About the term used in linguistics the term used in rhetoric Circumlocution In linguistics , periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or grammatical relationship is expressed by a free morpheme typically one or more function word s modifying a content word , instead of being shown by inflection or derivation linguistics derivation . For example, the English language English future tense is periphrastic it is formed with an auxiliary verb shall or will followed by the base form of the main verb. Another example is the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives, when they are formed with the words more and most rather than with the suffix es er and est the forms more beautiful and most beautiful are periphrastic, while lovelier and loveliest are not. ref cite book title A Student s Dictionary of Language and Linguistics last Trask first R. L. publisher Arnold isbn 0 340 65266 7 year 1997 location London page 166 ref Periphrasis is a characteristic of analytic language s, which tend to avoid inflection. Even synthetic language s, which are highly inflected, sometimes make use of periphrasis to fill out an inflectional paradigm that is missing certain forms. ref cite book last Stump first Gregory T. chapter Inflection title The Handbook of Morphology editor Andrew Spencer and Arnold M. Zwicky eds. pages 13 43 year 1998 publisher Blackwell location Oxford isbn 0 631 18544 5 ref An example is the grammatical person third person grammatical number plural of the perfect grammar perfect grammatical voice Passive passive in Ancient Greek p peistai he has been persuaded pepeism noi eis they have been persuaded A comparison of some Latin forms with their English translations shows that English uses periphrasis in many instances where Latin uses inflection class wikitable Latin inflected English periphrastic st llae of a star patientissimus most patient am beris you will be loved Etymology The word is loanword adapted from Ancient Greek ... more details
Bafflegab baf uhl gab is a slang term referring to confusing or generally unintelligible jargon . See Gobbledygook . ref name Dictionary.com http dictionary.reference.com browse bafflegab Dictionary.com ref The word was defined by its inventor, Milton A Smith, as multiloquence characterized by consummate interfusion of circumlocution or periphrasis, inscrutability, and other familiar manifestations of abstruse expatiation commonly utilized for promulgations implementing Procrustean determinations by governmental bodies. ref name WorldwideWords.org http www.worldwidewords.org weirdwords ww baf1.htm WorldwideWords.org ref Thus defining bafflegab using bafflegab. Smith was awarded with the presentation of a plaque by the Bellingham Herald for his invention of the word. ref name WorldwideWords.org In popular culture In the Doctor Who serial The Pirate Planet , the Fourth Doctor exclaims Bafflegab, my dear. I ve never heard such bafflegab in all my Regeneration Doctor Who lives , after Queen Xanxia attempts to explain how she plans to gain immortality. References references Category Slang ... more details
This page is about the geometric meaning. For the plant, see Phyllanthus . Image Triangle Sides.svg 200px frame A right angled triangle where c sub 1 sub and c sub 2 sub are the catheti and h is the hypotenuse. In a right triangle , the cathetus originally from the Greek language Greek word lang el plural catheti , commonly known as a leg , is either of the sides that are adjacent to the right angle . It is occasionally called the periphrasis PLEASE DO NOT link periphrasis that article is only about the use of the term in linguistics side about the right angle . The side opposite the right angle is the hypotenuse . When referring to the hypotenuse, the catheti are often referred to simply as the other two sides . If the catheti of a right triangle have different lengths, distinction can be made between the minor shorter and major longer cathetus. The ratio of the lengths of the catheti defines the trigonometric functions tangent and cotangent PLEASE DO NOT link tangent that article is about a tangent line or cotangent that redirects to Trigonometric functions of the angles in the triangle. In a right triangle, the length of the cathetus is also the geometric mean between the length of the segment cut by the altitude to the hypotenuse and the length of the whole hypotenuse. By the Pythagorean theorem , the sum of the squares of the lengths of the catheti is equal to the square of the length of the hypotenuse. References Bernhardsen, T. Geographic Information Systems An Introduction , 3rd ed. New York Wiley, p. 271, 2002. MathWorld urlname Cathetus title Cathetus Wiktionary Category Elementary geometry Category Triangles ar ast Catetu az Katet bar Kathete ca Catet de Kathete es Cateto eo Kateto eu Kateto fr Cath te gl Cateto is Skammhli it Cateto lv Katete nl Rechthoekszijde ja no Katet nn Katet km nds Katheet pl Przyprostok tna pt Cateto qu Manyaku ru sl Kateta sr sv Katet th tr Dik kenar uk zh ... more details
