The Grammar of English Grammars Part 183

II. PLEONASM is the introduction of superfluous words; as, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat _of it_."--_Gen._, ii, 17. This figure is allowable only, when, in animated discourse, it abruptly introduces an emphatic word, or repeats an idea to impress it more strongly; as, "_He_ that hath ears to hear, let him hear."--_Bible_. "All ye inhabitants of the world, and _dwellers on the earth_."--_Id._ "There shall not be left one stone upon another _that shall not be thrown down_."--_Id._ "I know thee _who thou art_."--_Id._ A Pleonasm, as perhaps in these instances, is sometimes impressive and elegant; but an unemphatic repet.i.tion of the same idea, is one of the worst faults of bad writing.

OBS.--Strong pa.s.sion is not always satisfied with saying a thing once, and in the fewest words possible; nor is it natural that it should be. Hence repet.i.tions indicative of intense feeling may const.i.tute a beauty of the highest kind, when, if the feeling were wanting, or supposed to be so, they would be reckoned intolerable tautologies. The following is an example, which the reader may appreciate the better, if he remembers the context: "At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down; at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell down dead."--_Judges_, v, 27.

III. SYLLEPSIS is agreement formed according to the figurative sense of a word, or the mental conception of the thing spoken of, and not according to the literal or common use of the term; it is therefore in general connected with some figure of rhetoric: as "The _Word_ was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld _his_ glory."--_John_, i, 14. "Then Philip went down to the _city_ of Samaria, and preached Christ unto _them_."--_Acts_, viii, 5. "The _city_ of London _have_ expressed _their_ sentiments with freedom and firmness."--_Junius_, p. 159. "And I said [to backsliding _Israel_,] after _she_ had done all these things, Turn _thou_ unto me; but _she_ returned not: and _her_ treacherous _sister Judah_ saw it."--_Jer._, iii, 7. "And he surnamed them _Boanerges, which is_, The sons of thunder."--_Mark_, iii, 17.

"While _Evening_ draws _her_ crimson curtains round."--_Thomson_, p. 63.

"The _Thunder_ raises _his_ tremendous voice."--_Id._, p. 113.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--To the pa.r.s.er, some explanation of that agreement which is controlled by tropes, is often absolutely necessary; yet, of our modern grammarians, none appear to have noticed it; and, of the oldest writers, few, if any, have given it the rank which it deserves among the figures of syntax. The term _Syllepsis_ literally signifies _conception, comprehension_, or _taking-together_. Under this name have been arranged, by the grammarians and rhetoricians, many different forms of unusual or irregular agreement; some of which are quite too unlike to be embraced in the same cla.s.s, and not a few, perhaps, too unimportant or too ordinary to deserve any cla.s.sification as figures. I therefore omit some forms of expression which others have treated as examples of _Syllepsis_, and define the term with reference to such as seem more worthy to be noticed as deviations from the ordinary construction of words. Dr. Webster, allowing the word two meanings, explains it thus: "SYLLEPSIS, _n._ [_Gr._ syllaepsis.] 1. In _grammar_, a figure by which we conceive the sense of words otherwise than the words import, and construe them according to the intention of the author; otherwise called _subst.i.tution_.[480] 2. The agreement of a verb or adjective, not with the word next to it, but with the most worthy in the sentence."--_American Dict._

OBS. 2.--In short, _Syllepsis_ is a _conception_ of which grammarians have _conceived_ so variously, that it has become doubtful, what definition or what application of the term is now the most appropriate. Dr. Prat, in defining it, cites one notion from Sanctius, and adds an other of his own, thus: "SYLLEPSIS, id est, _Conceptio_, est quoties Generibus, aut Numeris videntur voces discrepare. Sanct. l. 4. c. 10. Vel sit Comprehensio indignioris sub digniore."--_Prat's Lat. Gram._, Part ii, p. 164. John Grant ranks it as a mere form or species of _Ellipsis_, and expounds it thus: "_Syllepsis_ is _when_ the adjective or verb, joined to different substantives, agrees with the more worthy."--_Inst.i.tutes of Lat. Gram._, p.

321. Dr. Littleton describes it thus: "SYLLLEPSIS [sic--KTH],--A Grammatical figure _where_ two Nominative Cases singular of different persons are joined to a Verb plural."--_Latin Dict._, 4to. By Dr. Morell it is explained as follows: "SYLLEPSIS,--A grammatical figure, _where_ one is put for many, and many for one, Lat. _Conceptio_."--_Morell's Ainsworth's Dict._, 4to, Index Vitand. IV. _Enallage_ is the use of one part of speech, or of one modification, for an other. This figure borders closely upon solecism; and, for the stability of the language, it should be sparingly indulged. There are, however, several forms of it which can appeal to good authority: as,

1. "_You know_ that _you are_ Brutus, that _say_ this."--_Shak._

2. "They fall _successive_[ly], and _successive_[ly] rise."--_Pope_.

3. "Than _whom_ [who] a fiend more fell is nowhere found."--_Thomson_.

4. "Sure some disaster has _befell_" [befallen].--_Gay_.

