Periphrastic forms are a characteristic of analytic languages, whereas the absence of periphrasis is a characteristic of synthetic languages. While periphrasis concerns all categories of syntax, it is most visible with verb catena.[clarification needed] The verb catenae of English (verb phrases constructed with auxiliary verbs) are highly periphrastic.
The distinction between inflected and periphrastic forms is usually illustrated across distinct languages. However, comparative and superlative forms of adjectives (and adverbs) in English provide a straightforward illustration of the phenomenon.[6] For many speakers, both the simple and periphrastic forms in the following table are possible:
Inflected form of the comparative (-er)
Periphrastic equivalent
loveli-er
more lovely
friendli-er
more friendly
happi-er
more happy
Inflected form of the superlative (-est)
Periphrastic equivalent
loveli-est
most lovely
friendli-est
most friendly
happi-est
most happy
The periphrastic forms are periphrastic by virtue of the appearance of more or most, and they therefore contain two words instead of just one. The words more and most contribute functional meaning only, just like the inflectional affixes -er and -est.
Across languages
English vs. Latin
Such distinctions occur in many languages. The following table provides some examples across Latin and English:
Latin (inflected)
English (periphrastic)
stēll-ae
of a star
patient-issimus
most patient
amā-be-ris
(you) will be loved
Periphrasis is a characteristic of analytic languages, which tend to avoid inflection. Even strongly inflected synthetic languages sometimes make use of periphrasis to fill out an inflectional paradigm that is missing certain forms.[7] A comparison of some Latin forms of the verb dūcere 'lead' with their English translations illustrates further that English uses periphrasis in many instances where Latin uses inflection.
Latin
English equivalent
grammatical classification
dūc-ē-bāmur
(we) were led
1st person plural imperfect passive indicative
dūc-i-mur
(we) are led
1st person plural present passive indicative
dūc-ē-mur
(we) will be led
1st person plural future passive indicative
English often needs two or three verbs to express the same meaning that Latin expresses with a single verb. Latin is a relatively synthetic language; it expresses grammatical meaning using inflection, whereas the verb system of English, a Germanic language, is relatively analytic; it uses auxiliary verbs to express functional meaning.
Israeli Hebrew
Unlike Classical Hebrew, Israeli Hebrew uses a few periphrastic verbal constructions in specific circumstances, such as slang or military language. Consider the following pairs/triplets, in which the first are a Classical Hebrew synthetic form and the last are an Israeli Hebrew analytic periphrasis:[8]
(1)
צעק
tsaák
"shouted"
→
שם צעקה
sam tseaká
"shouted" (lit. means "put a shout")
צעק → שם צעקה
{tsaák} {} {sam tseaká}
{"shouted"} {} {"shouted" (lit. means "put a shout")}
(2)
הביט
hibít
"looked at"
→
נתן מבט
natán mabát
"looked" (lit. means "gave a look")
AND
העיף מבט
heíf mabát
"looked" (lit. "flew/threw a look"; cf. the English expressions "cast a glance", "threw a look" and "tossed a glance")
הביט → נתן מבט AND העיף מבט
{hibít} {} {natán mabát} {} {heíf mabát}
{"looked at"} {} {"looked" (lit. means "gave a look")} {} {"looked" (lit. "flew/threw a look"; cf. the English expressions "cast a glance", "threw a look" and "tossed a glance")}
According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann, the Israeli periphrastic construction (using auxiliary verbs followed by a noun) is employed here for the desire to express swift action, and stems from Yiddish. He compares the Israeli periphrasis to the following Yiddish expressions all meaning "to have a look":
(1)
געבן א קוק
gébņ a kuk
געבן א קוק
{gébņ a kuk}
"to give a look"
(2)
טאן א קוק
ton a kuk
טאן א קוק
{ton a kuk}
lit. "to do a look"
(3)
כאפן א קוק
khapņ a kuk
כאפן א קוק
{khapņ a kuk}
lit. "to catch a look" (colloquial expression)
Zuckermann emphasizes that the Israeli periphrastic constructions "are not nonce, ad hoc lexical calques of Yiddish. The Israeli system is productive and the lexical realization often differs from that of Yiddish". He provides the following Israeli examples:
(1)
הרביץ
hirbíts
הרביץ
hirbíts
"hit, beat; gave", yielded
(2)
מהירות
mehirút
"speed"
→
הרביץ מהירות
hirbíts mehirút
"drove very fast"
מהירות → הרביץ מהירות
mehirút {} {hirbíts mehirút}
"speed" {} {"drove very fast"}
(3)
ארוחה
arukhá
"meal"
→
הרביץ ארוחה
hirbíts arukhá
"ate a big meal" cf. English "hit the buffet" "eat a lot at the buffet"; "hit the liquor/bottle" "drink alcohol".
