Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace

8.1

An English writer who wrote many crime and detective novels

proper noun

: Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace is credited with writing over 170 novels during his lifetime.

Examples

Many of Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace's novels were adapted into popular films.
Fans of detective fiction often praise Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace for his fast-paced storytelling.
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace wrote many novels.
Have you read Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace?
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace is best known for his influential crime novels that shaped the genre.
Many readers admire Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace for his intriguing characters and clever plots.
Throughout his career, Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace became a household name with his thrilling detective stories.

Surface Forms

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace main

Morphology

Richard + Horatio + Edgar + Wallace

This is a full personal name; knowing the individual name components (Richard, Horatio, Edgar, Wallace) does not allow a learner to infer that the string denotes an English writer or the biographical dates. Proper names are referential and arbitrary rather than compositional, so the profession and identity are not derivable from the constituent words. Cross-linguistically, names behave the same way, making this MWE opaque to learners.

Etymology

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace began his career as a newspaper reporter and then wrote very short, exciting crime stories with cliffhanger endings that readers wanted to finish. Because he wrote so many quick, gripping 'crime novels' and 'detective fiction', his name is remembered as that of a fast, popular mystery writer.