holophrasis

holophrasis, holophrase

the ability, in certain languages, to express a complex idea or entire sentence in a single word, as the imperative “Stop!” — holophrasm, n. — holophrastic, adj.

See also: Language

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References in periodicals archive ?

This is what we today would call the poem as holophrasis, or a holophrastic expression; by definition, such a structure condenses in itself a huge semantic context which is impossible to describe in a few words.

The road to Lethe's goblet (I)

Marianne Mithun discusses the geographical distribution of some of the hallmarks of complex verbal morphology in North American indigenous languages: person marking on the verb (allowing for holophrasis), incorporation, and the use of affixes with rather lexical content.

Aspects of the Diachronic (In)stability of Complex Morphology

Holophrasis blurs the distinction between verb and clause, since the information integrated within a verb often coincides with information that would otherwise constitute a clause.