Definition

A variety of mood, timing, and humorous effects can be created by selecting verbs which are mismatched. Typically, the pattern is for the first two verbs to establish a pattern which the third verb then violates in some way.

Often, this mismatch is purely semantic. Sometimes, however, the key difference lies in verbs having a different role with regard to the subject or object given in the first part of the line. I call this case a 'verb shift'.

Examples

Subject shift

alt.adorable.kitten.mew.purr.stroke

The subject of 'mew' and 'purr' is the kitten, the subject of 'stroke'