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compressed expression

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The technique of conveying complex ideas in highly condensed language

Detailed Definition
Compressed expression is a hallmark of lyric poetry wherein complex emotions, images, or ideas are conveyed with extreme economy of language, eliminating redundancy and ornamentation to achieve intensity and precision; this technique, central to haiku and Imagist poetry, relies on suggestion rather than exposition, allowing each word to carry maximum semantic and emotional weight.
Example
Example in poetry:
“In a Station of the Metro” by Pound: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; / Petals on a wet, black bough”; “so much depends / upon” (Williams); “Red wheelbarrow” imagery; “A man saw a bird. That’s all.” (minimalist example)
Additional Notes
Compressed expression conveys complex ideas or emotions in minimal words, often through ellipsis, metaphor, or syntactic density; it’s a hallmark of imagist and haiku traditions, demanding precision and economy.
Also Known As
Poetic distillation linguistic economy tight phrasing condensed utterance Brachylogia Laconism condensed phrase
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