Synesis

Synesis

Synesis is a traditional grammatical/rhetorical term derived from Greek σύνεσις (originally meaning "unification, meeting, sense, conscience, insight, realization, mind, reason"). A constructio kata synesin (or constructio ad sensum in Latin) means a grammatical construction in which a word takes the gender or number not of the word with which it should regularly agree, but of some other word implied in that word. It is effectively an agreement of words with the sense, instead of the morphosyntactic form.

Example:

If the band is popular, they will play next month.

Here, the plural pronoun they co-refers with the singular noun band. One can think of the antecedent of they as an implied plural noun such as musicians.

Such use in English grammar is often called notional agreement (or notional concord[1]), because the agreement is with the notion of what the noun means, rather than the strict grammatical form of the noun (the normative formal agreement). The term situational agreement is also found, since the same word may take a singular or plural verb depending on the interpretation and intended emphasis of the speaker or writer; so:

The government is united. (Implication: it is a single cohesive body, with a single agreed policy).
The government are divided. (Implication: it is made up of different individuals, with their own different policy views).

Notional agreement for collective nouns is very common in British English. It is less customary in American English, but may sometimes be found after phrases of the type "a collective noun of plural nouns", e.g.,[2]

... a multitude of elements were intertwined (New York Review of Books).
... the majority of all the shareholdings are in the hands of women. (Daedalus).
... a handful of bathers were bobbing about in the waves. (Philip Roth).

The use of a singular or plural verb after the phrases "one of those who" and "one of those things that" has troubled prescriptivists, with both choices garnering their detractors. More descriptive style guides have accepted both as correct.[3]

Other words originally plural have long been notionally singular that they are always followed by a singular verb: news, means, and mathematics.[3]

References

  1. ^ Quirk, Randolph; Greenbaum, Sidney; Leech, Geoffrey; Svartvik, Jan (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. Harlow: Longman. ISBN 0582517346. http://books.google.com/books?id=CrhZAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1. 
  2. ^ Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (3e, 1996)
  3. ^ a b Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage (1995). Entries "Notional agreement" (p.666) and "One of those who" (p. 690).

See also


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Synesis — Syn e*sis, n. [Gr. ? intelligence.] (Gram.) A construction in which adherence to some element in the sense causes a departure from strict syntax, as in Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ unto them. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Synĕsis — (gr.), 1) Verstand, Fassungskraft, Klugheit; 2) eine Wortfügung, bei welcher man nach dem Sinn, nicht nach den Worten construirt; man unterscheidet eine S. explicata, wenn das Substantiv, von welchem sein Prädicat in Genus u. Numerus abweicht,… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Synĕsis — (griech.), Sinn, Verstand; vgl. Sensus …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Synesis — Synĕsis (grch.), Sinn; bei der Satzkonstruktion katá synesin (Constructĭo ad sensum) ist die grammatische Genauigkeit dem Sinn zuliebe vernachlässigt (z. B.: ich sah das Mädchen; sie [statt es] sprach zu mir) …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Synesis — Synesis, griech., Verstand, Einsicht, Klugheit; in der Grammatik Wortfügung, wobei man nicht auf die Worte, sondern auf den Sinn sieht …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

  • synesis — [sin′ə sis] n. [ModL < Gr, sagacity, quick perception < synienai, to perceive, lit., to bring together < syn , together + hienai, to set in motion: see JET1] a grammatical construction which conforms to the meaning rather than to strict… …   English World dictionary

  • Synesis — ◆ Syn|e|sis 〈f.; , e|sen〉 Wortfügung, die grammatisch falsch ist, der Bedeutung aber entspricht, z. B. „die kleine Gretchen“ [grch., „Einsicht“] ◆ Die Buchstabenfolge syn|e... kann in Fremdwörtern auch sy|ne... getrennt werden. * * * Synesis  … …   Universal-Lexikon

  • synesis — ˈsinəsə̇s noun ( es) Etymology: New Latin, from Greek, union, intelligence, from synienai to bring together, perceive, understand (from syn + hienai to send) + sis …   Useful english dictionary

  • synesis — /sin euh sis/, n. Gram. a construction in which an expected grammatical agreement in form is replaced by an agreement in meaning, as in The crowd rose to their feet, where a plural pronoun is used to refer to a singular noun. [1890 95; < NL < Gk… …   Universalium

  • Synesis — Sy|ne|sis* [auch zʏn...] die; , ...esen <aus gr. sýnesis »Einsicht, Verstand«> sinngemäß richtige Wortfügung, die streng genommen nicht den grammatischen Regeln entspricht (z. B. eine Menge Äpfel fielen herunter; Sprachw.); vgl.… …   Das große Fremdwörterbuch

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”