1. Alliteration The re petition of a n initial initial consonant sound. Anaphora The re petition of the same word or phra se at the b eginnin eginning g of s uccess ive ive clauses or verses. (Contrast with epiphora a nd epistrophe.) epistrophe.) 2. Antithesis The juxtaposition of contrasting i de as i n balanced phrases. 3. Apostrophe Brea king off discourse discourse to address s ome absent absent person or thing, s ome abstract abstract quality, quality, an i na nimate nimate object, or a n onexistent onexistent character. 4. Assonance Id en tity or s imilarity i n sound be tween internal vowels i n ne i ghboring ghboring words. words. 5. Chiasmus A verba l pattern i n which which the s eco nd half of an expression is ba l anced against the first but with the p a rts reversed. reversed. 6. Euphemism The s ubstitution ubstitution of a n inoffensiv inoffensive e term for on e considered offensively explicit. 7. Hyperbole An e xtravagant statement; the the use of e xagg erated terms for the purpose of emphasi emphasiss or heightened effect. 8. Irony The u s e of words words to convey the opp osite o f their l iteral meaning meaning.. A s tatement or situation where the me anin g is contradicted contradicted by the the a ppearance or presentation presentation of the idea. 9. Litotes A fi gure of sp eech consisting consisting of an und erstatement erstatement in which an a ffi rmative rmative is expressed expressed by ne ga ting its opposite. opposite. 10. Metaphor An i mplied comparison between two un l ike things that actually ha ve s omething omething important important in common. 11. Metonymy A fi gure of speech in which which one word or ph rase is substituted for a noth er with which it is closely a s sociated; sociated; also, the rhetorical
s trate gy of d escribing escribing something i ndirectly by referring to things around it. 12. Onomatopoeia The u s e of words words that imitate the the s oun ds associate associated d with the obje cts or actions they they refer to. 13. Oxymoron A fi gure of speech in which which i ncon gruous gruous or contradictory contradictory terms appear appear side by s ide. ide. 14. Paradox A s tatement that appears appears to contra dict itself. itself. 15. Personification A fi gure of speech in which a n i na nimate nimate object or abstraction abstraction is en dowed with human qualities qualities or abilities. 16. Pun A pl ay on words, sometimes sometimes on di fferent senses of the same word an d s ometimes ometimes on the similar similar s en se or sound sound of different different words. 17. Simile A s tated comparison (usually forme d with "like" or "as") be tween two fundamentally fundamentally di ssimilar things that that have certain qua lities i n common. common. 18. Synecdoche A fi gure of speech in which which a part i s used to rep resent the whole (for (for exa mple, ABCs fo ralphabet) or the whol e for a part ("England won the Wo rld Cup in 1966"). 1966"). 19. Understatement A fi gure of sp eech in which a write r or a s peaker peaker deliberately deliberately makes a situatio situation n seem less i mpo rtant rtant or serious serious than it is. 20. Wel l, son, I'll I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crys crys tal stair. It's had tacks tacks i n it, And s plinters, plinters, And boa rds rds torn up, And pl aces with with no carpet on the floor-Bare. (Lan gston Hughes, "Mother to to Son") (a ) s ynecdoche ynecdoche (b) (b ) meta phor phor (c) irony (d) (d ) pun Why sho uld white white people be runni ng all the stores stores in our
commu nity? Why should white pe opl e be running the banks of our comm unity? Why s hould the econo my of our community community be in the h ands of the white man? Why? (Mal colm X) X) (a ) a ntithesis ntithesis (b) (b ) li totes totes (c) (c) ana phora phora (d) (d ) und erstatement erstatement 21. s ubs tituting tituting the word “eu thanasia” for “mercy killing" or "ki l ling the terminally i ll" (a ) hype rbole rbole (b) (b ) euphemism (c) (c) as sonance sonance (d) (d ) oxymoron 22. I h ad so much homework homework last ni ght that I needed needed a pickup truck truck to carry al l my books books home! (a ) synechdoche (b) (b ) on omatopoeia omatopoeia (c) (c) pun (d) (d ) hype rbole rbole 23. Let's just say that Ms. Ms. Hilton is not the brightest brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. (a ) pa radox radox (b) (b ) li totes totes (c) (c) a postrophe postrophe (d) (d ) chi asmus asmus 24. The chu g-a, chug-a, chug-a of the tra i n echoed echoed down the hill, whi le a cloud of smoke rose up to the bl ue western western sky. (a ) s imile imile (b) (b ) metonymy (c) (c) ana phora phora (d) (d ) on omatopoeia omatopoeia 25. But the prisoner prisoner would not an swer, he only lay with wi de , dark, dark, bright, eyes, like a boun d animal. animal. (D. H. La wren ce, England, England, My England) (a ) oxymoron (b) (b ) euphemism (c) (c) ana phora phora (d) (d ) pe rsonification rsonification 26. You ha ve a l ot of work work to do, so I'll lend you you a hand. (a ) assonance (b) (b ) a postrophe postrophe (c) (c) irony (d) (d ) syne chdoche chdoche 27. Pitchi ng pennies pennies with the Pitts burgh Pirates in a pitter-
pa tter of rain o utside utside the Pitti Palace. (Ja mes Thurber, La La nterns nterns and Lan ces, 1961) 1961) (a ) chi asmus asmus (b) (b ) a l literatio literation n (c) pu n (d) (d ) oxymoron 28. O We s tern wind, wind, when wilt thou blow Tha t the sm all rain down can rain? rain? Chris Chris t, that my love were were in my arms, And I i n my bed again! again! (Anon ymous, "O Western Wind") (a ) litotes (b) (b ) pa radox radox (c) apostrophe (d) (d ) a naphora naphora 29. The he art of a fool is in his mouth, bu t the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. heart. (Be njamin Franklin) Franklin) (a ) hype rbole rbole (b) (b ) chi asmus asmus (c) litotes (d) (d ) a naphora naphora 30. We tal ked ked with each other ab out each other other Thou gh neither of us us spoke — (Emily Dickinson) (a ) metonymy (b) (b ) pa radox radox (c) synecdoche (d) (d ) pe rsonification rsonification 31. The e a rth laughs beneath beneath my hea vy feet At the bl asphemy asphemy i n my old jangly walk (Bi lly Corgan, "Thirty-three") "Thirty-three") (a ) euphemism (b) (b ) si mile (c) antithesis (d) (d ) pe rsonification rsonification 32. I d ig my toes into the sand. sand. The o cean looks like like A tho usand diamonds diamonds strewn Acros Acros s a blue blanket. (In cubus, "Wish You Were Were Here") (a ) chi asmus asmus (b) (b ) si mile (c) onomatopoeia (d) (d ) s ynecdoche ynecdoche 33. In the s weat of thy face face shalt thou e at bread. bread. (Ge nesis 3:19) 3:19) (a ) s imile imile (b) (b ) irony
(c) metonymy (d) (d ) assonance 34. Why do we wa it until until a pig is dea d to to cure it? (a ) pun (b) (b ) pe rsonification rsonification (c) anaphora (d) (d ) syne chdoche chdoche 35. "It was the best best of times, it was the worst of times, times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the the a ge of foo l ishness, ishness, it was the epoch of bel ief, ief, it was the epoch of i ncred ulity, ulity, i t was the season season of Light, i t was the season season of Da rkness, it was the spring of hop e, it was the winter of despair, we h a d everything everything before us, we ha d no thing thing before us, we were were all goi ng direct to Heaven, we were al l going direct the other way." (Charl es Dickens, Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities) (a ) a ntithesis ntithesis (b) (b ) li totes totes (c) simile (d) (d ) und erstatement erstatement 36. My wis hes ra ra ced through the hous e high high hay And no thing I cared, cared, at my sky bl ue trades, . . . (Dyla n Thomas, "Fern Hill") (a ) s imile imile (b) (b ) irony (c) metonymy (d) (d ) assonance 37. And h e was rich, yes, yes, ri cher cher than a king, king, And a dmirably schooled schooled in every grace: In f i ne--we thought thought that he was everything To mak e us wish that we were in hi s place. place. So on we wo rked and and waited for the l ight, ight, And we nt without the meat and cursed the bread, bread, And Ri chard Cory, Cory, one calm su mmer night, night, Went ho me and put a bullet in his head. (E. A. Ro bi nson, nson, "Richard Cory") Cory") (a ) chi asmus asmus (b) (b ) li totes totes (c) antithesis (d) (d ) irony
38. Prosp ective buyers are advised advised not to re ly he avil avily on the front bra kes, which a re not connected. connected. (a dvertisement for a replica replica 1925 Rol ls-Royce WWI Armored Armored Car) (a ) a ntithesis ntithesis (b) (b ) si mile (c) (c) ana phora phora (d) (d ) und erstatement erstatement 39. (b) (b ) meta phor phor 40. (c) anaphora 41. (b) (b ) e uphemism uphemism 42. (d) (d ) hyperbole 43. (b) (b ) li totes totes 44. (d) (d ) on omatopoeia omatopoeia 45. (a ) oxymoron 46. (d) (d ) syne chdoche chdoche 47. (b) (b ) al literation literation 48. (c) apostrophe 49. (b) (b ) chi asmus asmus 50. (b) (b ) pa radox radox 51. (d) (d ) pe rsonification rsonification 52. (b) (b ) s imile imile 53. (c) metonymy 54. (a ) pun 55. (a ) a ntithesis ntithesis 56. (d) (d ) assonance 57. (d) (d ) irony 58. (d) (d ) und erstatement erstatement Poetry is the expression of a thou ght, an idea, a concept or a s tory in a s tructured tructured form which ha s a flow and a music created created by the s ounds and syllables syllables in i t. All type type s of poems are are o ften writte n in several styles. styles. These s tyle s are defined defined by the n umber of l in es in each each stanza, the the s yllables used in each line or the s tructures of rhyme used and so on. He re is a list of the the main types types of poe try commo commo nly used by poet poetss al l over the world. world. Bal lad: This is an old style of writi ng poetry, which was used to tel l stories. A ballad usually usually has s tan zas made up of either s even or ei ght o r ten lines, and ends ends with with a s hort four or five line s tanza. tanza. Each s tanza ends with the s ame l i ne, which is called 'a refrain'. refrain'. Coupl et: Perhaps Perhaps the most
pop ular type of poetry poetry used, the coup l et has s tanzas made up of two l i nes which which rhyme with each other. Qua train: This kind of poem has fou r li nes in a stanza, of which the s eco nd and fourth fourth lines rhyme rhyme wi th each other and have have a similar syllable structure. Cinq uain: This i s another unique type type of po etry style. style. As the name su ggests, it it is made up of five li nes. nes. The first line is just one word, whi ch is often the title of the p oem. The second second line has two wo rds which describe describe the first first l i ne. The third third line has three words, and is mostly the the action pa rt of the poem. The The fourth line i s fo ur words describing describing the fe elings. And the fifth line, again, again, ha s just one word which is the tit title le of the poem. Ia mbic Pen Pen tameter: This This is a ve ry compl icated style of writing writing poe try, try, but was often used by cla ssical poets. poets. This style uses the s yllable stresses to create the mus ical sound. There There is one short s oun ding syllable syllable followed followed by one l ong s ounding ounding syllable, at the the end of e ach o f the five stanzas stanzas in a row. Son net: This type type of poem conta ins fourteen fourteen lines and fol l ows ows con vention ventional al s tructures tructures of rhyme.
mode rn poets. poets. Epi c: Thi Thi s poem i s usually usually a long an d descriptive descriptive o ne which which tells a s tory. Epics usually are l onger onger than than mos t poems and may even take up a bo ok. Exa Exa mple: mple: Homer's Homer's 'Iliad'.
whether a constituency constituency-base -based dor
Lime rick: This This is a very wi tty a nd ofte n vulgar kind o f a poem, whic which h i s q uite short. This This poem has five l i nes in a stanza. The first, second second an d fifth line have the same metri cal structure structure and they rhyme wi th e ach other. They contain s even to te n syllables each. The s econd and fourth l ines have have the s am e metrical structure structure and rhyme wi th each other. These conta in five to s even s yllables. yllables.
forme d a central explicandum explicandum
The s e are by no means, all types of po etry forms used. But these are the basics. basics. Most poets poets use the s e forms and s tructures tructures while writi ng their po ems. ems. The form and s tructure of the p oem, oem, ideally s hould not limit th e thought or or the the i de a conveyed conveyed by the p oet. Howe ver, these styles styles of writing he l p make the p oem more more musical musical in i ts flow. flow. Read more more at Buzzle: Buzzle: http ://www.buzzle.com/ar ://www.buzzle.com/ar ticles/types-of-poetry-all-thedifferent-types-of-poems.html In l i nguistics, nguistics, ellipsis (from the Greek: Greek: ἔλλειψις, él leipsis, leipsis, "omi ssion") or elliptical elliptical
Hai ku: This This is again a very s tructured method of writing poe try. try. This has its origins in Ja pa n. This method method does not use rhyme. rhyme. The re are three lines of fi ve, s even and five syllables each. The p oem must essentially talk a bou t some aspect of Nature. Free Verse: This is a method of writi ng poetry, which does not es sentially follow any structure or s tyle . There is no fi xed meter and no s tructure regarding regarding rhyme and l i nes in each stanza. This kind of poe try i s quite popular with
grea tly depending depending in part upon
cons truction refers to the omi ssion from from a cl ause auseof one or more words th at would otherwise otherwise be re qu ired by the rem rem aining aining el ements. There are numerous numerous di s tinct types of ellipsis ellipsis ack nowledged in theoretical s yntax. This article provides an overvie w of them. Theoretical Theoretical accou nts of ellipsis can vary vary
a dependency-based dependency-based theory of s yntactic s tructure tructure is pursued. pursued. Vari eties of ellipsis ellipsis have long
for fo r li nguistic theory theory,, since elliptical elliptical phen omena omena seem to be ab le to sh ed light light on basic que stions stions of of form-meaning form-meaning correspondence: correspondence: in p articular, articular, the us ual mechanisms mechanisms of g rasping rasping a mea ning from a form seem to be bypa ssed or supplanted i n the i nte rpretation rpretation of elliptical elliptical s tructures, ones in which there is me anin g without form. In ge nerative linguistics linguistics, the term e l lipsis lipsis has been applied applied to a ran ge o f phenomena phenomena in which which a pe rceived interpretation interpretation is fuller than that which would would be expe cted based solely solely on the pres ence of lin guistic guistic forms. One trait that that ma ny types types and i ns tances tances of ellipsis have have in commo n is th at the a ppearanc ppearance e of el lipsis is optional. optional. The occurrence of VP-e l lipsis, lipsis, for instance, is o ften ften opti onal, e.g. He will help, help, and she wi l l (help), too . Whether Whether or not the verb help is e lided lided in this se ntence ntence is up to the speaker speaker and to commu nicative aspects aspects of the s i tuational context in which the s en tence tence is uttered. This
opti onality i s a clear indication indication of
el lipsis. The discussion below
cla uses. Gapping Gapping has been
el lipsis. At other times, however, however,
tak es their status as ellipsis largely largely
thorou ghly s tudied, tudied, and it is
el lipsis seems seems to be ob ligatory ligatory,, for
for granted.
the refore reasonably reasonably well
i ns tance with ca ca ses ses of
The exa mple mple sentences below
und erstood, although although the
compa rative rative deletion, e.g. *More
emp l oy the convention whereby whereby
the ore tical tical a nalyses nalyses can vary
gi rls were there today than girls
the el ided material is indicated indicated
significantly.
were the re yes yes terday. terday. The second
wi th s ubscript ubscriptss a nd smaller font
[edit]Stripping [edit]Stripping
occurren ce of girls must be
size.
Stripping is also known as bare
omi tted in this sentence sentence (More
[edit]Gapping [edit]Gapping
a rgument ellipsis. Many linguists linguists
gi rls were there today than were
Gapping occurs in co ordinate
tak e s tripping tripping to be a particular
the re yes terday). The The obl igatory igatory
s tructures. Redundant material
ma nifestation of gapping whereby
occurren ce of e llipsis llipsis complicates
tha t is p resent resent in the i mmediatel mmediately y
jus t one rem nant a ppears in the
the a nalysis, since one can argue
prece ding clause can b e "gapped". "gapped".
ga pped clause instead of the two
tha t ob ligatory cases a re not really really
Thi s gapped material material usually
(or more ) that occur i n instances instances
i ns tances tances of ellipsis at all, but
conta ins a fi nite verb verb . Canonical Canonical
of ga pping. The fact that stripping stripping
rathe r a null pro-form is involved. involved.
cas es have a true "gap" insofar insofar
i s l imited to occurring in
The s e aspects aspects of the theory theory
a re mnan t appears appears to the left and
coordi nate structures structures is the main
sh ould be kept in mind when
to the ri ght of the elided material. material.
rea s on why stripping is integrated integrated
cons idering the various types and
John ca n play the the guitar, guitar, and
i nto the a nalysis nalysis of gapping: gapping:
i ns tances tances of ellipsis enumerated enumerated
Mary can play the violin. - Ga pping pping
John can play the guitar, guitar, and
below.
Fred took a picture picture o f you, you, a nd
Mary can play the guitar, too. - Stripping
The re a re numerou numerouss widely
Susan took a picture of me. - Gapping
Sa m has a ttempted ttempted problem 1
a ckno wledged wledged types of ell ipsis. ipsis.
