A solecism is a phrase that transgresses the rules of grammar. [1] The term is often used in the context of linguistic prescription; it also occurs descriptively in the context of a lack of idiomaticness.
Etymology
The word originally was used by the Greeks for what they perceived as grammatical mistakes in their language. [2] [3] Ancient Athenians considered the dialect of the inhabitants of Soli, Cilicia to be a corrupted form of their pure Attic dialect and labelled the errors in the form as "solecisms" ( Greek: σολοικισμοί, soloikismoí; sing.: σολοικισμός, soloikismós). Therefore, when referring to similar grammatical mistakes heard in the speech of Athenians, they described them as "solecisms" and that term has been adopted as a label for grammatical mistakes in any language; in Greek there is often a distinction in the relevant terms in that a mistake in semantics (i.e., a use of words with other-than-appropriate meaning or a neologism constructed through application of generative rules by an outsider) is called a barbarism (βαρβαρισμός barbarismos), whereas solecism refers to mistakes in syntax, in the construction of sentences. [4]
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
- ^ Bryan A Garner (2001). A dictionary of modern legal usage. Oxford University Press. p. 816. ISBN 978-0-19-514236-5. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
-
^ Filion, Charles A. (January 2015).
"Differences Between English Poetics and Sanskrit Poetics".
{{ cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=( help) - ^ "solecism (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. 2023-08-29. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
- ^ σολοικισμός. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
External links
-
The dictionary definition of
solecism at Wiktionary
