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.
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.
Mark Thorin's answer, above, is good, and with him I agree. (The last part of the previous sentence is an example of hyperbaton, since the "normal" word order would be "Mark Thorin's answer, above, is good, and I agree with him.)
For a humorous take on the rhetorical figure called hyperbaton, you might want to explore Yoda-speak, which is a way of talking that makes frequent use of hyperbaton. Yoda is a lovable guru and mentor to Luke Skywalker's character in the movie Star Wars.
If you are interested in converting "normal" speech into Yoda-speak, see the following web site: http://www.yodaspeak.co.uk/. Here's an interesting example:
"You were wherever, not, you now are!"
In the first sentence, you can't cut the sentence at the comma : each part has no meaning by itself. It is an inversion bringing out the main idea, and then an hyperbaton.
In the second, you could : it is obvious for the first part ; the second part, although it is not "I suppose so", could stand alone as an answer to a remark.
The dialog : "It is not hard". - "I suppose". is correct, and is not an hyperbaton.