Note on Haplology

Note on Haplology

Note on Haplology

Note on Haplology

‘Haplology’ means pronouncing the same sound once instead of twice. It is concerned with what we call apostrophe‘s’ (’s). Thus we say: she works in the writers’ workshop instead of ‘she works in the writers’s workshop’.  In this sentence, the ‘s’ sound of the word writers’s is pronounced once instead of twice, because of haplology. Thus we make abundant use of haplology in the possessive case with the noun that ends in ‘s’. As for example– ‘It is princess’ broken chair’.

The Elizabethan writers used ample haplology in their writings. Let us take some examples from Shakespeare:

(i) That other princess’ can.

(ii) His mistress’ eyebrow.

The genitive of the plural always haplologized as: the employee’s union, the boys’ school, sisters’ assembly etc.

But there is an exception in some dialects the genitive of the plural is not haplologized as for example-

(i) The brains’s clease. (Murray)

(ii) Other folks’s children. (George Eliot)

Except these, a haplological phenomenon is also seen in the omission of the genitive sign before a word beginning with‘s’. As for example: For fashion sake instead of ‘fashion’s sake’. 0 0 0