Linguistic deviation

Linguistic deviation

An introduction :

►  Linguistic deviation arises/happens/occurs when the writer or the poet choose not to abide by the rules of his language when he transcends its norms and exceeds the limits of the linguistic protocols that characterize it .

► Deviation is the breaking of rules which others obey. Poetry as a genre is a deviation from the ordinary language, though, despite the poetic deviation, poetry skill has its own rules and norms which separate it from ordinary language and therefore creates its own pattern. In literary circle, deviation is taken as poetic license or writer’s license and it should be noted that deviation could occur at various linguistic level. We can have grammatical lexical, phonological, semantic and textual deviation.

The Importance of Linguistic deviation:

- The Importance of Linguistic deviation due to its being motivated breach of the rules. it has a purpose & a function.

♣Writers especially poets resort to / turn to deviation to achieve certain artistic aims and effects as Leech say " a poet may transcend the limits of the language to explore and communicate new areas of experiences ".

♣Through deviation a poet can communicate unique experiences which he feels can not be effectively communicated by means of the normal communicative resources of his tongue ( his native normal language ).

♣poets may also deviate to realize specific effects on the reader by striking him with something unexpected forcing him to focus his attention on the deviant sequences .

♣ Deviation which is a linguistic phenomenon has an important psychological effect on the readers ( or hearers ). If a part of a poem is deviant, it becomes especially noticeable , or perceptually prominent . This is called "foregrounding"( Short , 1969 : 11) .

 Deviation is actually a very significant way to " Foregrounding" certain aspects of a given literary text. So, What is Foregrounding ?

Foregrounding :

♣  Foregrounding as postulated by Mukarovsky is" the intentional violation of the scheme by means of which an item brought into artistic emphasis and thus stands out from its background .

♣ Linguist M.A.K. Halliday has characterized foregrounding as motivated prominence: "the phenomenon of linguistic highlighting, whereby some features of the language of a text stand out in some way" (Explorations in the Functions of Language, 1973).

♣ Mukarovsky refers  to  foregrounding  as  "the esthetically  intentional distortion of the  linguistic  components."I4 This  definition  signifies  two important  aspects  of foregrounding: first, poetic foregrounding  ,  being  'intentional', presupposes some

motivation on the part of the poet which  in turn demands careful attention from the reader,  and  second, distortion of  any  'linguistic  component'  may  bring  about foregrounding. Thus concentration of any linguistic features  - phonological,  syntactic,  or  semantic  - which  are rare  or unnoticed in ordinary  speech  but  brought

into prominence deliberately in the literary text with the purpose of contributing  to its  total effect can result in foregrounding. This "calling of the reader's attention to linguistic  structures", quite different  from the way  in which  a non-literary writer will emphasize the  language elements,  "  is an essential part of literary creation."

Kinds of Foregrounding :

► The concept Foregrounding has been developed by G.N. Leech . According to him " the foregrounding of any linguistic or stylistic feature can be accomplished either by " regularity " which is " Parallelism" and " Irregularity " which is " deviation " .

► Leech  and  Short identify  two  kinds  of  foregrounding:  qualitative foregrounding  and  quantitative  foregrounding.  In the  former,  there  is  deviation from  the rules  of  the  language  code  or  from  the  conventions of  language  use  or both.  In  the  latter,  the  deviance  is  from  some expected  frequency  of linguistic occurrence and not  from the  language code. When a writer writes he  is constantly involved  in  making  linguistic  choices.  The  choices  he makes both  outside  and inside the  language  system may  thus  lead to foregrounding.

Parallelism :

► Foregrounding as Parallelism , according to G.N Leech " consists in the introduction of extra regularities into the language , that is where the language provides the writer with a range of options to choose from, but he consistently   limits himself to the same option " . With Parallelism , the writer temporarily renounces/ refuse his permitted freedom of choice introduction uniformity where there should normally be diversity .

►  Parallelism  is  identified as  "structural repetition  in which variable elements occur.

