Brachylogy is a concise and concise expression. Brachylogy, therefore, means the ability to achieve the maximum of meaning with a minimal word effort and thus to compact the effect of a literary text. It is therefore a stylistic device of rhetoric and resembles ellipse, aposiopesis, syllepse, apokoinu and Zeugma.
The term brachylogy is derived from the Greek (brachys ~ short, logos ~ word) and can be translated into the term with short or shortness. Thus the translation shows an example of what is at issue here: namely, a brief and brief expression. Let’s look at an example.
WALTER: – – – Can anyone else here in the place -?
ADAM: No, in fact –
WALTER: The preacher, perhaps.
ADAM: The preacher? Of the –
WALTER: Or schoolmaster.
This excerpt comes from the play game The Broken Jug by Heinrich von Kleist and shows us a dialogue between the village administrator Adam and the court Walter. In the text, certain members are omitted, which are not necessarily necessary for the reader to understand.
The recipient (reader, viewer) can open up the missing elements himself if he knows the context of the text and thus adds and adds the missing building blocks in the head. Brachylogy therefore means not only the shortening of the text, but the artistic ability to achieve the maximum of statement with a minimal word effort.
The droplet is the sea when it has entered the sea;
The soul God, when she is incorporated into God.
The above example is from Angelus Silesius, a German poet, theologian and physician of the baroque period, and is taken from his work The Cherubian Wandersmann, which consists chiefly of two-line sayings written in Alexandrians.
The word is (color-coded) missing, which can be developed by the reader himself, since it has already been taken up in the immediate context of the verses, which is why the sentence is quite clear and comprehensible. Accordingly, the omission of will be considered as a form of brachylogy.
Brachylogy and related rhetorical stylistic means
As mentioned at the beginning, Brachylogy is related to numerous other stylistic figures based on the omission of sentence components. We would like to present them for differentiation.
Ellipse: Basically, the absence of certain sentences, which, however, can be reconstructed in the context of the receiver. Thus the brachylogy is always an ellipse.
Syllepse: Based on the saving of an element to shorten the sentence. It is thus the syntactically incorrect correlation of a word (sentence part) with several words (sentences) which are unequal in person, number, genus or case. (Example: “The speech was held and numerous examples were shown.”)
Aposiopese: Is the breaking of a sentence, whereby the essential, thus the fundamental statement of the sentence, is concealed and thus must be supplemented by the reader. (Example: “I just would have it -!”)
Apokoinu: Is a rhetorical stylistic means of word-saving. Here there is a double relation of a sentence or word to something previous, as well as the following. (Example: “What his arrow reaches, that is his prey, which is creeping and fleeting.” ~ The middle part, that is its prey, refers to the enclosing parts of the text.)
Zeugma: A word (usually a verb) refers to different parts of a sentence. Thus, the common language of two sentences is used twice as a sentence (example: “He struck the disk and the way home.”).
Effect and function of brachylogy
Basically, it is, of course, difficult to prove a stylistic figure with a clear effect. Then we run the risk of reducing the whole to this mode of action. Nevertheless we would like to make some suggestions for the effect of brachylogy.
Brachylogy can make a text seem more hectic, especially in the form of dialogue, through the use of speed.
Furthermore, it is the reduction to the essentials. This can, on the one hand, cause a statement to be strengthened and thus more powerful and, on the other hand, to increase the meaningfulness.
Brachylogy is often used in the literature to imitate speech. This is often characterized by omissions of words and the breaking of sentences.
But, above all, in dialog form, not only the hustle and bustle but also the inner turmoil of the protagonists can be expressed. It’s like we’re witnessing the thought.
