Aparaprosdokian (/pærəprɒsˈdoʊkiən/) is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists[1] such as Groucho Marx. It is synonymous with Par'hyponoian.
"Paraprosdokian" comes from the Greek "παρά", meaning "against", and "προσδοκία", meaning "expectation".[2][3] 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."[4][5][6][7] These four sources are cited under "prosdokia" in Liddell-Scott-Jones, Greek Lexicon.[8]
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.[9][10]
For example, in response to the question "how are you two?", a Modern Hebrew speaker can say בסדר גמור; היא בסדר, אני גמור (be-séder gamúr; i 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".[11]: 88 Note the ambiguity of the Hebrew lexical item גמור gamúr: it means both "complete" and "finished".[11]: 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."[11]: 88
^ ab
LaPointe, Leonard L. (September 2009). "Figaro and paraprosdokian". Journal of Medical Speech – Language Pathology. Archived from the original on January 9, 2011.
^Leighton, H. Vernon (2020). "A Theory of Humor (Abridged) and the Comic Mechanisms of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces". In Marsh, Leslie (ed.). Theology and Geometry: Essays on John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces (Politics, Literature, & Film). United Kingdom: Lexington Books (published January 29, 2020). pp. 2–4. ISBN978-1-4985-8547-7. Retrieved March 27, 2020. 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.
