prolepsis
- noun
- /prəˈlɛpsɪs/
- Literature
:
prolepsis
- Many authors utilize prolepsis to effectively anticipate and answer questions that readers may have.
Examples
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In her speech, the politician employed prolepsis to counter the opposition's arguments in advance.
-
In the discourse, iterations can occur within the narrator's discourse, such as prolepsis and analepsis, between characters' and narrator's discourses, and between characters' discourses.
Academic text (2004) -
In more recent decades, the notion that O'Sullivan was an intuitive precursor has received a chilly reception in the academy, as scholars have become skeptical about claims of historical prolepsis and less interested in the notion of formal experimentation per se.
Academic text (2003) -
The writer used prolepsis to address criticisms before they could be made by the audience.
Surface Forms
Morphology
prolepsis = pro + lepsis
Although analyzable as pro- + -lepsis historically, the combining form '-lepsis' is not a productive or standalone English word and the meaning is not recoverable by an average B1 learner from its parts.
Etymology
Prolepsis comes from Greek parts pro- meaning 'before' and -lepsis meaning 'taking'. So, using prolepsis in speech or writing is like 'taking' an objection ahead of time by answering it before someone raises it.
