PROLEPSIS

views updated May 29 2018

PROLEPSIS.
1. A term in RHETORIC for treating a future event as if it has already happened: I'm dead—Get away before they kill you too!

2. A debating device in which one raises an objection to one's own case before an opponent can do so: I am well aware that the cost of the project is high, but consider the consequences of not going ahead.

3. In traditional GRAMMAR, a structure anticipating another that comes later: that old man in ‘That old man, I just saw him again.’

prolepsis

views updated May 11 2018

prolepsis anticipation, esp. as techn. device in rhet. and gram. XVI. — late L. prolēpsis — Gr. prólēpsis, f. prolambánein anticipate, f. PRO-2 + lambánein take.
So proleptic XVII. — Gr.

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