19 {{ASIN|B001MHLUF4}}}}{{cite book|last=Liddell-Scott-Jones |title=A Greek-English Lexicon|year=1958|publisher=Oxford|page=1507|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dprosdoki%2Fa}}

While the word is now in wide circulation, "paraprosdokian" (or "paraprosdokia") is not a term of classical (or medieval) Greek or Latin rhetoric; it was first attested in 1896.{{cite web|last=Casselman |first=Bill |title=The Bogus Word Paraprosdokian (and Lazy Con-Men of Academe) |url=http://www.billcasselman.com/unpub_2011/paraprosdokian_bogus_word.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160525222856/http://www.billcasselman.com/unpub_2011/paraprosdokian_bogus_word.htm|archive-date=2016-05-25|work=The Perils of Rhetorical Nomenclature |publisher=Casselmania: McArthur & Co. |location=Toronto |url-status=usurped |date=2011-01-03}}

Some paraprosdokians not only change the meaning of an early phrase, as in garden-path sentence, but also play on the double meaning of a particular word, creating a form of syllepsis or antanaclasis (a type of pun).

For example, in response to the question "how are you two?", a Modern Hebrew speaker can say {{lang|he|בסדר גמור; היא בסדר, אני גמור}} (be-séder gamúr; hi be-séder, aní gamúr), literally "in-order complete; she in-order, I complete", i.e., "We are very good. She is good, I am finished".{{cite book|author=Zuckermann, Ghil'ad |author-link=Ghil'ad Zuckermann |title=Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York|year=2020|isbn=9780199812790|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/revivalistics-9780199812790?lang=en&cc=us}}{{rp|88}} Note the ambiguity of the Hebrew lexical item גמור gamúr: it means both "complete" and "finished".{{rp|88}} A parallel punning paraprosdokian in English is a man's response to a friend's question "Why are you and your wife here?: A workshop; I am working, she is shopping."{{rp|88}}

• "Take my wife—please!" —Henny Youngman{{cite web|title=Paraprosdokians |url=http://wordoriginsblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/paraprosdokians/ |work=Away With Words |date=2012-02-09 |accessdate=2017-07-11 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150228074829/https://wordoriginsblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/paraprosdokians/ |archivedate=2015-02-28 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last1=Gottesman |first1=Kyra |title=It's a figure of speech {{!}} Off the Record |url=https://www.chicoer.com/2019/06/15/its-a-figure-of-speech-off-the-record/ |website=Chico Enterprise-Record |accessdate=9 August 2020 |date=15 June 2019}}
• "If I could just say a few words … I'd be a better public speaker." —Homer Simpson

{{cite book

|title=Dictionary of Rhetorical Terms

|first=Gregory

|last=Howard

|isbn=978-1-4500-2029-9

|publisher=Xlibris

|page=151

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pn54SmsX-SEC&pg=PA151

|date=2010-01-11

}}{{self-published inline|certain=yes|date=January 2018}}

• "If I am reading this graph correctly—I'd be very surprised." —Stephen Colbert

{{cite book

|title=Concise Handbook of Literary and Rhetorical Terms

|first=Michael

|last=Mills

|isbn=978-0-615-27136-1

|year=2010

|publisher=Estep-Nicoles Publishing

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bw6FDZ68MUgC&pg=PA91

}}

• "If all the girls attending the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised." —Dorothy Parker{{cite book |last1=Norwich |first1=John Julius |title=The Ultimate Christmas Cracker |date=2019 |publisher=John Murray Press |isbn=978-1-5293-2491-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x4mpDwAAQBAJ |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Frizzelle |first1=Christopher |title=Happy Birthday, Dorothy Parker |url=https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/08/22/41169753/happy-birthday-dorothy-parker |website=The Stranger |accessdate=9 August 2020 |date=22 August 2019 |language=en}}
• "On his feet he wore … blisters." —Aristotle

{{cite book

|title=A companion to rhetoric and rhetorical criticism

|first1=Walter

|last1=Jost

|first2= Wendy

|last2=Olmsted

|page=277

|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell

|isbn=978-1-4051-0112-7

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzDZKoao17kC&pg=PA277

|accessdate=2012-02-12

|date=2004-02-23

}}

• "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." —Groucho Marx

{{cite journal

|title=Figaro and paraprosdokian

|journal=Journal of Medical Speech – Language Pathology

|date=September 2009

|first=Leonard L.

