The metalinguistic development of the term 'periphrasis' in the western grammatical tradition from Antiquity to the Enlightenment

Bibliographic Data

ID3955236
AuthorsBeatrice Grieco (0000-0001-8355-0080, University of Edinburgh), Edoardo Nardi (0000-0001-7906-037X, Università degli Studi di Palermo)
Year2025
Volume52
Issue1
Pages63-101
Publication date2025-07-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistoriographia Linguistica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0302-5160 • E-ISSN: 1569-9781
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/hl.00178.gri
OpenAlexW4410432206
LanguageEN
References cited27

In 1993, Hoffmann published a study on the historical development of the term 'periphrasis' in grammars, which originally indicated a figure of speech, used for stylistic and rhetorical purposes. To date, Hoffmann's article remains the only contribution to the question. In this paper, we further investigate the history of the morphosyntactic category of 'periphrasis', with special attention to practical grammars, which are not discussed by Hoffmann. The analysis of grammars dating from Antiquity to the Enlightenment confirms Hoffmann's findings with additional data, and sheds new light on the metalinguistic development of the morphosyntactic category of 'periphrasis' over the centuries. From the late 15th to the 18th century, grammars, especially practical, of many European and non-European languages attest a notable terminological richness to indicate analytic constructions, understood as morphosyntactic categories (comparative and superlative, compound tenses). These grammars feature not only periphrasis and circumlocutio, which are already found in the earlier tradition, but also the verb related to the latter, circumloquor, circumscribo, and language-specific expressions, such as rodeo in Spanish and Portuguese, and tour in French. Despite the development and persistence of the grammatical connotation of periphrasis and analogous terms, 'periphrasis' also retains its original rhetorical usage throughout the Modern Age

Enlightenment · Epistemology · Linguistics · Rule-based machine translation · Verb · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Lexicography and Language Studies · Philosophy · Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies