periodic sentence

Cicero is generally considered to be the master of the periodic sentence.

In general, a periodic sentence places the main point in the middle or at the end of the sentence.

According to William Harmon, the periodic sentence is used "to arouse interest and curiosity, to hold an idea in suspense before its final revelation."

Periodic sentences often rely on hypotaxis, whereas running sentences are typified by parataxis.

They are marked by solemn but vivid rhetoric, elaborate periodic sentences, and careful attention to the music and rhythms of words:

Traditional stylistic terms (eg that of the periodic sentence - see 7.5.3) although often ill-defined, seem to refer to such configurations of categories.

In classical times, the periodic sentence held equal or greater favor, and during the Age of Enlightenment, the balanced sentence was a favorite of writers.

The periodic sentence emphasizes its main idea by placing it at the end, following all the subordinate clauses and other modifiers that support the principal idea.

Though in his development of the periodic sentence he followed Isocrates, the essential tendencies of his style are those of Lysias.

A "now-famous periodic sentence" occurs in Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Overcoat":

A periodic sentence is a stylistic device employed at the sentence level, described as one that is not complete grammatically or semantically before the final clause or phrase.

He starts with his trademark periodic sentence by depicting his strengths of natural talent, experience, and strategy while appearing humble and inferior to the qualities of his client.

In American literature, scholars note the explicit rejection by Henry David Thoreau of the formal style of his time, of which the periodic sentence was characteristic; in his journal, Thoreau criticized those sentences as the "weak and flowing periods of the politician and scholar."

In English literature the decline of the periodic sentence's popularity goes hand in hand with the development toward a less formal style, which some authors date to the beginning of the Romantic period, specifically the 1798 publication of the Lyrical Ballads, and the prevalence in twentieth-century literature of spoken language over written language.