Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is an act or instance of placing two elements close together or side by side. This is often done in order to compare/contrast the two, to show similarities or differences, etc.
Speech
Juxtaposition in literary terms is the showing contrast by concepts placed side by side. An example of juxtaposition are the quotes "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country", and "Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate", both by John F. Kennedy, who particularly liked juxtaposition as a rhetorical device.[1] Jean Piaget specifically contrasts juxtaposition in various fields from syncretism, arguing that "juxtaposition and syncretism are in antithesis, syncretism being the predominance of the whole over the details, juxtaposition that of the details over the whole".[2] Piaget writes:
In visual perception, juxtaposition is the absence of relations between details; syncretism is a vision of the whole which creates a vague but all-inclusive schema, supplanting the details. In verbal intelligence juxtaposition is the absence of relations between the various terms of a sentence; syncretism is the all-round understanding which makes the sentence into a whole. In logic juxtaposition leads to an absence of implication and reciprocal justification between the successive judgments; syncretism creates a tendency to bind everything together and to justify by means of the most ingenious or the most facetious devices.[2]
In
Mathematics
In algebra, multiplication involving variables is often written as a juxtaposition (e.g., for times or for five times ), also called implied multiplication.
In mathematics, juxtaposition of symbols is the adjacency of factors with the absence of an explicit operator in an expression, especially for commonly used for multiplication: denotes the product of with , or times . It is also used for scalar multiplication, matrix multiplication, function composition, and logical and. In numeral systems, juxtaposition of digits has a specific meaning. In geometry, juxtaposition of names of points represents lines or line segments. In lambda calculus, juxtaposition denotes function application. In physics, juxtaposition is also used for "multiplication" of a numerical value and a physical quantity, and of two physical quantities, for example, three times would be written as and "area equals length times width" as .
Arts
Throughout the arts, juxtaposition of elements is used to elicit a response within the audience's mind, such as creating meaning from the contrast. In music, it is an abrupt change of elements, and is a procedure of musical contrast. In film, the position of shots next to one another (montage) is intended to have this effect. In painting and photography, the juxtaposition of colours, shapes, etc, is used to create contrast, while the position of particular kinds of objects one upon the other or different kinds of characters in proximity to one another is intended to evoke meaning.[4] Various forms of juxtaposition occur in literature, where two images that are otherwise not commonly brought together appear side by side or structurally close together, thereby forcing the reader to stop and reconsider the meaning of the text through the contrasting images, ideas, motifs, etc. For example, "He was slouched gracefully" is a juxtaposition. More broadly, an author can juxtapose contrasting types of characters, such as a hero and a rogue working together to achieve a common objective from very different motivations.[4]
See also
References
- OCLC 953518704.
- ^ OCLC 559388585 – via Google Books.
- ^ Announcing the TI Programmable 88! (PDF). Texas Instruments. 1982. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-08-03. Retrieved 2017-08-03.
- ^ a b Young, James O. (2003). Art and Knowledge. p. 84.[full citation needed]
External links
The dictionary definition of juxtaposition at Wiktionary