Short quotes   the  following  line  from  Shakespeare's  Othello  as the  "best example ever" of parallelism:

" I  kissed thee ere I killed  thee "

The  line  consists of  two parallel  clauses  linked by  ere:  <  [SPO] [SPO] >  . The words  I and  thee are repeated. This leaves  'kissed' and  'killed' which are parallel,

What's the difference between Parallelism and Repetition?!?

► Parallelism is different from mere mechanical repetition in that it is an apportionment of invariants and variables .In any pattern of parallelism there must be an element of identity and an element of contrast but the absolute duplication or the exact repetition of a sentence is not considered of any parallelistic value.

► Repetition is the repeated use of the same word or word pattern as a rhetorical device in a short passage or sentence .

e.g. by Leech from Goldsmith's poem " the deserted village"  ( Where wealth accumulates and men decay )  this line is an illustration of contractive connection . The relation of equivalence in the line is one of ironic contrast between " accumulates & decay " .

The importance of parallelism :

►Foregrounding regularity ( parallelism ) is considered an important feature of poetic language. Leech for example considers it to be the principle underlying all versification & refers to its " overriding importance in the structure and significance of works of literature " .

Parallelism VS coupling :

 ► Leech's concept of parallelism seems to be a continuation of Levin's concept of " coupling " . Levin considers " coupling" to be the essence of poetry and argues that poetic language maximizes the use of such figures as " couples" coupling , according to Levin, accounts for the convergence of a pair of equivalent phonic & or semantic elements & a pair of syntagmatic ( positional ) patterns. i.e. placing equivalent positions. e.g. for " coupling " " A soul as full of worth as void of pride " . Where " full" & " void " are  semantically related ( antonymous ) and occur in identical parallel position.

Deviation :

► Deviation from linguistic or other socially accepted norms has been claimed to be a basic principle of aesthetic communication and is essential for the study of poetic language. .

► The creative writer's dilemma is that he is never satisfied with the normal communicative resources of his language  & always feels the need to find other ways of using the language that are particular to himself and through which he can convey what he has to say.

Whoever has thought strongly & felt strongly has innovated in his language ; mental creativity immediately inscribes itself into the language, where it becomes linguistic creativity.

► In his strife for linguistic creativity a writer may violate the rules of the normal usage of his language in a number of ways : He can infringe these rules, add to them or relate the structure of language to meaning in ways not prescribed by everyday linguistic convention.

► This motivated violation of linguistic rules, known as linguistic deviation, & results when the writer makes choices that are not permissible in terms of the accepted code .and effects a disruption of the normal process of communication that is justified only when the reader can assign some significance , some communication value to the deviation. i.e. It has its significance through the reader knowledge of it . and it is unintelligible unless the reader can , by some effort of his mind, provide an interpretation for it.

However far the poets may go in their departure from what is expected they still keep enough relationship with the accepted code in order to be able to communicate . No poet can create an entirely new language . He has to adopt the words & has to respect the fundamental rules of his language.

The concept of "norm ":

► It is very important in the study of deviation ; every deviant utterance is understood against the norm of a language system ; this norm is the common stock , the background that is assumed in any talk of deviation and against which features that are prominent because of their abnormality are placed in focus. There are many norms from which a poet may deviate: those of langue, parole and the poetic tradition. Therefore , the critic dealing with deviation should define the norm against which the deviation of a given text to be assessed.

Standard Language :

► Quirk defined standard English as the normal English. That kind of English which draws least attention to itself over the widest area & through the widest range of usage.

Standard English is basically an Ideal, a mode of expression that we seek when we wish to communicate beyond our immediate community with members of the wider community of the nation as a whole, or with the members of the still wider community, English-speakers as a whole.

► Mukarovsky said that the distortion of the norms of the standard language is the essence of poetry and it is improper to ask the poetic language( the poet) to abide by this norm.

Types of Linguistic Deviation:

► There are different types of linguistics deviation in literature depending on what rules are broken and at which level of the language it occurs.

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Lexical Deviation

► It accounts for the poets transgression of the normal limits of the lexical resources of his language . i.e. When he applies the rules of lexical formation & patterning with a greater generality than usual, violating the normal ranges of choice.

►There are many ways for the poet to deviate from the lexical norms in his language : like ( Neologism – affixation – compounding – functional shift / Unusual Collocation ).

