What is "anapodoton"

n. 1 (context uncountable rhetoric English) The rhetorical device in which a main clause is implied by a subordinate clause, without mention. 2 (context countable rhetoric English) An instance of anapodoton.

An anapodoton (from the Greek anapodosis: "without a main clause") is a rhetorical device related to the anacoluthon. It is a figure of speech or discourse that is an incomplete sentence, consisting of a subject or complement without the requisite object. The stand-alone subordinate clause suggests or implies a subject (a main clause), but this is not actually provided.

As an intentional rhetorical device, it is generally used for set phrases, where the full form is understood, and would thus be tedious to spell out, as in "When in Rome [do as the Romans]." or "If the mountain won't come to Muhammad [Muhammed will go to the mountain]."

Anapodoton is extremely common in Classical Chinese and languages that draw from it, such as Japanese, where a long literary phrase is abbreviated to just a sufficient allusion. For example, Zhuangzi's phrase "A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean." meaning "people of limited experience have a narrow world view" is rendered as "A frog in a well" in Modern Chinese, and as in Modern Japanese, abbreviating