To speak dramatically is to call attention to one's words. This can be done because the speaker wishes to indicate that a particular sentence or phrase is more important than others, that it contradicts others, or that it is being used ironically. The speaker of English can "mark" his or her words by suddenly varying amplitude (shouting or whispering), by slowing his or her normal rate of speech, by overarticulating, or by using abnormal intonations or voice registers (for instance, in sarcastic imitation of a target's way of speaking). While all these essentially phonetic means are also available to speakers of Hindi-Urdu, the language has some additional ways of "marking" their words. Three of them are discussed here.
        I. One of these is the use of deviant word order:

1. कमाल है, जा तू रही है और तुझे पता नहीं (कि कब जा रही है ) !
    'You're the one who is going and you don't know when!?'

    (in a story by अन्विता अब्बी, from her collection मुट्ठी भर पहचान, 1969: 92)

These deviations (themselves conventional) often involve reversals or inversions. For instance in (2) the modifier प्रजातंत्र की comes to the right of the noun it modifies (बातें) and the predicate noun तानाशाह comes to the right of part of its verb होते हैं :

2. उसे विशवास हो गया था कि उसके अपने और ज़्यादातर माँ-बाप बातें प्रजातंत्र की करते हैं पर होते तानाशाह हैं।
   'She had become convinced that not only her own but parents in general talk about democracy but in fact are autocrats.'

    (from चिड़िया और चील by सुषम बेदी. See context.)

More than one inversion can occur, as in the first clause of (3):

3. दिया आमन्त्रण तूने और पैसे दिए मैंने !
    'You made the invitation and I paid our way!'

It seems reasonable to suppose that the inversions and deviations in these examples of dramatic contrast have the effect of getting the contrasted elements into places where the intonational peak of the sentence will fall onto them. Compare the contrast in (4a) with the even sharper one in (4b):

4a. नाम ख़ुदा का लेगा पर काम शैतान का करेगा।
4b. लेगा नाम ख़ुदा का और करेगा काम शैतान का !
    'He'll take God's name and do Satan's bidding!'

(For discussion of inversion of verb-final order to verb-first as an indication of sarcasm see § 52 "लगा क़िस्मत कोसने".)

        II. An additional (and striking) way speakers of Hindi-Urdu (and other South Asian languages) express contrast is by using repetition of the same words:

5. कहता कुछ है करता कुछ है । युद्ध में उस पर किसी प्रकार का विश्वास नहीं किया जा सकता।
    'He says one thing and does another. There's no way he can be trusted in battle.'

    [m.rajasthanpatrika.patrika.com/]

In (5) the same word कुछ is used twice and indicates opposite things. Another example:

6. कहता कुछ है, करता कुछ है, दिखता कुछ है, दिखाता कुछ है !!!
    'He says one thing, does another, appears to be one thing and shows (himself to be) another!!!'

    [explorevinay.blogspot.com]

This use of repetition to show dramatic contrast is limited to कुछ and to कहाँ:

7. बहुत बड़ी ग़लती हो गई सरकार ! मेरी औक़ात नहीं है आपसे लड़ने की... कहाँ आप और कहाँ मैं...
    'I've made a great mistake, Sardar! I have no way to fight with you ... Who am I compared to you?'

    [bharatdiscovery.org]

8. कहाँ राजा भोज तुम और कहाँ मैं गंगू तेली!
    'How can I, a poor oil-seller, be compared to you, King Bhoj!'

    [www.apnimaati.com]

Worth noting perhaps that in (7) and (8) and other contrast expressions it is the second phrase or clause that indicates reality or truth or brings the hearer / reader down to earth.

        III. Syllepsis: "A kind of ellipsis in which one word (usually a verb) is understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs." In (9) the verb lost is understood in two different ways that are determined by the nouns bet and temper:

9. He lost the bet and his temper.        

Not unlike rhyme in which part of a word is the same as another and part is different, syllepsis requires the person listening [or reading] to think on two different levels at once. The extra effort required has the result that the hearer or reader must do a "double-take" and leaves him or her with a deeper impression of what is said.
        This double-edged use of language may have humorous effect as in (10):

10. पहले मार खाई फिर लाक-अप की हवा ।
      'First he took a beating and then (took) prison air [= spent time in the local jail].'

Or it may knit two opposing ideas into a single striking threat:

11. कालिया: मैंने आपका नमक खाया है, सरदार ।
      'Kāliyā: I have taken your help and protection, Sardār.'

12. ग़ब्बर: अब गोली खा !
      'Gabbar: Now take my bullets!'

        (film शोले (1975); screenplay by Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar)

See § 36: 'Eating a beating': for मार खाना, हवा खाना, नमक खाना, गोली खाना, and other खा-expressions.

To index of grammatical notes.

To index of मल्हार .
Drafted (with some assistance from आनन्द द्विवेदी) and keyed in 26 Feb 2003.  Augmented 15 Mar 2003. Resumed 11, 17, & 20-21 Nov 2015. Vetted by सुनील भट्ट 17 Nov & 23 Nov 2015.