C
â caesura
A classical term introduced into traditional English PROSODY to refer to a pause in the middle of a line of verse.
In English verse such pauses are determined by SYNTAX, sense or punctuation rather than METRICAL form, and so there are no ârulesâ determining their occurrence. However, in Old and Middle English ALLITERATIVE VERSE a regular pause or caesura divides the line into two half-lines.
â canon; canonical; canonization
(1) In LITERARY CRITICISM and TEXT STUDIES, canon is a term commonly used to refer to the collection of works which are generally regarded as being the genuine work of a particular author: hence the adjective canonical, meaning âaccepted, authoritative, standardâ.
(2) The Russian FORMALISTS and PRAGUE SCHOOL LINGUISTS used canon in a wider sense to refer to those works which are generally accepted as upholding the (main) literary or poetic tradition. Innovation comes from a reaction to this canon, which has a tendency to âhardenâ, to be AUTOMATIZED. Many innovations are linguistic (e.g. reactions against POETIC DICTION), and also generic: in the novel, for instance, so-called âlowâ or popular sub-genres (e.g. epistle, travelogue, horror story) may become incorporated. Such innovations and others are said to be canonized, elevated to the (new) literary NORM (Viktor Shklovsky 1925).
But, ironically, the very process of canonization involves a âhardeningâ of forms. A contemporary of the Formalists, the Russian linguist-philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin (1981), speaks of what he calls the centripetal (v. the centrifugal) forces in culture: the homogenizing v. the dispersive influences of subversive literary forms. For him the novel as a genre is not quite as subject to the pressures of canonization as poetry. By its very nature it is more alert to âalternativeâ art forms.
(3) Canonization may be seen as the characteristic feature of a STANDARD language or dialect. Any dialect which is accepted as the authoritative speech of the nation is elevated, as it were, above other dialects; and accepted as the ânormâ for USAGE. So much so, that many speakers will resist, or resent changes.
(4) For some radical critics, canon and canonization carry distinct political and IDEOLOGICAL implications in studies of (English) literature. So Terry Eagleton (1996) saw the study of English in higher education as mainly based on the authority of a literary canon of texts, itself based on a mixed set of EVALUATIVE assumptions (cultural, social, moral, as well as formal) of a kind much influenced by F.R. Leavis (1948). English teaching in the colonies, and teaching for the working-classes from the end of the nineteenth century onwards, were also factors.
Inspired by cultural studies, FEMINIST CRITICISM and POSTCOLONIAL THEORY, the idea of the canon has been âexplodedâ, and a wider range of texts, both âhighâ and âlowâ, are now taught in British schools and universities. Questions of de-canonization and canon formation have inevitably reinvigorated issues of LITERARINESS and the nature of LITERATURE.
(5) Canonical is used in linguistics as a synonym for âstandardâ or ânondeviantâ or âidealâ. So words are given in their canonical forms in dictionaries, irrespective of how they may actually be pronounced in speech. The canonical SITUATION of utterance is a spoken encounter between two people; a non-canonical situation would be written communication, and where the participants are far away from each other, etc. In SEMIOTICS canonical orientation is spoken about: phrases like back to front and upside down reflect our intuitions about what are our (ab)normal perspectives on certain objects (see further John Lyons 1977).
â cant
(1) In ordinary usage today this word is most likely to be derogatory, referring to insincerity or hypocrisy in language and thought.
(2) The OED suggests that the word is probably ultimately derived from Lat. cantus âsong, chantâ. In the seventeenth century, when it first appears, it was frequently applied pejoratively to the whining speech of beggars; and it has since then most usually been applied to the special languages or vocabularies used by the misfits or outcasts of society, such as thieves (see also ANTI-LANGUAGE; ARGOT); but also by religious sects like the Quakers, and by certain professions (e.g. lawyers).
(See also JARGON; SLANG.)
â captatio benevolentiae
See EXORDIUM.
â carnival(esque)
A term in LITERARY CRITICISM popularized through the writing of the Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1968) on Rabelais, to signal any demotic HETEROGLOSSIC or âmulti-voicedâ counter-culture in comic or exuberant opposition to a hegemonic official culture: a kind of subversive anti-culture, often with its own ANTI-LANGUAGE: e.g. witchesâ Sabbaths, Mardi Gras and present-day âravesâ.