ארוחה → הרביץ ארוחה
arukhá {} {hirbíts arukhá}
"meal" {} {"ate a big meal" cf. English "hit the buffet" "eat a lot at the buffet"; "hit the liquor/bottle" "drink alcohol".}
But while Zuckermann attempted to use these examples to claim that Israeli Hebrew grew similar to European languages, it will be noticed that all of these examples are from the slang and therefore linguistically marked. The normal and daily usage of the verb paradigm in Israeli modern Hebrew is of the synthetic form, as in Classical Hebrew: צָעַק, הִבִּיט
Catenae
The correspondence in meaning across inflected forms and their periphrastic equivalents within the same language or across different languages leads to a basic question. Individual words are always constituents, but their periphrastic equivalents are often not. Given this mismatch in syntactic form, one can pose the following questions: how should the form-meaning correspondence across periphrastic and non-periphrastic forms be understood?; how does it come to pass that a specific meaning-bearing unit can be a constituent in one case but in another case, it is a combination of words that does not qualify as a constituent? An answer to this question that has recently come to light is expressed in terms of the catena unit, as implied above.[9] The periphrastic word combinations are catenae even when they are not constituents, and individual words are also catenae. The form-meaning correspondence is therefore consistent. A given inflected one-word catena corresponds to a periphrastic multiple-word catena.
The role of catenae for the theory of periphrasis is illustrated with the trees that follow. The first example is across French and English. Future tense/time in French is often constructed with an inflected form, whereas English typically employs a periphrastic form, e.g.
Where French expresses future tense/time using the single (inflected) verb catena sera, English employs a periphrastic two-word catena, or perhaps a periphrastic four-word catena, to express the same basic meaning. The next example is across German and English:
German often indicates an object of a preposition with a single dative case pronoun. For English to express the same meaning, it usually employs the periphrastic two-word prepositional phrase with for. The following trees illustrate the periphrasis of light verb constructions:
Each time, the catena in green is the matrix predicate. Each of these predicates is a periphrastic form insofar as at least one function word is present. The b-predicates are, however, more periphrastic than the a-predicates since they contain more words. The closely similar meaning of these predicates across the a- and b-variants is accommodated in terms of catenae, since each predicate is a catena.
^. Oxford Dictionaries | English. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
^Concerning periphrasis in general, see Matthews (1991:11f., 236-238).
^Roberts, Edward A. (2014). A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots. ISBN978-1-4931-9113-0.
^"Periphrasis - Definition and Examples of Periphrasis". Literary Devices. 2014-03-30. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
^Concerning the competing forms of the comparative and superlative in English as an illustration of periphrasis, see Matthews (1981:55).
^Concerning the use of periphrasis in strongly inflected languages, see Stump (1998).
^ abSee p. 51 in Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2009), "Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns", Journal of Language Contact, Varia 2, pp. 40-67.
^Concerning catenae, see Osborne and Groß (2012a) and Osborne et al (2012b).
General references
Matthews, P. 1981. Syntax. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Matthews, P. 1991. Morphology, 2nd edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Osborne, T. and T. Groß 2012a. "Constructions are catenae: Construction Grammar meets Dependency Grammar". Cognitive Linguistics 23, 1, 163–214.
Osborne, T., M. Putnam, and T. Groß 2012b. "Catenae: Introducing a novel unit of syntactic analysis". Syntax 15, 4, 354–396.
Stump, G. 1998. "Inflection". In A. Spencer and A. M. Zwicky (eds.), The handbook of morphology. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 13–43.