|last= LaPointe

|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1397/is_3_17/ai_n45060415/

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110109061130/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1397/is_3_17/ai_n45060415/

|archive-date=2011-01-09

}}{{cite book

|last1=Leighton

|first1=H. Vernon

|year=2020

|chapter=A Theory of Humor (Abridged) and the Comic Mechanisms of John Kennedy Toole’s ‘’A Confederacy of Dunces’’

|editor-last=Marsh

|editor-first=Leslie

|title=Theology and Geometry: Essays on John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces (Politics, Literature, & Film)

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BjHNDwAAQBAJ

|location=United Kingdom

|publisher=Lexington Books

|publication-date= 29 January 2020

|pages=2–4

|isbn=978-1-4985-8547-7

|access-date=27 March 2020

|quote=it is useful to examine the famous paraprosdokian, ‘I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.’ … Within the cognitive incongruity aspect of humor … Comedians often rely on shared knowledge with the audience to provide the second interpretation toward which the joke will pivot … As the paraprosdokian above illustrates, in some humor events, the brain begins tentatively to assign the event of one interpretation but then is forced in surprise to reassign the event to a second interpretation.}}{{cite web |last1=Bradley |first1=Patricia |title=What Do You Do With A Paraprosdokian? |url=https://learnhowtowriteanovel.com/blog/2019/09/03/what-do-you-do-with-a-paraprosdokian/ |website=Learn How to Write a Novel |accessdate=9 August 2020 |date=September 3, 2019}}

• "To wives and sweethearts! May they never meet." — Traditional toast made by Royal Navy officers{{cite web |last1=|first1=|title='Our wives and sweethearts' Naval toast rewritten |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-23013395|website=BBC News |accessdate=24 May 2024 |date=22 June 2013}}
• "My uncle's dying wish was to have me sit in his lap; he was in the electric chair." —Rodney Dangerfield{{cite web |last1=Baumann |first1=Jim |title=Grammar Moses: It's not a pickup line, it's a paraprosdokian |url=https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20200328/grammar-moses-its-not-a-pickup-line-its-a-paraprosdokian |website=Daily Herald |accessdate=9 August 2020 |date=28 March 2020}}
• "I like going to the park and watching the children run around because they don't know I'm using blanks." —Emo Philips
• "I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long." —Mitch Hedberg{{cite web |first=Eric |last=Zorn |title=Fine Lines: Mitch Hedberg |url=http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2005/04/fine_lines_mitc.html |work=Chicago Tribune |date=April 4, 2005 |accessdate=January 22, 2016}}
• "I sleep eight hours a day and at least ten at night." —Bill Hicks{{cite web|last=Lundin|first=Leigh|title=Paraprosdokia|url=http://www.criminalbrief.com/?p=15519|publisher=Criminal Brief |work=The A.D.D. Detective |date=2011-01-30|accessdate=2011-03-06}}{{cite web |title=List of 20 Paraprosdokians: Sentences with a twist |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/grammar-vocabulary/story/english-304300-2016-01-18 |website=India Today |accessdate=9 August 2020 |location=New Delhi |language=en |date=August 17, 2016}}
• "I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a Democrat." —Will Rogers{{cite web|url=http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2012/04/paraprosdokia.html|title=Paraprosdokia|last=Andrews|first=Dale C. |date=April 24, 2012|publisher=Sleuthsayers |accessdate=July 22, 2012}}
• "On the other hand, you have different fingers." —Steven Wright
• "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." —Jim Brewer, sometimes attributed to Groucho Marx{{cite web |last1=O'Toole |first1=Garson |website=Quote Investigator |title=Outside of a Dog, a Book is Man's Best Friend. Inside of a Dog, It's Too Dark to Read |accessdate=9 August 2020 |date=2010-09-08| url=https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/09/08/dog/ }}{{cite book |last1=O'Toole |first1=Garson |title=Hemingway Didn't Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations |date=2017 |publisher=Amazon Publishing |isbn=978-1-5039-3340-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5ddvgAACAAJ |language=en}}

• Anti-proverb
• List of linguistic example sentences
• One-line joke

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{wiktionary|paraprosdokian}}

{{Spoken Wikipedia|En-Paraprosdokian-article.ogg|date=2015-03-17}}

Category:Figures of speech

Category:Greek words and phrases

Category:Jokes

Category:Rhetoric

Category:Word play