â catachresis
(1) From Gk meaning âmisuseâ or âabuseâ, catachresis was used in RHETORIC by George Puttenham (1589) and others, as a kind of TROPE which involved unusual or far-fetched METAPHORS. So, part of the dynamism of Shakespeareâs language comes from (NONCE) applications of words outside their normal contexts to metaphorical, often compressed, uses:
⌠for supple knees
Feed arrogance
(Troilus and Cressida, III. iii)
⌠my face Iâll grime with filth,
⌠elf all my hairs in knots
(King Lear, II. iii)
It is also more obviously applied to what we today might call âmixed metaphorsâ, as Hamletâs âI will speak daggers to herâ. The satirical magazine Private Eye features regularly a collection of âColemanballsâ, mixed metaphors from media commentators (see also BLEND).
(2) The French philosopher Michel Foucault (1966) argued that catachresis is basic to the FIGURES of rhetoric, since so many of them depend on DEVIATIONS from ânormalâ (non-poetic) usage, or on the play of LITERAL V. FIGURATIVE sense. Indeed, he would go so far as to maintain that all language is catachretic: literal meanings are not inherent in the SIGNIFIERâSIGNIFIED relationship, but have simply come to be conventionalized by society. Moreover, paraphrased as âerrorâ, catachresis symbolizes the origin of language: the naming of the multiplicities of experience and environment under broader, single SIGNS.
(3) As definitions like âerrorâ and âabuseâ suggest, catachresis is also an evaluative term, part of the PRESCRIPTIVE linguistic tradition concerned with notions of CORRECTNESS with ârightâ and âwrongâ, âproperâ and âimproperâ usages.
(4) However, catachresis/catachretic meaning âerrorâ, âerroneousâ are terms still sometimes used in lexicography or dictionary-making as part of the usage labelling system for lexical entries (symbolized by a paragraph mark in the OED, for example).
It is certainly true that many linguistic changes and innovations are due to error and ignorance (e.g. of etymologies); but, once accepted by a majority of educated people, they become sanctioned by custom, and their origins eventually obscured (e.g. primrose from Fr. primerole; crayfish from crevisse).
(See also MALAPROPISM.)
â cataphora; cataphoric reference
In GRAMMAR and TEXT studies, CATAPHORA as introduced by Karl BĂźhler (1934) denotes a kind of linguistic REFERENCE which is âforward-lookingâ rather than âbackward-lookingâ (ANAPHORA).
(1) In particular, it is used for PERSONAL PRONOUNS and other proforms which âanticipateâ the NOUN PHRASES with which they co-occur, e.g. If sheâs thinking of applying for that job, Kate had better apply quickly. Specific cataphoric reference like this is more common between clauses than between sentences (unlike anaphoric reference); and is, in any case, replaceable by anaphoric reference itself: cf. If Kateâs thinking of applying for that job, she had better apply quickly.
With its delay of more precise information, cataphora lends itself to stylistic exploitation in the interests of suspense; or with the pattern of (light) pronoun followed by (heavier) noun phrase, it can provide a useful FOCUSING device. Both effects can be seen in utterances favoured in journalism and broadcasting: And bounding down the stairs with his ever cheeky grin comes the man of the moment, Graham Norton.
In literature, the device of delayed NPs and the use of third person pronouns and other items of definite or familiar reference is frequently exploited at the beginning of texts in the technique known as IN MEDIAS RES. What is interesting about the opening of William Goldingâs Pincher Martin, cited in the entry for ANAPHORIC reference, is that a definite NP (the man) is not found until the beginning of the third paragraph on the second page. This suggests that, from a discourse processing point of view, we are actually looking for more information about the he in the universe of discourse, not waiting for a âmasterâ or âcoreferentialâ NP to appear. So, as with anaphora, Katie Wales (1996, ch. 2) would argue that in many such examples reference is text-âinward-lookingâ rather than âforward-lookingâ for cataphora (or âbackward-lookingâ for anaphora).
(2) Cataphora is used commonly for reference to aspects of the discourse itself, rather than specific objects or people. The pronoun it characteristically anticipates following clauses or sentences, as in: Itâs a pity [that she canât come with us]; or I donât like it. [The catâs gone missing for the third day running.]
(3) Superficially cataphoric reference can be found in certain âself-repairâ utterances in conversation, when speakers correct themselves f...