A Pragmatic Interpretation Of Nonce-word Variation In English Poetry

Nonce-word is invented for one particular occasion and nonce-word variation is a prominent phenomenon in English poetry. Earlier studies of variation in poetry were conducted from the perspective of literature, poetry aesthetic description and cognitive psychology, but there are quite a few researching studied from the perspective of pragmatics to analyze the mechanism of variation. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the nonce-word variation in poetry from the perspective of pragmatics. We need to explore whether the poetry has pragmatic adaptation and what the internal operation mechanism of the poetic effects is. We should not only consider the variation form, but also the relevant specific information behind the variation. Nonce-word variation in the context of a particular language will weaken or disappear, and we have to comply with the context to have a better understanding of aesthetic appreciation of poetry. This thesis aims to explore the motivation of nonce-word variation and investigate the dynamic understanding process, followed by discussion of the mutual interaction between the author and the reader.Qualitative method will be adopted in this study. As a theoretical research, the present study is data-driven and theory-driven, which is explanatory. From the previous studies done by others, we believe that RAM in the present study is feasible. Applying the present approach of RAM to the nonce-word variation could be regarded as a qualitative process.Case analysis of language will be employed. The numerous words and sentences used as exemplifications in this thesis are extracted from the famous English poetry which has a great source of nonce-word variation. Most of the data in this research derive from e. e. cummings’ poetry including other poets’ works in which there exists a large percentage of nonce-word variation. We shall do an example analysis with our integrated approach RAM to illustrate our ideas and to justify our points with examples.Based on the previous studies, this study introduces a list of different definitions of nonce-word and classifications of variation. For the current study, we particularly focus on the nonce-word variation in English poetry. We take advantage of the merits of RT and AT, attempting to use the integrated model of RAM to analyze nonce-word variation in English poetry. In this process, we have mainly classified nonce-word variation into five types: capitalization and lowercase, graphological design(the use of space, the use of punctuations), telescoped words, affixation, the mixed use of nonce-word variation. Each type has its own characteristic.Some findings have been made in this thesis. In the dynamic RAM, the reader searches for relevance in the author’s intention and makes dynamic adaptation in the cognitive context. In the understanding process, the author makes linguistic choices about his original communicative intention in accordance with the optimal relevance. Specific procedures in the understanding process have been stated clearly and systematically. In the complicated dynamically adjusting process, nonce-word variation is a transitional target. On the part of the author, it is a producing process while on the side of the reader, it is an interpreting process, which is a mutually interactive process. We find out that the nonce-word variation is a common phenomenon in the imagist poems especially in the poems of e. e. cummings, in which mixed devices of variation are used to seek for the visual form. Different kinds of nonce-word variation reflect different poetic effects and often reflect pragmatic reasons, which should not be analyzed isolated. Pragmatic analysis of nonce-word variation provides a new theoretical perspective for the appreciation of English poetry, expands a new horizon for the teaching of English poetry, opens a new way for the composition of English poetry.