Asyndeton: No conjunctions
From English Composition and Rhetoric, by Alexander Bain; Rhetoric by Thomas Gibbons; Practical Rhetoric,
by William Edward Jelf; The Outlines of Rhetoric for Schools and Colleges, by Joseph Henry Gilmore
Asyndeton (Greek asundeton, ‘unconnected’) is a figure of rhetoric in which conjunctives are omitted for the sake of vehemence or speed:
“I came, I saw, I conquered.” -- Julius Caesar
Greek rhetoricians used this figure often.
I. Same logical and grammatical relations
Asyndeton can properly only take place when sentences, phrases, or words which are in the same logical and grammatical relations to each other, are not connected by a conjunction. By the omission of the conjunction, the successive thoughts are represented as following one another so rapidly that they are but one thought:
And closing their shields together, they pushed, they fought, they killed, they were killed.
II. Flow almost outstrips the speaker
Longinus tells us that asyndeton may create a flow of words poured out in such a manner that they almost outstrip the speaker. Some of the best examples of this may be found in the New Testament:
In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report. -- St. Paul
III. Appropriate closing effect
Aristotle (Rhetoric, B. III., ch. xix.) notes that asyndeton is appropriate to the close of one's discourse:
“I have spoken — you have heard — the case is in your hands, — pronounce your decision.” -- Demosthenes
The words above are the closing words of Demosthenes, in De Corona, and also the closing words of Aristotle's Rhetoric.
