Inconsistency

Inconsistency is a term used in rhetoric . This is understood to mean the conscious avoidance of parallelism. This can be seen as a lack of concinity and thus a mistake; But it can also be a conscious trick to avoid uniformity. The latter is particularly common with Tacitus .

Inconsistency can exist in the syntax , in the choice of words ( change in expression ) or in the use of the tenses (for example in Latin historical infinitive vs. imperfect / perfect tense). The use of syntactically parallel but semantically different clauses is also referred to as inconsistency. Both cases can be assigned to the Zeugma in classical rhetoric .

Examples:

• "When it rains and when it snows ..." (syntactic variation: noun / subordinate clause)
• "Germania is separated from the Sarmatians and Dacians by mutual fear and mountains" (semantic variation: psychological / physical; from Tacitus , Germania 1).
• “In general, the inhabitants of Göttingen are divided into students, professors, Philistines and cattle” ( Heinrich Heine ).

literature

• Jens König: Concinnitas. In: Gert Ueding (Ed.): Historical Dictionary of Rhetoric , Volume 2, Niemeyer, Tübingen 1994, ISBN 3-484-68102-0 , Sp. 317-335, here: 317