Wiktionary circumlocution Circumlocution also called periphrasis , circumduction , circumvolution , periphrase , or ambage ref Ambage in http www.merriam webster.com cgi bin dictionary?book Dictionary&va ambage Merriam Webster , http www.bartleby.com 61 13 A0241300.html American Heritage , and http dictionary.reference.com search?q ambage&r 66 Dictionary.com ref is an ambiguous or roundabout figure of speech . In its most basic form, circumlocution is using many words such as a tool used for cutting things such as paper and hair to describe something simple scissors . In this sense, the vast majority of definitions found in dictionaries are circumlocutory. Circumlocution is often used by aphasia aphasics and people learning a new language, where in the absence of a word such as abuelo grandfather the subject can simply be described el padre de su padre the father of one s father . It is also used frequently in Basic English , a constructed language constructed dialect of non regional English. Circumlocution has numerous other uses, under whose circumstances other terms are used. Amphilogism Amphilogism also called amphilogy is a form of circumlocutory speech used to avoid telling something that might otherwise harm you. For example, a man who for ulterior reasons does not want to divulge his relationship status might use amphilogistic language i.e., the pronoun game to talk about his significant other without making concessions as to his relationship. For example, instead of saying She made dinner for me last night , an amphilogistic statement would be Dinner was already made for me last night . Cledonism Main Cledonism Cledonism is the use of circumlocution to avoid saying unlucky words. For example, calling the devil Old Nick , ref Speak of the devil, and he will appear is the proverb. ref calling Macbeth the Scottish Play or saying baker s dozen instead of triskaidekaphobia ... Periphrasis References reflist cite book last Smyth first Herbert Weir year 1920 title Greek ... more details
. The copula main Romance copula While the grammatical voice passive voice became completely periphrasis ... from an infinitive HABEO periphrasis, later grammaticalisation reanalysed as a simple tense. Formally ... in most Romance languages started out as a periphrasis, but later became a simple tense. In Romanian ... more details
can also be expressed with an equivalent periphrasis. The future tense future indicative is usually replaced with a periphrasis or the present indicative in the spoken language. The Portuguese conditional mood conditional is sometimes replaced with a periphrasis or with the imperfect indicative in the spoken ... more details
unreferenced date May 2009 The mediopassive voice is a grammatical voice which subsumes the meanings of both the middle voice and the passive voice . Languages of the Indo European languages Indo European family and many others typically have two or three voices of the three active, middle, and passive. Mediopassive may be used to describe a category that covers both the middle or medium and the passive voice. In synchronic grammars, the mediopassive voice is often simply termed either middle typical for grammars of e.g. Ancient Greek or passive typical for grammars of e. g. modern Danish language Danish . In the oldest Indo European languages, the distinction active middle was the most important, while the development in later languages has generally been to replace the old distinction with or reinterpret it as an active passive distinction e.g. modern English to tease to be teased . The Proto Indo European language itself is typically reconstructed as having two voices, active and mediopassive, where the middle voice element in the mediopassive voice was dominant. Ancient Greek also had a mediopassive in the present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect Grammatical tense tenses , but in the aorist and future tenses the mediopassive voice was replaced by two voices, one middle and one passive. Modern Greek and Albanian language Albanian have only mediopassive in all tenses. Nevertheless, in some languages the middle or mediopassive still shows some presence, as in the examples below from two separate branches of the Indo European languages in Spanish, which is a Romance languages Romance language , with Periphrasis periphrastic forms, and in North Germanic Scandinavian with fully inflected forms . Significantly, the forms in both Spanish and Scandinavian are historically derived from periphrastic constructions involving the verb and the reflexive pronoun , so that the development seems to be similar to the ancient shift from an original predominantly medial voice to ... more details
