Circumlocution
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Circumlocution is a figure of speech where the meaning of a word or phrase is indirectly expressed through several or many words. It may be used when defining a term, for example: "scissors" = "a thing you use to cut other things". Circumlocution is often helpful while learning a new language, when one does not know the word for a particular thing. In the constructed language Basic English this is used to decrease the size of the necessary vocabulary.
Circumlocution also means replacing a word with another (or others), often in order to sound more polite, to avoid a controversial or trademarked term or to be ironic. In this context, see also euphemism.
Sometimes, circumlocution is used to insert a controversial or trademarked name into a well-known phrase for comic effect, for example, "I believe in calling a spade a Spear and Jackson 16B."
Charles Dickens dedicated Chapter 10 of his novel Little Dorrit to writing about “The Circumlocution Office”. This is a reference to the inefficiencies within the British Government in the early 1800s.
Circumlocution can also be associated with types of Aphasia including Anomic aphasia, Wernicke's aphasia and Conduction aphasia.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, p. 681. ISBN 0-674-36250-0.
[edit] External links
- Circumlocution in figures of speechca:Perífrasi
de:Periphrase es:Perífrasis eo:Perifrazo fr:Périphrase gl:Perífrase it:Perifrasi nl:Perifrase ja:迂言法 no:Perifrase pl:Peryfraza pt:Perífrase ru:Перифраз
