DIFRASISM: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS AND EXAMPLES - LITERATURE - 2025

The diphrase is a literary resource náhuatl literature is to express an idea using two words that are complementary in the sense, being synonyms or adjacent represent ideas. For example, to mean "the poet's speech," the Nahua use the phrase itlatol ihiyo ("his word, his breath").

For the idea of ​​truth they use diphrasism neltilitztli tzintliztli ("fundamental truth, true basic principle"). This trope has been defined as a kind of duplicated Homeric epithet. However, the epithets of this author were of a different nature: "Achilles the one with the light feet", "Minerva the one with the gray eyes."

Similarly, some highlight the metaphorical character of diphrasism. A metaphor is an implicit comparison between two different objects based on one or more common characteristics (the jet of your hair = black hair).

Even, it is also compared to metonymy or synecdoche. Metonymy implies a relationship of contiguity (I respect their gray hair = I respect their experience); the synecdoche exhibits a relation of inclusion (the Spanish Crown = the monarchy).

Origin

The origin of the term diphrasism is found in the work of Father Ángel María Garibay, one of the first scholars of the Nahuatl language and culture in Mexico, called History of Nahuatl literature (1954).

Born in Toluca (Mexico), this priest has been considered the most competent expert and the highest authority on pre-Hispanic literature, culture and language.

Thus, Garibay coined this word to refer to the juxtaposition of two or even three words that create a meaning that is not the sum of its parts, but produces a third meaning.

Later, in his work The Key to Nahuatl (1978) he again referred to the concept of diphrasism, explaining that it is the process by which two or more words are used together to refer to a single concept.

Since then, other authors have used this word to refer to this literary and rhetorical device of the Nahuatl culture. However, others prefer alternative terms, such as the concept of parallelism.

Now, as for the resource itself, many believe that it is a reflection of the use of ideograms, which represented concepts through objects that were related to the expressed idea.

characteristics

The use of diphrasism is quite common in cuicatl (verse), but it is not limited only to this; it is also found in the tlahtolli (prose: word sets, speech, narration).

Furthermore, the relative order of the paired terms is usually invariable, and some words only appear as part of a lexical pair, where content words are involved.

On the other hand, all types of constructions can produce diphrasism. For example, you can include two nouns such as cententli ontentli, literally “(with) one lip, (with) two lips”, which means “to speak indirectly”.

Diphrasism can also be integrated into the morphological structure, as in in a-hua- que in tepehua-que, which literally means: "the lords of the water, the lords of the mountain" (refers to the lords of the city).

Examples

Noma nocxi

In this diphrasism the body is conceived by its noma (hands) and nocxi (feet) parts. It is a kind of synecdoche (the trope of the relationship of the part to the whole). Thus 'hand' and 'feet' refer to the unique concept of 'body'.

In atl in tepetl

The association of ideas in this diphrasism is different from the previous one: in atl (water) in tepetl (hill) The water and the hill are not related to the city in the same way as the hands and feet to the body.

Instead of the relation of parts to the whole, it has rather a relation of contiguity. Therefore, it refers to a metonymy.

Xóchitl in cuicatl

In x óchitl (flower) in cuicatl (song) another form of diphrasism can be observed. The term cuicatl works as a synonym (the Nahuatl poems were songs).

Now, xóchitl (flower) seems to work more as a metaphor; perhaps it refers to beauty or delicacy.

In ixtli in yollotl

The trope in ixtli (face) in yollotl (divinized heart) expresses the personality as the harmony between the internal and external being, the person and the community, the earthly and the divine.

In this way, life is the process of aligning these and properly making oneself the face and heart of a harmonious, spiritually guided person with a higher purpose.

Collective invocations

Some diphrasisms act as collective invocations, especially in the phrases teteo innan, teteo inta (mother of the gods, father of the gods) and in tonan, in tota (our mother, our father).

In contrast to the previous examples, these phrases invoke a pair of parents. For example, in tonan, in tota precedes the invocations of tonatiuh tlaltecuhtli (The sun, the lord of the earth) and mictlan tecuhtli (Lord of Mictlan):

«Oncan motenehua in tlatolli: start quitlatlauhtiaya Tezcatlipoca, in quitocayotiaia titlacahua, moquequeloa, in iquac miquia tlatoani, start oc ce motlatocatlaliz… to ca oontlama, ca ocontocac in tonan, in tota in mictlan tecuhtli».

(«Here the questions to Tezcatlipoca are recorded, who they called Titlacahuan, Moquequeloa, when the tlahtoahi 'died, so that another could settle in… He knew that he had followed our mother, our father Mictlan Tecuhtli»).

References

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