Whi le ca nonical cases have medial
twice, and he has attempted problem 2
Nin e of them are mentioned mentioned and
ga ps a s in these two sentences, sentences,
al so. - Stripping Stripping
bri ef ly illustrated illustrated below: 1) 1)
the g a p need not be medial, a nd it
The s e examples illustrate illustrate that
ga pping, 2) s tripping, tripping, 3) VP-
can e ven b e discontinuo discontinuous, us, e.g.
s trip ping is flexible flexible insofar insofar as the
el lipsis, 4) p seudogapping seudogapping,, 5)
She persuaded persuaded him to do the
remn a nt in the stripped clause is
a ns wer fragments, 6) 6) s luicing, 7) 7)
home work, work, and he persuaded he r to do
not l i mited in function; it ca ca n, for
the homework .
i ns tance, tance, be a subject subject as i n the
N-ellipsis, 8) comparative deletion,
- Gapping
a nd 9) nu ll complement anaphor anaphora. a.
Should I call you, you,
firs t s enten entence ce or a n object as in
One s hould hould note that there there is no
or should you call me? - Ga pping pping
the s econd sentence. sentence. A
una nimity a mong experts experts that that all
Whi le these two sentences again
pa rticularly frequent frequent type of
ni ne of the mechanisms should
ea ch have two remnants, remnants, the
s trip ping is not-stripping not-stripping,, e.g.
i ndeed q ualify ualify as ellipsis. Most
ga pped material is no l onger onger
Sam d id it, not Fred Fred did it. - not-
expe rts would agree, however, however,
conti nuous. nuous. There are in a sense
Stripping
that most o f the nine are in fact
two ga ps i n each each of the gapped
Sa l ly is working working on Monday, Monday, she is working
not on Tuesday. - not-
The ma n who wanted to order the salmon
di d order the s almon. almon. - VP-
wan t to s ay that to to me, or would I want to say that to you? -
Stripping
ellipsis
Pseudogapping
Not-s tripping's tripping's s tatus as a form of
Of the various ellipsis
The y coul d read read this book more
el lipsis can be debated, debated, since the
mech anisms, VP-ellipsis VP-ellipsis has
ea sily than they they could read that
non -elliptical versions versions of these
proba bly been studied the most
boo k. - Pseudogapping Pseudogapping
s en tences tences are u nacceptab nacceptable. le. The
an d i t is therefore therefore relatively well
Anoth er noteworthy noteworthy tra tra it of
ke y trai trai t of ellipsis, namely, is that
understood.
ps eudogapping eudogapping (and one that
the bo th versions are supposed supposed to
Many linguists
s upp orts orts the view that it is a type
be a cceptable (the elliptical a nd
take pseudogapping to be a
of VP-el lipsis) lipsis) is that it absent
non -elliptical version). version).
pa rticular manifestation manifestation of VP-
from l a nguages related to English.
[edit]Verb [edit]Verb phrase ellipsis
el lipsis (not of gapping). Like Like VP-
Verb ph rase ellipsis ellipsis (also VP-
el lipsis, pseudogapping pseudogapping is
Answer ellipsis associated with
el lipsis or VPE) VPE) is a p articular articularly ly
i ntroduced by an auxiliary verb.
que stion-answer stion-answer pairs i nvolves nvolves
freq uent form of elli psis in Eng English, lish,
Pse udogapping differs from from VP-
el lipsis. The question question focuses a n
a bs ent from closely related
el lipsis, however, however, insofar insofar as the
unk no wn piece piece of information, information,
la nguages nguages but also used in
el ided VP i s not entirely entirely gone, but
often u sing an interrogative
Portugue se. VP-ellipsis VP-ellipsis elides
rathe r one (or more) remnants of
word (e .g. who, what, when, etc.). etc.).
a non-finite VP. The ellipsis must
the VP ap pear. This a spect of
The corresp onding onding answer answer
be i ntroduced by an auxiliary auxiliary verb verb
ps eudogapping gives gives it the
provi des the missing information information
or by the pa rticleto. rticleto.
outwa rd appearance appearance of gapping.
a nd i n so doing, doing, the redundant redundant
John can play the guitar; Mary
Pse udogapping occurs frequently frequently
i nfo rmation rmation that appeared i n the
ca n play the guitar, too. - VP-e llipsis llipsis
i n comp arative and contrastive contrastive
que stion is elided, elided, e.g.
He ha s done it before, before, which
contexts:
Q: Who ha s been hiding the truth? truth?
mea ns he will do it a gain. gain. - VP-
The y have been eating the apples
A: Bil ly has been hiding the truth. - Answer
ellipsis
more tha n they have have been eating the
fragment
An as pect of VP-ellipsis VP-ellipsis that that is
ora nges. - Pseudogapping Pseudogapping
Q: Wha t ha ve you you b een trying trying to
unl ike gapping gapping and stripping is
I wi ll feed the chickens chickens today if
a ccomplish? A: A: I have been trying to
tha t it ca n occur both forwards forwards
you wil l feed the chickens tomo rrow. rrow. -
a nd backwards. backwards. That is, the ellipsis
Pseudogapping
Answe r fragment fragment
can b oth precede a nd follow its
Pse udogapping is more restricted
The f ragm ent answers answers in these
antecedent, e.g.
i n d i stribution stribution than VP-ellipsis. VP-ellipsis. For
two s en tences tences are verb argument argumentss
The m an who wanted to order the
i ns tance it can hardly occur
(s ubject and object NPs NPs ). The
sa lmon did order the salmon. - VP-
ba ckwards, i.e. the ellipsis ellipsis ca ca n
frag me nt can can also correspond correspond to
ellipsis
ha rdly precede its antecedent. antecedent.
an ad junct, junct, e.g.
Furthe r examples: examples: Would you
accomplish
Thi s darn crossword. crossword. -
Q: Whe n do es the circus start?
A: He h as b een working on the
The fa ct that hers (as opposed opposed
A: The circus starts Tomo rrow. - Answer Answer
probl em. em. B: When has he been working on
to he r) must appear i n the second second
fragment
the problem?
s en tence tence could be interpreted interpreted to
Q: Why has the campaign been so
Sl uicing h as b een studied intensel intensely y
mea n that the modifier that that
crazy? A: The campaign has been so
in the p ast decade decade and can be
i ntroduces the ellipsis i s actually
vie wed as a relatively well
not a n a djective djective or determiner, determiner,
Answe r fragment fragment
und erstood ellipsis mechanism, mechanism,
but ra the r it is a pronoun. Based Based
Ans we r ellipsis ellipsis occurs in most if
al though the theoretical analysis analysis
on th i s observa observa tion, one could
not a ll languag languages. es. It is a very
of certa in aspects of sluicing
a rgue th at N-ellipsis N-ellipsis is in fa ct not
freq uent type of ellipsis that that is
rema ins controversial. controversial.
a ctua lly a type of ellipsis, but
omn i present present in everyday everyday
Noun ellipsis ellipsis (also N- ellipsis, ellipsis, NP-
rathe r the modifier serves serves as a
commu nication between
el lipsis, NPE ) occurs when the
pron oun of a s ort, which means
speakers.
nou n a nd perhaps accompany accompanyii ng
nothi ng has been elided. elided.
Sluicing usually elides everything everything
mod i fiers fiers a re omitted from from a noun noun
Compa rative deletion deletion o ccurs ccurs in
from a d i rect or indirect question question
phra se. N-ellipsis N-ellipsis occurs with a
compa rative rative clauses i ntroduced ntroduced
exce pt the question question word. It is a
l i mited set of modifiers modifiers in English
by tha n i n English. The expressio expression n
freq uent type of ellipsis that that
(cardi nal and ordinal numbers numbers and
i n the comparative clause is elided elided
ap pears to occur in most if not all
pos sessive sessive determiners), determiners), whereas whereas
tha t corresponds corresponds to the
l a nguages. It can operate both
i t is much freer in other langu languages. ages.
expre ssion focused by a
forwa rds and backwards backwards like VP-
The follo wing wing e xamples xamples illustrate
compa rative rative morph such
el lipsis, but unlike unlike gapping,
N-el lipsis lipsis with cardinal cardinal and ordinal
as more or -er in the antecede antecedent nt
s trip ping, answer answer fragments, and
numbers:
cla use, e.g. e.g.
ps eudogapping, eudogapping, e.g.
Fred d i d three tasks because because
More pe ople arrived than we
John can play s omething, omething, but I
Sus an had done two two tasks. - N-
expected people woul d arri arri ve. -
don’t know what he can play. -
ellipsis
Compa rative deletion
Sluicing
The fi rst train train and the
She ordered ordered more beer than we
When he will call I d on't know, but
second train have arrived. - N-
coul d drink drink beer. - Comp arative
John wi ll definitely call. call. - Slui cing
ellipsis
deletion
The s luicing illustrated illustrated with these
And the following two two sentences
Dori s looks more s atisfied atisfied than
two s en tences tences has occurred i n
illustrate N-ellipsis with possessive
Doree n looks looks satisfied. - Com pa rative ative
i ndi rect question questions. s. Sl uicing uicing in
determiners:
deletion
di rect questions questions i s illustrated with
I he ard Mary's dog, and you heard
Wil liam liam has friends friends in more
the fo l lowing lowing two examples: examples:
Bill's dog. - N-e llipsis llipsis
coun tries than you have friends
A: So me thing unusual happened.
If D oris tries my chili, I will try
i n countries. - Comp Comp a rative rative d eletion eletion
B: Wha Wha t happened? - Sl uicing
hers chili. - N-e llipsis llipsis
Compa rative deletion deletion is different different
crazy
Due to the personalities. personalities. -
- Sl uicing uicing
[1]
from ma ny of the other optional
el lipsis mechanisms mechanisms insofar insofar as it is obl igatory. igatory. The no n-elliptical n-elliptical
Wha t i s END-STOPPED? END-STOPPED? END-STOPPED means the line
versi ons of these sentences are
en ds i n punctuation, punctuation, s o that there
una cceptable. a complete
is a distinc distinctt pause at the end of
compl ement, whereby the e lided
the li ne. ne. EXAMPLE
compl ement is a finite clause, clause,
The s ea is calm tonight. tonight.
i nfin itive itive p hrase, or prepositional prepositional
Wha t is ENJAMBMENT? ENJAMBMENT?
phra se. The verbal predicates predicates that
ENJAMBED LINE mean the line
can l icense null complement
conti nues through through into the next
a na phora phora form a limited set (e .g. kn ow, approve, approve, refuse,dec refuse,decide ide
l i ne of p oetry. oetry. It is also called a “run -on” lin e. No punctuation punctuation will
ap pear at the end of
). Inte restingly, restingly, the elided
an ENJAMBED LINE. You are are
compl ement ement cannot cannot be a noun
mea nt to read straight through through
phrase.
the l ine when it contains contains no
Q: Do you k now w hat happened? happened?
pun ctuation at the e nd. nd. EXAMPLE
A:No, A:No, I do n't know what happened? -
She i s as in a field a silken silken tent
Nul l co mplement mplement anaphora anaphora
At mi dday when a sunny summer summer
Q: Do you a pprove of the plan? A:
breeze
No, I don't a pprov pprove e of the plan. - Null compl ement anaphora anaphora
Has dried the the dew and all its ropes relent, What i s a CAESURA? CAESURA?
They told Bill to to help, but he
A CAESURA CAESURA ia a pause in the
refused to help. - Null com plement plement
mi ddle of a line of poetry, poetry,
anaphora
i ndicated by a pu nctuation nctuation mar mark k in
The y offered two ways to spend
order to s ymboliz ymbolize e a pause. EXAMPLE
the d ay, but I couldn't couldn't
St. Agnes’ Eve – Ah, bitter chill it
decide between them. - Null
was!
compl ement anaphora anaphora
The o wl , for a ll his feathers, feathers, was was a-
Of the various ellipsis ellipsis me cha nisms, nisms, null complement a na phora phora is the least studied. studied. In thi s regard, its status status as ellipsis ellipsis is a poi nt of debate, s ince its behavior i s not consistent consistent with the behavior behavior of ma ny of the other ellipsis ellipsis mechanisms.
cold. Allegory A s ymbolic narrative narrative in which the s urfa ce details details imply a secondary mea ning. Allegory ofte n takes the form of a story in which which the cha racters represent represent moral qua lities. The most famous exa mple in English i s John Bun yan's Pilgrim's Progress, Progress, in whi ch the name of the central cha racter, Pilgrim, epitomizes epitomizes the boo k's allegorical allegorical nature. Ka Ka y Boyl e's s tory tory "Astronomer's "Astronomer's Wife"
a nd Christina Rossetti's Rossetti's poem "Up"UpHi l l" both contain contain allegorical allegorical elements. Alliteration The re petition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of wo rds . Example: Example: "Fetched "Fetched fres h, as I suppose suppose,, off some s weet wo od." Hopkins, "In the Val ley of the Elwy." Elwy." Anapest Two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one, one, as in compre -HEND o r in-ter-VENE in-ter-VENE.. An a na pestic meter rises rises to the a ccented beat as in Byron's Byron's lines from "The D estruction of Se nnacherib": "And th e sheen sheen of the i r spears was l ike stars stars on the se a, / When the blue wave wave rolls ni ghtly on deep Galilee." Galilee." Antagonist A cha racter or force against which another character struggles. Creon i s Antig one's one's antagonist antagonist in Sop ho cles' cles' playAntigone; playAntigone; Te iresias iresias i s th e antagonist of Oedipus Oedipus in Sop ho cles' cles' Oedipus the King. Assonance The rep etition of sim ilar vowel so unds in a sentence or a line of poe try or pros e, as in "I rose and tol d him o f my woe ." Whitman' Whitman'ss "Whe n I Heard the Learn'd Learn'd Astron omer" contains contains a ssonantal ssonantal "I's " in the following lines: "How "How s oon unaccountable unaccountable I became tire d a nd sick, / Till ri ri sing and gl i ding out I wander'd off by myself." Aubade A l ove l yric i n which which the speaker speaker compl ains about the arrival of the da wn, when he must part from his l over. John Donne's "The "The Sun Ri s ing" exemplifies this poetic poetic genre. Ballad A narrative poem written in fourl i n e stanzas, stanzas, characteriz ed by swift a ctio n and narrated in a d irect s tyle . The Anonymous Anonymous medieval ba l lad, "Barbara "Barbara Allan," exe mplifies the genre. genre. Bl ank verse verse A l ine of poetry poetry or prose in unrhymed unrhymed i ambic ambic p entameter entameter. Sha kespeare's kespeare's s onnets, onnets, Milton's
ep i c poem Pa Pa radise radise Lost, and Rob ert Frost's meditative meditative poems s uch a s "Birches" "Birches" i nclude nclude many l i nes of blank verse. verse. He re are the ope ning blank blank verse lines of "Bi rches": When I see birches ben d to left a nd right / Across Across the l i nes of straighter straighter darker trees, trees, / I li ke to think some boy's boy's been swi nging nging them. Caesura A s trong pause within a line of verse . The following following stanza from Ha rdy's "The Ma Ma n He Ki Ki lled" conta ins caesuras caesuras i n the middle two li nes: nes: He th oug ht he'd 'list, perhaps, perhaps, Off-ha nd-like--ju nd-like--just st as I-Was out of work-had work-had sold his traps-No othe r reason why. why. Character An i ma ginary person that inhabits inhabits a l i terary terary work. Literary cha racters racters ma y be ma jor or mi nor, nor, static (un changing) or dynamic (capable of cha nge). nge). In Sha kespeare's kespeare's Othello, De s demona demona is a major character, character, but on e wh o is static, static, like the mi nor character Bianca. Othello Othello is a m ajo r character character who is dynamic, dynamic, exhi biting biting a n ability ability to change. Characterization The m eans by which writers writers pres ent and reveal character. character. Alth ou gh techniqu techniques es of cha racterization racterization are complex, complex, write rs typically reveal reveal characters throug h their speech, dress, ma nner, a nd actions. actions. Readers come to un derstand derstand the character Mis s Emily i n Faulkner's Faulkner's story "A "A Ros e for Emily" through what she s a ys, how she lives, and what she does. Climax The tu rning point of the action action in the p lot of a play play or story. story. The cli max represents represents the point of grea test tension i n the work. work. The cli max of John Updike's "A&P," "A&P," for exa mple, occurs when Sammy qui ts his job as a cashier. Clos ed form A type o f form or s tructu tructure re in poe try cha racterized racterized by regularity a nd consistency i n such elements