Neologism :

► It is the invention of new lexical items & it is the most obvious, common ways in which a poet can exceed the normal resources of his language. That happens when the poets are not satisfied with the established word stock of their language.

►  An example of neologism or the invention of new words is nonce-formation .A word is considered to be a nonce-formation if it is made up for the nonce, i.e. for a single occasion (Leech,1969: 42). Bauer (1983:45) defines a nonce-formation as a new complex word coined by a speaker or a writer on the spur of the moment to cover some immediate need. Whereas  Crystal (1987:260) defines nonce-formation as a linguistic form which a speaker consciously invents or accidentally uses on a single occasion, many factors account for their uses. A speaker, for instance, can not remember a particular word , so he coins an alternative approximation (e.g., linguistified, heard recently from a student who felt he was getting with linguistics ), or is constrained by circumstances to produce a new form (as in newspaper headlines ). 

► In this process of coining new words, poets do not really violate the lexical rules of word-formation, but they rather tend to apply the existing rules with greater generality that what is normal.  

It is misleading to suggest that neologism is a " violation of lexical rule; a more correct explanation is that an existing rule ( of word formation ) is applied with greater generality that is customary .

Affixation : It the addition of a prefix or a suffix to an item already in the language . e.g. " disremember / unchilding / unfathering / disseveral ).

Compounding : It accounts for the joining together of two or more items to form a single compound one .e.g. " widow-making / black-backed / may-mess / thunder-throne / mid-numbered "

Functional shift or Functional conversion : it means to shift an item from one part of speech to another, to adapt it to a new grammatical function, without changing its form. e.g.

Stirred for a bird-the achieve of, the mastery of the thing

                                            (Hopkins ,The Windhove)

Here, Hopkins takes the verb (achieve) and uses it as a noun, in spite of the fact that English already has a noun, achievement derived from that verb. It is obvious that the word is a noun here because of  (1) the preceding definite article, (2) the (of) apparently beginning a post-modifying prepositional phrase, and (3) the grammatical parallel with mastery.

Unusual collocation :

 It is another important type of deviation & it arises when the poet violates the normal ranges of collocability of his lexical items creating unexpected lexical patterns and relations. e.g. " giant groans / cordial air / a way grief's gasping / lovely death / my lagging lines"

Grammatical Deviation :

► The number of grammatical rules in English is large ,and therefore the foregrounding possibilities via grammatical deviation is also large (Short, 1969:47).

► To distinguish between the many different types of deviation is to start with the line traditionally drawn between morphology( the grammar of the words) and syntax (the grammar of how words pattern within sentences )

  Examples of morphological deviation are  museyroom, eggtentical, and intellible in James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.

She dwelt among the untrodden ways (Wordsworth)

►In syntax, deviations might be 1) bad or incorrect grammar and 2) syntactic rearrangement/ hyperbaton. The examples are:

I doesn’t like him.

►One important feature of grammatical deviation is the case of ungrammaticality such as "I does not like him" (Leech,1969:45).

► The most obvious examples of grammatical deviations are where a poet or a writer uses the  double negative, the double  comparative and the double superlative. In Old and Middle English the idea of negation was often expressed several times a single sentence, as in the following example :

" I will never do nothing no more " (Brook, 1977:146).

► Similarly, writers or poets deviate from grammatical rules by combining two ways of expressing comparison: the addition of suffixes and the use of the separate words (more) and (most). Thus Shakespeare, for example, could combine "unkindest" and   "mostunkind" such as:

(This was the most unkindest cut of all.) (Brook, 1977: 146).

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Some types of grammatical deviation :

Hyperbaton :It is deviation from normal word-order .Poets tend to arrange syntactic elements in an irregular order to give prominence to certain elements within the sentence. e.g. ( To seem the stranger lies my lot ) Hopkins.

► "One of the most common ways to use hyperbatonis to put an adjective after the noun it modifies, rather than before it. While this might be a normal word order in languages like French, in English it tends to give an air of mystery to a sentence: "The forest burned with a fire unquenchable--unquenchable except by the helicopter that finally arrived."

