Tmesis
Under Tmesis (Gr. Τμῆσις separation ) one understands the "splitting of a word". This is done by inserting another word or a group of words between the components of a word. The term tmesis is used inconsistently; As a stylistic device , only the grammatically incorrect separation is referred to, but in a broader sense it is also referred to as the grammatically correct separation of parts of words.
The tmesis in antiquity
The tmesis was originally probably grammatically possible in pre-Homeric Greek , but later developed into a stylistic device in Homer's time . A tmesis is usually used for metric reasons. One speaks of an inherited separation of preverb and verb. From Homer: ἐκ τοι ἐρέω ek toi ereō (I'll tell you that) → ἐξερῶ exerō (I'll testify)
A daring tmesis in Latin, attributed to Ennius : saxo cere-comminuit -brum "Broke his brain with the stone".
The tmesis in German
The tmesis is also widely used in the spoken German language as a stylistic device: Where do you want to go? instead of where do you want to go? or since he has no right to! instead of that he has no right!
The tmesis is often found in joke verses, some of which have been handed down anonymously in the magazine Fliegende Blätter .
Example from the literature:
- "The battle that stands before us by the ray of the morning"
The regular separation of separable prefixes (so-called verb attachments ) when the finite verb is placed second is called tmesis: to lie to someone - someone lies to someone.
literature
- Ivo Hajnal : The tmesis in Homer and on the Mycenaean Linear B tables - a chronological paradox? - Online version (PDF: 324 kB)
Individual evidence
- ^ Anja Overbeck: Italian in the opera libretto. Quantitative and qualitative studies of lexicon, syntax and style. De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-025832-5 , p. 263. (= habilitation thesis, Göttingen 2010.)
- ↑ The example can be found in Noam Chomsky 's Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures 1981 (quoted from 7th edition Berlin de Gruyter 1993, p. 195), there not assessed as daring; Proof via Otto Skutsch : Studia Enniana. London 1968.
- ^ Gerhard Grümmer : Game forms of poetry . Verlag Werner Dausien, Hanau 1985, ISBN 3-7684-4521-6 , p. 58 .
- ^ Helmut Glück (ed.), With the assistance of Friederike Schmöe : Metzler Lexikon Sprach. 3rd, revised edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-476-02056-8 , keyword: "Tmesis".
