Conference thebay::joyoflex

1072.0. ""Zeugma & Syllepsis" - "Daphnis & Chlo�" of Rhetoric?" by DRDAN::KALIKOW (RTFW) Fri Nov 12 1993 12:54

    Cross-posted with permission...  Have at it, me hearties!!  Cheers, Dan
            <<< IKE22::NOTE$:[NOTES$LIBRARY]WOMANNOTES-V5.NOTE;1 >>>
                        -< Topics of Interest to Women >-
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Note 106.30            simple humor (so as not to offend)               30 of 44
LCALOR::PETRIE "with a 133 handicap in bowling!"     43 lines  11-NOV-1993 12:48
                       -< just like Romeo & Juliet  :^) >-
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    			PUPPY LOVE ENDS IN COURT
				Nancy Klingener
				Miami Herald

  Like many tales of love gone astray, the short romance of Rocky and Canella
  ended in court - and the male was found in the wrong.

  Rocky, a Chihuahua, somehow managed to impregnate Canella, a Rottweiler, very
  much against the wishes of Canella's owner, Devin Foley of Key Largo.  So
  Foley sued Rocky's owner, Dayami Diaz.  Last week, Monroe County Judge Reagan
  Ptomey ordered Diaz to pay Foley $2,567.50.

  Fatal Attraction
  ----------------
  According to Ptomey's two-page order, this is what happened:

  Canella was in heat and Foley planned to breed her "to an acceptable male so
  that a litter might be sold."  Canella was on a leash on Foley's deck when
  Foley stepped inside to get her some food.

  "During this short absence as aforesaid, defendant's male Chihuahua [Rocky]
  entered plaintiff's property and Canella," the judge wrote.  "A passing
  Animal Control officer observed Canella and Rocky passionately joined together
  and 'stopped to watch because of the difference in sizes' of the two dogs."

  Hard Facts
  ----------
  Foley took a color photograph of the scene while the animal control officer
  turned a hose on the dogs to try to separate them.

  A month later, Foley learned Canella was pregnant.  But the world will never
  learn what a Chihuahua-Rottweiler mix looks like.  The litter of 10 pups was
  terminated via hysterectomy, leaving Canella sterile.

  Circumstantial Evidence
  -----------------------
  Diaz attempted to defend Rocky by casting aspersions on Canella's character.
  "Defendant presented testimony of other dog-owning neighbors speculating that
  Canella had been visited by other male dogs [in particular a determined but
  inadequate little Shih Tzu with an injured hip]," Ptomey wrote, "but only 
  speculation existed, as opposed to the certain success enjoyed by Rocky."

  Kathy
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Note 106.32            simple humor (so as not to offend)               32 of 44
RUSURE::EDP "Always mount a scratch monkey."         15 lines  11-NOV-1993 14:04
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    Re .30:
    
    > "During this short absence as aforesaid, defendant's male Chihuahua
    > [Rocky] entered plaintiff's property and Canella," the judge wrote.
              ^^^^^^^
    
    Zeugma!

    
    				-- edp
    
    
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Note 106.33            simple humor (so as not to offend)               33 of 44
VAXWRK::STHILAIRE "Food, Shelter & Diamonds"          4 lines  11-NOV-1993 14:13
                    -< poor Canella can't have any fun.... >-
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    re .30, sounds like sex between two consenting adults to me.  
    
    Lorna
    
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Note 106.36            simple humor (so as not to offend)               36 of 44
DRDAN::KALIKOW "I CyberSurf the Web on NCSA Mosaic"  29 lines  11-NOV-1993 20:10
          -< re .32 -- Not Zeugma so much as Syllepsis, methinks... >-
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    Though this is surely more appropriate for THEBAY::JOYOFLEX, I must
    quibble.
    
    Zeugma is using a word in relation with two (or more?) others such that
    it's inappropriate for one of them.  E.g., "He left his wife and
    children" is normal, while "he divorced his wife and family" is an
    instance of zeugma.
    
    In the present case, ""[Rocky] entered plaintiff's property and
    Canella," the judge wrote.", the sense of "enter" is different but the
    utilization of the word is correct in relationship to both objects, so
    zeugma fails.  This is thus closer to syllepsis, which is a figure of
    speech, or rhetorical device, in which a word yokes two constructions,
    each with a different meaning.  E.g., "... -- because I can't see
    through Adlai.  Nor can most Democrats."  Alternatively:  "He fired his
    pistol, and then his bodyguard." would also be syllepsis.
    
