Loose/Cumulative
Definition:
- a sentence with its main clause at the beginning and additional grammatical units added after it; can convey a great deal of information and imagery in an economical way. A loose sentence makes complete sense if brought to a close before its actual ending; it accumulates extra information as it goes on.
Examples:
- "So I opened it - you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily - until, at length, a single dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell upon the vulture eye." (Edgar Allan Poe, "The Tell-Tale Heart")
- "He began to talk, the little family circle regarding with eager interest this visitor from distant parts, as he squared his broad shoulders in the chair and spoke of wild scenes and doughty deeds; of wars and plagues and strange people." (W.W. Jacobs, "The Monkey's Paw")
2 comments:
Bod fell, tumbling through the darkness like a lump of marble, too startled to be scared, wondering how deep the hole beneath that grave could possibly be, when two strong hands caught him beneath the armpits and he found himself swinging forward through the pitch-blackness.
Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book, 78
"That night, he dreamed of the wild dogs again, his savage dogs, with bloodstained muzzles and torn ears and broken teeth, with wild eyes and slavering jaws and scarred flanks, howling and barking as they raced around him, surging up to lick his face thrusting themselves at his hands, rubbing themselves against his legs, a tumult of canine fury, with him at its heart and center, humbling themselves against cat-formed Asta; and as before, he felt no fear, he felt nothing, but savage exhilaration and boundless delight." The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman
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