Apophasis

Apophasis

Apophasis (Late Latin, from Greek ἀπόφασις from ἀποφάναι—apophanai, "to say no"[1]) refers, in general, to "mention by not mentioning". Apophasis covers a wide variety of figures of speech.

Contents

Apophasis

Apophasis was originally and more broadly a method of logical reasoning or argument by denial—a way of describing what something is by explaining what it is not, or a process-of-elimination way of talking about something by talking about what it is not.

A useful inductive technique when given a limited universe of possibilities, the exclusion of all but the one remaining is affirmation through negation. The familiar guessing-game of Twenty Questions is an example of apophatic inquiry.

This sense has generally fallen into disuse and is frequently overlooked, although it is still current in certain contexts, such as mysticism and negative theology.

In Christianity

An apophatic theology sees God as ineffable and attempts to describe God in terms of what God is not. Apophatic statements refer to transcendence in this context, as opposed to cataphasis referring to immanence.

Paralipsis

Paralipsis (παράλειψις), also spelled paraleipsis or paralepsis, and known also as praeteritio, preterition, cataphasis (κατάφασις), antiphrasis (ἀντίφρασις), or parasiopesis (παρασιώπησις), is a rhetorical device wherein the speaker or writer invokes a subject by denying that it should be invoked. As such, it can be seen as a rhetorical relative of irony. Paralipsis is usually employed to make a subversive ad hominem attack.

The device is typically used to distance the speaker from unfair claims, while still bringing them up. For instance, a politician might say, "I don't even want to talk about the allegations that my opponent is a drunk."

Proslepsis is an extreme kind of paralipsis that gives the full details of the acts one is claiming to pass over; for example, "I will not stoop to mentioning the occasion last winter when our esteemed opponent was found asleep in an alleyway with an empty bottle of vodka still pressed to his lips."[2]

Paralipsis was often used by Cicero in his orations, such as "I will not even mention the fact that you betrayed us in the Roman people by aiding Catiline."

Examples:

"It would be superfluous in me to point out to your lordship that this is war."
Charles Francis Adams, U.S. Ambassador to Britaindispatch to Earl Russell, 5 September 1863, concerning Britain's relations with the Confederacy.
"Ssh," said Grace Makutsi, putting a finger to her lips. "It's not polite to talk about it. SO I won't mention the Double Comfort Furniture SHop, which is one of the businesses my fiance owns, you know. I must not talk about that. But do you know the store, Mma? If you save up, you should come in some day and buy a chair."

A more positive usage of paralipsis/paralepsis embodies the narrative style of Adso of Melk in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, where the character fills in details of early fourteenth-century history for the reader by stating it is unnecessary to speak of them.[3]

Proslepsis

In logic, proslepsis (πρόσληψις), as described briefly by Aristotle and in detail by Theophrastus, is a type of proposition in which the middle term of a syllogism is implied. Such a syllogism is then described as a prosleptic syllogism, of which Theophrastus defined three kinds or figures.

Occultatio

Occultatio, although sometimes used as a synonym for paralipsis, is more often a literary figure most often seen in plays, where a character describes a scene or object by not describing it. For example, in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, act 4, scene 1, the character Grumio describes the eventful coming of his master and new wife to a young servant by saying,

"Hadst thou not crossed me, thou shouldst have heard how her horse fell and she under her horse; thou shouldst have heard in how miry a place, how she was bemoiled,[...]with many things of worthy memory, which now shall die in oblivion and thou return unexperienced to thy grave."

In this speech, Grumio, angry at the servant's interruptions, "refuses" to describe what happened, and in so doing, describes it fully.

H. P. Lovecraft frequently used occultatio to add an element of mystery to his stories, as his unfortunate protagonists met things too horrible or too alien to describe.

In "The Garden of Forking Paths" Jorge Luis Borges suggests that a mystery in a story may be solved if the central narrative is regarded as referring to something by its absence. The Chinese spy Tsun is seen to be referring to time, as the one thing never mentioned in the story.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "apophasis". Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=apophasis. Retrieved 1 June 2011. 
  2. ^ Burton, Gideon O. "paralipsis". Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric. Brigham Young University. http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/P/paralipsis.htm. Retrieved 1 June 2011. 
  3. ^ Eco, Umberto (1984). "Postscript to the Name of the Rose". The Name of the Rose. Translated by William Weaver. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 39.  Eco and Weaver use the spelling paralepsis or "passing over" for the phenomenon.

References

  • Jones, Thomas (1920). Dictionary of Rhetorical Terms. Tokyo: Scholastic. p. 263. ISBN 0-523-32795-3. 

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Apophasis — (ἀπόφασις, wörtlich „Aufdeckung“) bezeichnet ein Untersuchungsverfahren, das Mitte bis Ende des 4. Jahrhunderts vor Chr. im antiken Athen entwickelt wurde. Auf Antrag der ekklesia oder auf eigene Initiative untersuchte der Areopag Angelegenheiten …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Apophasis — A*poph a*sis ([.a]*p[o^]f [.a]*s[i^]s), n. [Gr. apo fasis denial, fr. apofa nai to speak out, to deny.] (Rhet.) A figure by which a speaker formally declines to take notice of a favorable point, but in such a manner as to produce the effect… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • apophasis —  ; apophatic theology, via negative    Apophasis (from Greek for decision or denial ) refers to a theology that approaches God by way of negation (a via negativa or negative route), by stating, for example, God is not this, God is not that. In… …   Glossary of theological terms

  • apophasis — noun An allusion to something by denying that it will be mentioned I wont mention your bad grammar is an example of apophasis. See Also: apo , phasis, apophatic, apophatically …   Wiktionary

  • apophasis — noun Etymology: Late Latin, repudiation, from Greek, denial, negation, from apophanai to deny, from apo + phanai to say more at ban Date: 1657 the raising of an issue by claiming not to mention it (as in “we won t discuss his past crimes”) …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • apophasis — /euh pof euh sis/, n. Rhet. denial of one s intention to speak of a subject that is at the same time named or insinuated, as I shall not mention Caesar s avarice, nor his cunning, nor his morality. [1650 60; < LL < Gk: a denial, equiv. to… …   Universalium

  • apophasis — n. raising a particular issue by saying that it will not be mentioned (e.g., I will not bring up the fact that CEO Thomson has two children from an adulterous relationship ) …   English contemporary dictionary

  • apophasis — /əˈpɒfəsəs/ (say uh pofuhsuhs) noun Rhetoric denial of an intention to speak of something which is at the same time hinted or insinuated. {Latin, from Greek: denial} …  

  • apophasis —   n. rhetorical device of emphasizing a fact, by pretending to ignore or deny it …   Dictionary of difficult words

  • apophasis — noun mentioning something by saying it will not be mentioned • Derivationally related forms: ↑apophatic • Hypernyms: ↑rhetorical device …   Useful english dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

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