history - Why is this a hyperbaton?


According to Wikipedia, this is a hyperbaton:



"Whom god wishes to destroy, he first makes mad" — Euripides



Is that right, and if so, why? My native language is Swedish, but I speak English fluently. Anyway, why isn't the following considered hyperbaton too?



It's not that hard, I suppose.



It's very common in Swedish, which may be the reason why it sounds so natural to me, but still, it's rather common in English too.



Answer



The more traditional phrasing would be:



God first makes mad whom he wishes to destroy.



Flipping the order of "[he/God] first makes mad" and "whom [he/God] wishes to destroy" results in a hyperbaton.



Hyperbaton /haɪˈpɜrbətɒn/ is a figure of speech in which words are transposed.



I personally wouldn't consider "It's not that hard, I suppose." a hyperbaton because it is just conversational English. I don't know the appropriate term for the pattern but it is standard phrasing:



I just don't want to go to the movies, I guess.



If you wanted to turn this into a hyperbaton you would have to muck up the order of the first part:



To the movies, I just don't want to go, I guess.



Which is horribly awkward. You'd actually say:



To the movies, I guess I just don't want to go.



To turn your example into a hyperbaton:



Hard it is not, I suppose.



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