    The "and" in the present .30/.32 example links two different legitimate
    meanings of "enter" in a classic case of syllepsis.
    
    Definitions and some of the above examples are from one of my more
    prized books, _The Logodaedalian's Dictionary,_ G.S.Saussy III, U.
    South Carolina Press, 1989.
    
    PS -- a DECnotes search of JOYOFLEX for instances of "zeugma" failed to
    produce any, so kudos to you, Eric.
    
    :-)
    
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Note 106.38            simple humor (so as not to offend)               38 of 44
NOVA::FISHER "US Patent 5225833"                      4 lines  12-NOV-1993 07:12
                   -< it would have been soooo embarassing. >-
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    wow, thanks for explaining that.  and here I was trying to find a
    clever way to use zeugma at the next cocktail party.
    
    ed
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Note 106.39            simple humor (so as not to offend)               39 of 44
DRDAN::KALIKOW "I CyberSurf the Web on NCSA Mosaic"   3 lines  12-NOV-1993 07:57
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    Somehow I think I done did this explaining in the wrong string...  But
    glad to have saved you from embarrassment, ed... :-)
    
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Note 106.40            simple humor (so as not to offend)               40 of 44
RUSURE::EDP "Always mount a scratch monkey."         19 lines  12-NOV-1993 08:38
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    Re .36:
    
    > Zeugma is using a word in relation with two (or more?) others such that
    > it's inappropriate for one of them.
    
    Merriam-Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary:
    
    	zeugma : the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words
    	usually in such a manner that it applies to each in a difference
    	sense OR [emphasis added] makes sense with only one <"opened the
    	door and her heart to the homeless boy" is an example of ~>
    
    
    				-- edp
    
    
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To get PGP, FTP /pub/unix/security/crypt/pgp23A.zip from nic.funet.fi.
For FTP access, mail "help" message to DECWRL::FTPmail or open Upsar::Gateways.
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Note 106.41            simple humor (so as not to offend)               41 of 44
DRDAN::KALIKOW "I CyberSurf the Web on NCSA Mosaic"  10 lines  12-NOV-1993 08:47
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    Hmmm.  I just checked my dictionary too :-) and *its* definitions of
    zeugma & syllepsis match what was in Saussy's book.  I'd type 'em in
    but it's off to work for me now.  I even checked the Roget's Thesaurus
    available on Thinking Machines' WAIS server, but there was no entry for
    zeugma.
    
    OK by you, Eric, if I cross-post your note here, _et. seq.,_ in JOYOFLEX?  
    
    (-: (-: I promise to change not a character of it!  :-) :-)  Dan
    
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Note 106.42            simple humor (so as not to offend)               42 of 44
DPDMAI::JOHNSONA "Paradox of Virtues"                 5 lines  12-NOV-1993 09:36
                              -< Live and learn. >-
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    And here I thought Zeugma was an interjection! I guess I've been out of
    the educational circuit too long.
    
    Ava
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Note 106.43            simple humor (so as not to offend)               43 of 44
RUSURE::EDP "Always mount a scratch monkey."         14 lines  12-NOV-1993 10:18
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    Re .41:
    
    > OK by you, Eric, if I cross-post your note here, _et. seq.,_ in
    > JOYOFLEX?
    
    Yes.
    
    
    				-- edp
    
    
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================================================================================
Note 106.44            simple humor (so as not to offend)               44 of 44
DV780::DORO "Donna Quixote"                           7 lines  12-NOV-1993 11:25
                            -< Oh boy!  New words! >-
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    >Zuegma
    
    ...and I was jsut going to say..
    
    and gesundheit to you, too!
    
    Jamd

Right, I reckon this is the conference for the following small digression.

Imo, "Chloe", presumably pronounced "Cloh-ee", should either not have a 
diaeresis (the two dots on the "�"), or it should be on the "e".  
Surely a diaeresis means something like "Pronounce this letter 
distinct from the PREVIOUS one" -- or at least it does in French, 
which uses it quite often.

B.t.w., how do you pronounce "zeugma" (which I also thought was an 
interjection :�)?

    ... and an excellently-picked one, to boot!  Thanks, quite so old chap,
    and I've fixed it in the basenote title.  If one can't pick nits on
    dia�reses in JOYOFLEX, then *none* of us is safe in our beds!!
    
    The Logodaedalian's Dictionary doesn't include pronunciation guides,
    but (�silly me?) I surmise it's pronounced "zoyg-muh" with the initial
    diphthong � la Freud.  Some one in the other file also thought it
    might have been an interjection, but I think that may simply be a
    conflation with "Zounds!"
    
