Words are of two kinds, simple and double. By
simple I mean those composed of non-significant elements,
such as γῆ.
By double or compound, those composed
either of a significant and non-significant element
(though within the whole word no element is significant),
or of elements that are both significant.
A word may likewise be triple, quadruple, or multiple in form, like
so many Massilian expressions, e.g. 'Hermo-caico-xanthus
Every word is either current, or strange, or meta-
phorical, or ornamental, or newly-coined, or lengthened,
or contracted, or altered.
By a current or proper word I mean one which is
in general use among a people;
by a strange word, one
which is in use in another country.
Plainly, therefore,
the same word may be at once strange and current, but
not in relation to the same people.
The word σίγυνον,
'lance,' is to the Cyprians a current term but to us a
strange one.
Metaphor is the application of an alien name by
transference either from genus to species, or from species
to genus, or from species to species, or by analogy, that is,
proportion.
Thus from genus to species, as: 'There lies
my ship';
for lying at anchor is a species of lying.
From species to genus, as: 'Verily ten thousand noble
deeds hath Odysseus wrought';
for ten thousand is a
species of large number, and is here used for a large
number generally.
From species to species, as: 'With
blade of bronze drew away the life,' and 'Cleft the water
with the vessel of unyielding bronze.'
Here ἀρύσαι, 'to
draw away,' is used for ταμεῖν, 'to cleave,' and ταμεῖν
again for ἀρύσαι, —each being a species of taking away.
Analogy or proportion is when the second term is to the
first as the fourth to the third.
We may then use the
fourth for the second, or the second for the fourth.
Sometimes too we qualify the metaphor by adding the
term to which the proper word is relative.
Thus the
cup is to Dionysus as the shield to Ares.
The cup may,
therefore, be called 'the shield of Dionysus,' and the
shield 'the cup of Ares.'
Or, again, as old age is to life,
so is evening to day.
Evening may therefore be called
'the old age of the day,' and old age, 'the evening of
life,' or, in the phrase of Empedocles, 'life's setting sun.'
For some of the terms of the proportion there is at times
no word in existence;
still the metaphor may be used.
For instance, to scatter seed is called sowing: but the
action of the sun in scattering his rays is nameless.
Still
this process bears to the sun the same relation as sowing
to the seed.
Hence the expression of the poet 'sowing
the god-created light.'
There is another way in which
this kind of metaphor may be employed.
We may apply
an alien term, and then deny of that term one of its
proper attributes;
as if we were to call the shield, not
'the cup of Ares,' but 'the wineless cup.'
A newly-coined word is one which has never been
even in local use, but is adopted by the poet himself.
Some such words there appear to be: as ἐρνύγες,
'sprouters,' for κέρατα, 'horns,' and ἀρητήρ, 'supplicator,'
for ἱερεύς, 'priest.'
A word is lengthened when its own vowel is exchanged
for a longer one, or when a syllable is inserted.
A
word is contracted when some part of it is removed.
Instances of lengthening are, —πόληος for πόλεως, and
Πηληιάδεω for Πηλείδου: of contraction, — κρῖ, δῶ, and
ὄψ, as in μία γίνεται ἀμφοτέρων ὄψ.
An altered word is one in which part of the ordinary
form is left unchanged, and part is re-cast;
as in δεξι-
τερὸν κατὰ μαζόν, δεξιτερόν is for δεξιόν.
[Nouns in themselves are either masculine, feminine,
or neuter.
Masculine are such as end in ν, ρ, ς, or in
some letter compounded with ς, — these being two,
ψ and ξ.
Feminine, such as end in vowels that are always
long, namely η and ω, and of vowels that admit of
lengthening—those in α.
Thus the number of letters in
which nouns masculine and feminine end is the same;
for ψ and ξ are equivalent to endings in ς.
No noun ends
in a mute or a vowel short by nature.
Three only end in
ι, μέλι, κόμμι, πέπερι: five end in υ. Neuter nouns
end in these two latter vowels;
also in ν and ς.]
Poetics. Aristotle. S. H. Butcher (Translator). London. 1911.
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