5. "So furious was that onset's shock, Destruction's gates at once _unlock_" [unlocked].--_Hogg_.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--_Enallage_ is a Greek word, signifying _commutation, change_, or _exchange. "Enallage_, in a general sense, is the change of words, or of their accidents, one for another."--_Grant's Latin Gram._, p. 322. The word _Antimeria_, which literally expresses _change of parts_, was often used by the old grammarians as synonymous with _Enallage_; though, sometimes, the former was taken only for the subst.i.tution of one _part of speech_ for an other, and the latter, only, or more particularly, for a change of _modification_--as of mood for mood, tense for tense, or number for number.

The putting of one _case_ for an other, has also been thought worthy of a particular name, and been called _Antiptosis_. But _Enallage_, the most comprehensive of these terms, having been often of old applied to all such changes, reducing them to one head, may well be now defined as above, and still applied, in this way, to all that we need recognize as figures. The word _Enallaxis_, preferred by some, is of the same import. "ENALLAXIS, so called by _Longinus_, or ENALLAGE, is an _Exchange_ of _Cases, Tenses, Persons, Numbers_, or _Genders_."--_Holmes's Rhet._, Book i, p. 57.

"An ENALLAXIS changes, when it pleases, Tenses, or Persons, Genders, Numbers, Cases."--_Ib._, B. ii, p. 50.

OBS. 2.--Our most common form of _Enallage_ is that by which a single person is addressed in the plural number. This is so fashionable in our civil intercourse, that some very polite grammarians improperly dispute its claims to be called a _figure_; and represent it as being more ordinary, and even more literal than the regular phraseology; which a few of them, as we have seen, would place among the _archaisms_. The next in frequency, (if indeed it can be called a different form,) is the practice of putting _we_ for _I_, or the plural for the singular in the _first person_. This has never yet been claimed as literal and regular syntax, though the usages differ in nothing but commonness; both being honourably authorized, both still improper on some occasions, and, in both, the _Enallage_ being alike obvious. Other varieties of this figure, not uncommon in English, are the putting of adjectives for adverbs, of adverbs for nouns, of the present tense for the preterit, and of the preterit for the perfect participle.

But, in the use of such liberties, elegance and error sometimes approximate so nearly, there is scarcely an obvious line between them, and grammarians consequently disagree in making the distinction.

OBS. 3.--Deviations of this kind are, _in general_, to be considered solecisms; otherwise, the rules of grammar would be of no use or authority.

_Despauter_, an ancient Latin grammarian, gave an improper lat.i.tude to this figure, or to a species of it, under the name of _Antiptosis_; and _Behourt_ and others extended it still further. But _Sanctius_ says, "_Antiptosi grammaticorum nihil imperitius, quod figmentum si esset verum, frustra quaereretur, quem casum verba regerent_." And the _Messieurs De Port Royal_ reject the figure altogether. There are, however, some changes of this kind, which the grammarian is not competent to condemn, though they do not accord with the ordinary principles of construction.

V. _Hyperbaton_ is the transposition of words; as, "He wanders _earth around_."--_Cowper_ "_Rings the world_ with the vain stir."--_Id. "Whom_ therefore ye ignorantly worship, _him declare I_ unto you."--_Acts_, xvii, 23. "'_Happy_', says _Montesquieu, 'is that nation_ whose annals are tiresome.'"--_Corwin, in Congress_, 1847. This figure is much employed in poetry. A judicious use of it confers harmony, variety, strength, and vivacity upon composition. But care should be taken lest it produce ambiguity or obscurity, absurdity or solecism.

OBS.--A confused and intricate arrangement of words, received from some of the ancients the name of _Syn'chysis_, and was reckoned by them among the figures of grammar. By some authors, this has been improperly identified with _Hyper'baton_, or elegant inversion; as may be seen under the word _Synchysis_ in Littleton's Dictionary, or in Holmes's Rhetoric, at page 58th. _Synchysis_ literally means _confusion_, or _commixtion_; and, in grammar, is significant only of some poetical jumble of words, some verbal _kink_ or _snarl_, which cannot be grammatically resolved or disentangled: as,

"_Is piety_ thus _and_ pure _devotion_ paid?"

--_Milton, P. L._, B. xi, l. 452.

"An a.s.s will with his long ears fray The flies that tickle him away; But man delights to have _his ears Blown maggots in by_ flatterers."

--_Butler's Poems_, p. 161.

SECTION IV.--FIGURES OF RHETORIC.

A Figure of Rhetoric is an intentional deviation from the ordinary application of words. Several of this kind of figures are commonly called _Tropes_, i.e., _turns_; because certain words are turned from their original signification to an other.[481]

Numerous departures from perfect simplicity of diction, occur in almost every kind of composition. They are mostly founded on some similitude or relation of things, which, by the power of imagination, is rendered conducive to ornament or ill.u.s.tration.

