Solecism
A solecism is a
Etymology
The word originally was used by the Greeks for what they perceived as grammatical mistakes in their language.
Examples
Name | Type of grammatical breach | Example |
---|---|---|
Catachresis | Wrong grammatical case | "This is just between you and I" for "This is just between you and me" (hypercorrection to avoid the correct "you and me" form in the predicate of copulative sentences, even though "me" is the standard pronoun for the object of a preposition or the object of a verb).
"Whom shall I say is calling?" for "Who shall I say is calling?" (Hypercorrection resulting from the perception that "whom" is a formal version of "who" or that the pronoun is functioning as an object when, in fact, it is subject [One would say, "Shall I say who is calling?]. The leading pronoun could be an object only if, "say" were used transitively and the sentence were structured thus: "Whom shall I say to be calling?") |
Catachresis | Double negative | "She can't hardly sleep" for "She can hardly sleep" (a double negative, as both "can't" and "hardly" have a negative meaning) |
See also
- Catachresis
- Disputed English grammar
- English as She Is Spoke
- Fowler's Modern English Usage
- Malapropism
- Prescription and description
- Error (linguistics)
- Zeugma, a rhetorical use of solecism for effect
References
- ISBN 978-0-19-514236-5. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
- ^ Filion, Charles A. (January 2015). "Differences Between English Poetics and Sanskrit Poetics".
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(help) - ^ "solecism (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. 2023-08-29. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
- Perseus Project.
External links
- The dictionary definition of solecism at Wiktionary