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Tmesis
In its strictest sense, tmesis (; plural tmeses ; Ancient Greek: ''tmēsis'' "a cutting" < ''temnō'', "I cut") is the dividing of a word into two parts, with another word inserted between those parts, thus forming a . Example: "un-freaking-believable" (an emphatic way to say "unbelievable"). In a broader sense, ''tmesis'' is a set phrase, such as a , with one or more words interpolated within, thus creating a separate phrase.


Verbs

Tmesis of ed verbs (whereby the prefix is separated from the simple verb) was thought to be an original feature of the

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Kennings
A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech, a figuratively-phrased compound term that is used in place of a simple single-word noun. For instance, the Old English kenning () means , as does (). A kenning has two parts: a base-word (also known as a head-word) and a determinant. So in ''whale's road'', ''road'' is the base-word, and ''whale's'' is the determinant. This is the same structure as in the modern English term ''skyscraper''; the base-word here would be ''scraper'', and the determinant ''sky''. In some languages, kennings can recurse, with one element of the kenning being replaced by another kenning. The meaning of the kenning is known as its referent (in the case of ''whale's road'', ''sea'' is the referent). Note that ''skyscraper'' is not a kenning, as it is not a circumlocution for a simpler term; it just means . Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English alliterative verse. They continued to be a feature of Icelandic poe ...
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Expletive Infixation
Expletive infixation is a process by which an expletive or profanity is inserted into a word, usually for intensification. It is similar to tmesis, but not all instances are covered by the usual definition of ''tmesis'' because the words are not necessarily compounds. The most commonly inserted English expletives are adjectival: either participles (''fucking'', ''mother-fucking'', ''freaking'', ''blooming'', ''bleeding'', '' damned'', ''wretched'') or adjectives (''bloody''). Rules of formation in English Judgments of which formations of expletive infixation are acceptable are remarkably consistent. This suggests that the rules for the placement of the expletive are not arbitrary, but instead derive from fundamental aspects of English phonology. A simple rule is that the insertion occurs at a syllable boundary, usually just before the primary stressed syllable. Thus, one hears ''abso-fuckin'-lutely'' rather than *''ab-fuckin'-solutely''. This rule is insufficient to descri ...
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Affix
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. The main two categories are Morphological derivation, derivational and inflectional affixes. Derivational affixes, such as ''un-'', ''-ation'', ''anti-'', ''pre-'' etc., introduce a semantic change to the word they are attached to. Inflectional affixes introduce a syntactic change, such as singular into plural (e.g. ''-(e)s''), or present simple grammatical tense, tense into present continuous or past tense by adding ''-ing'', ''-ed'' to an English word. All of them are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes. Affixes, infixes and their variations Changing a word by adding a morpheme at its beginning is called ''prefixation'', in the middle is called ''infixation'', and at the end is called ''suffixation''. ''Prefix'' and ''suffix'' may be subsumed under the term ''adfix'', in contrast to ''infix.'' When marking text for interlinear gl ...
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Skald
A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally composed to honor kings, but were sometimes Extemporaneous speaking, ex tempore. They include both extended works and single verses (''Lausavísa, lausavísur''). They are characteristically more ornate in form and diction than eddic poems, employing many kennings, which require some knowledge of Norse mythology, and heiti, which are formal nouns used in place of more prosaic synonyms. ''Dróttkvætt'' metre (poetry), metre is a type of skaldic verse form that most often use internal rhyme and alliteration. More than 5,500 skaldic verses have survived, preserved in more than 700 manuscripts, including in several sagas and in Snorri Sturluson's ''Prose Edda'', a handbook of skaldic composition that led to a revival of the art. Many of these vers ...
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Diacope
Diacope ( ) is a rhetorical term meaning repetition of a word or phrase that is broken up by a single intervening word, or a small number of intervening words. It derives from a Greek word ''diakopḗ,'' which means "cut in two". Diacopae (or diacopes) are used in writing to emphasize or describe something. Like other forms of repetition, diacope helps express strong emotions, or help give weight to the repeated word. Types of Diacope Diacope can be utilized in three ways in writing. They are: # Vocative Diacope: In this type of diacope, the repeated words are separated by nouns that are directly addressed. The noun must address something, or someone. # Elaborative Diacope: Here an adjective is used between the repeated words to enhance the meaning of the repeated word. # Extended Diacope: Sometimes a word is repeated thrice for even more emphasis. Examples * "Bond. James Bond." — James Bond * "Put out the light, and then put out the light." — Shakespeare, ''Othello'', Act ...
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Clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic ( , backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a word, but depends phonologically on another word or phrase. In this sense, it is syntactically independent but phonologically dependent—always attached to a host.SIL International (2003). SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms: What is a clitic? "This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003." Retrieved from . A clitic is pronounced like an affix, but plays a syntactic role at the phrase level. In other words, clitics have the ''form'' of affixes, but the distribution of function words. Clitics can belong to any grammatical category, although they are commonly pronouns, determiners, or adpositions. Note that orthography is not always a good guide for distinguishing clitic ...
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Interfix
An interfix or linking element is a part of a word that is placed between two morphemes (such as two roots or a root and a suffix) and lacks a semantic meaning. Examples Formation of compound words In German, the interfix ''-s-'' has to be used between certain nouns in compound words, but not all, such as ''Arbeitszimmer'' ("workroom") as opposed to ''Schlafzimmer'' ("bedroom"). This originates from the masculine and neuter genitive singular suffix ''-s''. German has many other interfixes, for example ''-es'', ''-(e)n-'', ''-er-'' and ''-e-''. Not all of them originate from the genitive. Likewise, it is often stated that German interfixes originated from plural forms, when in fact German plural forms and linking forms developed parallel to each other and are only partly similar by coincidence. In Dutch, the interfix ''-e-'' ( schwa) sometimes can be traced back to the original form of the first part ending in an ''-e'' that has been lost in the present day form: ''zielerust ...
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Adjunct (grammar)
In linguistics, an adjunct is an optional, or ''structurally dispensable'', part of a sentence, clause, or phrase that, if removed or discarded, will not structurally affect the remainder of the sentence. Example: In the sentence ''John helped Bill in Central Park'', the phrase ''in Central Park'' is an adjunct.See Lyons (1968). A more detailed definition of the adjunct emphasizes its attribute as a modifying form, word, or phrase that depends on another form, word, or phrase, being an element of clause structure with adverbial function. An adjunct is not an argument (linguistics), argument (nor is it a predicative expression), and an argument is not an adjunct. The argument–adjunct distinction is central in most theories of syntax and semantics. The terminology used to denote arguments and adjuncts can vary depending on the theory at hand. Some dependency grammars, for instance, employ the term ''circonstant'' (instead of ''adjunct''), following Lucien Tesnière, Tesnière (195 ...
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Reduplicated
In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word, part of that, or the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change. The classic observation on the semantics of reduplication is Edward Sapir's: "Generally employed, with self-evident symbolism, to indicate such concepts as distribution, plurality, repetition, customary activity, increase of size, added intensity, continuance." It is used in inflections to convey a grammatical function, such as plurality or intensification, and in lexical derivation to create new words. It is often used when a speaker adopts a tone more expressive or figurative than ordinary speech and is also often, but not exclusively, iconic in meaning. It is found in a wide range of languages and language groups, though its level of linguistic productivity varies. Examples can be found in language as old as Sumerian, where it was used in forming some color terms, e.g. "white", "black". ''Reduplic ...
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