Etymological figure

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The etymological figure ( Latin figura etymologica ) is a figure of speech in which a verb and a noun with the same root word (e.g. fight and fight ) are combined ("fight a fight").

This stylistic device can serve to reinforce or reinforce the meaning of the word. It is a special case of the polyptoton .

grammar

The noun is in the accusative (here called the accusative of the content ) and serves as an object (here also called cognate object ). Other grammarians are of the opinion that this is not an object but a modal accusative.

In this construction, an intransitive verb can also lead an accusative object or a modal accusative. Example: To sleep , there is usually no direct object ( "he's asleep it" or "he is sleeping it is" ungrammatical), but you can "sleep a peaceful sleep."

Another example of the accusative of the content is: "to die a heroic death". However, this is not an etymological figure because the words die and death are not etymologically related.

In terms of etymology , the etymological figure is not, strictly speaking, about the word stem, but about the common word root .

Examples

  • "Fight a hard fight"
  • "Do a good deed"
  • "Live a beautiful life"
  • "I play really nice games with you" ( Goethe , Erlkönig , verse 10)

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hadumod Bußmann (ed.) With the assistance of Hartmut Lauffer: Lexikon der Sprachwissenschaft. 4th, revised and bibliographically supplemented edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-520-45204-7 .
  2. ↑ In German or in German?