External links
Surrey periphrasis database
January 13, 2023
periphrasis, this, article, about, linguistics, rhetorical, concept, circumlocution, this, article, technical, most, readers, understand, please, help, improve, make, understandable, experts, without, removing, technical, details, october, 2016, learn, when, r. This article is about linguistics For the rhetorical concept see Circumlocution This article may be too technical for most readers to understand Please help improve it to make it understandable to non experts without removing the technical details October 2016 Learn how and when to remove this template message In linguistics periphrasis p e ˈ r ɪ f r e s ɪ s 1 is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one inflected word 2 The word periphrasis originates from the Greek word periphrazein which means talking around 3 4 5 Periphrastic forms are a characteristic of analytic languages whereas the absence of periphrasis is a characteristic of synthetic languages While periphrasis concerns all categories of syntax it is most visible with verb catena clarification needed The verb catenae of English verb phrases constructed with auxiliary verbs are highly periphrastic Contents 1 Examples 2 Across languages 2 1 English vs Latin 2 2 Israeli Hebrew 3 Catenae 4 See also 5 Citations 6 General references 7 External linksExamples EditThe distinction between inflected and periphrastic forms is usually illustrated across distinct languages However comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs in English provide a straightforward illustration of the phenomenon 6 For many speakers both the simple and periphrastic forms in the following table are possible Inflected form of the comparative er Periphrastic equivalentloveli er more lovelyfriendli er more friendlyhappi er more happyInflected form of the superlative est Periphrastic equivalentloveli est most lovelyfriendli est most friendlyhappi est most happyThe periphrastic forms are periphrastic by virtue of the appearance of more or most and they therefore contain two words instead of just one The words more and most contribute functional meaning only just like the inflectional affixes er and est Across languages EditEnglish vs Latin Edit Such distinctions occur in many languages The following table provides some examples across Latin and English Latin inflected English periphrastic stell ae of a starpatient issimus most patientama be ris you will be lovedPeriphrasis is a characteristic of analytic languages which tend to avoid inflection Even strongly inflected synthetic languages sometimes make use of periphrasis to fill out an inflectional paradigm that is missing certain forms 7 A comparison of some Latin forms of the verb ducere lead with their English translations illustrates further that English uses periphrasis in many instances where Latin uses inflection Latin English equivalent grammatical classificationduc e bamur we were led 1st person plural imperfect passive indicativeduc i mur we are led 1st person plural present passive indicativeduc e mur we will be led 1st person plural future passive indicativeEnglish often needs two or three verbs to express the same meaning that Latin expresses with a single verb Latin is a relatively synthetic language it expresses grammatical meaning using inflection whereas the verb system of English a Germanic language is relatively analytic it uses auxiliary verbs to express functional meaning Israeli Hebrew Edit Unlike Classical Hebrew Israeli Hebrew uses a few periphrastic verbal constructions in specific circumstances such as slang or military language Consider the following pairs triplets in which the first are a Classical Hebrew synthetic form and the last are an Israeli Hebrew analytic periphrasis 8 1 צעק tsaak shouted שם צעקה sam tseaka shouted lit means put a shout צעק שם צעקה tsaak sam tseaka shouted shouted lit means put a shout 2 הביט hibit looked at נתן מבט natan mabat looked lit means gave a look AND העיף מבט heif mabat looked lit flew threw a look cf the English expressions cast a glance threw a look and tossed a glance הביט נתן מבט AND העיף מבט hibit natan mabat heif mabat looked at looked lit means gave a look looked lit flew threw a look cf the English expressions cast a glance threw a look and tossed a glance According to Ghil ad Zuckermann the Israeli periphrastic construction using auxiliary verbs followed by a noun is employed here for the desire to express swift action and stems from Yiddish He compares the Israeli periphrasis to the following Yiddish expressions all meaning to have a look 1 געבן א קוק gebn a kukגעבן א קוק gebn a kuk to give a look 2 טאן א קוק ton a kukטאן א קוק ton a kuk lit to do a look 3 כאפן א קוק khapn a kukכאפן א קוק khapn a kuk lit to catch a look colloquial expression Zuckermann emphasizes that the Israeli periphrastic constructions are not nonce ad hoc lexical calques of Yiddish The Israeli system is productive and the lexical realization often differs