► "Hyperbaton can also put the verb all the way at the end of the sentence, rather than between the subject and the object. So rather than, She wouldn't, for any reason whatsoever, be married to that smelly, foul, unlikable man," you could write, She wouldn't, for any reason whatsoever, to that smelly, foul, unlikable man be married."

Ellipsis :Sometimes  literary writers omit some elements of their sentences in order to achieve compression of expression.

In linguistics, ellipsis (from the Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, "omission") or elliptical construction refers to the omission from a clause of one or more words that would otherwise be required by the remaining elements. There are numerous distinct types of ellipsis acknowledged in theoretical syntax.

At various points, Hopkins suppresses relative pronouns, linking verbs, conjunctions, articles, & prepositions in order to achieve maximum compression .

Parenthesis:  Sometimes the writer violates the normal construction of his sentences when he tends to interrupt it with long parentheses (which comes in turn from words meaning "alongside of" and "to place") is an explanatory or qualifying word, clause, or sentence inserted into a passage with which it doesn't necessarily have any grammatical connection. Parentheses are usually marked off by round or square brackets, dashes, or commas. ) e.g.

But what might you think, 
When I had seen this hot love on the wing—
As I perceiv'd it (I must tell you that)
Before my daughter told me—what might you,
Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think...? 

—Shakespeare, Hamlet 2.2.131-35

other examples :

Billy-bob, a great singer, was not a good dancer.

The phrase a great singer, set off by commas, is both an appositive and a parenthesis.

A dog (not a cat) is an animal that barks.

The phrase not a cat is a parenthesis.

My umbrella (which is somewhat broken) can still shield the two of us from the rain.

The phrase which is somewhat broken is a parenthesis.

Please, Gerald, come here!

Gerald is both a noun of direct address and a parenthesis

Formal Repetitions : It isn't the repetition which constitute parallel patterns. & it sometimes happens when the writer want to realize certain artistic purposes. and that repetitions don't really involve a violation, in the exact sense of the word, of any linguistic rules. But their deviance is due to the fact that the writer repeatedly uses the same lexical or grammatical forms giving up his right to choose from the variety of linguistic possibilities open to him. And it is used by writers to indicate a state of extreme emotional excitement. or to intensify or emphasize certain aspects of the text.

An example for Verbal repetition used by Hopkins .

Where, where was a, where was a place ?

All felled, felled, are all felled

Also we have the syntactic repetition, which need not include the same lexical items. When the writer uses the same syntactic structure over & over, he seems to be calling our attention to something he wants to make prominent .

The Importance of Interpreting Deviation :

►Deviation is a matter of linguistic choice and is very significant stylistic feature.

- It presupposes some motivation on the part of the writer & some explanation on the part of the reader.

►Deviation is part of the meaning of the work & bears on its artistic evaluation; without its interpretation we miss a good deal of what is communicated and a great deal of the beauty of the style underhand.

► Deviation may effect a disruption of the normal process of communication , yet the fact remains that it is the element of interest & surprise which attracts the attention & urges the reader to find out an explanation for it , to rationalize it.

► Though deviation from the accepted norms usually results in ambiguity, it is appreciated in literature because it heightens awareness & understanding.

► It strikes the reader with something unusual or uncommon & leads to " a focus, or better,  a refocusing on the text " .

► Linguistic deviation deautomatizes the language & causes a focusing of attention on the deviant sequences.

►Deviation enriches the text in which it occurs because, unlike the normal discourse, it becomes liable to more than one interpretation. This is due to the fact that no absolute explanation can be provided foe a deviant sequence.

► When interpreting deviation, in a given text, it is important to look for the regular pattern of its occurrence because it is never a random choice, it follows a certain rationale  of its own. 

cohesion : The concept of cohesion was first introduced by Leech And he meant ( the intra-textural relations of a grammatical & lexical kind which knit the parts of a text together into a unified whole. This concept was developed by Hallidy ( The concept of cohesion is a semantic one; it refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text, and that define it as a text. Cohesion occurs where the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that of another. The one presupposes the other, in the sense that it cannot be effectively decoded except by recourse to it.