Prolepsis

Quick meaning: Prolepsis is a noun meaning (rhetoric) The assignment of something to a period of time that precedes it.

Meaning

(rhetoric) The assignment of something to a period of time that precedes it.

More Meanings

1. (rhetoric) The anticipation of an objection to an argument.
2. (philosophy, epistemology) A so-called "preconception", i.e., a pre-theoretical notion which can lead to true knowledge of the world.
3. (narratology) The practice of placing information about the ending of a story near the beginning, as a literary device.
4. (grammar, rhetoric) A construction that consists of placing an element in a syntactic unit before that to which it would logically correspond.
5. (botany) Growth in which lateral branches develop from a lateral meristem, after the formation of a bud or following a period of dormancy, when the lateral meristem is split from a terminal meristem.

Example Sentences

Prolepsis makes objections; then replies; And wisely thus anticipates surprise.

Point (1) seems to imply that one may have a false judgement because of a mismatch between different criteria for truth. For example, my sensation is paired with a prolepsis of a horse, therefore I make an assertion that ‘there is a horse’, which upon further inspection may turn out to be a cow.

[…] [Edmund] Plovvden being of the Romiſh perſvvaſion, ſome Setters trapanned him (pardon the prolepſis) to hear Maſſe: But aftervvards Plovvden underſtanding, that the pretender to Officiate vvas no Prieſt, but a meer Lay-man (on deſigne to make a diſcovering) Oh! The caſe is altered quoth Plovvden: No Priest, no Maſſe.

Word Forms

• prolepses

Synonyms for prolepsis

Depending on context, synonyms include procatalepsis, prebuttal, cataphora, anachronism, flashforward, foreshadowing.

Antonyms for prolepsis

Common opposites include syllepsis.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include anticipation, anteposition, antecedence, prelusion, proemium, preordainment.

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