Linguistic Deviation In English Poems And Its Understanding From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Deviation is first defined as"the violation of the norm of the standard"by prague school linguist Mukarovsky. This phenomenon is very representative in poetic language. By deviation, special perspectives and feelings of poets can be expressed with precision. However, because of the abnormality of linguistic deviation, it also brings difficulties to readers'understanding. Many scholars have made researches on linguistic deviation from different perspectives such as its features, functions and stylistic effects etc., but only few studied its specific understanding process.Based on relevance theory, this thesis regards readers'understanding of linguistic deviation in English poems as an ostensive-inferential process in which readers try to find relevant information for reasonable interpretation by taking deviation as ostention. In the analysis, the thesis respectively correlates lexical deviation, grammatical deviation, graphic deviation, and semantic deviation with such concepts in relevance theory as context, optimal relevance, communicative intention and contextual effect, and ostensive-inferential communication to analyze the understanding process of linguistic deviation in English poems.This thesis tries to help people understand and appreciate English poems better by analyzing and explaining linguistic deviation in English poems from the perspective of relevance theory. It also hopes that the analysis may contribute to English poem teaching and translation as well as people's understanding and creative use of linguistic deviaiton.