as rhyme, line length, and and metr met rical pattern. pattern. Frost's "Stopping By Wood s on a Snowy Evening" Evening" provid es one of many e xamples. A single single s tanzaillustrates anzaillustrates some of the fe atures of closed form: Whos e woods woods these are I think I know. His house house is i n the village village though. though. He wi ll not see me stopping stopping here To wa tch his woods fill up with snow. Complication An i nte nsification nsification of the the con flict flict in a s tory or play. Complication Complication bui lds up, accumulates, accumulates, and de velops the primary or central confl ict in a literary work. Frank O'Conno r's story "Guests of the Nati on" provides provides a striking striking exa mple, as d oes Ralph Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal." Conflict A s truggle between between opposing forces in a story or play, usually res olved by the end of the work. The confli ct may occur within within a cha racter as well as between cha racters. La dy Gregory's Gregory's one-act one-act pl ay The Rising of the Moon e xemplifies both types of confl ict as the Policeman Policeman wrestles wi th his conscience i n an inner confl ict and confronts confronts an an tagonist tagonist in the person of the ba llad singer. singer. Connotation The as sociations sociations called up b y a word tha t goes beyond beyond its di ctionary me aning. Poets, Poets, es pecially, pecially, tend to use words ri ri ch i n con notation. notation. Dylan Th omas's omas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That That Good Ni ght" i ncludes ncludes intensely intensely conn otative language, language, as in these l i nes: "Good men, the l ast wave wave by, crying crying how b right / Their frail de eds might have danced in a gree n b ay, / Rage, rage against the the dying of the light." light." Convention A cus tomary fe ature ature o f a l iterary work, such as the use of a chorus i n Greek tra tra gedy, gedy, the i ncl usion of an explicit moral in a fable, fable, or the use of a particular rhyme rhyme s cheme in a vi llanelle llanelle.. Lite rary conventions are defining defining
fe atu res of particular particular literary ge nres , such as novel, novel, short story, ba l lad, sonnet, sonnet, and play. Couplet A pa ir of rhymed lines lines that may or ma y not constitute a separate separate stanza in a poem. Sha kespeare's kespeare's s onnets onnets end in rhymed co uplets, as in "For thy s weet l ove ove remembered remembered such wea lth brings brings / That then I scorn to cha nge my state with kings." Dactyl A s tressed syllable syllable followed by two un s tressed ones, as in FLUTter-i ng o r BLUE-ber-r BLUE-ber-ry. y. The The fol l owing owing playful lines illustrate illustrate dou ble dactyls, two dactyls per line: Hi ggledy, piggledy, piggledy, Emil y Dickinson Dickinson Gi bbering, jabbering. jabbering. Denotation The d i ctionary ctionary me aning of a word. Write rs typi typi cally cally play off a word's de notative meaning against its conn otations, or suggested suggested and i mplied a ssociational ssociational implications. implications. In th e fo llowing llowing lines from Peter Mei nke's "Advice to My Son " the refe rences to flowers and fruit, brea d and wine denote denote specific specific thi ngs, b ut also suggest something something be yond the literal, dictionary dictionary mea nings nings of the words: words: To be s pecific, between the peony and rose Pla nt sq uash and spinach, spinach, turnips an d tomatoes; tomatoes; Be a uty is nectar a nd nectar, in a des ert, ert, saves-... a nd a lways lways serve serve b read with your wine. But, son, a l ways serve serve wine. wine. Denouement The re s olution olution of th the plot of a l i terary work. The d enouement enouement of Ha mlet takes place place after the catastrophe, catastrophe, with the stage l i ttered with corpses. During the de nouement Fortinbras Fortinbras makes an en tran ce and and a speech, and Hora ti o speaks speaks his sweet lines in prai se of Hamlet. Hamlet. Dialogue The co nversation of character characters i n
a l i terary terary work. In fiction, dialogue i s typi cally cally enclosed enclosed within quo tation marks. In plays, plays, cha racters' speech speech is preceded by thei r names. names. Diction The s election of words in a li terary terary work. A work's d iction iction forms one of i ts ce ntrally i mportant mportant literary literary el ements, as wri wri ters use use words to convey a ction, reveal character, character, i mply a ttitudes, ttitudes, identify themes, a nd s uggest uggest va va lues. We ca n speak speak of the di ction particular to a cha racter, as i n Iago's Iago's and De s demona's demona's very different ways of s peaking in Othello. Othello. We can al so refer to a poet' poet's diction as repre sented over the body of h is or he r work, as i n Donne' Donne'ss or Hughes's diction. Elegy A lyric poem that laments the de a d. Robert Hayden's Hayden's "Those "Those Wi nte r Sundays" Sundays" is elegiac in tone. A more explicitly identified identified elegy elegy is W.H. Aude n's "In Memory of Wi l liam Butler Butler Yeats" a nd his "Funeral Blues." Blues." Elision The o mission of an unstressed unstressed vowel or s yllable yllable to preserve preserve the meter of a line of p oetry. oetry. Ale xander uses elision in "Sound a nd Se nse": nse": "Flies o'er o'er th' unb ending corn...." corn...." Enjambment A run -on line of poetry i n which l ogical a nd grammatical grammatical sense sense carries over from from o ne line into into the ne xt. An An e njambed line differs from a n e nd-stopped nd-stopped line in which the gram matical matical and logical sense i s completed within the line. In the the ope ning lines of Robert Robert Brown i ng's ng's "My Last D uchess," for examp le, the first first line is is e ndstop ped and the second second enjambed: Tha t's my last Duchess painted painted on the wall, Looki ng as if s he were were alive. alive. I call Tha t pi ece a wonder, now .... Epic A long lon g narrative poem that records the adventures adventures of a hero. Epi cs typically typically chronicle the origin originss of a ci vilization and and embody i ts
centra l values. Examples from from wes tern literature literature include Home r's Iliad and Odyssey, Odyssey, Virgi l's Aeneid, and Mil ton's Paradise Paradise Lost. Lost. Epigram A b rie f witty poem, often satirical. satirical. Ale xander Pope's Pope's "Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog" exe mplifies the genre: I a m hi s Highnes Highness' s' dog at Kew; Pray tel l m e, sir, whose dog are you? Exposition The fi rst stage of a fictional or dra ma tic plot, in which necessary necessary ba ckground information information i s provid ed. Ibsen's Ibsen's A Doll 's House, House, for in s tance, begins begins with a convers ation between the two centra l characters, a dialogue dialogue that fi l ls the audience audience in on events that that occurred b efore the action of the pl a y begins, but which are i mpo rtant rtant in the development development of its plot. Fal ling action action In the plot of a story or pl ay, the acti on following following the climax of the work tha t moves it towards towards i ts de nouement or resolution. resolution. The fa l ling action action of Othello begins af ter Othello realizes that Iago is res ponsible for plotting plotting a gainst gainst hi m by s purring purring him on to murder hi s w ife, Desdemona. Desdemona. Fal ling meter Poetic Poeti c meters such as t rochaic rochaic and da ctyl ctyl ic that move or fall from a s tressed to an unstressed s yllable. yllable. The nonsense l ine, "Higgledy, "Higgledy, pi ggledy," ggledy," i s dactylic, with the acce nt on th e first syllable syllable and the the two s yllables following falling falling off from tha t accent i n each word. Trocha ic meter is represented represented by thi s l ine: "Hip-hop, be-bop, be-bop, treetop--freedom." Fiction An i ma gined story, whether in pros e, poetry, or drama. Ibsen's Ibsen's Nora i s fictional, fictional, a "make-believe" cha racter in a play, a s are Hamlet an d Othello. Characters Characters like Rob ert Browning's Browning's Duke and Duch ess from his poem "My Las t Duch ess" are fictional as well, though they may be based based on
a ctua l historical historical in dividuals. dividuals. And, of cou rse, characters in stories stories a nd n ovels are fictional, fictional, though the y, too, too, ma y be based, i n some way, on re al people. The The i mpo rtant thing to remember remember is tha t writers embellish a nd em broider and alter actual l ife whe n they use real lif e as the the basis basis for the i r work. They They fi ctionalize ctionalize fa cts, a nd deviate from real-life s i tuations as they they "make things things up." Fi gurative language language A fo rm of l anguage use in which write rs and speakers speakers convey s ome thing thing other than the literal me anin g of their words. Examples Examples include hyperbole or exa ggeration, litotes litotes or und erstatement, erstatement, simile and me tap hor, hor, which employ compa rison, rison, and s ynecdoche ynecdoche and me tonymy, in which a part of a thi ng stands for the whole. Flashback An i nte rruption rruption of a work's chrono logy to describe or present a n i ncident that occurred prior to the m ain time frame of a work's work's a ctio n. Writers Writers use f lashbacks lashbacks to compl icate the the sense of chronology in the plot of their works and to convey the richness of the experience of human time. Fa ulkner's story "A Ros e for Emily" Emily" i ncl udes udes flashbacks. flashbacks. Foil A cha racter who contrasts contrasts and pa rallels the main character character in a pl ay or s tory. tory. La La ertes, i n Hamlet, Hamlet, is a foi l for the main characte character; r; i n Othe llo, Emilia Emilia and Bianca are are foi ls for Desdemona. Desdemona. Foot A metrical unit composed of s tressed and unstressed unstressed syllables. For exa mple, an iamb or iambic iambic foo t is represented represented by ˘', that is, a n un accented syllable syllable followed by an acce nted one. Frost's line line "Whos e woods these these are I think I kno w" contains four i ambs, ambs, and is thus an iambic foot. foot. Foreshadowing Hin ts of what is to come in the actio n of a play or a story. Ib s en's A Doll's House House i ncludes ncludes
fore s hadowing hadowing as does Synge 's Riders to the Sea. So, too, do Poe 's "Cask of Amontillado" Amontillado" a nd Cho pin's "Story "Story of an Hour." Free verse Poetry with out a regular pattern pattern o f meter or rhyme. The verse is "free" i n not being bound by ea rlier poetic conventions conventions requ i ring poems to adhere adhere to an expl icit and identifiable identifiable meter and rhyme rhyme scheme in a form such as the s onnet or ballad. Modern and conte mporary poets of the twen tieth and twenty-first twenty-first cen turi es often employ free ve rse. Wi l liams's liams's "This Is Just to Say" Say" is one of many e xample xamples. s. Hyperbole A fi gure of speech involving involving exa ggeration. John John Donne uses hype rbole in his p oem: "Song: "Song: Go a nd Ca tch a Falling Star." Iamb An un s tressed syllable syllable followed followed by a s tressed one, as in to-DAY. Se e Foot. Foot. Image A con crete representation representation of a s en se impression, impression, a feeling, or a n i de a. Imagery refers to th e patter pattern n of rel ated details details in a work. In so me works works one image image pred ominates either by recu recu rring rring throug hout the work or by a ppearing at a cri tical point in the pl ot. Often writers use multiple i ma ges throughout a work to s uggest states of feeling and to convey i mplications mplications of thought a nd a ction. ction. Some modern poets, poets, s uch a s Ezra Pound Pound and William William Carl os Williams, write poems poems that l a ck discursive explanat explanation ion en tirely and i nclude nclude only images. Among the most famous examp examples les is Pound's Pound's poem "In a Station Station o f the Metro": The a pparition of these faces in the crowd; Peta ls on a wet, black bough. bough. Imagery The p a ttern of related compa rative rative aspects aspects of lan guage, guage, pa rticularly of images, in a li terary terary work. Ima gery gery of light and da rkness pervade James Joyce's Joyce's s tori es "Araby," "Araby," "The Boarding
Hou s e," and "The "The Dead." So, too, doe s religious religious i magery. magery. Irony A con tra st or dis crepancy between between what is said and what what is m eant eant or be tween what happens and what i s e xpected to happen in life life and i n l iterature. In In verbal irony, irony, cha racters say the the opposite opposite of what they mean. mean. In irony irony of circums tance or situation, situation, the opp osite of what is expected occurs . In dramatic irony, irony, a cha racter speaks in ignorance of a s i tuation or event known to to the au dience dience or to the other other cha racters. Flannery O'Connor's s hort s tories tories employ all these forms of i rony, rony, as d oes Poe's "C "Cask of Amontillado." Amontillado." Literal language A form of l anguage in which write rs and s peakers peakers mean exactly exactly wha t their words words denote. Se e Figurative language,Denotation language,Denotation,, a nd Connotation. Connotation. Lyric Lyric poe m A type of p oem characterized by brevi ty, comp comp ression, ression, and the expre ssion of feeling. Most of the poe ms in this book are lyrics. The The an onymous "Western "Western Wind" ep i tomizes tomizes the genre: Wes tern wind, when when will thou blow, The s mall ra ra in down can rain? Chris Chris t, if my love were in my a rms rms And I i n my bed again! again! Metaphor A co mpa rison rison between essentially essentially unl ike things without without an e xplicitly xplicitly compa rative word such as like or as. An example is "My "My lo ve is a red, red red rose," From Bu rns's "A Red, Red Rose." Lan gston Hu ghes's ghes's "Dream De fe rred" i s built entirely of meta phors. Metaphor is one of the mo s t important important of l iterary us es o f language. language. Shakespeare Shakespeare empl oys oys a wide range range of meta phor i n his sonnets sonnets and his pl a ys, often in such such density and profu sion that readers readers are kept bus y analyzing analyzing and interpreting interpreting an d unraveling the m. Compare Compare Simile Simile..
Meter The me asured pattern pattern of rhythmic rhythmic accents in p oems. oems. Se e Foot a nd Iamb. Iamb. Metonymy A fi gure of sp eech in which a clo s ely related related term is s ubstituted ubstituted for a n ob ject or idea. An An e xample: xample: "We h ave always always remained loyal to the crown." See Se e Synecdoche. Synecdoche. Narrative p oem oem A po em th at tells a story. Se e Ballad. Ballad. Narrator The voi ce and i mplied mplied speaker of a fi ctio nal work, to b e distinguished distinguished from the a ctual livi livi ng author. author. For exa mple, the narrator of Joyce's Joyce's "Araby" i s not James Joyce hi mself, but a literary fictional cha racter created created expressly to tell the s tory. Fa ulkner's ulkner's "A Rose for Emi l y" con con tains a communal na rrator, identified only as "we." Se e Point of view. view. Octave An ei ght-line unit, unit, which may constitute a stanza; stanza; or a section of a poe m, as in the octave octave of a sonnet. sonnet . Ode A l ong , stately poem in in stanzas of varie d length length, meter, meter, and form. Usu ally a serious poem on an exa l ted subject, subject, such as Horace's "Ehe u fu gaces," gaces," but sometimes a more l ighthearted ighthearted work, such as Neru da's "Ode to to My Socks ." Onomatopoeia The u se o f words words to i mitate the the s oun ds they describe. Words such as buzz and crack crack are ono matopoetic. The The follo wing wing line from Pope 's "Sound and Sense" Sense" ono matopoetically matopoetically imitates in so und what it describe describes: s: Whe n Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The l ine too labors, and the words words move slow. Mos t often, however, however, ono matopoeia refers refers to words a nd gro ups of words, such as Ten nys on's on's description description of the "murmur o f i nnumerable nnumerable bees," bees," whi ch attempts to capture the so und of a swarm of bees bees buzzing. buzzing.
Open form A type o f s tructur tructure e o r form in poe try cha racterized racterized by freedom freedom from re gularity and consistency consistency in s uch e lements lements as rhyme, line length, length, metrical pattern, pattern, and overa ll po etic etic s tructure. tructure. E.E. E.E. Cummings's "[Buffalo Bill's]" is one examp le. See als also o Free ve ve rse. rse. Parody A h umo rous, mocking mocking imitation imitation of a l i terary terary work, sometimes sometimes s a rcastic, but often playful playful and eve n resp ectful ectful in its playful i mi tation. tation. Examples Examples i nclude nclude Bob McKen McKen ty's paro dy of Fros t's t's "Dust of Sn ow" a nd Kenneth Koch's Koch's pa rody of Williams's Williams's "This is Just to Sa y." y." Personification The e ndowment of inanimate obje cts or abstract concepts concepts with a ni mate or l iving qualities. qualities. An exa mple: "The yellow yellow leaves fl a unted their color gaily i n the bree ze." Wordsworth's Wordsworth's "I wa ndered lonely as a cl oud" oud" i ncl udes udes p ersonificat ersonification. ion. Plot The un ified structure structure of i ncidents ncidents in a l iterary iterary work. Se e Conflict, Conflict , Climax, Climax, Denouement, Denouement, a n dFlashback. dFlashback . Point of view The a ngle of vision from which a story i s narrated narrated.. See See Narrator. Narrator. A work's point point of vi ew can can b e: first pe rson, in which the narrator is a cha racter or an observer, observer, res pectively; pectively; objective, in which the n a rrator knows knows or appears to kno w no mo re than the reader; omn i scient, scient, in which the the narrator kno ws everything everything about the cha racters; and l imited omn i scient, scient, which allows allows the na rrator to know some some things a bou t the characters characters but not everything. Protagonist The m ai n character character of a li terary work-- Hamlet and Othello Othello in the pl ays named after them, Gregor Gregor Sa msa i n Kafka'sMetamorp Kafka'sMetamorphosis, hosis, Paul in Lawrence's Lawrence's "Rocking-Horse "Rocking-Horse Winner."
