s. 473. In the English, as in all other languages, it is convenient to notice certain so-called figures of speech. They always furnish convenient modes of expression, and sometimes, as in the case of the one immediately about to be noticed, _account_ for facts. s. 474. _Personification._--The ideas of apposition and collectiveness account for the apparent violations of the concord of number. The idea of personification applies to the concord of gender. A masculine or feminine gender, characteristic of persons, may be substituted for the neuter gender, characteristic of things. In this case the term is said to be personified. _The cities who aspired to liberty._--A personification of the idea expressed by _cities_ is here necessary to justify the expression. _It_, the sign of the neuter gender, as applied to a male or female _child_, is the reverse of the process. s. 475. _Ellipsis_ (from the Greek _elleipein_=_to fall short_), or a _falling short_, occurs in sentences like _I sent to the bookseller's_. Here the word _shop_ or _house_ is understood. Expressions like _to go on all fours_, and _to eat of the fruit of the tree_, are reducible to ellipses. s. 476. _Pleonasm_ (from the Greek _pleonazein_=_to be in excess_) occurs in sentences like _the king, he reigns_. Here the word _he_ is superabundant. In many _pleonastic_ {397} expressions we may suppose an interruption of the sentence, and afterwards an abrupt renewal of it; as _the king_--_he reigns_. The fact of the word _he_ neither qualifying nor explaining the word _king_, distinguishes pleonasm from apposition. Pleonasm, as far as the view above is applicable, is reduced to what is, apparently, its opposite, _viz._, ellipsis. _My banks, they are furnished_,--_the most straitest sect_,--these are pleonastic expressions. In _the king, he reigns_, the word _king_ is in the same predicament as in _the king, God bless him_. The double negative, allowed in Greek and Anglo-Saxon, but not admissible in English, is pleonastic. The verb _do_, in _I do speak_, is _not_ pleonastic. In respect to the sense it adds intensity. In respect to the construction it is not in apposition, but in the same predicament with verbs like _must_ and _should_, as in _I must go_, &c.; _i. e._ it is a verb followed by an infinitive. This we know from its power in those languages where the infinitive has a characteristic sign; as, in German, Die Augen _thaten_ ihm winken.--GOETHE. Besides this, _make_ is similarly used in Old English.--_But men make draw the branch thereof, and beren him to be graffed at Babyloyne._--Sir J. Mandeville. s. 477. _The figure zeugma._--_They wear a garment like that of the Scythians, but a language peculiar to themselves._--The verb, naturally applying to _garment_ only, is here used to govern _language_. This is called in Greek, _zeugma_ (junction).