Notifications
Clear all
Polysemes and Syllepsis
August 4, 2012 8:51 am
(@grantbarrett)
Member
Joined: 18 years ago
In their song "The Old Apartment," The Barenaked Ladies sang, "crooked landing / crooked landlord / narrow laneway filled with crooks." "Crooked" there is an example of a polyseme, or one word that has multiple meanings. Similar to this is the syllepsis, wherein one word is applied to other words in different senses (e.g. Alanis Morissette: "You held your breath and the door for me"). This is part of a complete episode.
Topic Tags