Pyrrhic A me trical foot with two uns tressed s yllables yllables ("of the"). Quatrain A four-line four-line stanza in a poem, the fi rst fo ur lines and the second four four l i nes in a Pe trachan trachan sonnet. sonnet. A Sha kespearean sonnet sonnet con tains tains three quatrains quatrains followed by a couplet. Recognition The p oin t at which which a character und erstands his or he r situation situation as i t rea lly is. Sophocles' Oedipus comes to this point point near the the end of Oed i pus pus the King; Othello Othello come s to a similar understanding understanding of hi s s ituat ituation ion in Act V of Othe llo. llo. Resolution The s orting out or unraveling unraveling of a pl ot at the e nd of a play, novel, novel, or s tory. See Se e Plot Plot. Reversal The p oint at which the action action of the p l ot turns in an unexpected unexpected di rection for the the protagonist protagonist.. Oed i pus's pus's and Othello's recogn itions are also reversals. reversals. They l earn what they did not expect to l earn. earn. Se e Recognitionand Recognition and also also Irony. Irony. Rhyme The matching of final vowel vowel or cons onant sounds sounds in two or more words . The following following stanza of "Ri chard Cory" employs employs a lternate lternate rhyme, wi th the third line rhyming rhyming wi th the first and the fourth with the se cond: cond: Whe never Richard Cory Cory went down town, We pe ople on the the pavement lo oked at him; him; He wa s a gentlem gentleman an from sole to crown Cle a n favored and imperially imperially s lim. Rhythm The re currence of accent or stress stress i n l ines of verse. In the following following li nes from from "Same in Blues" by Lan gston Hughes, the accented accented words and syllables are underlined: I s aid to my baby, Bab y take it s low.... low.... Lulu s aid aid to Leonard Leonard I wa nt a d iamond iamond ring ring
Ri sing action action A s et o f conflicts conflicts a nd crises that that cons titute the part part of a play's or s tory's plot leading up to the climax. climax. Se e Climax,Denouement Climax,Denouement,, and and Plot. Plot. Ri sing meter meter Poeti c meters such a s i ambic ambica a nd a napestic napestic tha t move move or as cend from an unstressed unstressed to a stressed syllable. Se eAnapest, eAnapest, Iamb, Iamb, and and Falling meter. meter. Satire A l i terary work that criticizes hum a n misconduct misconduct and ridicules ridicules vice s , stupidities, stupidities, and follies. Swi ft's Gulliver's Travels Travels is a famo us example. example. Chekh ov's Marriage Proposal Proposal and O'Conno r's "Everything "Everything That Rises Mus t Converge," have strong satirical elements. Sestet A s i x-line unit of verse constitut constituting a stanza or section of a poem; the la st six lines of an Italian Italiansonnet sonnet.. Examp les: Petrarch's Petrarch's "If it is not l ove, then what is it that I feel," feel," a nd Fro st's st's "Design." "Design." Sestina A po em o f thirty-nine thirty-nine lines a nd writte n in i ambic ambic pe ntameter. ntameter. Its six-line six-line s tanza repeat in an i ntri cate and prescribed prescribed order the fin al word in each of the first six li nes. nes. After the sixth sixth stanza, stanza, there i s a three-line envoi, envoi, which uses uses the s ix rep rep eating eating words, two per line. Setting The ti me and place of a literary literary work tha t establish i ts context. context. The s tories of Sandra Cisneros Cisneros are s et i n the the American southwes southwestt in the mi d to late 20th 20th century, century, thos e of James Joyce Joyce in D ublin, ublin, Ire l and i n the early early 20th 20th centu ry. Simile A fi gure of sp eech involving involving a compa rison between unlike unlike things us ing like, as, or as though. though. An examp le: "My "My love is l ike a red, red, red rose." Sonnet A fo urteen-line poem in in iambic iambic pentameter. pentameter. The Shakespearean or Engl ish sonnet is arranged as
three quatrains and a final final couplet, couplet, rhyming abab cdcd ef ef gg . The Petrarchan Petrarchan or Italian s onn et divides divides into two parts: an ei ght-line octave a nd a six-line s estet, rhyming a bba abba cde cde cde or abb a abba cd cd cd cd. Spondee A metricalfoot represented by two two s tressed syllables, syllables, s uch a s KNICKKNICKKNACK. Stanza A di vision or unit unit of a p oem that is repe ated i n the same form--either form--either wi th s imilar or identical pattern patternss or rhyme rhyme a ndmeter, dmeter, or with vari a tions tions from one stanza to a noth er. The stanzas stanzas of Gertrude Schna ckenberg' ckenberg'ss "Signs" are regu l ar; those of Rita Dove's Dove's "Cana ry" ry" a re irregular. irregular. Style The wa y an a uthor uthor chooses words, words, a rranges th em i n sentences sentences or in l i nes of dialogue dialogue or verse, and de velops ideas and actions with de s cription, cription, imagery, imagery, and o ther literary techniques. Se e Connotation, Connotation, D enotation enotation,, Dict Di ctii on , Fi gurative gurative language,Image language,Image,, Imagery, Imagery, Irony, Irony, M etaphor, etaphor, Narrator, Narrator, Point of view, view , Syntax, Syntax, and Tone. Tone. Subject Wha t a s tory tory or play is about; to to be di stinguis stinguished hed from plot and an d theme. theme. Faulkner's "A Ros e fo r Emily" Emily" is about the the de cline of a particular way of l ife en de mic to the American s outh outh befo re the civil war. Its plot conce rns how Faulkner describes describes a nd organizes the a ctions ctions of the s tory's characters. Its Its theme is the overa ll meaning Faulkner conveys. conveys. Subplot A s ubs idiary idiary or s ubordinate ubordinate or parallel parallel plot i n a play or s tory that coe xists with the main plot. The s tory of Ros encrantz encrantz and Gui ldenstern forms a su bplot bplot with the o verall plot of Hamlet. Symbol An obje ct or a ction in a literary literary work tha t means more than itself, tha t stan ds for s omething omething beyond its elf. The glass glass unicorn unicorn in The Gl a ss Menagerie, the rocking
hors e in "The Rocking-Horse Rocking-Horse Win ner," the road i n Frost's Frost's "The Roa d Not Taken"--all Taken"--all are symbols in thi s sense. sense. Synecdoche A fi gure of speech in which which a part i s s ubstituted ubstituted for the whole. An exa mple: "Lend me a hand." Se e Metonymy. Metonymy. Syntax The gram matical matical order of w ords ords in a s entence or line line of verse verse or di a logue. The organization organization of words and phrases and clauses clauses in s en tences tences of prose, verse, verse, and di a logue. In the following exa mple, n ormal ormal s yntax yntax (subject, verb, obje ct order) is inverted: inverted: "Whos e woods these these are I think I know." Tercet A three-line three-line stanza, stanza, as the stanzas i n Fros t's t's "Acquainted "Acquainted With With the Ni ght" a nd Shelley's Shelley's "Ode to the Wes t Wind." The three-line three-line s tan zas or sections sections that together cons titute the sestet of a Petrarchan or I talian talian sonnet. Theme The i dea of a literary literary work ab s tracted tracted from from its details of l an guage, guage, character, character, and a ction, ction, an d cast in the form form of a gen eralization. eralization. See discussion of Di ckinson's ckinson's "Crumbling "Crumbling is no t an i ns tant's tant's Act." Tone The i mplied attitude of a wri wri ter towa rd the s ubject ubject and characters characters of a work, as, for example, example, Fl annery O'Connor's O'Connor's ironic tone in he r "Good Country People." Se e Irony. Irony. Trochee An a ccented s yllable followed followed by an unaccented one, as in FOOTball. Understatement A fi gure of sp eech in which a write r or speaker says says less than what h e o r she means; means; the opp osite o f exaggeration. exaggeration. The last l i ne of Frost's Frost's "Birches" illustrates illustrates thi s l iterary de vice: "One could do worse than be a swinger swinger of birches." Villanelle A ni neteen-line neteen-line lyric poem that
rel i es heavily on repetition. repetition. The fi rst a nd third lines alternate alternate throug hout the poem, which which is structured in six six stanzas -five tercets and a concluding concluding quatrain. quatrain. Examples i ncl ude Bishop's Bishop's "One Art," Art," Roe thke's "The Waking," and and Thoma s's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night."
Allegory Definition: An a l legory i s a symbolism device whe re the meaning of a greater, greater, ofte n a bstract, bstract, concept concept is conveyed with the aid of a more corpore al object or idea being us ed as a n example. example. Usually a rheto ric device, an allegory allegory su ggests a meaning meaning via me tap horic horic examples. examples. Example: Fa i th is like a stony uphill uphill climb: a s i ngle stumble stumble might send you you s pra wling wling but belief and s tead fastness fastness will see you to the very top. Alliteration Definition: All iteration iteration is a literary de vice whe re words are used in quick s uccess ion and begin begin with l etters etters be l onging onging to the same sound group. Whether it is the cons onant sound sound or a s pecific pecific vowel group, the alliteration alliteration i nvol ves creatin creating g a repetition of s i milar s ounds ounds in the sentence. sentence. All iterations iterations a re also created when when the words all b egin egin with the same l ette r. Alliteration Alliterationss are used to a dd character to the writing and ofte n a dd a n element element of ‘fun’ to the pi ece.. ece.. Example: The Wi cked Witch Witch of the West wen t he r own way. (The ‘W’ sound sound i s h ighlighted and repeated throug hout the sentence.) sentence.) Allusion Definition: An a llusion is a figure of speech speech whe reby the author refers to a
s ubject matter such as a place, eve nt, or literary work by way of a pa ssing reference. reference. It is up to the rea der to make a connection connection to the s ubject being being mentioned. mentioned. Example: It’s no w onder eve ryone ryone refers to Mary as a nother Mother Teresa i n the m ak ing; she she loves to help and care a fter people everywhereeverywherefrom the s treets treets to her own friends. In the example the author author uses the m en tion of Mother Teresa to i ndi cate the sort of qualities qualities that Mary has . Amplification Definition: Ampl ification ref ref ers ers to a literary pra ctice wherein the writer em be llishes llishes the sentence sentence by ad ding more informatio information n to it i n order to in crease crease its worth worth and und erstandability erstandability.. When a pl ain s en tence tence is too abrupt and fails to convey the full im plications plications de s ired, amplification amplification comes into pl ay when the mwriter adds more to the structure to give give it m ore meaning. Example: Origi nal sentencesentence- The thesis pa per was difficult. difficult. After After a mplifi cation- The The thesis paper wa s difficult: it required extensive res earch, data collection, collection, sample s urveys, intervi intervi ews a nd a lot of fieldwork. Anagram Definition: Ana grams are an extremely extremely pop ular form of literary de vice whe rein the writer jumbles up pa rts of the word to create create a new word. From the syllables of a phra se to the individual individual l etters of a word, any fraction can can be jum bl ed to crea te a new fo rm. Ana gram is a form of wordplay wordplay tha t allows the writer to i nfuse myste ry a nd a little interactive interactive fun in the writing so that the reader reader can de cipher the actual actual word on
the i r own and discover a depth depth of mea ning to the writing. Example: An an a gram gram for "debit card" is "ba d credit". As you you ca n see, both phra ses use the same letters. By mi xin g the the l etters etters a bit of h umor umor is created. Analogy Definition: An an a logy is a li terary device that he l ps to establish a relationship relationship ba s ed on similarities similarities between between two concepts o r ideas. ideas. By using an an al ogy we can convey a new idea idea by us in g the bluepr blueprint int of an old one a s a basis for understanding. understanding. With a m ental linkage between between the two, one ca n create create compre hension regarding regarding the new conce pt i n a simple a nd s uccinct uccinct manner. Example: In the same way as one cannot cannot ha ve the rainbow without without the rai n, one cannot achieve achieve su ccess ccess an d riches without hard work. Anastrophe Definition: Ana s trophe is a form of literary de vice wherein the order of the nou n a nd the adjective i n the the s en tence tence is exchanged. exchanged. In s tan dard parlance and writing writing the ad jective comes before the noun noun but whe n o ne is employin employing g an an as trophe trophe the noun is followed followed by the a djective. This reversed reversed orde r crea crea tes a d ramatic ramatic impact an d l ends ends weight to to the de s cription cription offered offered by the adjective. Example: He s po ke of times past and fu ture, ture, an d dreamt of things things to be. Anthropomorphism Definition: Anthrop omorphism omorphism can be unde rstood rstood to be the act of l en ding a human quality, quality, emotion or a mbi tion to a non-human non-human obje ct or be ing. This This act of l ending ending a human element element to a non-human non-human s ubject is often employed in order
to en dear the latter to the readers readers or au dience and increase the l evel of rel ativity be tween tween the two whi le a lso lending lending character to the the subject. Example: The ra ging storm brought brought wi th it how l ing winds winds a nd fierce lightning as the residents residents of the village village lo oked up at the angry angry skies in alarm. Antithesis Definition: An a nti thesis is used when the write r employs employs two sentences of contra sting meanings in close proxi mity to one another. another. Whe ther they are words words or phra ses of the same s entence, entence, a n a nti thesis is used to create a stark contra st using two divergent divergent el ements that that come together to crea te one uniform whole. An An a nti thesis plays on the compl ementary ementary property of opp osites to to create one vivid pi cture. The purpose purpose of usi ng an a nti thesis i n literature literature is to create a b a lance between opposite opposite qua lities and lend a greater insight insight in to the s ubjec ubject. t. Example: Whe n Neil Armstrong walked on the m oon it might have have been one sma ll step for a man but but it was one giant leap for mankind. mankind. Aphorism Definition: An ap ho rism rism is a concise s tatement that is made in a matter of fact tone to state a pri nciple or an opinion that is ge ne rally rally understood to be a uni versal truth. truth. Aphorisms Aphorisms a re ofte n a dages, dages, wise sayings sayings and ma xims aimed at imparting imparting sense an d wisdom. It is to be no ted that that a pho risms risms are usually witty witty and curt and o ften have have an u nderlying nderlying tone of a uthority uthority to them. Example: Upon s eeing the shoddy shoddy work done by the employee employee the boss
told him to “either “either shape shape up or sh ip out”. out”.
Archetype Definition: An arche type is a re ference ference to a conce pt, a p erson erson or an object that ha s served as a prototype prototype of its its kind an d i s the original original idea that has come to b e u sed over over and over ag ai n. Archety Archetypes pes are literary de vices that employ the use of a fa mous con cept, cept, person or object to convey a we alth of meaning. meaning. Archetypes are immediately immediately i de ntifiable ntifiable and even though they run the risk o f being being overused, they are s till the best examples of their kind. Example: Rome o and Juliet are an archetype archetype of e ternal love and a s tar-crossed tar-crossed lo ve s tory tory.. Assonance Definition: Ass onance refers to to rep etition etition of s oun ds produced produced by vowels vowels within a s entence or phrase. In this regard as sonance can be understood to be a k i nd of alliteration. alliteration. What sets it ap a rt from alliteratio alliterations ns is that it is the rep etition of only vowel sound sounds. s. Ass onance is the opposite of cons onance, onance, which implies repe titive usage of consonant sounds. Example: “A l on g song”. (Where the ‘o’ ‘o’ sound sound is repeated repeated in the last two two words of the se ntenc ntence) e)
Asyndeton Definition: Asynd eton refers to a practice in l i terature whereby the a uthor purp osely l eaves eaves o ut conjunction conjunctionss i n the sentence, while maintaining maintaining the gra mmatical accuracy of the phra se. Asyndeton as a literary tool he l ps in shortening shortening up the implied me aning of the entire phrase phrase and pres enting it in a succinct form. form. This This compa ct version version helps in creating an i mmediate mmediate impact whereby whereby the rea der is instantly attuned attuned to what the w rite r is tryi tryi ng to convey. convey. Use of thi s literary device device helps in crea ting a s trong trong impact a nd s uch
s en tences tences have greater recall wort worth si nce the idea is is presented in a nutshell. Example: 1. Re ad, Write, Learn. Learn. 2. Wa tch, Absorb, Understand. Understand. 3. Re duce, Reuse, Recycle. Recycle. Authorial Intrusion Definition: Autho rial Intrusion is an interesting interesting l i terary de vice wherein the author pe nning the story, story, poem or prose ste ps away from the text and s pe aks out to to the reader. Authorial Authorial In trusion establishes establishes a one to one rel a tionship between the writer a nd the reader where the the latter i s no lo nger a secondar secondary y player player or a n i nd irect audience to the progress of of the story but is the main s ubject ubject of the au thor’s thor’s attention. Example: In ma ny olden novels, especiall especially y in s us pense pense novels, the protagonist protagonist wou l d move away from the stream of the s tory and speak out to the rea der. This technique technique was often us ed to reveal some crucial el ements of the story to the reader eve n tho ugh the the protagonist might rema in mystified wi thin the story for the ti me being. being. Bibliomancy Definition: As the very na me itself s uggests, uggests, thi s k ind of literary de vice finds its roots i n biblical origins. origins. This term refe rs to the practice of basing a pl ot happening or event and a nti cipating cipating the the results it will have on a faction of the Bible. It involves involves a ra ndom selection process process whe rein the biblical passage is chos en as a founding stone for for ba s ing the outcome of the writing. In a n overall context, context, not limited to jus t literature , bibliomancy bibliomancy refers refers to to fore telling the future by turning to ran dom portions of the Bible Bible for guidance. Example: The Ve das serve serve as a tool for Bi bliomancy to the Hindus Hindus while Musl ims rely rely on the Koran. Bildungsroman Definition:
This is a very popular popular form of s torytelling whereby the a uthor uthor ba ses the plot o n the overall overall growth o f the ce ntral ntral character character throug hout the timeline of the s tory. As th e sto ry progresses, the the s ubject un dergoes dergoes noticeable noticeable me ntal, ph ysical, ysical, s ocial, ocial, emotional, mora l , and often often spiritual spiritual ad vancement and strengthening strengthening be fore the readers’ eyes. It has often been seen that that the prota gonist begins with views, aims an d dreams that are in contrast to the o the r character’s character’s in the s tory tory an d then fights his or her way throug h to achieve them. Example: Scarl et O’Hara i n Gone With the Wi nd e xperienc xperiences es immense pe rsonal growth as she learns learns the val ue of friends and hard work work und er duress, without without compro mising her own dreams. dreams.
