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A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from straightforward language use or literal meaning to produce a rhetorical or intensified effect (emotionally, aesthetically, intellectually, etc.). [1] [2] In the distinction between literal and figurative language, figures of speech constitute the latter.
A special case of semantic syllepsis occurs when a word or phrase is used both in its figurative and literal sense at the same time. [3] Then, it is not necessary for the governing phrase to relate to two parts of the sentence. One example is in an advertisement for a transport company: "We go a long way for you."
Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different. Statements like " Marshal Pétain was a true patriot," "The Soviet press is the freest in the world," "The Catholic Church is opposed to ...
phrases formed by the determiner the with an adjective, as in the homeless, the English (these are plural phrases referring to homeless people or English people in general); phrases with a pronoun rather than a noun as the head (see below); phrases consisting just of a possessive; infinitive and gerund phrases, in certain positions;
In generative linguistics, Burzio's generalization is the observation that a verb can assign a theta role (a title used to describe the relationship between the noun phrase and the predicate, such as agent, theme, and goal) to its subject position if and only if it can assign an accusative case to its object. Accordingly, if a verb does not ...
Grammaticalization (also known as grammatization or grammaticization) is a linguistic process in which words change from representing objects or actions to serving grammatical functions. Grammaticalization can involve content words , such as nouns and verbs , developing into new function words that express grammatical relationships among other ...
In linguistics, syntax (/ ˈ s ɪ n t æ k s / SIN-taks) [1] [2] is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences.It is the arrangements of words to form a larger unit.
In terms of phrase structure rules, phrasal categories can occur to the left of the arrow while lexical categories cannot, e.g. NP → D N. Traditionally, a phrasal category should consist of two or more words, although conventions vary in this area. X-bar theory, for instance, often sees individual words corresponding to phrasal categories ...