Seminar 11/Text linguistics

Communicative values of deviant (irregular) and evaluative structures in text

linguistics.
"We must also note that he (poet) has ̳the freedom of the language‘, in the sense that he is not
restricted to the language of his own particular period, as is the case with more commonplace types of
linguistic transaction. It might be said, in fact, that the medium of English poetry is the language
viewed as a historical whole, not just as a synchronous system shared by the writer and his
contemporaries. James Joyce thought that a writer must be familiar with the history of his language-
that he must, in short, be a philologist. T.S. Eliot expressed similar point of view, in more general
terms, when he insisted that ̳ no poet ..... has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his
appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to dead poets and artists‘. Such sentiments help to
explain why many poets have felt that they share the same language, the same communicative medium,
as poets of earlier generations, whatever important changes the language may have undergone in the
meantime." (Leech, 2008, p.51)

1. Based on the classification by Leech, analyse the examples of language deviation.

a. I am not yet born;O hear me. (Louis Mac Neice's Prayer before Birth)
b. He me asked.
c. The association of man and woman
In daunsinge, signifying matrimonie- (T.S.Elliot's East Cooker)
d. MA'AM, is this yours?
e. Me up at does
E.E Cummings

Me up at does
Out of the floor comment on different types of derivation
Quietly stare
A poisoned mouse
Still who alive
Is asking What
Have I done that
You wouldn’t have.

f. He need her.

2. Analyse language deviation in the following texts.

a. Bloom looked, unblessed to go. Got up to kill: on eighteen bob a week. Fellows shell out the
dibs. Want to keep your weathereye open. Those girls, those lovely. By the sad sea waves.
Chorusgirl’s romance. Letters read out for breach of promise. From Chikabiddy’s own
Mumpsypum. Laughter in court. Henry. I never signed it. The lovely name you.
 b.

3. Discuss all the evaluative constructions you can find in the following text.

You may find it hard to believe. Not unreasonably, she refused him. She refused him, and that
was not unexpected. He was punctiliously polite without being gallant and this reassured her.
It was not going to be an easy matter, but what … How simple it is!