Prosiopesis

Quick meaning: Prosiopesis is a noun meaning (grammar) Ellipsis of the beginning of a grammatical construction, common in informal speech and spontaneous written electronic communication, frequently occurring in stock phrases and interjections.

Meaning

(grammar) Ellipsis of the beginning of a grammatical construction, common in informal speech and spontaneous written electronic communication, frequently occurring in stock phrases and interjections.

Example Sentences

The students of English were making good progress in getting to grips with the intricacies of informal constructions, peppering their conversations with proverbial idioms and substituting stock phrases like “Good morning!” and “Thank you.” with prosiopeses like “Morning!” and “‛Kyou.”

Traditional rhetoric was much concerned with the phenomenon of elision, because of the implications for constructing well-formed metrical lines, which would scan well. In rhetorical terminology, an elision in word-initial position was known as aphaeresis or prosiopesis, in word-medial position as syncope, and in word-final position as apocope. A similar classification was made for the opposite of elision, intrusion.

Word Forms

• prosiopeses

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include prolepsis, aposiopesis, ellipsis, paraleipsis, pro-sentence, paralipsis.

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