Questions tagged [literary-english]
Questions related to English vocabulary, forms, phrases, and syntax that is now more commonly seen in written literature than in everyday speech.
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What is this way of speaking called?
I was having a conversation with my friend the other day. At one point, we were talking about a very wealthy individual that has amassed a significant amount of wealth. I told my friend that this ...
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Polysyndeton or another term? [duplicate]
After searching for "English phrase where you list a lot of things" I came upon Polysyndeton which is defined as:
Polysyndeton is a list or series of words, phrases, or clauses that
is ...
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'As that they may have the trouble of saying as little as possible'
There is a quote from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which is as follows:
“It would look odd to be entirely silent for half an hour together, and yet for the advantage of some, conversation ought ...
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My hound "taking charge of my gun"
In Edgar Allan Poe's short story Landor's Cottage, published in 1849, the narrator, having started to feel lost during a "pedestrian tour" and anticipating having to spend the night outside, ...
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Meaning of “a dizzard”
I’m working on translation of an American novel, dating back to the late 19th - early 20th centuries, and the main character came from a local little Vermont town.
The author describes him as “old ...
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What does "god Audate" mean?
In Self-Reliance by Emerson, the online texts I have found say:
He will then see prayer in all action. The prayer of the farmer
kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling
...
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1
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Specific usage of "more"
I was reading E.M. Forster's A Room With A View and came across this dialogue:
“Up to now I have never kissed you.” She was as scarlet as if he had put the thing most indelicately. “No—more you have,”...
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The unusual phrasing "verb + the + comparative adjective" in the Lord of the Rings novels
I first noticed this phrasing in Sam's famous speech in the The Two Towers movie.
And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
The highlighted part seems to originate in the second book of ...
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Meaning of "shade" in "a shabby green shade shoved up from one of his eyes"
I’d like to ask on the sentence in The Mistake of the Machine, one of Father Brown tales by G.K. Chesterton.
There burst and fell into his private room a man in the filthiest
rags, with a greasy ...
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Why is "but" used in this context by Tolkien? [closed]
First chapter of The Return of the King:
Then men fell back before the command of his voice and questioned him no further, though they gazed in wonder at the hobbit that sat before him and at the ...
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Question about literary devices (probably personification)
Is there any literary device? I suspect that the part with "relationship" is connected with personification.
From: https://www.britishtours.com/greenwich-tours.
The Museum packs a treasure ...
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What's the meaning of "that vagabond was made for the next two days"?
I am currently reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. There is one sentence which has puzzled me.
But the Doctor himself was the idol of the whole school: and it must have been a badly ...
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What is the meaning of the phrase "striving for effect"?
This phrase seems to be well established in English. I just don't know exactly what it means, beyond the fact that it is used to define "affectation".
It may be something that people learn ...
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Omission of if in a conditional phrase
This is an excerpt from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.
It is, however, clear that even this apprehension of the manifold alone would bring forth no image and no connection of the impressions were
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Is there a word for "the use of opposite expressions" similar to "comparison"
Is there a word as a use of language when the writer uses an opposite / bad example to make the correct / other ones particularly stand out?
Thanks
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What is this swastika-looking symbol in John Hancock's family papers from circa 1762? [closed]
I was looking at the "From The Page" software and tried to transcribe a section of the Hancock family papers, and on Page 137 (seq. 139) the author used what seems to be swastikas to ...
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What type of literary technique is the phrase 'star-crossed lovers' in 'Romeo and Juliet'?
My child has been asked this at school, and I suspect the teachers want the students to answer that it's a metaphor.
However, I don't think it's a metaphor: surely Shakespeare, or at least the people ...
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What is a person called if they study poems but do not write them?
I am doing a research paper for Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. I do not know the term to use if I'm trying to talk about someone who studied the poems they made before they died. Can anyone help me ...
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Affect in something? (a phrase from an older book)
Reading an old tale from C.A.Smith, there is the following sentence:
About him, there was nothing whatever of the lineaments of our own
period; and he even went so far as to affect in his costume an
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Is the Usage "I are" proper English? [closed]
So I'm reading a 19th-century novel called The Count of Monte Cristo, and I came across this particular usage, which is:
[H]e continued," let us make all possible speed. I are most anxious to ...
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The bigger the tree, the further the fruit falls
I overheard this once, but can't seem to find the origin of this quote. I checked Bartlet, Times, Yale, and Oxford, so I'm positive I heard it wrong. It might have been "the taller the tree."...
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Definition of 'cut out in'
I was reading 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' for the sake of improving my English and have not found the definition of the phrasal verb in bold:
‘I don’t know much about the tariff and things of ...
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Where should the words 'In real life' be put?
Which of these sentences is correct?
In real life, do we have anything close to the robots showed in Westworld?
Do we, in real life, have anything close to the robots showed in Westworld?
Do we have ...
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What does "He is so odd a mixture of" mean?
The following passage is from Pride and Prejudice.
Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been ...
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English Word Hunting [duplicate]
My question: Is there any word in English (generically speaking) that have something like this:
In our language (Filipino), there's some words that if you subtracted or added a character to it will ...
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thyself = yourself, what is the equivalent of *others*?
Is there a Shakespeare style of saying others?
Example:
Know yourself, know others
Know thyself, know ____
By others I mean other people in general. Could be an intended group but not enemy.
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What is the literary term for not keeping a story consistent?