Cacophony Definition: A ca coph ony ony in l iterature iterature refers refers to the u s e of words and and phrases that i mply s trong, harsh harsh sounds within the phrase. These words have ja rrin g and dissonant sounds that crea te a disturbing, disturbing, objectionable objectionable atmosphere. Example: Hi s fingers rapped a nd pounded the the doo r, and his foot thumped a gainst gainst the yel lowing lowing wood Caesura Definition: Thi s literary device involves crea ting a fra cture cture of sorts within a s en tence tence where the two separate separate pa rts are distinguishable distinguishable from from one an other yet intrinsically intrinsically linked to one another. The purpose purpose of using a caesura is to create a d ramatic ramatic pa use, which has a strong impact. The p ause helps to add an em oti onal, often theatrical theatrical to uch to to the s entence and conveys a depth of s en timent in a short phrase. phrase. Example: Moza rt- oh how your music makes me soar! Characterization Definition:
Chara cterization cterization in literature re fers fers to a s tep -by-step -by-step process wherein wherein a cha racter of a story is brought to noti ce and then detailed detailed upon i n front of the reader. reader. Chara cterization cterization is a so rt of i ni tiation tiation wherein wherein the reader i s i ntroduced to the character. character. The i ni tial s tep is to introduce the cha racter with a marked em ergence. After the arrival his be havior is dis cussed. cussed. This is fol l owed owed by an insight i nto his thou ght-process. ght-process. Then comes the pa rt where the character voices his opi nions or converses converses with others i n the story. The The l ast a nd finalizing pa rt is wh en others others in the plot res pond to the character’s character’s presence. Example: Micha el Corleone was not jus' a ma fi aso, but a family man. A ma n who wa lked the knife's knife's edge to pres erve erve his sanity. Chiasmus Definition: A ch i asmus is a l iterary tool wher where ea rheto ric figure of speech is utilized. The u niq ueness ueness of a ch iasmus iasmus ari ses from the fact that it has two fracti ons in the whole phrase/ phrase/ pros e/ paragraph paragraph and these two fracti ons are i n sync with one an other. The second fraction fraction is arra nged i n a syntactically syntactically tuned form wi th respect to the first. first. Example: You can take the patriot patriot out of the coun try but you ca nnot ta ta ke the the country out of the patriot" patriot" Circumlocution Definition: Circuml ocution is a f orm of writing writing where the writer writer uses exa ggeratedly l ong and complex complex s en tences tences in o rder rder to convey a me aning that could have otherwise be en conveyed conveyed through a s horter, horter, much s impler sentence. sentence. Circuml ocution i nvolv nvolves es stating an i de a or a view in an indirect indirect manner manner tha t leaves the reader guessing guessing and gras ping at the actual actual meaning. Example: In s tead of writing “he arrived arrived for di nn er at 8 pm” the au thor thor writes,
“8 pm wa s when he reached reached the di nner party”. party”.
Conflict Definition: It i s a literary literary device used used for expre ssing a resistance resistance the prota gonist of the story fi nds nds in a chi eving eving his aims/ dreams. The confl ict is a discord that can have have exte rnal aggressors or can even a rise from w ithin the s elf. elf. It occurs whe n the s ubject ubject is battling his his i nn er discord, discord, may be at odds with hi s s urroundings urroundings and lastly, lastly, may be pi tted against others others i n the story. story. Example: Joh n tried h ard to convince himself tha t hi s Hollywood Hollywood dreams were were worth the s truggle truggle but his parents, parents, a nd h is inner voice voice of re ason, failed to agree. Connotation Definition: Conno tation is a complex l iterary de vice wherein the intended me a ning is not stated clearly and is i ns tead conveyed conveyed through covert, i nd irect means. means. Connotations Connotations le aves a little of the meaning meaning un s tated s o that the the reader can can de code it for himself. himself. Example: And o nce again, the autumn leaves leaves were falling. falling. Thi s phrase uses ‘autumn’ ‘autumn’ to signify s ome thing thing coming coming to an end.
Consonance Definition: Cons onance refers refers to re petition petition of s ou nds produced by cons cons onants onants wi thin a s entence entence or phrase. phrase. In this rega rd consonance consonance can be unde rstood rstood to be a kind of a l literation. literation. What sets it apart from al literatio literations ns is that i t is the rep etition of only consonant s ou nds. Consonance Consonance is the opposite opposite of a s sonance, which i mplies mplies rep etitive usage of vowel sounds. Example: Si ng s weet weet songs for s uzy. Denotation Definition: De notation refers to expressing expressing a me a ning or the significance significance of a
pa rt of a s tory tory in a straightforward, straightforward, cle a r-cut r-cut manner. manner. The re is no roun dabout, covert covert manner em pl oyed oyed and hence denotat denotation ion is the o pposite of connotation. connotation. Example: He pa cked his bags bags and made his wa y out of the house, leavi leavi ng his ol d l ife behind forever. forever. Deu s ex Machina Definition: Deu s ex Machina Machina is a rather rather de batable and often criticized criticized form of l i terary terary device. It refers refers to the i nci dence dence where an implausible implausible conce pt or ch aracter i s brought int into the s tory in order to make the confl ict in the story resolve resolve and to bri ng a bout bout a pleasing solution. solution. The us e o f Deus ex Machina is not not recommended recommended as it is seen to be the ma rk of a poor plot that that the write r needs to resort to random, i ns upportab upportable le an d unbelievable unbelievable twi s ts and turns turns to reach the end of of the s tory. tory. Example: If i n a suspense suspense novel novel the prota gonist suddenly finds a s ol ution ution to his dilemmas dilemmas because because of divine intervention. Diction Definition: Di ction is the di stinctiv stinctive e tone or ten or of a n author’s writings. writings. Di ction is not just a writer's choice of words it can include include the mood, atti tude, dialect dialect and style of writi ng. Diction is usually usually judged wi th reference to the prevailing prevailing s tan dards dards of p roper writing writing and sp eech and is seen as the mark mark of qua lity of the writing. writing. It is also und erstood as the selection selection of certa i n words words or phrases that be come peculiar to to a writer. Example: Certai n writers in the modern day an d a ge use a rchaic rchaic terms such as ‘thy’, ‘the ‘the e’ a nd ‘wherefore’ ‘wherefore’ to i mbu e a Shakespearean Shakespearean mood to to their work. Doppelganger Definition: The te rm is derived derived from from the Ge rman l anguage anguage and literally trans lates lates i nto ‘double ‘double walker’. walker’. It
refers to a character character in the story tha t is a ctually ctually a counterfeit or a copy of a rea l/ genuine genuine character. Dop pelgangers pelgangers of the main cha racters usually bear the ability to i mpe rsonate rsonate the original original but ha ve vastly different spirits spirits and i nte ntions. ntions. The do ppelgang ppelganger er us ually has a different different appearance but a n e arthly arthly soul and s upernatural h oodwink oodwinking ing a bilities bilities that a llow it to to fool other uns uspecting uspecting characters. Example: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mr. Hyde Ekphrastic Definition: Ekphrastic refers refers to a form of writi ng, mostly poetry, wherein the au thor describes another work of art, us ually visual. It is used to convey the de eper symbolism symbolism of the corporeal art form by means of a s eparate medium. medium. It has often be en found that ekphrastic ekphrastic writing i s rh etorical in nature and symbolic symbolic of a grea ter meanin meaning. g. Example: A ph otog raph of an empty l an dscape dscape can convey desolation, desolation, ab a ndon ndon and l oss. oss. Similarly, Similarly, one can convey the s ame s entiments entiments an d con cepts cepts by using phrases s uch as ‘an e mpty doorway’ doorway’ or ‘a chi l dless nursery’. Epilogue Definition: Epi l ogues ogues are an inherent part part of an y story or poem and a re essent essential to the s tructure of any written form. The epilogue is an important important l i terary terary tool tool th at acts as the af terwo rd once the last chapter is over. The p urpose of an epilogue is to a dd a little insight insight to to s ome ome i nte resting developmen developments ts that ha ppen once the major plot is over. over. Epi l ogues ogues often act as a teaser trai ler to any possible possible sequels that mi ght be cre ated later. Sometimes Sometimes the e pilogue pilogue is used to add a little bi t ab out out the life/future life/future of the main cha racters after the the s tory tory itself has unf old ed and wrapped up. Epi l ogues ogues are an i nterest nteresting ing faction be cause they can can be written in a num ber of ways: sometimes sometimes the
s a me narrative style as adopted in the story is continued continued while at othe r times one of the characters characters mi ght take up the narrativ narrative e or s pe ak on e-to-one e-to-one with the audience. Example: In a remarkably contemporary contemporary mome nt at the end of The Temp est, Shakespeare's Shakespeare's wizard Prosp ero addresses the audience audience di rectly, breaking down the the bo undaries of the play. He i nforms nforms them that the p lay lay is o ver, ver, his powe rs are gone, and and thus his es cape from the play's island island s ettin g depends depends on their applause-tha t they, in effect, get to decide his fate. fate. Thi s serves as a Epilogue for Sha kespeare's kespeare's tra gi-comedy gi-comedy The Tempest. Epithet Definition: An e pi thet is a literary de vice that that is us ed as a d escriptive escriptive device. device. It is us ually used to to a dd to a person person or pl a ce’s regular regular name name and attribute s ome special quality quality to the same. Epi thets are remarkable remarkable in that they be come a part of common common pa rlance over time. These These de s criptive criptive words words and phrases can be us ed to to enhance the persona persona of rea l and fictitious fictitious places, objects, objects, pe rsons and divi divi nities. nities. Example: “Ale xander the Gre at” is the epithet epithet commo nly used to to refer to Ale xander III of Ma cedon. cedon. The young ki ng has come to be recogn ized by this epithet in all of hi s tory tory and popular culture owing to hi s spectacular spectacular achievements achievements in crea ting one of the largest-ever largest-ever historical empires.
Euphemism Definition: The term ‘eu phemism’ phemism’ is used to refe r to the literary pra ctice of us i ng a comparatively comparatively milder or or less a bra sive sive fo rm of a negative de s cription cription instead of its original, un s ympathetic ympathetic form. This device is us ed when writing about matters matters s uch a s sex, vi vi olence, olence, death, crimes crimes
a nd "e mbarrassing". The purpose purpose of of eu phemisms is to substitute substitute unp l easant easant and severe words words with more g en teel ones in order to mask the h a rshness.. rshness.. The The use of eu phemisms is sometimes sometimes ma nipulated to lend a touch of exa ggeration or irony in satirical writing. Example: Usi ng “to put o ut to pasture” pasture” when one i mplies mplies retiring a person person beca use they they are too old to be effective.
Be l ow are some more examples examples of Euphemisms Down sizing - This is used when a compa ny fi res or lays lays off a larger num ber of em ployees ployees Frie ndly fire - This is used by the mi l itary when soldiers are acci dentally killed killed b y other soldiers soldiers on the s ame ame side. Tips y - This is a soft way to to s ay that that so meone has had had to much to d rink. rink. Gol den years years - This is used to de s cribe the later period of life when someone someone is of old a ge. ge. Gone to heaven heaven - This is a polite wa y to sa y that someone someone is dead. Enha nced interrogation interrogation - This is mod ern eu phemism phemism to minimize minimize wha t by ma ny pe ople ople would be viewe d as torture. torture. Euphony Definition: The l iterary de vice “euphony “euphony”” refers to the use of phrases phrases and words that are noted for possess possessing ing an exte nsive degree of notable l oveliness or melody in the sound the y crea crea te. The The use of euphony i s pred ominant in literary prose and poe try, try, where poetic devices devices such as al literation literations, s, rhymes and as sonace are are used to to create pl easant sounds. Euphony i s the opp osite of cacophony, which which refe rs to the creation of unpleasant unpleasant an d harsh sounds by using certain certain words / phrases together. This This l i terary terary devices is based on the use an d manipulation of phonetics phonetics i n literature.
Example: It ha s been been said that the phrase phrase “cellar door” is reportedly reportedly the most pl easant sounding sounding phrase in the Engl ish language. language. The phrase is said to de pict the highest highest degree degree of eup hony, and is said to be es pecially notable when spoken i n the British accent. accent. Fa ulty Parallelism Parallelism Definition: In l i terature, terature, the term ‘parallelism’ ‘parallelism’ is used to refer to the practice practice pl a cing together together similarly structure structure rel ated phrases, words words or clauses. Para llelism i nvolv nvolves es placing placing s en tence tence items in a parallel gram ma tical format wherein nouns are l isted together, together, specific specific verb forms are listed together together and the s uchlike. When one fails to follow thi s p arallel arallel structure, structure, it results in fa ulty pa rallelism. rallelism. The failure to ma i ntain a balance in grammatical forms i s known as faulty parallelism parallelism whe rein similar grammatical grammatical forms rece i ve dissimilar/unequ dissimilar/unequal al weight. Example: On the TV sh ow The Simpsons, Simpsons, lead cha racter Bart Simpson says, “they are l aughing, aughing, not with me”. Flashback Definition: Fl a shback shback is a literary de vice whe rein the writer/ author depicts the occurrence o f specific specific events to the re a der, der, which have taken place befo re the present present time the na rration is following, or events events tha t ha ve happened before before the eve nts that a re currently currently be ing unf old ed in the story. Flashb Flashback ack de vices that are commonly used are past narratives by characters, characters, de pictions and references of drea ms and memories memories a nd a su bde vice k nown nown as authorial authorial s overeignty wherein the author di rectly chooses to refer to a p ast occurren ce by bringing it up in a s traightforward manner. Flashback i s u sed to create create a background background to the p resent situation, situation, place or person. Example: Back in the day when Sarah was a young girl…
You ca n s ee flashbacks flashbacks used very ofte n i n movies. For example, is is commo n i n movies for there to be a fl a shback shback that gives the viewer a l oo k into the characters characters life when the y were younger, or when they ha ve do ne something something previously. previously. This is done to to help the viewer viewer be tter understand the present situation. Foil Definition: The term ‘foil’ refers to a literary de vice where the a uthor uthor creates a cha racter whose p rimary rimary purpose purpose is to crea te a contrast to another cha racter by laying emphasis emphasis or dra wi ng attention attention to the latter’s trai ts a nd characteristics characteristics through through the f orme r’s obviously obviously contradictory ones. Example: In the p opular book s eries, eries, Harry Potter, the cha racter of Hogwarts pri ncipal Albus Dumbledore, who who po rtrays ‘good’, is con stantly shown to be lieve in the power of true love (of a ll forms forms and types) types) and is po rtrayed as a s trong, trong, benevolent benevolent a nd p ositive ositive character while the a nta gonist Lord Voldemort, Voldemort, who de picts the evil and ‘bad’ ‘bad’ in the s eri es is constantly constantly shown to mock a nd d isbelieve the sentiment sentiment of lo ve and think of it as a foolish foolish i nd ulgence, ulgence, a trait that is finally his undoing. Foreshadowing Definition: The l iterary de vice foreshadowin foreshadowing g refe rs to the use of indicative indicative words /phrases /phrases and hints that that set the stage for a s tory tory to unfold and gi ve the reader a hint of something something tha t is go ing to happen without revea ling the story or spoiling the s us pense. pense. Foreshadowing Foreshadowing is used to s uggest an upcoming upcoming outcome to the s tory. tory. Example: “He ha d no idea of the disastrous cha i n of events to follow”. follow”. In this s en tence, tence, while the protagonist protagonist is clu eless of fu rther rther developments, developments, the rea der l earns earns that something something di s astrous astrous and problematic is about about to ha ppen to/for him. him.
Hubris Definition: Hubris, in this this day and age, is an other way of saying saying overly arroga nt. You can tell the di fference of hubris and just regular regular arroga nce or pride by the fact that the ch aracter has seemed to to allow rea lity slip away from them. The cha racter portraying portraying hubris, also commo nly referred to as hybris, may ha ve just gained gained a huge amo unt of power and the the false be l ief that they are “untouchable”. “untouchable”. This term term hubris used used to have a s l ightly different meaning meaning and was a very neg ative subject back in an cient Greek. It used to be closely rel ated to a crime crime in Athens. In In writi ng and literature hubris hubris is ge ne rally rally considered a “tragic flaw” flaw” an d i t is saved saved for the protagonist. protagonist. The reaso n for this i s because because at the the en d of the s tory tory you you s hould be able to s ee that it is this flaw that that brings the “ba d guy” down. Example: A cl as sic example of hubris is fea tured in Shakespeare’ Shakespeare’ss play Macbe th. Macbeth, Macbeth, the prota gonist, overfilled overfilled with am bition and arrogance, allows allows his hubri s to think you you wo uld be able to ki l l the valiant valiant Duncan without without pen alty so he can claim the throne of Sco tland f or himself. himself. Obviously murde r is highly frowned frowned upon, so thi s eventually eventually leads leads to Ma cbeth’s demise as well. Hyperbaton Definition: A h yperbaton is a literary de vice whe rein the author plays plays with the regu l ar positioning positioning of words words and phra ses and creates a differently differently s tructured sentence to convey the sa me meaning. meaning. It is said that that by us i ng a h yperbaton, yperbaton, words/ phrase phrasess overs tep their conventional conventional pl a cements cements and result result in a more compl ex and intriguing intriguing sentence s tructure. This literary de vice is us ed to a dd more depth and and i nte rest to the sentence sentence structure. structure. Example: “Alone he walked on the cold, l onely roa ds”. This This sentence is a
vari a tion of the m ore conventional, conventional, “He wa lked alone on the the cold, lo nely roads”. roads”. Hyperbole Definition: A hype rbole is a literary literary device whe rein the author uses specific specific words a nd phrases phrases that exaggerate exaggerate an d ove remphasize remphasize the basic crux of the s tatement i n order order to prod uce a grander, more notic noticeable eable eff ect. The pu rpose rpose of h yperbole yperbole is to crea te a larger-than-life larger-than-life effect effect an d ove rly s tress tress a specific point. Such s entences usually usually convey a n acti on or sentiment that is ge ne rally rally not p ractically/ ractically/ rea listically po ssible ssible or pl ausible but h elps e mphasize mphasize an emotion. Example: “I a m s o tired I cannot walk another another i nch” or “I’m so s leepy I mig ht fall asleep standing here”.
