Literary notes about Transpose (AI summary)
The term "transpose" in literature demonstrates a rich versatility, functioning both in literal and figurative senses. It can denote the rearrangement of letters or words to create playful ambiguity or disguise identity—as in the shifting letters attributed to the Dorians [1] or when identities are subtly altered by name manipulation [2]. In other contexts, it conveys the idea of shifting positions or reordering narrative components, whether it be the reordering of stanzas to alter meaning [3] or the transformation of events that blurs the line between past and present [4]. It is equally at home in the world of music and art, where transposition can signal a recalibration of tones or ideas to suit the creator's purpose [5],[6]. Even in the realm of thought and expression, transposition becomes a method to reframe concepts, turning images into language [7].
- It is a characteristic of the Dorians also to transpose letters, as when they say for [Greek omitted], [Greek omitted].
— from Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3: Essays and Miscellanies by Plutarch - In assuming an alias, it is the most common method to transpose the real name in some way.
— from Final Proof; Or, The Value of Evidence by Rodrigues Ottolengui - The editions also transpose one of the stanzas in Chaucer's Envoy to the Clerkes Tale, so as to make E 1195-1200 come at the end.
— from Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 (of 7) — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - In some sort, the present and the past seemed to transpose themselves; and they almost looked upon him as already dead.
— from The Black Eagle; or, Ticonderoga by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James - No problem seemed excessive for the boy, who could read orchestral scores, transpose, improvise—what you will.
— from Mendelssohn and Certain Masterworks by Herbert F. (Herbert Francis) Peyser - Plato transposes the two next speeches, as in the Republic he would transpose the virtues and the mathematical sciences.
— from Symposium by Plato - A part of the difficulty of dream telling comes from the fact that we have to transpose these pictures into words.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