    Again, I thank you, as does the shade of Edith Hamilton (wasn't she the
    author of a reference book on classical mythology popular in the '50s
    in the USA at least?).
    

    So how to we pronounce Blue �yster Cult?
    
    While I'm randomizing here, in Spanish the diaerisis is so called, but
    indicates a single vowel sound rather than two.

    According to W9NCD, zeugma is pronounced with the first syllable as a
    homophone for rule or youth.  Sorta like zoot-ma.
    
    In German, an umlaut over an a, o, or u indicates that a following e
    has been left out, and the sound varies depending on the umlauted
    vowel.  Sch�nberg and M�bius are pronounced with the � muffled, sort of
    "curled back" almost - but not quite - as if it were `eur'.  An
    umlauted a, as in M�dchen, is pronounced like a long a in English.
    
    In French, the dieresis appears over the second vowel in a two-vowel
    combination, as in No�l, and it indicates that the e is to receive
    pronunciation distinct from the first vowel.  According to Larousse,
    di�r�se is the act of pronouncing as two syllables a word or word
    fragment that would ordinarily be only one syllable; derives from the
    Greek diairesis, division.

    And umlaut comes from the verb umlauen, meaning to change.
    
    Thus, the same typographical mark means change in German, two sounds in
    French, and one sound (retaining the two sound name) in Spanish (two
    vowels together are normally two sounds in Spanish).
    

     Re: .3 - di�resis

>    While I'm randomizing here, in Spanish the diaerisis is so called, but
>    indicates a single vowel sound rather than two.

     In Spanish the di�resis (this is the Spanish spelling) has just only
     one single use: It is used in the syllables g�e (goo-AI) and g�i
     (goo-EE) to stress that the u is to be pronounced, and to differen-
     ciate them from gue (ghai) and gui (ghee), where the u is a mute one,
     and from ge (hai) gi (hee) where the sound of the "g" changes.

     Examples: 

     cig�e�a  (see-goo-ai-ny-ah) <-> stork 
     ag�ita   (ah-goo-ee-tah)    <-> little water
     guerra   (ghai-rrah)        <-> war
     guitarra (ghee-tah-rrah)    <-> guitar
     agente   (ah-hain-teh)      <-> agent
     agitador (ah-hee-tah-dor)   <-> agitator

     I think the word "di�resis" still has the meaning of division and se-
     paration in Spanish since it is used to separate and differenciate
     the sound of the "u".

     Saludos,

     Juan Carlos Kiel
     DEC Israel

    Zeugma from Billy Joel:
    And so it goes / and so it goes / and so will you soon / I suppose
    
    
    Diaeresis: 
    W9NCD gives _Bront�_ as an example of diaeresis with a single vowel.
    

    From Flanders & Swann's rendition of "Have some Madeira, m'dear.":
    
    ~He put out his cigar, the cat, the wine, and the light.~
    
    						Ann B.

Some of the people on my project have begun posting the "word of the day" on
our local notices wall, where we post other fascinating things like
the latest Weekly World News, etc.

So far, we've had promulgate, curmudgeon, and nefarious.  I have submitted
syzygy, zymurgy (one of my hobbies), zeugma, and syllepsis to the 
nefarious curmudgeon-in-charge of promulgating this mess.  However,
he would also like examples for each word.

While I appreciate the effort put forth in the preceding notes, I am still
somewhat confused on the distinction between zeugma and syllepsis.

Would one of you kind noters please post some examples that would make
it clearer for me.

If you want this as a challenge, I guess I could ask for them to be in verse...

Thanks,

JPB

    Mmmmm.  The best zeugma I know is from a song by Flanders&Swan,
    "Have Some Madeira, M'Dear".  Naturally, I don't remember it all,
    but the protagonist hastens to "put out the cat, the <forgotten>
    and the light."
    
    						Ann B.

    Re .10:
    
    The relevant scraps of lyric go:
    
    	...he said, as he hastened to put out the cat, the wine, the cigar,
    and the lamps, "Have some madeira, m'dear...."
    
    	...she lowered her standards by raising her glass, her courage, her
    eyes, and his hopes.
    
    	...she made no reply, up her mind, and a dash for the door.
    
    Humpty Dumpty said that when he made a word work very hard, he paid it
    extra.  Michael Flanders owes the verbs "put," "raise," and "made"
    time-and-a-half, at least.  (Okay, so "raise" appears only as a
    participle.)
    
    Earl Wajenberg