Imagery Definition: In l i terature, terature, one of the strongest de vices is i magery wherein the au thor uses words and phrases phrases to crea te “mental images” for the rea der. Imagery helps the reader to vis ualize and therein therein more rea listically experience experience the a uthor’ uthor’ss writi ngs. The usage usage of metaphors, al lusions, lusions, descriptive descriptive words words a nd s i miles amongst amongst other literary forms in order to “tickle” “tickle” and aw a ken the readers’ sensory sensory pe rceptions is referred to as i ma gery. Imagery i s not limited to onl y vi vi sual sensations, sensations, but also refe rs to ig niting niting kinesthetic, kinesthetic, olfactory, tactile, gustatory, thermal an d a uditory uditory sensations sensations as well. Example: The gu s hing brook stole stole its way dow n the lush green mountains, mountains, dotted with tiny tiny flowers flowers i n a riot of col ors a nd trees coming alive alive with ga i ly chirping chirping birds. birds. Inte rnal Rhyme Rhyme Definition: In l i terature terature the internal rhyme rhyme is a pra ctice of forming a rhyme in only one l one line of verse. An internal internal rhyme i s also known as the middle middle rhyme be cause i t is typically typically
cons tructed i n the middle middle of a line to rhyme with the bit at the end of the s ame metrical line. Example: The l ine from the famed poem Anci ent Ma riner, riner, “We were the first first that e ver burst”. burst”. Inversion Definition: The term ‘i nversion’ nversion’ ref ref ers ers to the pra ctice of changing the conven tional placement placement of words. words. It i s a literary practice typical typical of the ol der classical poetry ge nre. nre. In pre s ent day literature i t is usually us ed for the purpose of laying em phas is this this literary device is more p revalent i n poetry than pros e because i t helps to arrange arrange the poe m in a ma nner nner that catches catches the atte ntion ntion of the reader not only only with its content content but also with with its ph ysi cal a ppearanc ppearance; e; a result of the pe culiar s tructuring tructuring.. Example: In the mu ch known known and read read Para dise Lost, Mi Mi lton wrote: wrote: “Of Man's First Disobedience Disobedience,, and the Fruit
Of tha t Forbid den Tree, whose mortal taste Broug ht Death into the World, and al l our woe, woe, Wi th l oss of Eden, till one greater Man Re s tore us, a nd regain the blissful Seat, Si ng Heav'nly Mus e. . .” .”
Irony Definition: The us e of irony in literature literature refers to pl aying around with words such tha t the meaning implied by a s en tence/word tence/word i s actually different different from the l iteral meaning meaning derived. derived. Often, i rony rony is used used to suggest suggest the s tark contrast of the literal literal meaning meaning be i ng put forth. The deeper, real l a yer of significance significance is revealed not by the word s th emselves emselves but the the s i tuation and the context context in which they a re placed. Example:
Writi ng a sentence such as, “Oh! Wha t fi ne luck I have!”. have!”. The s en tence tence on the surface conveys conveys tha t the s peaker peaker is happy with their their l uck bu t actually what they mean is tha t they a re extremely unhappy an d diss atisfied atisfied wi th their (bad) luck.
Juxtaposition Definition: In l i terature, terature, juxtaposition juxtaposition i s a l i terary terary device wherein the author pl a ces a person, person, concept, concept, place, i de a or theme parallel to to another. The p urpose of juxtaposing juxtaposing two di rectly/indirectly rectly/indirectly related entities clo s e together in literature literature is to hi ghlight the contrast between between the two a nd com pare them. This l i terary terary device is usually used for etchi ng out a character in detail, crea ting suspense or lending a rheto rical effect. effect. Example: In Para dise Lost, Lost, Milton has used juxta positi on to draw a p arallel be tween the two protagonists, protagonists, Sa tan a nd God, who he discusses discusses by by pl a cing their their traits in comparison wi th on e another another to highlight their differences. Kennings Definition: The u s e of Kennings Kennings i n literature literature is cha racteristically racteristically related to wo rks i n Ol d English poetry poetry where the au thor would use a twist of words, words, fi gure o f s peech peech or ma gic poetic phra se or a newly created compo und sentence or phrase to refe r to a pe rson, object, object, place, acti on or idea. The use of i magery magery an d i ndicative, ndicative, direct and i ndirect ndirect refe rences to su bstitute bstitute the p roper roper,, forma l name of the subject is kno wn as kennings. The use of ke nnings was also prevalent in Old Nors e an d Germanic Germanic poetry. poetry. Example: Whi le ke nnings nnings are ra ra re in modern da y la nguag nguage, e, there there are a few commo n e xamples. xamples. The phrase “tramp s tamp”, used to refer to wome n’s tattoos on the lo wer wer back, back, i s a popular popular one, referri referri ng to a tras hy, tacky a nd vulgar tattoo. tattoo.
Malapropism Definition: Mal apropism in literature literature refers to the p ractice of misusing words words by s ubs tituting tituting words with similar s oun ding words words that have dif ferent ferent,, ofte n un connected connected meanings, meanings, and thus creating a situation situation of confu sion, misunderstand misunderstanding ing a nd am usement. Ma Ma lapropism lapropism is used to convey that the s pe aker/charac aker/character ter is fl ustered, ustered, bo the red, unaware or conf confused used and as a result cannot employ proper di ction. A trick to using ma l apropism apropism is to e nsure nsure that the two words (the original and the s ubs titute) titute) sound similar similar enough for the reader to catch onto the i nte nded switch and find humor in the res ult. ult. Example: In the p lay Much Much Ado About Nothi ng, noted playwright playwright William Sha kespeare’s kespeare’s character character Dog berry berry s a ys, "Our wa tch, sir, have indeed compre hended two auspicious auspicious pe rsons." Instead, what what the cha racter means means to say is “"Our wa tch, sir, have indeed indeed ap prehended two suspicious suspicious persons."
tha t Hen ry fought so valiantly valiantly and bra vely that he embodied all the pe rsonality traits traits we attribute to the fero cious cious a nimal. nimal. This sentence i mplies immediately immediately that Hen ry was coura geous and fearless, fearless, much like the King o f the Jungle. Jungle. Metonymy Definition: Meton ymy i n literature refers to the p ractice of not using the formal formal word fo r an o bject/subje bject/subject ct and i ns tead referring referring to it by using a noth er word that is intricately intricately l i nked to the formal name/word. name/word. It i s th e practice of substituting the the mai n word with a word that is clos ely linked linked to it. Example: When we use the name “Was hington D.C” we are talking political hot s eat eat by ab out the U.S U.S’ political refe rring to the political political capital of the Un i ted States because all the s i gnificant gnificant political political institutions such a s th e White House, House, Supreme Court, the U.S. Capitol a nd many more a re located her. The phrase “Was hington D.C.” i s metonymy for the g overnment of the U.S. U.S. in this case.
Metaphor Definition: Metaph ors ors are one of the most exte nsively used literary devices. devices. A me tap hor hor refers to a meaning or i de ntity as cribed cribed to to on e subject by wa y of an other. In a m etaphor, etaphor, one su bject is implied implied to b e another another so as to draw a comparison comparison between between the i r similarities similarities and shared traits. The f i rst subject, subject, which/who which/who is the focus of the sentences is usually usually compa red to the second subject, subject, whi ch is u sed to convey/carry convey/carry a de gree of m eaning eaning that is used to cha racterize the first. The The purpose of us ing a metaphor metaphor is to take an i de ntity or concept that we und erstand clearly clearly (second subject) an d use i t to better understand understand the l ess er-knownelem er-knownelement ent (the first subject). Example:
Mood Definition: The l iterary de vice ‘mood’ ‘mood’ refers to a d efi nitive nitive stance the author author a dop ts in s haping haping a specific em oti onal onal perspective perspective towards the s ub ject of the literary work. It refe rs to the mental and emotional di s position position of the author towards the s ubject, which in turn lends a pa rticular character or a tmosphere tmosphere to the work. The final tone tone a chi eved thus is instrumental instrumental in evok i ng specific, specific, appropriate res ponses from the reader. reader. Example:
“Henry was a lion on the ba ttlefield”. This sentence suggests suggests
Motif Definition:
In Erich S egal’s egal’s Love Story, the rel a tionship of the two protago protagonist nistss i s handled with such beauty, beauty, de l icateness icateness and s ensitivity ensitivity that the rea der is compelled to feel the tria ls and tribulations tribulations of the characters.
The l iterary de vice ‘motif’ is any el ement, subject, subject, idea or concept tha t is constantly pres ent through through the e ntire body of literature. Using a m oti f refers to the repetition repetition of a s pe cific theme dominating dominating the l i terary terary work. Motifs are very very noti ceable and play a significant significant rol e i n defining defining the nature of the s tory, the co urse of events and the very fa bric of the literary literary piece. Example:
In al l the fam ed fairytales, fairytales, the mot motif of a ‘h a ndsome ndsome prince’ falling falling in l ove wi th a ‘damsel ‘damsel in distress’ distress’ and the two b eing b othered othered by a wicked wicked s tep -mother/ -mother/ evil evil witch/ beast and fi nally conquering al l and living ‘ha ppily ever after’ is a co mmon motif. Anothe r common common motif is the s i mple, pretty pretty peasant girl or girl from a modest backgroun background d in fa i rytales rytales discovering discovering that she is actua lly lly a royal or noble by the end of the tale. Negative Capability Definition: The u s e of negative capability i n l i terature is a co ncept ncept promoted by poe t John Keats, who who was of the opi nion that literary literary a chievers, chievers, es pecially poets, should be able to come to terms with the fact that s ome matters might might have have to be left uns olved olved a nd un certain. certain. Keats was of the op inion that some ce rtaint rtaintie iess were best lef t open to i magination magination an d that the element element of doubt and am biguity added romanticism romanticism and s pe cialty cialty to a con cept. cept. Example: The b est references of the use of ne ga tive capability i n literature literature wou l d be of Keats’ Keats’ own wo rks, es pecially poems s uch as Ode on a Grecian Urn and Ode to a Nightingale. Nemesis Definition: In l i terature, terature, the use of a n emesis emesis refers to a situation of poetic jus ti ce wherein the positive cha racters are rewarded rewarded and the ne ga tive characters are penalized. The word also sometimes sometimes refers to
the ch aracter or medium by which thi s justice is brought about as Nem esis was the p atron goddess goddess of venge ance according according to classical mythology. Example: In the p opular book series Harry Harry Potter, the protagonist Harry Potter Potter is the nemesis nemesis of the e vil Lord Lord Voldemort. Onomatopoeia Definition: The term ‘on omatopoeia’ omatopoeia’ refers refers to words whose very s ound is very very clos e to the sound they are are meant to de pict. In o ther words, it refers refers to s ound words whose whose pron unciation to the actual s oun d/noise d/noise they represent. Example: Words s uch as grunt, h uff, uff, buzz and sn ap a re words words whose whose pron unciation sounds sounds very similar to the a ctual sounds sounds these words repre sent. In literature such words words are us eful eful in creating a stronger stronger me ntal i mage. For instance, instance, s en tences tences such as “the whispering of the fore st trees” trees” or “the “the hum of a th ous and bees” or “the click of the do or in the night nighttime” create vivid mental images. Oxymoron Definition: Oxymoron Oxymoron i s a si gnificant gnificant literary de vice as it allows the author to to use contra dictory, dictory, con trasting trasting concepts concepts pl a ced together i n a manner manner that actu al ly en ds up making making sense in a s trang e, and slightly slightly complex ma nner. An oxymoron oxymoron is an i nte resting literary literary device because i t hel ps to perceive perceive a deeper level level of truth a nd explore different different layer layers of s emantics while writing. writing. Example: Some times we ch erish erish things of l ittle value. value. He possessed a cold fire in his eyes. Paradox Definition: A p ara dox dox in literature refers refers to the us e o f concepts/ concepts/ ideas that are are contra dictory to on e another, yet, yet, whe n placed together together they ho ld s i gnificant gnificant value on several levels.
The uniq ueness ueness of p aradoxes aradoxes lies in the fact that a deeper deeper level level of me a ning and s ignificance ignificance is not revea led at first glace, but when it do es crystallize, i t provides provides astonishing insight. Example: Hi gh walls make not a p alace; alace; full coffers make not not a k ing. Pathe tic Fallacy Fallacy Definition: Pathe tic fallacy fallacy is a type of literary de vice whereby whereby the author ascribes ascribes the human feelings feelings of one o r more of h i s/her characters characters to non-human non-human ob jects or nature or phenomena. It It i s a type of p ersonification, ersonification, and is kno wn to occur more by accident accident an d l ess on purpose purpose.. Example: The s oftly whistling teapot in formed him it was time for for breakfast. Periodic Structure Definition: In l i terature, terature, the concept concept of a pe rio dic structure structure refers to a pa rticular placement placement o f sentence sentence el ements such as th e main main clause clause of the s entence a nd/or nd/or its predicate a re p urposely he ld off and placed placed at the en d instead of at the beginning or the i r conventional conventional positions. positions. In s uch pla cements, cements, the crux crux of the s en tence’s tence’s meaning meaning does not be come clear to the reader until the y rea ch the last part. part. While un de niably confusing at fi rst, a pe rio dic structure structure l ends ends a flair of dra ma a nd romanticism romanticism to to a se ntence ntence and is greatly greatly used in poetry. Example: In s tead of writing, “brokenhearted “brokenhearted an d fo rlorn rlorn she waited waited till the end of h er da ys for his return” return” one one may write, “for his return, brok en hearted hearted and forlorn, waited sh e till the end of her days”. days”.
Periphrasis Definition: The term ‘pe riphrasis riphrasis’’ refers to the us e of excessive language language and s urplus words to convey a meaning tha t could otherwise otherwise be con veyed veyed with fewer words words and in more
di rect a manner. manner. The The use of this l i terary terary device ca n be to embellish embellish a s en tence, tence, to create a grander eff ect, to b eat around the bush and and to dra w attention away from the crux of the me ssage being being conveyed. Example: Ins tead of simply saying saying “I a m di s pleased with you you r behavior”, behavior”, one one can s ay, “the ma nner nner in which you you ha ve conducted yourself yourself in my pres ence of late has caused me to fee l uncomfortable uncomfortable and has res ulted in my feeling disgruntled disgruntled an d disa ppointed ppointed with you”.
Personification Definition: Pers onification onification is one of the most commo nly used and reco reco gnized gnized l i terary terary devices. It refers refers to the pra ctice of attaching attaching human tra tra its its an d characteristics characteristics with inanimate obje cts, phenomena phenomena and animals. Example: “The ra ging winds” “The wi se owl” owl” “The wa rm and comforting comforting fire”
Plot Definition: The p l ot usually refers to the s eq uence of events and happen happening ingss that ma ke up a s tory tory.. There is us ually a pattern, unintended unintended or i nte ntional, ntional, that threads threads the plot toge ther. The plot basically refers to the ma in outcome and order order of the s tory. The The re is another another kind of pl ot i n literature literature as well; it refers to the co nflict or cla sh occurrin occurring g as a pa rt of the story. The The conflict us ually follows 3 reg reg ular formats: formats: a) cha racters in conflict conflict wi th one an other b) characters characters in conflict wi th their s urrounding urroundingss a nd c) cha racters in conflict conflict with themselves. Example: Many da te movies follow follow a similar s i mple plot. Boy meets girl, boy l os es gi rl, boy wins girl back in the end. Point of View Definition:
In l i terature, terature, the ‘point ‘point of view’ is a l i terary terary device that depicts the man ner in which which a s tory tory is na rrated/ depicted depicted and who it is tha t tells the story. Simply put, the poi nt of vi vi ew determines determines the the a ngle an d perception of the story unf olding, and thus influences influences the tone i n which the story takes place. The p oin t of view is instrumental instrumental i n ma nipulating the reader’s reader’s und erstanding erstanding of th e narrative. narrative. In a way, the p oint of view can can allow or wi thhold the reader a ccess i nto the grea ter reaches of the s tory. tory. Two Two of the mo st common point point of view techn iques are the first person, wherein the s tory tory is told by the na rrator from his/ her standpoint an d the third p erson wherein the na rrator does not figure in the eve nts of the s tory tory and tells the s tory by refe rring to all characters an d places in the third person with thi rd pe rson pronouns and proper proper nouns. Example:
In th e p opular Lord of the Rings boo k s eries, eries, the stories are na rrated in the third person a nd all ha ppenings are described described from an “outs ide the story” story” point of view. Contras tingly, i n the popular teen boo k s eries, eries, Pri Pri ncess Diaries, Diaries, the s tory i s tol d in the first person, by the p rotagonist herself. Polysyndeton Definition: In l i terature, terature, the literary literary device ‘polysyndeton’ refers to the process of us ing conjunctions conjunctions or connecting connecting words frequently frequently in a sen tence, tence, pl a ced very very close to one an other other,, as opp osed to the usual norm of using the m s parsely, parsely, only where they a re techn ically needed. The use use of pol ysyndetons ysyndetons is primarily for ad ding dramatic effect as they ha ve a s trong rhetorical presence. presence. Example: For exa mple: mple: a) Saying “here and and there and eve rywhe rywhe re”, instead instead o f simply saying “here, there and everywhere”.
b) “Marge a nd Susan and Anne and Da i sy and Barry Barry all planned to to go for a pi cnic”, instead instead of “Marge, “Marge, Sus an, Anne, Daisy a nd Barry…” Barry…” em phas izes each each o f the individuals individuals a nd ca lls attention attention to every pe rson on e by one i nstead of assembling them a s a group. group.
