Poetic Language

Language and Literature, 2007

Foregrounding theory generally assumes that poetic language deviates from norms characterizing the ordinary use of language (e.g. at the phonological, grammatical, semantic or pragmatic levels) and that this deviation interferes with cognitive principles and processes that make communication possible. However, a neglected issue in foregrounding theory is whether any constraints exist, and if so, what characterizes them. The present article proposes that foregrounding theory should be complemented by a cognitive theory that specifies constraints on such deviations, on the basis of theoretical and empirical considerations. Due to the privileged status of figurative language among the foregrounding devices, this general argument is illustrated by a close analysis of two figurative types, similes and oxymora. The analysis examines their distribution in poetic discourse and investigates the psychological processes involved in the way people comprehend them. It is proposed that for each of these figures there is a set of existing structures that could equally instantiate them as a foregrounding device. However, poetic discourse, both cross-linguistically and cross-culturally, robustly favours the use of the cognitively simpler option. The implications of these empirical findings are discussed in the light of foregrounding theory.

2014

constraints Foregrounding in poetic discourse: between deviation and cognitive

Australian Great War Poetry, 2019

The following supplementary is designed to be a small and quick guide to reading and writing poetry from a purely technical point of view. The artistry we will leave to the poet, but the poetic terms, tools and devices, are all things we should be more aware of when considering poetry critically. Without at least some working knowledge of these things, we will read poetry as though blind, hear poetry as though deaf and create poetry as though dumb. Like any language, if we disregard the grammar, we soon lose structure which will in turn inhibit or destroy meaning.

Slovo.ru: Baltic accent

This article presents a comparative analysis of two approaches to describing the reference within poetic statements: the pragmasemantic approach, which builds upon Gottlob Frege's ideas of the poetic sign as "a sign with meaning but without reference," and aesthetic-functional theories of poetic language linked to Roman Jacobson's concept of the poetic func­tion. The pragmasemantic interpretation of the referential capabilities of a poetic sign explores questions regarding the principles of its verification and examines its relationship with ex­tralinguistic objects. From this perspective, the artistic expression's ability to establish objec­tive references is either entirely denied (by Frege) or associated with the actions of "aesthetic operators" (Linsky), specific illocutionary attitudes (Searle), or the recipient's standpoint (Zolyan). On the other hand, the theory of the poetic function of language, as presented in formalism and structuralism...

Journal of Literary Semantics 42(1), 115-140, 2013 (http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jlse)

In analysing a range of 20th century poems and excerpts, stylisticians and literary critics have individuated a number of linguistic and textual features which they relate – with various degrees of explicitness – to the complex notion of ‘difficulty’. While there is a fair amount of agreement in the set of phenomena identified, to the best of my knowledge these have never been analysed, grouped and classified from a linguistic and unified perspective. This is the chief aim of the present paper, in which I reconsider previously discussed poetic excerpts in order to derive a checklist of linguistic phenomena demanding further investigation and even future empirical testing. Another major aim is that of illustrating how widespread and problematic the use of ‘difficult’ and ‘difficulty’ is, often implying quite distinct senses. The meaning of this pair will be kept indeterminate throughout the whole paper, where it simply refers to the personal usage of the critic or stylistician at stake. At the end of the paper, by contrast, a clearer characterization will emerge in the light of the textual excerpts analysed: difficulty is regarded as a combination of semantic opacity and hypothesized processing effort at syntagmatic level. However, being part of a wider ongoing research project, a more satisfactory formulation is still to come. Finally, an additional outcome of the paper is that of adding some evidence to the study of poetic language by taking into account recent poetic developments that so far have been given little attention in stylistics.

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Journal of English Linguistics 30.1: 73-90, 2002

When I was in graduate school in Amherst, Massachusetts, over thirty years ago, an entire semester's seminar was devoted to the poetry of Robert Frost. At the time, he was considered the great man of American poetry. The peak of his reputation came when John F. Kennedy invited him to read a poem at his inauguration in 1961. By contrast, Emily Dickinson was barely a blip on the horizon; she appeared briefly (in half of a one three-hour session) in a seminar on nineteenth century American poetry. Both poets claimed Amherst as their home, Dickinson having been born and lived her entire life there, and Frost settling in Amherst as his final dwelling place. Today, there is what is becoming a well known sculpture in the Amherst triangle next to the Dickinson houses. It features the figures of Dickinson and Frost in conversation. In the accompanying photograph, Dickinson's rock is bigger than Frost's, and the perspective from which the photograph was taken suggests also that she occupies the higher ground.

International Journal of Multilingual Education, by Viktoriia Iashkina, 2015

Sound instrumentation of poetic speech as one of the drivers producing direct influence on the emersion and genesis of sound symbolism in the tissue of poetic texts has always been, and remains a subject of vivid scientific interest and polemics among linguists and literary theorists of both the past and nowadays. A correlation between phonetic significance and semantic meaning still remains a subject of clarification and more precise definition. Those who tried to find a correlation between the formal and the notional used to apply for studying appropriate stylistic means of sound arrangement of poetical works, such as paronymic attraction, parallelism, and poetical etymology. In the later research works it is stated that while the stylistic means foregrounded by the precursors are comprehended as those deliberately used by poets to their full extent, the area of the subconscious mind should be considered of at least equal importance in this regard, as the latter produces great influence on the ways of artistic imagery formation as well as ability of its further perception and appreciation. In this sense it appears that the connection between sounding and meaning, or sound symbolism, can hardly be revealed in monolingual poetic sample. Contemporary linguistics has no doubt about the fact, that sounds of speech, even spelled separately, do have an ability of forming non-sound associations and images. The aim of this article is to find links which unite a unique poetic whole with its multilingual translations.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2013

† Christian Obermeier and Winfried Menninghaus have contributed equally to this work.