[Lexicog] yoked

[Fritz Goerling]

Yes, Hayim, zeugma is used with humorous effect using polysemous verbs in
puns, like:

 

He beat his wife and then a rapid retreat.

 

Happy New Year,

Fritz

 

 

Dear George!

Happy New Year to you too and also to all the members of the lexicography
list.

I looked at your last example 
‘Elle [Danièle] était pulpeuse, sensuelle, protestante’ (‘She was pulpy,
sensual, Protestant’)
and contemplated, could it be that the meaning of the adjective
'protestante' here is not a 

Protestant, but a Participle Present from 'protester'.
Also in this case it is not going along with the row of attributes pulpeuse,
sensuelle.
But I think 'a Protestant' is little bit shocking.

I remember studying zeugma in classical rhetorics, and I never doubted that
this figure

could  be transferred  into a modern  language. In English, I encountered it
mostly in jokes

and in comic  language. The same comic effect it produces in Russian.


All the best,

 

Hayim Y. Sheynin

 

----- Original Message ----
From: "Aubin, George (Mod & Class Languages)" <gaubin at assumption.edu>
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2008 2:30:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] yoked

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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