What's the difference between prolepsis and syllepsis?

Prolepsis


Definition:

  • (n.) A figure by which objections are anticipated or prevented.
  • (n.) A necessary truth or assumption; a first or assumed principle.
  • (n.) An error in chronology, consisting in an event being dated before the actual time.
  • (n.) The application of an adjective to a noun in anticipation, or to denote the result, of the action of the verb; as, to strike one dumb.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) With the appearance of his 18th novel, Millennium People, Ballard demonstrated his powers of prolepsis once more: as anti-terrorist forces rolled into Heathrow airport in February 2003, Ballard was putting the finishing touches to his own work of urban terrorism, a novel which rips open with an explosion at Heathrow's Terminal 2.

Syllepsis


Definition:

  • (n.) A figure of speech by which a word is used in a literal and metaphorical sense at the same time.
  • (n.) The agreement of a verb or adjective with one, rather than another, of two nouns, with either of which it might agree in gender, number, etc.; as, rex et regina beati.

Example Sentences: