Circumlocution

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Circumlocution (also called circumduction, circumvolution, periphrasis, kenning or ambage), is speech that circles around an idea with many words instead of stating it directly and simply. It is sometimes necessary in communication (for example, to avoid lexical gaps that would cause untranslatability), but it can also be undesirable (when an uncommon or easily misunderstood figure of speech is used). Roundabout speech is the use of many words to describe something that already has a common and concise term (for example, saying "a tool used for cutting things such as paper and hair" instead of "scissors"). Most dictionaries use circumlocution to define words. Circumlocution is often used by people with aphasia and people learning a new language, where simple terms can be paraphrased to aid learning or communication (for example, paraphrasing the word "grandfather" as "the father of one's father"). Euphemism, innuendo, and equivocation are different forms of circumlocution.

Video Circumlocution

Euphemism

Euphemistic language often uses circumlocution to avoid saying words that are taboo or considered offensive. For example, "Holy mother of Jesus!" is a circumlocution of "Mary!", but "heck", while still euphemistic, is not a circumlocution of "hell".

Euphemistic circumlocution is also used to avoid saying "unlucky words"--words which are taboo for reasons connected with superstition: for example, calling the devil "Old Nick", calling Macbeth "the Scottish Play" or saying "baker's dozen" instead of thirteen.

Maps Circumlocution

Innuendo

Innuendo refers to something suggested but not explicitly stated.

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Equivocation

Equivocation is the use of ambiguous language to avoid telling the truth or forming commitments. For example, a person might not want to divulge their relationship status. Therefore, they would talk about their significant other without giving further details about their partner. Instead of saying "He/she made dinner for me last night", an equivocational statement would be "Dinner was already made for me last night."

Another example is the use of equivocation to deceive others without blatantly lying. For example, a person may ask directly, "Were you outside my window late last night?" The equivocal answer might pose an ambiguous question about the incident, sidelight it, or redirect interest toward some alternative interest. Examples include "Oh, it was too cold to be outside. But I keep saying that the neighbor's cat needs to be restrained." "I heard something, too. Was it like a grunt?" or "I was in bed late last night, what did you hear?"

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In oral poetics

Poetic circumlocution is commonly used in oral poetics. It is, in fact, a definitive characteristic of many oral poetic traditions. Riddles, for example, are circumlocutory poetic games. Charms, spells and other incantations are another form of circumlocutory oral poetics. Circumlocution is often even a sacred injunction; the Judaic law prohibiting uttering the name of God is one of many examples of circumlocution taking the form of a sacred injunction.

African oral poetics constantly employs circumlocution, as does African American poetics. The blues, for example, whose lyrics often consist of an endlessly suggestive stream of imaginative metaphors, are defined by circumlocutory poetic logic, as Ben Sidran makes clear in his book Black Talk: "The direct statement is considered crude and unimaginative; the veiling of all contents in everchanging paraphrase is...the criterion of intelligence".

That African-American circumlocutory sensitivity and skillset was amplified and intensified by slavery and racial oppression in the US, as John Sobol makes clear in his book, Digitopia Blues - Race, Technology and the American Voice. The historic restrictions preventing slaves and their descendents from speaking their minds frankly, combined with their Afrocentric circumlocutory skills, gave rise to a wide range of circumlocutory idioms in America, from scat singing and jive talk to jazz itself, which Sobol argues is a circumlocutory language: "Jazz is the voice denied words."

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See also

• Analytic language
• Auxiliary verb
• Compound (linguistics)
• Inflection
• Periphrasis
• Sesquipedalianism
• Verbosity

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Notes

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References

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External links

• Circumlocution in figures of speech

Source of article : Wikipedia