[Milton-L] Thanks for Help with terminology sought

[Lawrence D. Green]

One cautionary footnote on this thread.  The 2000-year-old history of 
western rhetoric is a history of shifting definitions for what came to 
be viewed as tropes and figures, and current scholarly efforts at 
definitive lexicons and glossaries merely take their place in a long 
history of other definitive lexicons and glossaries. 

As Professor Duran's note indicates, the vocabulary is most useful when 
it points us toward patterns that are most worth discussing, and often 
the most interesting uses of language simultaneously involve several 
tropes or figures.  But the discussions are more important than the 
vocabulary.

Lawrence D. Green
President (2003-2005), International Society for the History of Rhetoric
Professor of English
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0354



Angelica Duran wrote:

>Dear scholars,
>
>Many thanks for your responses to my question. It seems from the internet
>and book resources I consulted after hearing from you that
>
>1) "hyperbaton" is the correct general term
>2) "anastrophe" is often but incorrectly used to refer to all
>hyperbaton--incorrectly because it refers to re-ordering of a single works
>3) "mesozeugma" is the correct specific term.
>
>...I think (!).
>
>Adios,
>Angelica Duran
>
>
>
>
>  
>
>>From: Jameela Lares <Jameela.Lares at usm.edu>
>>Reply-To: John Milton Discussion List <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
>>Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:16:31 -0500
>>To: John Milton Discussion List <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
>>Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Help with terminology sought
>>
>>It's also an example of mesozeugma, or "middlemarcher."
>>
>>A great resource for rhetorical terms is Gideon Burton's SILVA RHETORICAE,
>>http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm.
>>
>>(Sorry if I've sent this twice--the system here seemed to have cleared the
>>first
>>post.)
>>
>>Jameela
>>
>>Quoting Angelica Duran <duran0 at exchange.purdue.edu>:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Dear scholars,
>>>
>>>I am at a loss for the correct terminology for poetic/rhetorical device in
>>>the following verse phrase
>>>
>>>"And leave, because even your foul silence/ corrupts, and your impure
>>>breath" (not Milton)
>>>
>>>where the subject "and impure breath" is placed after the verb rather than
>>>next to the other subject "foul silence."
>>>
>>>I believe it cannot be the device polysyndeton, an example of which from
>>>_PL_ is
>>>
>>>"[He] pursues his way, / And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or
>>>flies."
>>>
>>>In this example, the verbs not nouns are placed out of SVO order.
>>>
>>>All aid appreciated.
>>>
>>>Adios,
>>>
>>>Angelica Duran
>>>Associate Professor
>>>English and Comparative Literature
>>>Purdue University
>>>500 Oval Drive
>>>West Lafayette, Indiana 47907
>>>USA
>>>(765) 496-3957
>>><duran0 at purdue.edu>
>>><http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/directory/?personid=80>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>      
>>>
>>-- 
>>Jameela Lares, Ph.D.
>>Associate Professor
>>Department of English
>>The University of Southern Mississippi
>>118 College Drive, #5037
>>Hattiesburg, MS  39406-0001
>>601 266-6214 ofc
>>601 266-5757 fax
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>>Milton-L mailing list
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>>http://lists.richmond.edu/mailman/listinfo/milton-l
>>    
>>
>
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