Prosiopesis (from Ancient Greek προσιώπησις prosiṓpēsis 'becoming silent') is a term coined by Otto Jespersen for pronouncing a word or phrase without vocalizing its initial sounds. Among the examples Jespersen gives are "Morning" for "Good morning" and "'Fraid not" for "I'm afraid not". Jespersen introduced the idea in 1917;[1] he also discusses it in The Philosophy of Grammar (ISBN 0-226-39881-1; reprint 1992). Prosiopesis is studied as a mode for originating interjections, which can shed light on their meaning.
This is similar to aposiopesis, where the ending of a sentence is deliberately excluded. David Crystal writes, "In rhetorical terminology, an elision in word-INITIAL position was known as aphaeresis or prosiopesis, in word-MEDIAL position was known as syncope, and in word-FINAL position as apocope."[2] (Richard Lanham similarly defines aphaerisis more narrowly than Jespersen defines prosiopesis, a term that Lanham does not mention.[3])
External links
edit- Secondary Interjections in English, Mayumi Nishikawa of Setsunan University; 9th International Pragmatics Conference, International Pragmatics Association, 2005 (abstract)
- Parataxis in Pirahã, Mark Liberman of the University of Pennsylvania, casual discussion on Language Log
References
edit- ^ Jespersen, Otto (1917). Negation in English and Other Languages. Copenhagen: Andr. Fred. Høst og søn. p. 6. OCLC 457568567.
- ^ Crystal, David (2008-06-23). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4051-5297-6.
- ^ Lanham, Richard A. (1991). A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms: A Guide for Students of English Literature (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07669-9.
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