Analysis Of Deviation And Foregrounding In Poetry

Recent study shows that few people who learn English as a second language studyEnglish poetry, even fewer people research the phenomena of deviation and foregrounding— the recurrent features in poetry. Now that poetry is defined as the major achievement ofhuman culture and is regarded as "the best words in the best order," it should be paidattention to. Meanwhile, study of the language in poetry cannot evade the phenomena ofdeviation and foregrounding, the essence of poetry. Deviation and foregrounding are two linguistic terms. The phenomenon of deviationfrequently appears in literature, such as novels and dramas to produce foregrounding,notably in poetry. Therefore, some linguists such as Mukarǒvsky and Leech declared thatstyle is deviation and that style is foregrounding. Of course, some other linguists such asSandell and Rankin protested against it because they thought that "not all deviation is styleand not all style is deviation." After my thorough study of the phenomena of deviation andforegrounding in poetry, I come to the conclusion that deviation can be regarded at least asthe style of poetry because of the contribution of deviation to poetry. The violation of thenorm of the standard is what makes possible the poetic utilization of language; without thispossibility there would be no poetry. On one hand, this dissertation is an attempt to analyze the use of deviation in poetry toexemplify that deviation is the essence of poetry by applying the principles and methods oflinguistic analysis to extensive examples of types of deviance found in poetry. Therefore, itcovers both the linguistic principles and some literary applications. On the other hand, theanalysis of deviation and foregrounding can help the reader increase their understanding ofpoems. In knowing more about deviation and foregrounding, our understanding of languageis enriched and the magic in the literary texts will be increased and the aesthetic function ofliterary language will be sensed.