In linguistics and literature, periphrasis (/pəˈrɪfrəsɪs/)[1] is the use of a larger number of words, with an implicit comparison to the possibility of using fewer.
[5] For example, the verb δείκνυμι deiknumi 'to show', has a hypothetical form *δεδείκνται dedeikntai, which has the disallowed consonant cluster -knt-, so one would instead say δεδειγμένοι εἰσί dedeigmenoi eisi, using a periphrasis with a participle.
However, comparative and superlative forms of adjectives (and adverbs) in English provide a straightforward illustration of the phenomenon.
The following table provides some examples across Latin and English: Periphrasis is a characteristic of analytic languages, which tend to avoid inflection.
Latin is a relatively synthetic language; it expresses grammatical meaning using inflection, whereas the verb system of English, a Germanic language, is relatively analytic; it uses auxiliary verbs to express functional meaning.
the English expressions "cast a glance", "threw a look" and "tossed a glance")}According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann, the Israeli periphrastic construction (using auxiliary verbs followed by a noun) is employed here for the desire to express swift action, and stems from Yiddish.
"to catch a look" (colloquial expression)Zuckermann emphasizes that the Israeli periphrastic constructions "are not nonce, ad hoc lexical calques of Yiddish.
English "hit the buffet" "eat a lot at the buffet";"hit the liquor/bottle" "drink alcohol".ארוחה → הרביץ ארוחהarukhá {} {hirbíts arukhá}"meal" {} {"ate a big meal"cf.
The normal and daily usage of the verb paradigm in Israeli modern Hebrew is of the synthetic form, as in Biblical Hebrew: צָעַק, הִבִּיט The correspondence in meaning across inflected forms and their periphrastic equivalents within the same language or across different languages leads to a basic question.
An answer to this question that has recently come to light is expressed in terms of the catena unit, as implied above.
The role of catenae for the theory of periphrasis is illustrated with the trees that follow.
For English to express the same meaning, it usually employs the periphrastic two-word prepositional phrase with for.