Well you can stop wondering… I happened upon an interesting English language usage lesson haphazardly while determining which title I should use for a client pitch letter. My debate was to either say “Putting ice in your coffee doesn’t make iced coffee” or, “Ice in your coffee does not an iced coffee make”. Well me being me, I thought the latter version would be fun, basically just because I like interesting word usage. However, if I’m sending a pitch letter to a journalist, whose full time job is to be on the up & up of correct use of the English language well… would my little yoda-ish phrase turn them off?
So I set out on a google adventure. SEARCH : “BLANK does not a BLANK make”. Not quite secure in myself that anything would turn up, I was surprised that the first item in search results was exactly what I wanted! A term for the phrase I was wanting to employ.
This website gave me the term to which I could research further. Ice in your coffee does not an iced coffee make is actually a form of a Hyperbaton
Now that I had a term for the phrase, I could and did, turn to google yet again and found an article by an About.com author which defines Hyperbaton and actually sources Yoda as a user of such figures of speech.
Definition of Hyperbaton: A figure of speech that uses disruption or inversion of customary word order to produce a distinctive effect; also, a figure in which language takes a sudden turn–usually an interruption. Plural: hyperbata. Adjective: hyperbatonic.
Another english language terminology yoda employs is called Anastrophe which by definition is quite similar to Hyperbaton, Anastrophe: A rhetorical term for the inversion of conventional word order. Adjective: anastrophic.
Now if you need further entertainment for the day, translate your “normal” sentences to “Yoda Speak” with this handy Yoda Speak Generator : http://www.yodaspeak.co.uk/index.php
Cheerio!