from that of Yiddish He provides the following Israeli examples 1 הרביץ hirbitsהרביץ hirbits hit beat gave yielded 2 מהירות mehirut speed הרביץ מהירות hirbits mehirut drove very fast מהירות הרביץ מהירות mehirut hirbits mehirut speed drove very fast 3 ארוחה arukha meal הרביץ ארוחה hirbits arukha ate a big meal cf English hit the buffet eat a lot at the buffet hit the liquor bottle drink alcohol ארוחה הרביץ ארוחה arukha hirbits arukha meal ate a big meal cf English hit the buffet eat a lot at the buffet hit the liquor bottle drink alcohol 4 דפק הופעה dafak hofaaדפק הופעה dafak hofaa dressed smartly lit hit an appearance 8 But while Zuckermann attempted to use these examples to claim that Israeli Hebrew grew similar to European languages it will be noticed that all of these examples are from the slang and therefore linguistically marked The normal and daily usage of the verb paradigm in Israeli modern Hebrew is of the synthetic form as in Classical Hebrew צ ע ק ה ב יט Catenae EditThe correspondence in meaning across inflected forms and their periphrastic equivalents within the same language or across different languages leads to a basic question Individual words are always constituents but their periphrastic equivalents are often not Given this mismatch in syntactic form one can pose the following questions how should the form meaning correspondence across periphrastic and non periphrastic forms be understood how does it come to pass that a specific meaning bearing unit can be a constituent in one case but in another case it is a combination of words that does not qualify as a constituent An answer to this question that has recently come to light is expressed in terms of the catena unit as implied above 9 The periphrastic word combinations are catenae even when they are not constituents and individual words are also catenae The form meaning correspondence is therefore consistent A given inflected one word catena corresponds to a periphrastic multiple word catena The role of catenae for the theory of periphrasis is illustrated with the trees that follow The first example is across French and English Future tense time in French is often constructed with an inflected form whereas English typically employs a periphrastic form e g Where French expresses future tense time using the single inflected verb catena sera English employs a periphrastic two word catena or perhaps a periphrastic four word catena to express the same basic meaning The next example is across German and English German often indicates an object of a preposition with a single dative case pronoun For English to express the same meaning it usually employs the periphrastic two word prepositional phrase with for The following trees illustrate the periphrasis of light verb constructions Each time the catena in green is the matrix predicate Each of these predicates is a periphrastic form insofar as at least one function word is present The b predicates are however more periphrastic than the a predicates since they contain more words The closely similar meaning of these predicates across the a and b variants is accommodated in terms of catenae since each predicate is a catena See also EditAdposition Analytic language Compound verb Deflexion linguistics Dependency grammarCitations Edit periphrasis Definition of periphrasis in English by Oxford Dictionaries Oxford Dictionaries English Archived from the original on February 2 2018 Retrieved 2018 02 01 Concerning periphrasis in general see Matthews 1991 11f 236 238 Roberts Edward A 2014 A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo European Roots ISBN 978 1 4931 9113 0 Periphrasis Definition and Examples of Periphrasis Literary Devices 2014 03 30 Retrieved 2021 06 02 Indo European Lexicon Greek Reflex Index lrc la utexas edu Retrieved 2021 06 02 Concerning the competing forms of the comparative and superlative in English as an illustration of periphrasis see Matthews 1981 55 Concerning the use of periphrasis in strongly inflected languages see Stump 1998 a b See p 51 in Zuckermann Ghil ad 2009 Hybridity versus Revivability Multiple Causation Forms and Patterns Journal of Language Contact Varia 2 pp 40 67 Concerning catenae see Osborne and Gross 2012a and Osborne et al 2012b General references EditMatthews P 1981 Syntax Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press Matthews P 1991 Morphology 2nd edition Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press Osborne T and T Gross 2012a Constructions are catenae Construction Grammar meets Dependency Grammar Cognitive Linguistics 23 1 163 214 Osborne T M Putnam and T Gross 2012b Catenae Introducing a novel unit of syntactic analysis Syntax 15 4 354 396 Stump G 1998 Inflection In A Spencer and A M Zwicky eds The handbook of morphology Oxford Blackwell pp 13 43 External links EditSurrey periphrasis database Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Periphrasis amp oldid 1107851702, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
