BS: Omitted noun figure of speech

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 12:47 AM

McGrath's two posts above is a precise example of aposiopesis, which I suggested above.

The use of an adjective as a collective abstract noun to indicate all those subsumed by its description, as in 'Land of the free', 'The poor are always with us', &c, is a basic part of the language & has been so since time immemorial, & not quite the same as using part of a conventional phrase [eg 'your shell-like'] as an innuendo towards the meaning implied.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: bubblyrat
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 06:35 AM

While we are on the subject (loosely) could any of you Americans explain something to me ?? Why is it that you have started referring to "The "Kursk" Soviet Submarine, or The" George Washington" Aircraft Carrier ,and ,very recently , The "Costa Concordia" Cruise Ship ? In the Uk ,we would say "The Cruise Ship"Costa Concordia" , not the other way round ! I mean, Shirley Temple sang about "The Good Ship Lollipop", NOT "The Lollipop Good Ship " !! What's going on here ??

Roger former member of the crew of The Aircraft Carrier Eagle , NOT The Eagle Aircraft Carrier !!

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: Lighter
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 08:13 AM

> In the Uk ,we would say "The Cruise Ship"Costa Concordia"

For now.

Oddly enough, the recent American trend is an inexplicable reversion to eighteenth century usage.

The Scots Magazine, 1785: "On the 19th current, arrived in this bay the Hebe frigate, with his Royal Highness Prince William Henry, Commodore Gower, &c. attended by the Mutine cutter."

Maybe TV news wants to put the most significant word at the end of the sentence. (It's a cruise ship or a submarine that sank - the one you may have heard about without noticing the name.)

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 08:25 AM

It goes back, tho, to rather before TV news. Think of all the songs with ships' names in them:

The bonnie ship 'The Diamond';
The gallant frigate 'Amphitryte', she lay on Plymouth Sound;
It was on the good ship 'Venus';
I shipped aboard a Limey barque the Hotspur

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 08:29 AM

This figure of speech certainly is EXTREMELY common in the US. As in . . .

"She called me on my cell [phone]"
"She's wearing nylons [stockings]"
"I'm listening to music on my cassette [player or recorder]"
"Listen to your transistor [radio]"

and on and on

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 08:47 AM

What about the "Pop singer Adele" or the "delinquint Bieber"?

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: Gurney
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 02:32 PM

In NZ, it is common to hear the the comparative item missed out.

It's as cold as! The car's as fast as! The shoes were as cheap as!

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 04 Mar 14 - 01:05 AM

"It's as cold as! The car's as fast as! The shoes were as cheap as! "

A lot of people in North America, mostly male Cheech and Chong fans might ad "sh*t" to each of those. IMHO that is about the same as leaving the noun out.

:-D

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 04 Mar 14 - 04:10 AM

Ah - so THAT's why they leave it out! So you can put in any four-letter word that takes your fancy.

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: gnu
Date: 04 Mar 14 - 06:34 AM

Delightful read!

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: GUEST,Dáithí
Date: 04 Mar 14 - 06:40 AM

Some "substantive adjectives" have now become standard,I think. For example, aerial antennae are now just called aerials in the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: MartinRyan
Date: 04 Mar 14 - 06:49 AM

Briny

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: meself
Date: 04 Mar 14 - 10:46 AM

the Great Beyond

the wild blue yonder - or even just 'the wild blue'

the briny deep (with apologies to Ryan Martin)

semi (i.e., transport truck)

nothing but/everything but

When I was a young buck, I frequented a tavern in which the most popular dish was the "one with" - some manner of fat sausage on a kaiser bun.

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: meself
Date: 04 Mar 14 - 02:33 PM

Whoops! Apologies again - to Martin Ryan ... !

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 04 Mar 14 - 05:40 PM

A touch of the verbals

Down the local

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: Amos
Date: 04 Mar 14 - 11:14 PM

Catachresis was rendered obsolete, culturally, by Richard Sheridan when he wrote The Rivals. They have been malapropisms ever since--an evolutionary ineffability, certainly.

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Mar 14 - 03:28 AM

Amos: But 'catachresis' has wider application than merely that of 'malapropism'; referring to any misuse of a word, thru inappropriateness, e.g., rather than only of mistaken substitution of a near homonym.

I remember, for instance, the main character in John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos denouncing "Mother Nature" as a catachresis, on the grounds that Nature, as an entity, is cruel and unfeeling, rather than warm & nurturing as that sentimental phrase would imply.

Worth wiki-ing to find the various applications of the word.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Omitted noun figure of speech
From: GUEST,mayomick
Date: 05 Mar 14 - 10:22 AM

Great read, but this could end up in Pseud(o-intellectuals') Corner!