DIMINUTIO
SPEECH ACT of downgrading, minimalising the importance of, or downvaluing something by the way one refers to it.
貶法 Abasement, diminution of something by means of degrading terms, calling someone bad names.
Hypernym
- SPEECH ACTRHETORICAL TROPE in the form of a deliberate rhetorico-semantic act performed. [This definition is still a tentative stop-gap, and this category is far larger than I would like. It needs to be intelligently subdivided. CH]
- RHETORICAL
TROPE體裁詞格 RHETORICAL DEVICE mainly concerned with the structural semantics of
expressions.
- RHETORICAL
DEVICE詞格 METHOD of adorning discourse.
- RHETORICAL
DEVICE詞格 METHOD of adorning discourse.
Hyponym
- DIMINUTIO-WORDDIMINUTIO that is marked morphologically. 指小法 Use of a diminutive/devaluing form of a noun.
Preminger
EX: Thou liest, thou thread/Thou thimble,/ Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail!/ Braved in mine own house with skein of thread!/ Away! thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant" Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew 4.3.107
REF: Scaliger 3.81 Lausberg 259, Preminger 843
Greek/Latin: Quint. 8.4.28
Ancient Chinese: Such forms are common in ritualised polite understatement of one's own achievements.
EX: Thou liest, thou thread/Thou thimble,/ Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail!/ Braved in mine own house with skein of thread!/ Away! thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant" Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew 4.3.107
REF: Scaliger 3.81 Lausberg 259, Preminger 843
Greek/Latin: Quint. 8.4.28
Ancient Chinese: Such forms are common in ritualised polite understatement of one's own achievements.