E. T. A. Hoffmann
1
9.0
- proper noun
- Did you read E. T. A. Hoffmann's famous story, 'The Nutcracker'?
Examples
-
I recently read a collection of fantastic tales written by E. T. A. Hoffmann.
-
Many literary critics regard E. T. A. Hoffmann as a pioneer of the German Romantic movement.
-
The Nutcracker ballet was originally inspired by a story from E. T. A. Hoffmann.
-
The works of E. T. A. Hoffmann are filled with imagination.
-
Many literary critics regard E. T. A. Hoffmann as a pioneer of the German Romantic movement.
-
I recently read a collection of fantastic tales written by E. T. A. Hoffmann.
-
The Nutcracker ballet was originally inspired by a story from E. T. A. Hoffmann.
Surface Forms
Morphology
E. + T. + A. + Hoffmann
This is a personal name (the initials plus surname) whose referential meaning (a specific German writer/composer/artist and his dates) cannot be derived from the individual initials or the surname alone. Proper names are arbitrary labels rather than compositional expressions, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent tokens would not be able to infer the biographical meaning.
Etymology
E. T. A. Hoffmann comes from his full name: E. T. A. are the first letters of Ernst Theodor Amadeus and Hoffmann is his family name. He wrote strange, musical stories that mixed art and the 'supernatural', and that image is why we remember him for 'fantastic and supernatural tales', such as the story that inspired the Nutcracker ballet.