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#34283 07/02/01 02:42 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


#34284 07/03/01 04:29 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



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#34285 07/03/01 06:48 PM
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Here's a link with some nice information about tmesis and related words

http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/TMESIS.HTM




#34286 07/03/01 06:58 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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According to Dr. Bill's source (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/TMESIS.HTM) tmesis is interjecting a word or phrase between parts of a compound word...

According to tsuwm's source (http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/1999/05/26.html) it's the act of splitting the word or words apart.

So which is it?

Don't make me use my OED


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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.


#34289 07/04/01 01:01 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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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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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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my god. Dr. Bill was only a veteran...

thanks for the update, jheemster!





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