The status constructus or construct state is a noun morphology linguistics form occurring in Afro Asiatic languages . It is particularly common in Semitic languages such as Arabic language Arabic and Hebrew language Hebrew , Berber languages , and in the extinct Egyptian language . In Semitic languages , it occurs when a semantically Definiteness definite noun is succeeded by another noun in a genitive relation to the first. Arabic Confusing section date February 2009 In Arabic grammar , the construction where the status constructus is used is called al i fah lit. addition, annexion . The construct is one of the three states of nouns in Arabic, the other two being the indefinite state and the definite state. Concretely, the three states compare like this ummun a mother a l ummu the mother ummu the mother of Examples in context Ummun amilah A beautiful mother Al ummu amilah The mother is beautiful Ummu l ay i amilah The sheikh s mother is beautiful . In Classical Arabic , words in the status constructus do not occur with the article al , nor do they receive an n after their case marking vowel nunation . When the following word begins with an article, however, dialectic and colloquial Arabic do allow a word in status constructus to take the defininte article al , but only when the construction is expressed periphrasis periphrastically in such a case, the above example would be unicode al Umm mta l shaikh jamillah in Libyan Arabic for example, with mta meaning belongs to or related to . The rules of pronouncing Ta marbuta are closely linked to whether a word is in status constructus or not. This is more prominent in Varieties of Arabic dialectical Arabic where status constructus is the only situation in which Ta marbuta is pronounced IPA t . The only exception to this rule is some Bedouin varieties of Arabic which have nunation optionally. In such a case Ta marbuta is pronounced, as part of the nunation, as IPA t in the case on indefinite state ... more details
Image AfrikaansenNederlands.png thumb right 300px Dutch and Afrikaans Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch language Dutch ref name jansen cite web url http dare.ubn.kun.nl dspace bitstream 2066 56692 1 56692 JS&N20070001.pdf title The influence of spelling conventions on perceived plurality in compounds. A comparison of Afrikaans and Dutch. first1 Carel last1 Jansen first2 Robert last2 Schreuder first3 Anneke last3 Neijt work Written Language & Literacy 10 2 page 5 year 2007 publisher Radboud University Nijmegen accessdate 2010 05 19 ref ref name mennen cite web url http eresearch.qmu.ac.uk 152 1 wp 10.pdf title Acquisition of Dutch phonology an overview. first1 Ineke last1 Mennen first2 Clara last2 Levelt first3 Ellen last3 Gerrits work Speech Science Research Centre Working Paper WP10 page 1 year 2006 publisher Queen Margaret University College accessdate 2010 05 19 ref ref name booij cite web url http cs.engr.uky.edu gstump periphrasispapers Progressive.pdf title Constructional idioms and periphrasis the progressive construction in Dutch. first Geert last Booij work Paradigms and Periphrasis page 5 year 2003 publisher University of Kentucky accessdate 2010 05 19 ref ref name hiskens cite web url http www.lancs.ac.uk fss linguistics staff kerswill pkpubs HinskensAuerKerswill2005Conv.pdf title The study of dialect convergence and divergence conceptual and methodological considerations. first1 Frans last1 Hiskens first2 Peter last2 Auer first3 Paul last3 Kerswill work page 19 year 2005 publisher Lancaster University accessdate 2010 05 19 ref see page 5 ref name heeringa see page 1, 5 and throughout and contrary to Belgian Dutch and Surinamese Dutch a separate standard language rather than a Variety linguistics national variety . ref cite book url http books.google.ca books?id wawGFWNuHiwC title Pluricentric languages differing norms in different nations accessdate 2010 05 19 first1 G. last1 Geerts first2 Michael G. last2 Clyne ed. editor publisher Walter de Gru ... more details
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