Tmesis
Encyclopedia
Tmesis is a linguistic phenomenon in which a word or set phrase is separated into two parts, with other words occurring between them.
language, common in Homer
(and later poetry), but not used in Attic
prose. Such separable verb
s are also part of the normal grammatical usage of some modern languages, such as Dutch
and German
.
poetry, such as Ovid
's Metamorphoses. Words such as circumdare, to surround, are split apart with other words of the sentence in between, e.g. circum virum dant: "they surround the man". This device is used in this way to create a visual image of surrounding the man by means of the words on the line.
is somewhat of a misnomer, since there is not necessarily a splitting of the prefix from the verb; rather the consensus now seems to be that the separate prefix or pre-verb reflects a stage in the language where the prefix had not yet joined on to the verb. There are many examples in Homer's epics, the Iliad
and the Odyssey
, both of which preserve archaic features. One common and oft-cited example is kata dakrua leibōn "shedding tears", in which the pre-verb kata "down" has not yet joined the verbal participle leibōn "shedding". In later Greek, these would combine to form the compound verb kataleibōn "shedding (in a downwards direction)".
However, in many other German verbs the prefix is inseparable, always staying with the root verb.
s, consisting of a core verb and a particle which could be an adverb or a preposition; while the phrasal verb is written as two words, the two words are analyzed semantically as a unit because the meaning of the phrasal verb is often unrelated (or only loosely related) to the meaning of the core verb. For example, turn off has a meaning unrelated to turn in Turn off the television set and the light.
Many English phrasal verbs are separable, in the sense that if they are transitive then the object is placed between the core verb and the particle if the object is a pronoun (and optionally if it is a short noun phrase, but not if it is a long noun phrase as in the example above). For example:
This intervention of the object in the middle of the phrasal verb can be viewed as a form of tmesis even though the semantic unit being separated is written as two words even when not separated.
Another kind of tmesis involves the insertion of a word or phrase into another word, for added emphasis and often for humorous effect. The insertion may occur between the parts of a compound word, or between syllable
boundaries (dystmesis), but always preceding a stressed syllable (e.g. one would never say, "Ab-bloody-solutely", preferring "Abso-bloody-lutely"). It is also sometimes referred to as tumbarumba, possibly due to the popularity of tmesis in Australian English dialect (Tumbarumba, New South Wales
being an Australian town), or possibly due to the poem "Tumba Bloody Rumba" by John O'Grady
, which includes several tmeses including "Tumba-bloody-rumba", "e-bloody-nough", and "kanga-bloody-roos".
examples of the use of tmesis for added emphasis include:
Verbs
Tmesis of prefixed verbs (whereby the prefix is separated from the simple verb) was an original feature of the Ancient GreekAncient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
language, common in Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
(and later poetry), but not used in Attic
Attic Greek
Attic Greek is the prestige dialect of Ancient Greek that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Of the ancient dialects, it is the most similar to later Greek, and is the standard form of the language studied in courses of "Ancient Greek". It is sometimes included in Ionic.- Origin and range...
prose. Such separable verb
Separable verb
A separable verb is a verb that is composed of a lexical verb root and a separable second root . In some verb forms, the verb and the particle appear in one word, whilst in others the verb stem and the particle are separated. Note that the particle cannot be accurately referred to as a prefix...
s are also part of the normal grammatical usage of some modern languages, such as Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
.
Latin
Tmesis is found as a poetic or rhetorical device in classical LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
poetry, such as Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's Metamorphoses. Words such as circumdare, to surround, are split apart with other words of the sentence in between, e.g. circum virum dant: "they surround the man". This device is used in this way to create a visual image of surrounding the man by means of the words on the line.
Ancient Greek
Tmesis in Ancient GreekAncient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
is somewhat of a misnomer, since there is not necessarily a splitting of the prefix from the verb; rather the consensus now seems to be that the separate prefix or pre-verb reflects a stage in the language where the prefix had not yet joined on to the verb. There are many examples in Homer's epics, the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
and the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
, both of which preserve archaic features. One common and oft-cited example is kata dakrua leibōn "shedding tears", in which the pre-verb kata "down" has not yet joined the verbal participle leibōn "shedding". In later Greek, these would combine to form the compound verb kataleibōn "shedding (in a downwards direction)".
German
Many German verbs have a separable prefix that changes the meaning of the root verb, but that does not always remain attached to the root verb. German sentence structure normally places verbs in second position or final position. For separable prefix verbs, the prefix always appears in final position. If a particular sentence's structure places the entire verb in final position then the prefix and root verb appear together. If a sentence places the verb in second position then only the root verb will appear in second position; the separated prefix remains at the end of the sentence. For example, the separable verb anfangen ("to start") consists of the separable prefix an and the root fangen:- Root verb in second position: Ich fange die Arbeit an. ("I start the work.")
- Root verb in final position: Morgens trinke ich Schokolade, weil ich dann die Arbeit anfange. ("In the mornings I drink hot chocolate, because afterwards I begin the work.")
However, in many other German verbs the prefix is inseparable, always staying with the root verb.
English
English employs a large number of phrasal verbPhrasal verb
A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the syntax of the sentence, and so are a complete semantic unit. Sentences may contain direct and indirect objects in addition to the phrasal...
s, consisting of a core verb and a particle which could be an adverb or a preposition; while the phrasal verb is written as two words, the two words are analyzed semantically as a unit because the meaning of the phrasal verb is often unrelated (or only loosely related) to the meaning of the core verb. For example, turn off has a meaning unrelated to turn in Turn off the television set and the light.
