View source for Solecism

{{Short description|Phrase that transgresses the rules of grammar}}
{{Distinguish|Solipsism}}

A '''solecism''' is a [[Grammatical phrase|phrase]] that transgresses the rules of [[grammar]].<ref name="Garner2001">{{cite book|author=Bryan A Garner|title=A dictionary of modern legal usage|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmode00garn_0|url-access=registration|accessdate=20 May 2013|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-514236-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmode00garn_0/page/816 816]}}</ref> The term is often used in the context of [[linguistic prescription]]; it also occurs [[linguistic description|descriptively]] in the context of a lack of [[idiom (language structure)|idiomaticness]].

==Etymology==
The word originally was used by the Greeks for what they perceived as grammatical mistakes in their language.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Filion|first=Charles A.|title=Differences Between English Poetics and Sanskrit Poetics|date=January 2015 |url=https://www.academia.edu/44767114}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/solecism|title=solecism (n.)|author=<!--Not stated-->|date=2023-08-29|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=2023-09-07|language=en-US}}</ref> Ancient [[Ancient Athens|Athenians]] considered the dialect of the inhabitants of [[Soli, Cilicia]] to be a [[Corruption (grammar)|corrupted]] form of their pure [[Attic Greek|Attic]] dialect and labelled the errors in the form as "solecisms" ([[Greek language|Greek]]: σολοικισμοί, ''soloikismoí''; sing.: σολοικισμός, ''soloikismós''). Therefore, when referring to similar grammatical mistakes heard in the speech of Athenians, they described them as "solecisms" and that term has been adopted as a label for grammatical mistakes in any language; in Greek there is often a distinction in the relevant terms in that a mistake in [[semantics]] (i.e., a use of words with other-than-appropriate meaning or a [[neologism]] constructed through application of generative rules by an outsider) is called a ''barbarism'' ({{lang|el|βαρβαρισμός}} ''barbarismos''), whereas ''solecism'' refers to mistakes in syntax, in the construction of sentences.<ref>{{LSJ|soloikismo/s|σολοικισμός|ref}}.</ref>

==Examples==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
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! Name !! Type of grammatical breach !! Example
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| [[Catachresis]]   ||Wrong [[grammatical case]] || "This is just between you and '''I'''" for "This is just between you and ''me''" ([[hypercorrection]] to avoid the correct "you and me" form in the predicate of [[Copula (linguistics)|copulative]] sentences, even though "me" is the standard pronoun for the object of a preposition or the object of a verb).

"'''Whom''' shall I say is calling?" for "''Who'' shall I say is calling?" (Hypercorrection resulting from the perception that "[[who (pronoun)|whom]]" is a formal version of "who" or that the pronoun is functioning as an object when, in fact, it is subject [One would say, "Shall I say ''who'' is calling?]. The leading pronoun could be an object only if, "say" were used transitively and the sentence were structured thus: "Whom shall I say to be calling?")
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| Catachresis   || [[Double negative]]|| "She '''can't hardly''' sleep" for "She ''can hardly'' sleep" (a [[double negative]], as both "can't" and "hardly" have a negative meaning)
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|}

== See also ==
* ''[[English as She Is Spoke]]''
* ''[[Fowler's Modern English Usage]]''
* [[Catachresis]]
* [[Disputed English grammar]]
* [[Error (linguistics)]]
* [[Malapropism]]
* [[Prescription and description]]
* [[Zeugma and syllepsis|Zeugma]], a rhetorical use of solecism for effect
* See [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/solecism Wiktionary: solecism, Noun 2.] for secondary use.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Wiktionary-inline|solecism}}

{{Figures of speech}}

[[Category:Ancient Greek]]
[[Category:English grammar]]
[[Category:Grammar]]
[[Category:Linguistic error]]
[[Category:Sociolinguistics]]

[[es:Solecismo]]