“She took out the gun, and she shot the cashier in the face.” “She took out the gun, she shot the cashier in the face.” Removing the conjunction is asyndeton. “She took out the gun and she shot the cashier in the face.” Removing the comma is ???
The standard is for independent clauses to be joined by a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction.
The comma is necessary the way you've written the first sentence, but it seemed unnecessary to repeat the 'she' and make it an independent clause. I've since deleted the reply, I don't want to sidetrack your inquiry.
Of course, but I'm not asking the best way to write the sentence. I'm asking what the word is when the comma is omitted.
Yes, but I think there is a fancy way of saying it that doesn't imply the author can't grammar. Like asyndeton = comma splice. I am 99% certain I heard it before, but it's eluding me. Found this though, but of interesting devices here: 110 Common Literary Devices: Definitions & Examples | Writers.com
I believe it's called "running style." There's usually some sort of rushing feeling to it all. If that's not there then it doesn't work very well. Though it is possible to leave out the comma if the first clause is very short, and I don't think that really counts as running style. She likes peas and he likes carrots, and so I'll never accept a dinner invitation from them. (comma missing before "and he") I'm not sure if that really has a name? It breaks a conjunction rule, but I've read writing books many times where that's presented as a fair cheat. There has to be a quick connection between the two clauses. Running style is like something Faulkner would do, where you get those single sentences stretched into a paragraph of rambling phrases. I feel like you have to take that to an extreme to make it work though. She took out the gun and she shot the cashier in the face and she checked her makeup on the way out the door. Not sure if there's a fancy Latin word for it though. Maybe?
Technically what you describe isn't a run-on sentence since apparently run-on sentences don't have conjunction at all (based on the technical definition). It may help to find a more stylistic example and maybe one of the more learned members can comment. When I saw your post, I thought perhaps you were thinking of the omission of commas to make a sentence seem longer than it need to be for stylistic effect although it isn't grammatically correct. I couldn't find what I was looking for but found something similar in Stuart Little. But, this technically isn't what you are asking about (I think) and may be grammatically correct because the multiple clauses are part of an adverbial (where...) clause and I don't know what the rules are with compound adverbial clauses (mods delete if the quoted length is too long): “In the loveliest town of all, where the houses were white and high and the elms trees were green and higher than the houses, where the front yards were wide and pleasant and the back yards were bushy and worth finding out about, where the streets sloped down to the stream and the stream flowed quietly under the bridge, where the lawns ended in orchards and the orchards ended in fields and the fields ended in pastures and the pastures climbed the hill and disappeared over the top toward the wonderful wide sky, in this loveliest of all towns Stuart stopped to get a drink of sarsaparilla.”
I think this can be referred to as polysyndeton since there are multiple conjunctions. And I quite like that sentence, nothing extreme to me about it.
Another good example of polysyndeton. I guess there just isn't a word for it when there are only two clauses and one conjunction.
Yeah, I think you're right. A lot of these overlap. I'll bet there's an obscure Latin/Greek term for it. Those guys didn't miss much. I'm not sure which it would be though? Certainly there's an old rhetorical technique of just rambling a thought off?
Exactly, same with polysyndeton. You can have a standard structure that is a polysyndeton, or a run on like our examples. But I don't think there is a way to have a standard structure that is asyndeton if I am not mistaken. Okay I'm feeling like a dork now, going to head to bed...
I was learning about these when I was looking into a classical education program, and it's very good stuff, but I don't really care to try to memorize the names of all the techniques. My brain doesn't have that much storage space available, and it doesn't retain things like that anyway. But I do like learning about them and how to use them. I use the one a lot, that @Seven Crowns called running style. I knew I had seen it done occasionally and I liked it, but I didn't realize it should only be done when excitement is high. That does make sense, it's like you run your words together and cut out unimportant ones. The name is good in that case, because it tells you about the function—it's a running style, not to be used for ordinary scenes but only when things are getting intense. I think in this case I'll make an exception and try to memorize the name.
These styles are always rather strange to me. IMO, they need to be used in a certain way so that they don't look like typos. It all has to be done on a grander scale. They're still breaking the grammar, but it's so obvious that the line is shaped for effect that it's more readily accepted. I've thought a bit about these commas. I think the original poster's line is a regular old syndeton (one conjunction). Dropping the comma is a trick that polysyndetons love to do (though not always). Polysyndetons have more than one "and." That's all the word means, by defintion. "Syndeton" means "bound together." The "poly" binds it many times with many conjuctions. So dropping the comma from a normal syndeton makes it feel like a polysyndeton. It's still a syndeton because it could only really have one "and." It does look wrong, but if you really think about it, there are places where it could be stylistically used. The lack of a breath in the middle shoves the line forward. Yes, your grammar checker will hate it, but it hates every line that doesn't fit into a boring essay. I only use grammar checkers to find double words (e.g., the the). Maybe it catches an its/it's every now and then too. I do make lots of typos. I don't think that sydenton missing a comma gets a special Latin name. We're kind of mixing up orthography and grammar and style, and those are all different aspects. (<-- polysyndeton back there, heh) An aside that demonstrates scale! This trick (asyndeton) always irritates me. He grabbed his fedora, Berreta. You see that in crime noir all the time. Kind of like I was saying, those styles need to be done on a bigger scale. He grabbed his fedora, Berreta, a bottle of Old Elgin. And see, that no longer irritates me. I can't really explain why it is, and I agree that the first one is stylistically correct, but the second just flows better. I think it's the old tricolon trick that's containing the style. Maybe that's the difference. It's that short/short/long pattern, like "Harry, Ron, Hermione." Mine even line up tighter 3-syllable/3-syallable/phrase, with the first two even ending poetically -ra/-ta. That's the kind of insanity I think about. It's just analysis though. It should happen after the fact, not as you're forming the sentence, unless it's somehow subconcious. It may be . . . I do think Faulkner goes too far. I've only ever read excerpts of his work. I dread reading an entire novel that keeps jumping back to that running style. I've been trying to read more classics lately (currently reading Frankenstein and 100 Years of Solitude) and Faulkner always shows up in those 100 Greatest Books lists. It's usually "As I Lay Dying," or sometimes "The Sound and the Fury." One day . . . Wish me luck!
I thought he had named his hat Beretta. Next I was expecting him to reach into his armpit holster and pull out Old Toupee to blast somebody (is it a rule that if you use a smiley at the end of a sentence it replaces the period, or is that just me?)
Oh, I suddenly get it!! I thought these names were just gibberish, like what the hell does syndeton mean? I was considering coming up with a memory trick like 'synd means and'. But then I started wondering if I know any other words that use this root. The first thing that came to mind was synecdoche. Um ok, no. No idea what the heck that means. Then there's synagogue. A Jewish temple or place of worship. Doesn't help. And suddenly I came up with synchronicity and it all fell into place. It means several things happening together. Together must be what it refers to. And then I realized a synagogue is where Jewish people get together to worship. Ok! Oh wait—what is a syndicate? Some kind of corporation, but like an illegal one I think. Well, a corporation is a large group working together. Ok, yeah, makes sense now. It isn't just a crazy nonexistant word. So, in a sense, syn does mean and. Sorry, just me working things out in typical mixed-up Xoic fashion. Be on your way.
