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Catachresis
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Catachresis (from Greek κατάχρησις, "the incorrect or improper use of a word") is used to denote the (usually intentional) use of any figure of speech that flagrantly violates the norms of a language community. Compare malapropism and solecism, which are unintentional violations of the norms.
Common forms of catachresis are:
- Using a word in a sense radically different from its normal sense.
- "'Tis deepest winter in Lord Timon's purse" — Shakespeare, Timon of Athens
- Using a word to denote something for which, without the catachresis, there is no actual name.
- "a table's leg"
- Using a word out of context.
- "Can't you hear that? Are you blind?"
- Using paradoxes or contradictions.
- "Black sun"
- Creating an illogical mixed metaphor.
- "To take arms against a sea of troubles..." – Shakespeare, Hamlet
- This, however, may be neither a catachresis nor a mixed metaphor. Hamlet is pondering the futility of action: faced with a sea of troubles, taking up a sword and shield is not going to have an effect on the incoming wave. So understood, the quotation is a straightforward metaphor, though it can be interpreted as a catachresis.
Catachresis is often used to convey extreme emotion or alienation. It is prominent in baroque literature and, more recently, in dadaist and surrealist literature.
[edit] See also
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Look up catachresis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
[edit] References
- Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 677. ISBN 0-674-36250-0.
