The term ‘list’ is not particularly helpful in characterising asyndeton and its types, though it (or an equivalent) does have a place in the literature. One ‘special type’ of asyndeton, according to Hofmann and Szantyr (1965: 830), is ‘asyndeton enumerativum’. But virtually any asyndetic sequence, particularly of names, nouns or adjectives, may be seen as a list. A series of adjectives describing the physical features or character of a person is a list of personal characteristics, the itinerary of a traveller is a list of places, the names of persons appointed to some organisation for a fixed period make up a list of officials or officers, and so on. When is an asyndetic sequence not a list? A pair or series of verbs describing actions in a temporal sequence (they stopped, turned, fled) would not be well described as a list. Pairs of terms with certain semantic relationships, such as opposites of various sorts (left/right; up/down; good/bad, go/return), are not list-like. A pair of verbs consisting of a simplex followed by its compound is not a list. It may be more helpful to identify types of lists. One of these, of some importance in relation to asyndeton, I will call ‘open-ended’ or composed of ‘illustrations’. I start however with a different type, which is perhaps more familiar to anyone using the term ‘list’. This type expresses a totality or finite set.