[Lexicog] yoked

[Aubin, George (Mod & Class Languages)]

Hi, Everyone!

Happy New Year!

Under the entry for ‘zeugma, zeugme’ in the French on-line dictionary, ‘Le Trésor de la Langue Française Automatisé’, the observation is made that French grammarians consider zeugmas to be incorrect, in spite of the fact that examples can be found in authors of the stature of Flaubert: ‘Je trouve les vers plus tendres que la prose et qu’ils font bien mieux pleurer’ (‘I find verse more tender than prose and that it makes one cry much better’). Such zeugmas are defended as giving flexibility and liveliness to the expression of thought.
 
 Further, as in the original example from the Mellows, the syntax of some zeugmas is partially concealed: ‘Elle [Danièle] était pulpeuse, sensuelle, protestante’ (‘She was pulpy, sensual, Protestant’), in which the first two adjectives are from one meaning register and the third adjective from a totally different one. Perhaps this trait of partial concealment might also help to explain their attractiveness ...

George
 
 George F. Aubin, Ph.D.
 Professor Emeritus, French and Linguistics
 Assumption College
 Worcester, MA 01609-1296
 E-mail: gaubin at assumption.edu
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