Portmanteau Definition: In l i terature, terature, this devi devi ce refers refers to the pra ctice of joining together together two or more words i n order order to create create an en tirely new word. This i s often done in order to create a name or word fo r so mething mething by combining combining the i ndividual characteristics characteristics of 2 or more other words. words. Example: 1. The w ord “s mog” mog” is a po rtmanteau that was built combi ning “fog” “fog” and “smoke” a nd “sm og” has th e properties properties of both fog a nd smoke. smoke.
2. Lig er= Lion + Tiger= A hybri d of the two fe line species, species, possessing possessing cha racteristics racteristics of both. Prologue Definition: A p rol ogue can be un derstoo derstood d to to be a s ort of i ntroduction ntroduction to to a s tory that us ually sets the tone for the story an d a cts as a bit of a b ackgroun ackgrounder der or a “s neak peek” into the story. story. Prolo gues are typically a narrative narrative ‘sp oken’ by one of the characters characters an d not from the part of the author. Example:
Sa nta’s helpers are known as s ub ordinate ordinate Clauses. Clauses.
Rhyme Scheme Definition: The rhyme s cheme cheme is the practice of rhymi ng wo rds placed placed at the end of the l ines in the prose/ poetry. poetry. Rhyme s cheme refers to the order i n wh ich particular particular words rhyme. If the a l ternate ternate words words rhyme, it is an “a -b-a-b” rhyme s cheme, which which me ans “a ” is the rhyme for the lines lines 1 a nd 3 a nd “b” is the rhyme rhyme af fe cted i n the lines 2 an d 4. 4. Example: Ros es are red (a) (a) Viol ets ets are blue (b) Be a utiful they all may be (c) But I l ove you (b) (b) The a bove bove is an “a -b-c-b” rhyme scheme.
Rhythm & Rhyme Definition: The conce pt of ‘rhythm and rhyme’ refe rs to a p attern of rhymes that is created by u sing words words that prod uce the same, or similar s oun ds. Rhythm and and rhyme toge ther refer to the recurrence recurrence of s i milar sounds in prose and poetry, poetry, crea ting a musical, gentle effect. Example: “I am a teapot teapot
Short and s tout; tout; This is my handle
1. "The ori gin of this story is..."
And thi s is my spout.
2. “It a l l began one day when…” when…”
When the water’s boiling
Puns Definition: Puns are a very popular literary de vice wherein a word is used in a ma nner to s uggest uggest two or more more po s sible meanings. meanings. This is generally generally done to the e ffect of creating creating hu mor or i rony or wryness. Puns can a lso refer to words that suggest suggest me a nings of similar-sounding similar-sounding words. The trick is to make the rea der have an “ah!” moment and and di s cover cover 2 or more meanings. Example:
Hea r me shout; shout; Just l ift me up And pour me out”
Satire Definition: The us e of satire in literature refers refers to the practice of making fun of a hum a n weakness or character flaw. The u s e of satire satire is o ften ften inclusive inclusive of a ne ed or decision of correcting correcting or be ttering the character that that is on the re ceiving end of the satire. In
ge ne ral, even even though satire might might be hum orous and may “make fun”, i ts p urpose is not to e ntertain ntertain and am use but actually to derive a rea ction of contempt contempt from the reader. Example: The b est e xample of satire in mod ern p opculture opculture is the the TV series Sou thpark that uses satire satire as it pri ma ry medium for drawing atte ntion the flaws in society, society, es pecially American society society at pres ent. The s cripts cripts and writing for the s how are an excellent example of s atire in written form. Setting Definition: In l i terature, terature, the word ‘setting’ ‘setting’ is us ed to i dentify dentify and establish establish the tim e, pl ace and mood of the e vents vents of the s tory. It bas ically ically helps in es tablishing tablishing where and when and und er what ci rcumstances rcumstances the story story is taking taking place. Example: In the f irst installment installment of the Harry Potter se ries, a large part of the boo k ta kes place at the pro tagonist agonist,, Ha rry’s, rry’s, a unt’s and uncle’s uncle’s place, l i ving in the the “muggle” (non-magical) worl d with th e “muggle” “muggle” folks, and Ha rry i s u naware of his magical cap abilities and blood. This This setting es tablishes tablishes the background that Ha rry ha s a n on-magical on-magical childhood childhood with other “muggle” people and ha s n o cl cl ue about his special pow ers or his p arents arents and is raised much l i ke, actually worse than, regu l ar people, people, till his 11th birthday. Simile Definition: Similes a re one of the most commo nly used l iterary devices; refe rring to the practice of drawing drawing pa rallels or comparisons between between two u nrel ated and dissimilar things, things, pe opl e, beings, beings, places a nd conce pts. By using similes a greater degre e of meaning meaning and und erstanding erstanding is attached to an othe rwise simple sentence. sentence. The rea der is able to better understand understand the s entiment the author wishes to convey. Si miles are marked by the
us e of the words ‘as’ or ‘such ‘such as’ or ‘like’. Example:
He i s like a mouse mouse in front of the teacher. Spoonerism Definition: Spo onerism ref ers ers to the p ractic ractice e of i nte rchanging rchanging the first letters letters of so me words words in order to create new words or even to create create no ns ensical ensical words in order to crea te a hu morous morous setting. setting. While the y are of ten unintention unintentional al and kno wn as a “slip of the tongue”, tongue”, in l i terature they are welcomed as wi tty word- play. play. Example: The phrase “flesh and blood” being being s po ken as a ch aracter aracter as “blesh “blesh and fl oo d” i n urgency urgency a nd heightened emotion.
Stanza Definition: The term s tanza refers refers to a single, rel a ted chunk of lines in poetry. poetry. It ba s ically ically refers to one unit or group group of l i nes, which forms one particular particular fa ctio n in poetry. poetry. The most basic ki nd o f stanza is usually usually 4 l ines per group , with the simplest rhyme scheme “a-b-a-b” b eing eing followed. Example: “The gree dy paddy paddy cat,
Chas ed after the mice; She got s o round round and fat, But i t tas ted so nice” nice”
Strea m of consciousness consciousness Definition: The phrase ‘stream ‘stream of cons ciousness’ ciousness’ refers to an un i nterrupted nterrupted and unhindered col l ection ection and occurrence of thou ghts and ideas in the co nsciou nsciouss mi nd. I n literature, literature, the phrase refers to the flow of these thou ghts, with reference reference to a pa rticular character’s character’s thinking proce ss. This literary device is us ually used in order order to provide a na rrative rrative in the form of the cha racter’s thoughts thoughts i nstead of us i ng dialogue dialogue or description. description. Example:
All writings by Virginia Woolff are a goo d e xample of literary literary stream of consciousness. "Life is not a s eries eries of gig lamps s ymmetrically arra arra nged; nged; life is a l umin ous ous halo, a s emi-transparen emi-transparentt en velope surrounding surrounding us from the be gi nning nning of consciousness consciousness to the en d." The Common Reader (1925) (1925) Suspense Definition: Sus pense is the intense feeling that that an a udience goes through while wa i ting for the outcome outcome of certain eve nts. It b asically l eaves eaves the rea der holding their breath and wa nting more i nformation. nformation. The amo unt of intensity intensity in a s us penseful penseful moment moment is why it is ha rd to put a book down. Without Without s us pense, pense, a reader would lose i nte rest quickly quickly in any story be cause there is nothing nothing that is ma ki ng the reader reader ask, “What’s “What’s goi ng to h appen appen next?” next?” In writing, there has to b e a s eries eries of events events that l eads eads to a climax climax that cap tivates the audience and makes the m ten se and anxious anxious to know wha t is going to happen. happen. Example: A cl i ffhanger is a great way to crea te suspense. You remember remember when you were a kid a nd very exci ted to watch th ose Saturday Saturday morni ng shows. shows. You can p robably robably reca ll the f eeling eeling you you h ad at the pit of your s tomach when, after after about 25 mi nutes and lots of comme rcials, you you were hoping hoping to fin d o ut what happen happened ed to your fa vorite character. However, However, you di dn ’t get to to fin d out. Instead they wou l d make the “Tune In Next Wee k” a nnouncemen nnouncementt and you al ready knew that you would would be the re. Same ti me, same place. Sus pense is a po werful werful literary literary tool be cause, i f done correctly, correctly, you kno w your a udience udience will be back for for more a nd more. more. Syllepsis Definition: The de vice syllepsis syllepsis comes i nto nto play whe n a single word that influences or regu l ates two or more than two
other words needs to be compre hended individually individually and in l i ght of every pa rticular rticular ensuing ensuing word. Syll epsis epsis is often used for a comi cal, wry an d witty ef fect. Example: a) Jack l ost his car keys and his cool. cool. b) Ma ry was unable to keep a check check on h er children or her temper. temper. Symbol Definition: A s ymbol is literary de vice that conta ins several layers layers of m eaning, eaning, ofte n con cealed cealed at first sight, and is repre sentative sentative o f several other other as pects/ concepts/ trai trai ts than those hose tha t are visible in the literal trans lation alone. alone. Symbol Symbol i s using an object or a ction that that means s ome thing thing more than than its literal meaning. Example: The p hrase “a new dawn” does not tal k o nly about the actual beginnin beginning g of a new day but also signif signifies ies a ne w start, a fresh chance chance to begin an d the end of a previous tiring tiring time.
Synecdoche Definition: A s ynecdoche is a literary de vices tha t us es a p art of something something to refe r to the whole. It is somewhat somewhat rheto rical in nature, where the en tire ob ject is represented represented by wa y of a faction of it or a faction faction of the the obje ct is symbolized by the full. Example: “Weary feet i n the walk of life”, doe s not refer refer to the fe et actuall actually y be i ng tired or painful; painful; it is symbolic of a l ong, hard struggle struggle through the jou rne y of lif e and feeling low, tire d, un optimistic optimistic and ‘the ‘the walk of l i fe’ does not represent represent an actual pa th or di stance covered, covered, instead instead refe rs to the entire sequence sequence of life eve nts that has made the person tired.
Synesthesia Definition: Whi le the term synesthesia literally literally refe rs to a medical condition condition wherein one or ma ny of the s en sory modalities become joint to
on e a nother, nother, in literature literature it refers to the depiction of a s trong trong conn ection, link or bond between the di fferent fferent senses. Characters Characters in l i terature are are sometimes described described to be expe riences synesthesia. synesthesia. Synes thesia i s the conflation conflation of the senses. Example: The Sound of Blue by Hollu Payne Payne whi ch portrays synesthesia synesthesia with res pect to the Romantic Romantic ideal. Syntax Definition: Syntax i n literature literature re fers fers to the a ctua l way i n which which words words a nd s en tences tences are placed together together in the writin g. Usually in the English l a nguage the syntax should should follow a pa ttern o f subject-verbsubject-verb-object object a gree ment ment bu t sometimes sometimes a uthors uthors pl a y around with this to achieve a l yrical , rhythmic, rhythmic, rhetoric rhetoric or qu estioning effect. It is no t related related to the act of choosing choosing specific specific words or e ven ven the m eaning eaning of each word o r the ove rall meanings meanings conveye d by the sentences. sentences. Example: The s entence "The man drives drives the car" wou l d follow follow normal syntax in the English l anguage. anguage. By cha nging nging the syntax to "The car d rives rives the ma n", the s entence entence b ecomes ecomes awkward. Theme Definition: The theme o f any literary literary work work is the ba se topic or focus that that acts as a f oun dation dation for the entire literary pi ece. The th eme links all aspects aspects of the l i terary terary work with o ne another another a nd i s basically basically the main subject. subject. The theme can be an enduring enduring pa ttern or motif throughout throughout the l i terary work, occurring in a compl ex, long winding winding manner or i t can be short short and succinct succinct and provi de a certain insight insight into the story. Example: The main theme in the play Romeo a nd Ju liet was l ove ove with smaller the mes o f sacrifice, tragedy, tragedy, s truggle, hardship, devotion devotion and so on .
Tone Definition: The ton e of a literary literary work is the pe rspective or attitude that the au thor adopts with regards to a s pe cific character, place or de velopment. Tone can can portray a vari ety of e motions motions ranging from s ol emn, emn, grave, and critical critical to w itty, wry an d hu morous. morous. Tone helps the rea der a scertain scertain the writer’s fee lings towards towards a particular particular topic an d this in turn influences influences the rea der’s understanding understanding o f the s tory tory. Example: In he r Harry Harry Potte Potte r series, author author J.K. Rowl ing has taken a n extremely extremely pos itive, inspiring and u plifting plifting tone tone towards the idea of l ove ove and devotion. Tragedy Definition: In l i terature, terature, the concept of tragedy tragedy refe r to a s eries of unfortunate unfortunate eve nts by which o ne or more of the the l i terary terary characters in the story story und ergo several m isfortunes, isfortunes, whic which h fi nally culminate into a disaster of ‘ep i c proportions’. proportions’. Tragedy Tragedy is gene rally rally built up in 5 stages: a) ha ppy ti mes b) the introduc introduction tion of a p roblem c) the problem worsens to a crisis/ dilemma dilemma d) the cha racters are unable to prevent prevent the prob lem from taking over e) the the probl em results results in some cata strophic, strophic, grave e nding, nding, which which is the tra ge dy culminated. Example: In the p lay Julius Caesar, Caesar, the the l ead ead cha racter is an a mbitiou mbitious, s, fearless an d p ower hungry king who i gnor gnores es al l the signs and does not heed the the ad vice of the well-meaning: finally bei ng stabbed stabbed to death by his own be s t friend and advisor advisor Brutus. Brutus. This mome nt has been immortalized immortalized by the phrase “Eu tu Brutus?”, whe rein Caesar realizes that he has fi nally been defeated, a nd that too through betrayal. Understatement Definition: Thi s li terary terary devi devi ce refers refers to the pra ctice of drawing drawing a ttention ttention to to a fa ct that is a lready ob vious vious and noti ceable. Understating Understating a fact is
us ually done by way of sarcasm, i rony, wryne wryne ss or any other form of dry humor. Understating something i s a kin to exaggerating exaggerating its obvi ousness as a means means of hu mor. mor. Example: The p hrase, “Oh! I wonder i f he coul d get any later; I am free all day l ong ”. Said i n a s arcastic arcastic tone i t i ndi cates that the s peaker peaker obviously obviously me ans the opposite of the li teral meaning.
