Concept in Definition ABC

In written language, especially that used in the poetry, the figures rhetoric in order to provide a dimension aesthetics to language. The different figures are divided into categories.

There are repetitions such as anaphora, those that alter the usual syntactic order such as hyperbaton, those of omission such as ellipsis or figures of thought like metaphors.

In the case of the tmesis or lexical overlap, it is a resource literary whose origin dates back to Greco-Roman poetry and is found within the group of position figures. Regarding its original meaning, tmesis comes from the Greek and means to cut or separate.

Main idea and illustrative examples

It consists of separating a word or a phrase into two parts to introduce one or more words between them. It is also called lexical overlap because the word is split and, therefore, the word that is introduced is left horse of those that have been separated. This figure is intended to provide an element of humor in the language.

It is used frequently in some songs to achieve a certain originality in the lyrics. It is also used to emphasize an idea from a perspective different. In short, this Figure of speech allows breaking a word into two halves and thus creating an original and novel concept. In any case, the thmesis or encirclement can be abrupt or smooth.

Thus, in "soft hard mind" the word is cut in two gently and it is inserted hard to create a contrasting effect, since we speak of something soft and hard at the same time. This language resource allows you to play with words, such as "I'm crazy crazy about you" (in this case in the set phrase "be crazy for someone "a word is introduced in English that means precisely crazy and with it a further idea is provided shocking).

Other rhetorical figures of position

The hyperbaton consists of altering the logical and normal order of the words that make up a sentence. Thus, instead of saying "Luis went to the mountains today for snails" we could say the following: "Luis went to the mountains for snails today." With this figure the expression it seems more noble and original.

Anastrophe consists of reversing the usual order of successive words, such as "To God begging and with the mallet giving ", since its normal use would be different (Praying to God and giving mallet).

Photos: Fotolia - Sian / michaklootwijk