For example, if something is established early on in a story but is contradicted by something else later on, almost as if the detail was forgotten.
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Why "him" in "For neuer resting time leads Summer on / To hidious winter and confounds him there, ..." instead of it or her?
There is a passage in William's V sonnet that confounds me :
For neuer resting time leads Summer on,
To hidious winter and confounds him there,
Sap checkt with frost and lustie leau's quite gon.
...
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What's the origin of the phrase "fatal dower"?
I recently ran across the phrase "Constantine's fatal dower," which sounded like a quotation, so I googled it.
The specific reference to Constantine that started my quest comes from Canto XIX of ...
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Is 'faithless' a literary version of 'unfaithful' (in the context of a spouse)?
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009. defines 'faithless' as:
faithless, (of a spouse): unfaithful (literary)
Is 'faithless' really the literary term for 'unfaithful', unlike unfaithful which would supposedly ...
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Rase: another spelling of raze (literary) [closed]
Is the spelling using s as opposed to z really literary as the Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 purportedly explains?
Raze
1. completely destroy place: to destroy or level a building or settlement ...
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Is there any word for a place full of confusion?
I am searching for a word for a place which is full of confusion. I tried searching but couldn't find any link.
This website mentions nothing.
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/confused
Merriam-...
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"This/That is, " used at the beginning of a sentence to clarify a concept from the previous sentence
According to an English native speaker who works with me, the "This is" bit in the following sentence should be replaced by "That is":
In fact, the feature space need not be unique. This is, for a ...
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Phrase meaning of equal parts
IN THE CUT-THROAT realm of reality TV, “Wanted Down Under” is a survivor. A daytime fixture that has just finished its 13th season, the BBC documentary follows Britons contemplating relocating to ...
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Is it OK to use two consecutive 'that' in a sentence? [duplicate]
Is the usage of 2 consecutive 'that' in the following sentence correct, because it looks a bit odd? Should these be separated by comma perhaps?
"While I agree that strength and size definitely gives ...
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Is it possible to use present and past in one sentence?
In On The Road Jack admits to Justin W. Brierly that he loves Neal Cassady because he reminds him of his brother, Gerard, who dies when Jack was five years old.
Is this grammatical?
The first part of ...
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Meaning of 'a feller' in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
I would like to ask about the meaning a sentence from the following conversation between Tom and Huck from Chapter 27:
"No, not rot him. FIND him! Track the money!"
"Tom, we'll never ...
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Usage of "it's to"
When I finally wake up, it's to his arm slung over me, holding me close to his chest.
The sentence above is the extract of a reading source.
What possibly could be the meaning of "it's to..."?
...
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Origin of the phrase "poles asunder"?
1906: President Roosevelt and Mr. Hearst stand as far as the poles asunder.
1899: Two writers of Marrano origin, wide as the poles asunder in gifts of mind and character ...
1795: ... they were ...
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Word for a person who is overly demanding of artists
I'm trying to recall the word used to describe someone tyrannically demanding of talent/artists/actors. A despot.
Singali?
Pretty sure it's the name of a character from a book. Maybe killed them in ...
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Why is it “Who be ye?” and not “Who are ye?” in archaic forms of English?
When I was looking for “ye” in a dictionary, I stumbled upon the phrase “Who be ye?”. But why is it “Who be ye?” and not “Who are ye?”? The modern equivalent of “ye” would be “you”, wouldn’t it? “Who ...
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Thematic comparison of 'collaborative' vs 'collective' in literature or culture
I'm trying to brand a product with either the word 'collaborative' or 'collective', but I am having trouble imagining what the well known thematic usage is with either word. I've always seen them ...
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Do people actually address their male child "Son" rather than a name, in real life English, or is this mainly a written English usage?
I regularly see films, books, stories and other English usages in which a person uses the term "son" where one might normally use a name. Usually, it's a father and they're portrayed in a reasonably ...
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Is this sentence from Orwell's Animal Farm grammatically sound?
Should been really have been included in the following passage from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, or was this somehow an erroneous insertion of a spurious word?
Illustration from p. 17 of the 1990 ...
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Pride and Prejudice, what does: “decline the office, I will take it on myself” mean?
"I honour your circumspection. A fortnight's acquaintance is certainly
very little. One cannot know what a man really is by the end of a
fortnight. But if we do not venture somebody else will; and ...
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What is this strange sentence by Walt Whitman?
The future is no more uncertain than the present. —Walt Whitman
This is supposed to mean "The future is certain, just like the present."
But it means the opposite...
I learnt in school that no more ...
user231854
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"How will history remember" vs "How history will remember"? [duplicate]
Context: there is a war going on. Actual use:
A difficult winter is heading their way. But Jonas means to change all that. He finds himself wondering how will history remember this day.
MS Word ...
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What does "to fall to upon" mean here?
And they fell to upon their frugal supper.
(From Vanity Fair)
I can only find either to fall to, or to fall on / upon, but never to fall to on / upon.
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Is “Light of moon and ray of star” an idiom?
What is the literary device used for the following quote from The Fellowship of the Ring :
By light of moon and ray of star
I think that it is an idiom.... I may be wrong!
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Name of part of Cormac McCarthy's writing style [duplicate]
Cormac McCarthy has several idiosyncracies in his writing style, but I'm looking for the name of a specific style he employs: When he joins together several actions or clauses with "and".
Example ...
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