The princ.i.p.al figures of Rhetoric are sixteen; namely, _Sim'-i-le, Met'-a-phor, Al'-le-gor-y, Me-ton'-y-my, Syn-ec'-do-che, Hy-per'-bo-le, Vis'-ion, A-pos'-tro-phe, Per-son'-i-fi-ca'-tion, Er-o-te'-sis, Ec-pho-ne'-sis, An-t.i.th'-e-sis, Cli'-max, I'-ro-ny, A-poph'-a-sis_, and _On-o-ma-to-poe'-ia._

EXPLANATIONS.

I. A _Simile_ is a simple and express comparison; and is generally introduced by _like, as_, or _so_: as, "Such a pa.s.sion is _like falling in love with a sparrow flying over your head_; you have but one glimpse of her, and she is out of sight."--_Colliers Antoninus_. "Therefore they shall be _as the morning cloud_, and _as the early dew_ that pa.s.seth away; _as the chaff_ that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and _as the smoke_ out of the chimney."--_Hosea_, xiii.

"At first, _like thunder's distant tone_, The rattling din came rolling on."--_Hogg_.

"Man, _like the generous vine_, supported lives; The strength he gains, is from th' embrace he gives."--_Pope_.

OBS.--Comparisons are sometimes made in a manner sufficiently intelligible, without any express term to point them out. In the following pa.s.sage, we have a triple example of what seems the _Simile_, without the usual sign--without _like, as_, or _so_: "Away with all tampering with such a question! Away with all trifling with the man in fetters! _Give a hungry man a stone, and tell what beautiful houses are made of it;--give ice to a freezing man, and tell him of its good properties in hot weather;--throw a drowning man a dollar, as a mark of your good will_;--but do not mock the bondman in his misery, by giving him a Bible when he cannot read it."--FREDERICK DOUGLa.s.s: _Liberty Bell_, 1848.

II. A _Metaphor_ is a figure that expresses or suggests the resemblance of two objects by applying either the name, or some attribute, adjunct, or action, of the one, directly to the other; as,

1. "The LORD is my _rock_, and my _fortress_."--_Psal._, xviii 1.

2. "His eye was _morning's brightest ray_."--_Hogg_.

3. "An _angler_ in the _tides_ of fame."--_Id., Q. W._

4. "Beside him _sleeps_ the warrior's bow."--_Langhorne_.

5. "Wild fancies in his moody brain _Gambol'd unbridled_ and unbound."--_Hogg, Q. W._

6. "Speechless, and fix'd in all the _death_ of wo."--_Thomson_.

OBS.--A _Metaphor_ is commonly understoood [sic--KTH] to be only the tropical use of some _single word_, or _short phrase_; but there seem to be occasional instances of one _sentence_, or _action_, being used metaphorically to represent an other. The following extract from the London Examiner has several figurative expressions, which perhaps belong to this head: "In the present age, nearly all people are critics, even to the pen, and treat the gravest writers with a sort of _taproom_ familiarity. If they are dissatisfied, _they throw a short and spent cigar in the face of the offender_; if they are pleased, _they lift the candidate off his legs, and send him away with a hearty slap on the shoulder_. Some of the shorter, when they are bent to mischief, _dip a twig in the gutter, and drag it across our polished boots_: on the contrary, when they are inclined to be gentle and generous, _they leap boisterously upon our knees, and kiss us_ with bread-and-b.u.t.ter in their mouths."--WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

III. An _Allegory_ is a continued narration of fict.i.tious events, designed to represent and ill.u.s.trate important realities. Thus the Psalmist represents the _Jewish nation_ under the symbol of a _vine_: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root; and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars."--_Psalms_, lx.x.x, 8-10.

OBS.--The _Allegory_, agreeably to the foregoing definition of it, includes most of those similitudes which in the Scriptures are called _parables_; it includes also the better sort of _fables_. The term _allegory_ is sometimes applied to a _true history_ in which something else is intended, than is contained in the words literally taken. See an instance in _Galatians_, iv, 24. In the _Scriptures_, the term _fable_ denotes an idle and groundless story: as, in _1 Timothy_, iv, 7; and _2 Peter_, i, 16. It is now commonly used in a better sense. "A _fable_ may be defined to be an a.n.a.logical narrative, intended to convey some moral lesson, in which irrational animals or objects are introduced as speaking."--_Philological Museum_, Vol. i, p. 280.

IV. A _Metonymy_ is a change of names between things related. It is founded, not on resemblance, but on some such relation as that of _cause_ and _effect_, of _progenitor_ and _posterity_, of _subject_ and _adjunct_, of _place_ and _inhabitant_, of _container_ and _thing contained_, or of _sign_ and _thing signified_: as, (1.) "G.o.d is our _salvation_;" i.e., _Saviour_. (2.) "Hear, O _Israel_;" i.e. O _ye descendants of_ Israel. (3.) "He was the _sigh_ of her secret soul;" i.e., the _youth_ she loved. (4.) "They smote the _city_;" i.e., the _citizens_. (5.) "My son, give me thy _heart_;" i.e., _affection_. (6.) "The _sceptre_ shall not depart from Judah;" i.e., _kingly power_. (7.) "They have _Moses and the prophets_;"

i.e., _their writings_. See _Luke_, xvi, 29.