Many English phrasal verbs are separable, in the sense that if they are transitive then the object is placed between the core verb and the particle if the object is a pronoun (and optionally if it is a short noun phrase, but not if it is a long noun phrase as in the example above). For example:
- Turn off the light OR Turn the light off (optional tmesis)
- Turn it off (mandatory tmesis)
This intervention of the object in the middle of the phrasal verb can be viewed as a form of tmesis even though the semantic unit being separated is written as two words even when not separated.
Other tmesis in English
One context in which tmesis appears in English involves words using the possessive suffix 's, when it is applied to a noun phrase rather than to a single-word noun. For example, the man's is the possessive form of the man, which can also be expressed periphrastically as of the man. But if this noun phrase is lengthened to include the adjectival prepositional phrase in the car to modify man, the resulting construction is the man in the car's, as in the man in the car's hat (not the man's in the car hat or the man's hat in the car). This type of construction often appears in informal English, although it can be re-expressed in the more formal and periphrastic form the hat of the man in the car.Another kind of tmesis involves the insertion of a word or phrase into another word, for added emphasis and often for humorous effect. The insertion may occur between the parts of a compound word, or between syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
boundaries (dystmesis), but always preceding a stressed syllable (e.g. one would never say, "Ab-bloody-solutely", preferring "Abso-bloody-lutely"). It is also sometimes referred to as tumbarumba, possibly due to the popularity of tmesis in Australian English dialect (Tumbarumba, New South Wales
Tumbarumba, New South Wales
Tumbarumba is a small town in New South Wales, Australia, about 500 km southwest of Sydney. Tumbarumba is located within the Riverina region and more specifically on the South West Slopes at the western edge of the Snowy Mountains. At the 2006 Census of Population and Housing, people lived...
being an Australian town), or possibly due to the poem "Tumba Bloody Rumba" by John O'Grady
John O'Grady
John Patrick O'Grady was an Australian writer. His works include the comic novel They're a Weird Mob and the poem The Integrated Adjective, sometimes known as Tumba-bloody-rumba.- Pseudonym :...
, which includes several tmeses including "Tumba-bloody-rumba", "e-bloody-nough", and "kanga-bloody-roos".
Examples of tmesis for emphasis
Representative EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
examples of the use of tmesis for added emphasis include:
- Wh-words, words usually beginning with wh- that can be used as interrogative words, can also be used as subordinating conjunctions or relative pronouns. When they express indefiniteness using the suffix -ever they can have the intensifier so inserted between the two parts (the base word and the indefinitizer ever) to emphasize the indefiniteness: whatsoever, whosoever, whomsoever, whosesoever, wheresoever, whensoever, howsoever. Unlike the following examples, these are considered standard words in the language.
- "Abso-fuckin-lutely" in which an expletive or profanityProfanityProfanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
is inserted; see Expletive infixationExpletive infixationExpletive 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...
. - "Guaran-damn-tee" in which an expletive or profanity is inserted for humor and/or emphasis.
- "La-dee-freakin'-da", a variation of the above in which a less offensive infix is substituted.
- "Wel-diddly-elcome", a signature phrase of fictional character Ned FlandersNed FlandersNedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
', where a nonsense wordNonsense wordA nonsense word, unlike a sememe, may have no definition. If it can be pronounced according to a language's phonotactics, it is a logatome. Nonsense words are used in literature for poetic or humorous effect. Proper names of real or fictional entities are sometimes nonsense words.-See...
is inserted. Note the reduplicationReduplicationReduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
of part of the host word (as opposed to "wel-diddly-come"). - "Any-old-how", in which the divisibility of "anything" (as in "any old thing") is mimicked with the usually indivisible "anyhow".
- "A-whole-nother", in which another (an+other) is reanalyzed as a+nother.
- "Legen-wait for it-dary", in which the phrase "wait for it" is inserted into the word Legendary. This phrase was popularized by Barney StinsonBarney StinsonBarnabas "Barney" Stinson is a fictional character created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris. The character has been extremely well received by critics and has been credited for much of the show's success...
on How I Met Your MotherHow I Met Your MotherHow I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting...
. - "Abso-bloody-exactly", a humorous misuse of infixation by fictional character Alan PartridgeAlan PartridgeAlan Gordon Partridge is a fictional radio and television presenter portrayed by English comedian Steve Coogan and invented by Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring for the BBC Radio 4 programme On The Hour...
. - "Ri-goddamn-diculous", said by Frank Vitchard (Luke WilsonLuke WilsonLuke Cunningham Wilson is an American film actor known for his roles in Old School, Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, Legally Blonde, Idiocracy and Death at a Funeral.-Early life:...
) in AnchormanAnchorman: The Legend of Ron BurgundyAnchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, or simply Anchorman, is a 2004 American comedy film, directed by Adam McKay and starring Will Ferrell. The film, which was also written by Ferrell and McKay, is a tongue-in-cheek take on the culture of the 1970s, particularly the then-new Action News format...
. - "Unbe-fucking-lievably", said by Stephen Fry on June 29th, 2011 at BorderKitchen in The Hague, as an example of tmesis. He also told the audience that tmesis is his favourite trope.
See also
- AffixAffixAn affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
- CliticCliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
- Lexical diffusionLexical diffusionIn historical linguistics, lexical diffusion is both a phenomenon and a theory. The phenomenon is that by which a phoneme is modified in a subset of the lexicon, and spreads gradually to other lexical items...
- DiacopeDiacopeDiacope is a rhetorical term meaning repetition of a word or phrase broken up by other words or phrases. It derives from a Greek word meaning "cut in two"Examples:...
- Portuguese personal pronouns#Syntax on future verbs
- Split infinitiveSplit infinitiveA split infinitive is an English-language grammatical construction in which a word or phrase, usually an adverb or adverbial phrase, comes between the marker to and the bare infinitive form of a verb....