How well do you know literary devices? What’s the difference between a malapropism and a spoonerism? Ever wondered what’s makes an abbreviation an acronym? And are you in the habit of creating portmanteaus without realising it?
Put your literary genius to the test and see how much you know (or don’t know) about neologisms and literary devices.
(The answers and explanations are at the end.)
1. Which of the following is NOT an acronym?
a) BBC b) OPEC c) NASA
2. “I can’t find my keys any-flipping-where” is an example of a:
a) portmanteau b) neologism c) tmesis
3. Which of the following is an oxymoron?
a) horribly delicious b) worryingly serious c) clearly visible
4. “What she said had an air of truthiness about it” is an example of:
a) portmanteau b) neologism c) tmesis
5. Which of the following is NOT a malapropism?
a) Illiterate him from your memory. b) A rolling stone gathers no moss. c) She doesn’t like seafood: the thought of eating crushed Asians is quite repellent to her.
6. “Are you dissing me?” is an example of a:
a) portmanteau b) abbreviation c) acronym
7. “Not snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night could keep me away” is an example of:
a) polysyndenton b) assonance c) polyptoton
8. “Did you hear that Brangelina are splitting up?” is an example of a:
a) portmanteau b) abbreviation c) acronym
9. “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true Emperor Marcus Aurelius, father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife…” is an example of:
a) polysyndenton b) assonance c) asyndenton
10. “Her strength as a swimmer was invaluable to her when she started learning how to scuba dive” is an example of a:
a) spoonerism b) abbreviation c) acronym
11. “The Lord is a shoving leopard” is an example of a:
a) spoonerism b) portmanteau c) acronym
12. Which of the following is NOT a neologism?
a) neologism b) advance c) webinar
Answers
- a) BBC
An acronym is an abbreviation made up of the initial letters in a name or phrase that creates another word, as in AWOL. You can pronounce OPEC and NASA as words, but BBC must be said as three letters.
- c) tmesis
Tmesis is a (usually) humorous device of splitting a word with another (usually profane) word for emphasis, as in ‘absofuckinglutely’.
- a) horribly delicious
An oxymoron is two words or phrases compounded together, despite being contradictory.
- b) neologism
A neologism is a new word (from the Latin: neo = new, logos = word) such as webinar, malware and blogosphere. English is the world champion of new words. This largely comes from its ability to absorb words from other languages without fuss or quibbling. Shakespeare was a great improvisor for new words. Before him, the word ‘pedantic’ existed, but ‘pedant’ as an attributive noun was created by old Bill. Another great neologism from Shakespeare is ‘honorificabilitudinatatabus’. But this didn’t catch on quite so well.
- b) a rolling stone gathers no moss
A malapropism is the use of an incorrect word in a phrase or sentence that sounds similar to the word that should be used. The word in English derives from the Sheridan character in the play The Rivals, Mrs Malaprop. Sheridan took the name form the Latin word ‘malapropos’, meaning inappropriate.
- b) abbreviation
An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase, such as Dr or Ofcomm. Creating new, shorter words with the same meaning has become something of a phenomenon in modern vernacular. To ‘diss’ (disrespect), to have ‘cred’ (credibility) and ‘obvs’ (obvious) are all in regular and widespread use.
- a) polysyndenton
Polysyndenton is the use of repeated conjunctions (e.g. nor) when not needed. The result can add emphasis, give an air of urgency or even create a child-like pattern of speech.
- a) portmanteau
A portmanteau is a blend of sounds from two or more words to make a new one, as in ‘Brexit’, ‘brunch’, ‘motel’ and ‘SuBo’.
- c) asyndenton
Asyndenton is the opposite polysyndenton, namely the removal of conjunctions where they might be appropriate. This device creates drama.
- c) acronym
Once in regular usage, an acronym will often abandon capitalisation altogether as in laser, radar and scuba.
- a) spoonerism
A spoonerism is the switching of initial letters, sounds or syllables of two or more words. “The Lord is a shoving leopard” instead of “The Lord is a loving shepherd.” While commonly heard as slips of the tongue, they can also be used intentionally as a play on words, as in ‘cunning stunts’. The word spoonerism comes from an Oxford don, The Reverend Spooner. Often, during lectures, his students would ask him questions to hear him do it. Eventually, he caught on: “You’re mying to trake me do that thing, aren’t you!” he once exclaimed. “Well, I won’t!”
- b) advance
While acronyms, tmesis and portmanteau are types of neologisms, the word neologism is a neologism (a new word).
If you’d like to learn more about English language and grammar, take a look at the training courses I deliver and see if anything floats your boat. (That’s a cliché, of course.)
comments ( 0 )