Periphrasis (pronounced puh-rif-ruh-sis)
(1) A
roundabout way of expressing something; a kind of circumlocution (and often
needlessly but deliberately long).
(2) An
expression phrased in such fashion.
(3) In
structural linguistics, expressing a grammatical meaning (such as a tense)
using a syntactic construction rather than morphological marking.
(4) In
rhetoric, (1) the substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper
name (technically a type of circumlocution) or (2) the use of a proper name as
a shorthand to stand for qualities associated with it.
1525–1535:
A borrowing in the sense of “a roundabout way of speaking; an instance of this”
from the Latin periphrasis
(circumlocution), from the Ancient Greek περίφρασις (periphrazein) (speak in a roundabout), the construct being peri- (from the Ancient Greek περί (perí) (about, around) + φράζειν (phrázein) (to declare; to express), the present
active infinitive of φράζω (phrázō).The
adjective periphrastic (having the character of or characterized by periphrasis)
came into use in the mid eighteenth century and was from the French périphrastique or directly from the
Ancient Greek periphrastikos, from periphrazein (to speak in a roundabout
way). The adjective periphrastical dates
from the 1630s and the adverb periphrastically from several decades later. The expression of disapproval “beating around
the bush” applies more to circumlocution than the classic periphrasis which
hints at why in linguistics “periphrasis” and “circumlocution” shouldn’t be
treated as synonyms despite this being common.
The most helpful distinction between the two is that periphrasis
generally is used of those cases where the figure is used with effect, while
circumlocution refers to mere wordiness, sometimes to the point of obscuring
meaning, thus the overlap with euphemism.
A classic periphrasis is the naming of a thing indirectly by means of
some well-known attribute, or characteristic, or attendant circumstance. A periphrastic conjugation is a conjugation
formed by the use of the simple verb with one or more auxiliaries. Periphrasis & periphrase are nouns,
periphrastically is an adverb and periphrasic, periphrastical &
periphrastic are adjectives; the noun plural is periphrases.
Periphrasis does have a long tradition in rhetorical as a device where a phrase is used to express a concept which could be conveyed by a single word, or where a longer expression replaces a shorter one, thus the association with descriptive or explanatory words and as well as euphemisms, there’s inevitably some overlap also with the cliché; a periphrasis can straddle the definitions and structural linguistics has a term for everything so someone particularly periphrastical might create periphrases which are also both a pleonasm and a tautology. Constructions like “the king of the jungle” (lion), “the silver screen” (movies), “the eternal city” (Rome) or “the red planet” (Mars) are all periphrases but are also clichés. At the margins it can be difficult but “they passed away” (they died) is probably just a clichéd euphemism. To say of Lindsay Lohan she was “a former child star who suffered a turbulent youth” is a periphrasis whereas to mention she was prone also at times to seem “tired and emotional” is a euphemism for “too much drink”.
Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.
During
one of the sessions at the League of Nations held in 1933 before Japan withdrew
from the League in response to a report commissioned by the organization which labeled
Japan as the unprovoked aggressor in what Tokyo referred to as “The Chinese Attack” or “The Mukden Incident”, one member of the
Japanese delegation, when asked why his government’s communiqués contained so
many periphrases, responded that they were little more frequent that those in
documents issued by other countries but that the unique characteristics of the
Japanese language made them appear more obvious. He may have had a point and there was an
understated charm to phrases like “The Manchurian
Incident” (Japan’s invasion of China) and “The Emperor Disrespect Incident” (a thwarted 1932 plot by a Korean
nationalist to assassinate the Emperor Shōwa (Hirohita, 1901–1989, emperor of
Japan 1926-1989).
Henry
Fowler (1858–1933) in his A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) saw
little use for the periphrasis, dismissing it as the “putting of things in a
round-about way”, noting the easiest way of identifying the linguistic sin was
the use of abstract nouns such as “basis,
case, character, connexion, dearth, description, duration, framework, lack,
nature, reference, regard & respect”. Fowler also pondered cause and effect, his
theory being that because abstract thought was a “…mark of civilized man”, the use of the abstract noun was a way of
advertising one’s refinement, thus the proliferation he noted in the
appearances of periphrases. He cited “the year’s penultimate month” as a silly
alternative to “November” although one could imagine a paragraph in which
“November” has unavoidably appeared to often to be elegant that an alternative
might be a handy addition. Generally
though, as usual, Henry Fowler is right.
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