#34283
07/02/2001 2:42 PM
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some resources now assign the rhetorical figure tmesis to this kind of affix.
But then we see from the Goldwyn quote* that, while tmesis may be necessary for infixing, infixing is not required for tmesis.
*"In two words, im possible." --Samuel Goldwyn
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#34284
07/03/2001 4:29 AM
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In reply to:
some resources now assign the rhetorical figure tmesis to this kind of affix
According to The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar it's the other way round. Tmesis is the older term and infix the more recent.
Bingley
Bingley
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#34286
07/03/2001 6:58 PM
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Good to know someone else is going through the same Quotation Mark Paranoia
"Pay" no "attention" to those "Nattering Nabobs of Negativism".
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#34288
07/03/2001 7:48 PM
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Then tsuwm's source seems a bit remiss. Why would you just split a word, and then leave it that way?
First you split, and then you insert. No ribaldry about it.
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#34289
07/04/2001 1:01 AM
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those Nattering Nabobs of Negativism
Thanks, Spiro T.!...the words of a true Vice President!  Well, with that kind of support I will no longer worry about erasing the miles of Quotations from my tapes! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" 
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#34290
07/04/2001 2:02 PM
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Why would you just split a word, and then leave it that way? First you split, and then you insert.
Ah, but they are two separate processes and the Goldwyn quote given in tsuwm's link does only the former.
Not to mention that the original Greek means an "act of cutting".
Or, that is, to quote our own ledasdottir and an early document cited by David Crystal in his Encyclopedia of the English Language a nother*, close quote, issue.
*Once again Ænigma sides with you, so I rest my case.
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#34291
02/05/2004 2:43 PM
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Tmesis orignally refered to splitting preverbs (look like prepositions) from verbs. Greek, Sanskrit, and German do this. The split isn't really interesting on its own, but provides a slot for other words to interpose themselves. Tmesis comes from the same root as atom 'indivisible' (literally 'uncut').
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#34292
02/05/2004 5:30 PM
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my god. Dr. Bill was only a veteran... thanks for the update, jheemster!
formerly known as etaoin...
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#34293
02/06/2004 7:17 AM
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Pooh-Bah
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The split isn't really interesting on its own, but provides a slot for other words to interpose themselves.
Well, Mon Oncle, the concept sounds interesting. Can you give us an example, please?
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#34294
02/06/2004 3:11 PM
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the concept sounds interesting. Can you give us an example, please?
Sure. Here's a line from the Iliad xvi.670:
chrison t' ambrosiêi, peri d' ambrota heimata hesson
"anointed him with ambrosia and clothed him in immortal raiment"
peri ... hesson "put around, clothed" (periennumi 'to put round'). Sarpedon has just been killed and Apollo has taken him off the field for a funeral. The consensus seems to be that preverbs hadn't quite become as stuck to verbs in Homeric Greek as later. Though tmesis still happens in Classical Greek in Attic poetry and some plays for effect (as an archaism).
Bonus, here we get the word ambrosia and the adjective immortal (applied to clothes) in a single line. The verb hennumi 'to clothe' is related to Latin vestis 'garment, clothing' and Sanskrit vaste 'to clothe oneself'.
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#34295
02/06/2004 3:32 PM
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Dear jheem: could "divestrix" be equivalent of "ecdysiast"?
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#34296
02/06/2004 3:39 PM
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#34297
02/06/2004 4:15 PM
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Pooh-Bah
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chrison t' ambrosiêi, peri d' ambrota heimata hesson
"anointed him with ambrosia and clothed him in immortal raiment"
Thank you for that. I am a little the wiser! It is useful to have an example, even for a non-{Greek reader}.
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#34298
02/06/2004 4:34 PM
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Thank you for that.
You're welcome, dxb.
One thing I was thinking about on the way to work yesterday morning was how tmesis in English, abso-bloody-lutely is not based on morphemic boundaries as it is in Greek (and other languages). Absolutely breaks down as follows: ab-solute-ly. Actually, you could argue that in English absolute is not composed of two morphemes but one.
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#34299
02/06/2004 5:14 PM
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Pooh-Bah
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That kind of expression had occurred to me too. But as you point out structure has no influence at all. It is just done however the speaker thinks best and is purely for emphasis. Don't think it counts really!
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#34300
02/06/2004 5:25 PM
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Don't think it counts really!
Do you mean that abso-effing-lutely isn't tmesis? Me, I think that some classicist was overjoyed when s/he was asked what the word-within-a-word thing was called, and said: "tmesis". Whatever it's called, it's something that happens and it's quite productive. And, yes, it has less to do with morphology than with prosody.
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