Correctio
Correctio (etymologically from Latin, signifying “correction,” or “amendment”), is a kind of redefinition that occurs when we make correction or amendment to a word or phrase just employed, with a more appropriate word(s); or a further specifying of meaning, especially by stating clearly what something is, or what is not.
Basic Formulae of Correctio
Correctio is usually expressed by means of these formulae:
“I wanted to say, more correctly …,”
“I don’t know how better to say it …,”
“unless you would rather call it …,” and other similar expressions.
— (Giambittista Vico, The Art of Rhetoric: [Institutiones Oratoriae, 1711-1741])
Notable Examples
Correctio, especially dicti correctio (diction correction) prevails when we remove what has been said and replaces it with a more appropriate word as does Terence’s Menedemus:
- “I have an only son, a mere lad. Ah, what do I say? Have …? Son? No, I had a son, Chremes; whether I have one now I can’t tell,”
- “Caius Caesar, a young man, or rather almost a boy … collected a very stout army of the invincible class of veterans, and lavished his patrimony – though I have not used the proper phrase; for he did not lavish it, he invested it in the salvation of the State.”
Likewise Cicero in Philippicae:
Correctio is closely related to EpanorthosisOpens in new window and other related Figures of DefinitionOpens in new window, and it is usually embeded as a parenthesis – an interruption, or in form of a climax.