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brachylogy (bra-KIL-uh-jee) noun
> Conciseness of diction or an instance of such.
[From Medieval Latin brachylogia, from Greek brakhulogi, brakhu-,
brachy- (short) + -logy, from logos (word).]
-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
> "The term for the omission of words that are intended to be 'understood'
by the reader is ellipsis. Its extreme or irregular form has a name in
Greek rhetoric: brachylogy, relying on the listener to supply the missing
words, much as I relied on the reader to put a verb in the sentence
fragment 'A profound question, that.'"
William Safire; Microwave of the Future; The New York Times; Oct 7, 1990.
I would really appreciate it if one of the experts could make the
parts marked with > understandable/ visible to me.
I profoundly cannot make sense from these words even after looking them up.
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Part one: Conciseness of diction = Very short speech.
2: The guy is giving an example of a very short omission(the ellipsis part) and the extreme omission: brachylogy, the word of the day.
I exist! I am a pedant! I have a foreboding signature!
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Carpal Tunnel
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BS, for a less concise treatment, read this on elliptical construction. then there is the related punctuation symbol, ellipsis. edit: according to Silva Rhetoric�, the Rhetorical term brachylogia is more specifically, "The absence of conjunctions between single words." but we've seen these sort of inconsistencies before with rhetorical terms.
Last edited by tsuwm; 05/04/07 01:50 PM.
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old hand
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old hand
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I would really appreciate it if one of the experts could make the
parts marked with > understandable/ visible to me.
The difficulty (of making it visible) is due to the fact that the word refers to the absence (omission) of something unspecified.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well--I could not find a definition of brachylogy that makes it any different from ellipsis, to me. But this one did at least clarify for me that it is not confined to speaking only:
1. brevity in word use: brevity in speech or writing, or an instance of this
2. shortened form of term: a shortened form of an expression, used in informal speech (emphasis added) Encarta� World English Dictionary Both of them mean that something is left out, and that the reader/listener will usually* be able to understand what was meant. Dictionary.com gives some good (to me) examples of ellipsis in its def. number 1:
1. Grammar. a. the omission from a sentence or other construction of one or more words that would complete or clarify the construction, as the omission of who are, while I am, or while we are from I like to interview people sitting down.
b. the omission of one or more items from a construction in order to avoid repeating the identical or equivalent items that are in a preceding or following construction, as the omission of been to Paris from the second clause of I've been to Paris, but they haven't. (emphasis added) Dictionary.com *I originally had the word still, there, but after seeing Dictionary.com's examples, changed it to usually. Their "I like to interview people sitting down." could be: a.) I like to interview people who are sitting down.; b.) I like to interview people while I am sitting down.; OR c.) I like to interview people while we are sitting down.
Last edited by Jackie; 05/04/07 03:56 PM.
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addict
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addict
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To go back to the original example: "A profound question, that". Adding words doesn't make it a sentence one would normally say - "A profound question is that". I would also say there is a shade of meaning (or at least attitude) different from "That is a profound question."
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addict
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addict
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...Adding words doesn't make it a sentence one would normally say - "A profound question is that"... "So certain are you?" -Yoda
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Carpal Tunnel
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"So certain are you?"
-Yoda
Quoth Aramis, anastrophically.
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Yes, I'm pretty sure by now I know what is meant. Thanks you all. I printed the Elliptical Construction page for weekend special home class.
>..> The difficulty (of making it visible) is due to the fact that the word refers to the absence (omission) of something unspecified.<..< Ha. :~)
Thanks Myridon. I think in the confusion of all those heaped up difficult words I lost track of the visiualizing example.
The example is quite clear.
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Carpal Tunnel
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tsk, tsk  -joe (it pays to use onelook, Anu) friday
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