ritua ls, literatures) literatures) and reproduced as archetypes. archetyNew pes. Hi storicism i s concerned concerned with relating the the i dea o Archetypes are figures or patterns recurring recurring in cul works ture, of discourse, the imagination, imagination ideolog,y,athe ideology, nd ca cself, a n be and h istory. istory. Ne di vided in to three categories. categories. Archetypal characters text, reainclude inclu der,de and (but history are not an limited d with ato): special the emphasis emphasis he ro, the villain, the outcast, the femme fa tale, Hi satoricist toric nd the istsss atar-crossed lso examine lovers.Archety lovers.Ar the relationship relation chetypal ship pal of literature literature s i tuations include include (but are not l imited to): the theHiquest, s torical toricthe al research journal,might deathinclude and rebirth, Biogrand Biography aphy (s ee abov the task . Archetypal symbols and associations associationssin tudies, clude clude o p rolarities: olarities even a :technological technolog l ight/dark, ight/dark, ical water/desert, water/desert approach approach to, the me di he i ght/depth, ght/depth, spring/win spring/winter. ter. i ndustry, comp comp uters uters a nd the the WWW). It has also been It i s i mportant mportant to note two things. First, workscriti may cism contain (see multiple below). You Yarchetypes. archety ou mi ght gh pes. t as Second, Second k, "How, does the te not e verything is an archetype. archetype. A balance between thi s text these a useful two extremes historical historicalcan document?" document? be ve ry " di fficult to a chieve. chieve. Looking for recurring patterns patter Fornsfuwithin rther re a pading: iece or Colu Colu within mbia mbiaa Li collection terary terary History of of th e rel a ted stories can be us eful in using this approach. appraoach. nd Th e Literary History History of England, edited by Albert For furthe r reading: Northrop Northrop Frye's Frye's The Educated Educated Top Imagination Imagination and Anatomy Anatomy of Criticism. Top
Verisimilitude Definition: Veri similitude is an interesting interesting l i terary de vice wherein the quality of s eeming truthfulness truthfulness or verity i s as cribed to a p erson, erson, notion, conce pt, statement or event. The qua lity of the stated seeming seeming to be true a nd correct and accurate accurate is refe rred to as verisimilitude. verisimilitude. Example:
Pos t-Structuralism: t-Structuralism: While a ccepting ccepting Structuralism Structuralism an d (s ee Structuralism Structuralism below), po st-structurali st-structuralism sm co nside nside Bi ographical: Relates the author's author's life and thoughts though a nd ts meaning, to h er works. ultimately ultimately As these rejecting rejectin tend g to anyrece flect flec rtainty rtaint t y of me the pe riod in which she lived, biographical criticism criticism mos t i may nfluential nfluen betial anpimportant impor ost-structur ost-structuralism, tant aspect alism,ofcalled the his critical (New ) Histo rical rical a pproac pproach h ( see below). The biographical biograph de construction, constructio ical approach approac n, thehreader allows analyzes analyze one to bs etter the te xt and espe und erstand elements elements within a wo rk, as well asa to mbiguity re late works and upset to authorial the connection connect intentio intention ion between n and the text au dience. You might ask, "How does the the te xt ireflect refle ni tially tiactllythe ask, author's "How does life?the Is this la nguage/meaning nguage/ text an meaning in this exte nsion o f the author's author's position on issues inwork the abuthor's uthor e i nterpreted nter 's preted life?" in multiple ways?" Bi ographical criticism criticism h as two weaknesses that For should furthebe r reading: avoided.From F irst, irst,the a void voNew id eqCri Cr uating uatin i ticism g to Decon the work's content with the author's author's life (o r the a nd character Deconstruction: Deconstruc with tion: the the Theory Theor a uthor); uthor); y anthe the d Pra Pr yaare ctice notby Christoph nk’ The bestseller bestseller ‘Diary of Anne Fra nk’ ne cessarily the same. Second, avoid less-tha less-than-credible n-cre Top dible sources of information, particularly works that te nd to be h ighly speculative speculative or con troversial troversial unless verified verified b y several sourc sources. l en t verisimilitude verisimilitude to the s uffering uffering (Some of th e recent biographies biographies on Thomas Jefferson Jefferson might serve as an example of this of the Jewi sh people people during the Holocaust. pitfall.) Psychoa nalytic: nalytic: Such criticism aims at uncovering uncovering the For fu rther re ading: Charles Charles Dickens: A Criti Criti calesIntroduction Introduc peciallytion the e byxpression xpress K. K. J. Fiion elding; of theHe unnry consciou con Jascious. mes:s. Possibili Verse Hi s Life a nd Wri Wri tings by F. W. Du ppee; and The drea Farm, Side looking o f Paradise: Paradise: for symbolism A Bi ography ography and repressed of F. Scott Scott meaning Definition: Fi tzgerald by Arthur Mizener. a na lysis lysis of a character. character. The l iterary term ‘verse’ is used to Three i deas fou nd i n the work of Sig mund mund Freud are p refe r to an y single, l one one line of a Na rratological: Con Con cerns cerns i tself with the s tructure tructure theofun narrative--how narrative--ho conscious conscious min w edvents ven over ts the a reconscious, constructed constructed the express poe try composition. A metrical a nd th rough what point of view. You You might ask,s ymbols "How is(often the n arrative arrativ in dreams), e of this and work sexuali sexuality (fiction, ty as a po werfu werfu writi ng line is known known as verse. The po etry, film ) pieced together? together? Who or what is narrating?" narrating? be havi or. "Psychoanalytic Psychoanal Th is considers consider yticscriticism the n arrator ca ca n be nota pplied to e word ca n ho wever, wever, also ref ref er to a ne cessarily a s a person, but more as a windowto through the reawhich der/text der/text onerelationship. relat seesionship. a co nstructed nstru You cted might ask, "How i sta nza or any other part of the rea lity. This This ca n range from someone someone telling a tale uncotonscious a s eemingly eemmind: ingly objective objec of thetive author, author camera: , the "To characters, the r poetry. wha t extent is the n arrative arrative mediated?" mediated?" For fu rther re ading: Literature Literature and Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalysis, e di Example: Top Phi l lips, and The Purl Purl oined oined Poe: Lacan, Derri Derri da and Ps A s i ngle line line or stanze in poetry poetry P. Mul l er and William William J. Ri chardso chardson. n. wou l d be an example example of verse. verse. Top New Cri Cri ticism: Unl ike biographical biographical an d historical historical a pproaches, pproaches, a Ne w Cri Cri tic approach conte nds that literature literature need h ave little or no connection connection with the a uthor's uthor's intention, intention, life, or s oci al/historical al/historical situation.Ev situation.Everything erything needed Reto a der-Response der-Respo a nalyze nalyze thnse e work Cri Cri ticism: is contained Studieswithin the interaction interac the the tion of text. New Criti cs also tend to examine the physical i ncompleteuntil ncompleteunt qualities of qualities il ithe t is read. text i n This a "scientific "scientif critical ic approach can can b Lite rature Resources Resources ma tter" th at e xamines xamines language and literary conventions convention a pproa ches chess(e.g. (s uchrhyme, as Psychoanalytical Psychoanaly meter, alliteration, tical and H istorical) istorical) b pl ot, po int of view, etc.). It is s imilar, imilar, though not focus identical, of Newto Criticism Structuralis Structuralism or the m in claim its eof mphasis mphas meaninglessne meaninglessnes is s on th e te xt itself (see below). below). For fu rther reading: The Reader in the Text: Essays on Anthrop ological: Tends to focus o n aspects of e veryday veryday life i n various cultures cultures (i.e. folklore, folklore, For furthe r reading: The New Criticism Criticism by John byCrow Sus aRansom. n R. Suleiman and Inge Crossman, Crossman, and Is There ritu al , celebrations, celebrations, traditions). traditions). You might ask, ask, "What "What is the e veryday veryday social function of this Top of I nte rpretive rpretive Communities by Stanley Fish. text? Ho w has i t been transmitted transmitted (orally/written) (orally/written)? ? Does it ref lect folk culture?" Top Top (New ) Histo ricism: ricism: Ma y approach approach a text from numerous numerous p erspective erspectives, s, but a ll perspectives perspectives ten d to reflect a concern wi th the period in which Se miaotics: text iCritiques Csritiques produced theand/or and/o use orfread language, languag (includin (ince, luding preferably g in Archetypa l: Relates to Psychoanalytical Psychoanalytical Criticism in some wa ys(see ys(see below). Developed Developed b y conte mporary work). No "h istory" istory" ca n be truly l aonguage bjective (see or comprehensive comprehensi Structuralism). Structuralism). ve bTo ecause the semiotician, semiot histor history ician, y l ang Carl Jung , this approach accepts the idea of the u nconscious nconscious mind. However, unlike unlike i s constantly constantly written a nd rewritten; rewritten; however, however,sstudying yste m ofthe assigned historical meanings.You meanin context gs.You of amight work,ask, "How do Si gmund Freud and other cri cri tics, tics, Jungians argue that part of th e unconscious unconscious iss hared by pa rticularly in contrast with that in which it i sbrea read,k ca cthe a n illuminate rules of language langu ourage biases usage? and Why?" Why hopefully hopef ?"ully Or if th e te a l l peo ple. From From thi s perspective perspective th e term "collective unconscious" unconscious" developed, developed, a te rm en able u s to u nderstan nderstand d th e text (and the culture, own lcontext, context anguage, , ourselves) ourselv "Howes) does better. the language used reflect reflect a repre senting the memories memories of human products and activities activities (found in m yths, symbols, symbols,
ideological tool?" Top
are obvious similarities similarities between eco nomical, and so ciological ciological the Con s piracy i n the play and the conte xt of his ti mes in order order to Popi sh Plot in history. history. The Tories trul y understand his works. woul d never approv approve e of the Advantages: Soci al Criticism: Con Con cerns cerns i tself tself with the s ocial blfunction oody Popish of texts, Plot,thus butconsisting they of s everal everal Thi s approach approach works well for some some cate gories, and analyzes social structure, structure, po wer, we non r, politics, ethelessand sympathized sympath ag ency. ency ized . Social with criticism the is works --like those of Alexander Alexander s i milar to historical criticism in recognizing literature literatu pl otters re as for a reflection the way the the ofyenvironment. environmen were were t. Th ere Pope , John Dryden, Dryden, and Milton-a re s everal social movements, movements, but Marxism, Feminism ab used byand theGender Tory enemy, Studies, the and Green whi ch are o bviously bviously poli tical in The ory are prevalent. Whi gs. Thus it ma kes sense sense for na ture. One must know Milton Marxis m is concerned concerned with labor practices, class Otway theories theories, to cond , a nd emn economics, economic the conspiracy s, e specially specially as wa s blind, for i nstance, nstance, for "On "On His conce rned with the struggles of the poor andioppressed. oppress tself i n Vencie ed. A Marxist Preserv'd Preserv'd might without ask, "How are Bl i ndness" ndness" to have any meaning. cla sses stratified/defined stratified/defined i n this text? Do es this cond text em reflect ning the a n economic conspirator conspirators ideology? ideolo s gy? What is And on e must kn ow somethin something g the a ttitude toward labor furthered furthered b y this text?" text themselves. ?" a bou t the Exclusion Exclusion Bill Cri Cri sis to For fu rther re ading: Ma Ma rx, Engels, Engels, and the Poe(2) ts:To Origins he lp us o f Marxist M decide decid arxist e which Literary is the Cri Cri ticism by a ppre ciate John Dryden's Dryden's Pete r Dem etz and Marxism and Literary Criticism Criticism be tter by Te of two rry Eag conflicting leton. leton. readings. "Abs alom a nd Achitophel." Achitophel." It also Fe mi nist Criticism Criticism examine works works b y and about A forma women. listGender approach Criticism Criticism might might enable enab evolved le out o f i s n ecessary to take a historical fe mi nism to a ddress ddress issues o f m asculinity asculinity/femin /femininity us inity to choo as binaries, se between between sexual a reading orientation, orientation, a pproa ch in order to to place he tereosexism, and differences differences i n sexes. Bothwhi arech p olitical oli sees ticalthe activities dissolution dissolutconcerned conce ion of rned with fair a l lusions lusions i n there proper classical, classical, repre sentation sentation an d treatment treatment of people. A cristcic oci ety using in Feminist Lord of the Stud Studies Flies Flies iesas orbeing Gen der Studiespol itical, or biblical background. background. (s ometimes also k nown nown as Queer Studies) might cauask, s ed "Ho by too w isstrict gender a suconstructed construc ppression ppression ted or Disadvantages: de constructed in this text? Is the view of the te ofxt the gendered gender "bestial" "bestia edl" orside sexist?" of man and New Cri Cri tics re fer to the historic historical al / For fu rther re ading: The New Feminist Feminist Cri Cri ticism: oneEss which ays on s ees Woitmen, as resLi Liulting ult terature, teratu ing from fr re, om and bi ographical critic's critic's belief that the The ory, edited by El aine Showalter, Showalter, and The Gay too al ind ttle Lesbian Lesbian suppression. suppressi Studies on. We Reader, Reade can r, look loo edited k by mea ning or value of a work work may Henry Avel Avel ove, et al. to the text and a sk: What textual textual be de termined by the au thor's thor's A Gre en Critic might ask, "Of "Of what p riority riority is conservation conservatio evidence isnthere in this for text? the What is the i nte ntion ntion as "the intentional rel ationship between humankind humankind an d Nature?" Nature?" s upp ression ression or indulgence indulgence of the fa l lacy." lacy." The y believe that this Top "be s tial" side of man? Does Ralph a pproa ch tends to reduce art to to s upp ress ress Jack when he tries to the l evel of biography and make it i ndulge hi s bestial side in hunting hunting? ? rel ative (to the times) rather than Structural ism: Like Ne w Cri Cri ticism, Structuralism Structuralism Doe concentrates concentrat s it appear esfrom o n elements the text that within works of universal. l i terature without focusing on historical, historical, s ocial, ociaan l, aind mposition mpositio biographical biograph n of ical stricter in fluences. law and Structuralism Structuralism,, Samp le Papers: Papers: how eve r, is grounded in linguistics linguistics a nd developed develope orde d rby would Fe rdinand rdin have and prevented de Sausseure. Sausseur the the e. Sausseure' Sausseure's The I deal Source for for a Tory work a rgues that language is a complete, self-contained self-cont brea kdown? ained system Did itand work s hould ho inuld thebe stu died as Mes sage: Thomas Otway's Otway's Venice s uch. Sausseure also claimed that language language is"grownu a sys temp" ofworld signs.of When the novel? applied applied to Preserv'd l i terature, this this form o f criticism is generally generally known (3) Toas ena S emiotics emiot ble usics to(see form a bove). bove). Motiva tion in S andra andra Cisneros's Cisneros's For fu rther re ading: Semiotic and Structural Structural Analyses Analy jud gme ses of ntsFiction: Fiction about:literatu An I ntroduction ntrod re.uction and a "Neve r Ma Ma rry a Mexi can" Survey of Applications by Le onard Orr; Orr; Structuralism One o f the in Lipterature: teratu urposes urpose re:s An of cri cr Introduction Introduct i ticism ticism ision b y Back to Top Rob ert Scholes; andThe Role of the R eader: eader: Explorations Exploration to judge i fsainwork th e Semiotics Semiot is any good goo ics of d or Texts by Umberto Eco. not. For i nstance, we might use a Moral / Philosophical Philosophical Approach: Approach: The Purpo se of Criticism: Criticism: forma list approach to a rgue that a Definition: Lite rary criticism has at least three three John D onne poem poem is of high Moral / ph ilosophical ilosophical cri cri tics primary purposes. qua lity because because it contains be l ieve that that the larger purpose of (1) To hel p us resolve a q uestion, uestion, num erous intricate conceits conceits that l i terature is to to teach morality and prob l em, or diffi culty i n the the are wel l sustained. sustained. Or, we might to prob e p hilosophical hilosophical issues. reading. us e th e mimetic mimetic approach to Practitioners: The h i storical storical a pproach, pproach, for argu e that Th e West Indian Indian is a Matthe w Arnold -- argued works i ns tance, tance, might be helpful helpful in poo r play because it fails to paint mus t have "high seriousness" seriousness" a ddressing a problem i n Thomas Thomas a re al istic picture of the world. Pla to -- i nsisted nsisted literature literature must Otway's play Venice Preserv'd. Preserv'd. Back to Top exhi bit mo ralism ralism and u tilitar tilitarianis ianism m Why are the conspirators, conspirators, despite Hora ce - felt l iterature iterature should be the h orrible, bloody details details of Hi s torical torical / Biographical Biographical Approach: Approach: "de l ightful ightful and instructive" instructive" the i r obviously brutish plan, Definition: Advantages: portra yed in a sympathetic sympathetic light? Hi s torical torical / Biographical Biographical critics see Thi s approach i s useful useful for such If we lo ok at the author author and his works as the reflection of an works as Al exander exander Pope's Pope's "An time , we see that he was a Tory au thor's thor's life a nd times (or of the Ess ay on Man," which which does who s e play wa s performed performed in the cha racters' life and times). They pres ent an obvious obvious moral wake of the Popish Popish Plot and the bel ieve ieve i t is necessary necessary to to k now phi losophy. losophy. It is also useful useful when Exclus ion Bill Crisis, Crisis, and that there ab out th e author a nd the po litical, litical, cons idering the themes of works
(for e xample, man's in humanity humanity to to ma n i n Mark Twain's Twain's Hu ckelberry ckelberry Fi nn) . Finally, Finally, it does not vi vi ew l i terature merely merely as "art" isolated from a l l moral i mplication mplications; s; it recogn izes that l iterature iterature can a ffe ct readers, whether subtly or di rectly, and that the message message of a work-- a nd not just the decorous vehi cle for that message--is message--is important. Disadvantages: De tractors argue that such an ap proach can be too "judgmental." Some believe l i terature should should be judged pri ma rily rily (if not solely) solely) on its a rtistic me rits, not its moral or phi losophical content. See Al so: so: Read my my introduction to my pa pers for a justification justification of a Chris tian critical approach approach to literature. Back to Top Mime tic Approach: Approach: Definition: Thi s can be closely related related to the mora l / philosophical philosophical approach, approach, but i s somewhat broader. broader. Mimetic Mimetic criti cs ask how well the work of l i terature accords accords with the real worl d. Is it a ccurate? ccurate? Is it correct? Is it mo ral? Does it show how peo ple really really act? As such, mi me tic criticism criticism can include so me forms of moral moral / phi losophical criticism, ps ychological ychological criticism, and fe mi nist criticism. criticism. Back to Top Forma lism / New Criticism My arti cle on formalism is available available here. here. Please return to this page using using the back arrow arrow of your brows er when you you are done rea ding the article. Below are two s a mples of this this approach. One is on my we bsite, and the the other has be en contributed contributed as an article to another website. Samp le Papers: Papers: Sound in William William Sha kespeare's kespeare's The Te mpest mpest A Fo rmali st Reading of Sandra Sandra Cis neros's "Woman Hollering Hollering
Creek" Back to Top Psychol ogical ogical Approach Definition: Psychol ogical ogical critics view works throug h the l ens of psychology. psychology. They lo ok either either at the ps ychological ychological motivations of the cha racters or of the authors the ms elves, elves, although although the former i s g enerally considered considered a more res pectable approach. approach. Most freq uently, ps ychological ychological critics ap ply Freudian psychology to to works , bu t other a pproac pproaches hes (suc (such as a Jungian approach) approach) also exist. exist. Freu dian Approach: Approach: A Fre ud ian approach approach often i ncl udes udes pinpointing pinpointing the i nflu ences ences of a character's character's i d (the i ns tinctual, tinctual, pleasure pleasure s eeking eeking part of th e mi nd), superego superego (the part part of the m i nd that represses represses the i d's d's i mpu lses) and the ego (the part of the mi nd that controls controls but does not re pres s the i d's impulses, impulses, rel easing them in a healthy way). way). Freu dian critics l ike to point out the s exual implications implications of symbols an d i magery, magery, si nce Freud' Freud'ss be l ieved that a ll human behavior i s motivated by sexuality. sexuality. They ten d to s ee concave concave images, such as ponds, flowers, cups, cups, and caves as fe male symbols; symbols; whereas obje cts that are longer longer than they are wide a re usual usually seen as ph allic symbols. symbols. Dan cing, riding, riding, an d flyi ng are associated with s exual pleasure. Water is usually usually as sociated with bi rth, rth, the female principle, the maternal, the womb, an d the death wish. Freudian Freudian criti cs occasionally occasionally discern the pres ence of a n Oedipus Oedipus compl ex (a bo y's y's un consciou consciouss riva l ry wi th his father for the love of hi s mother) mother) i n the male cha racters of certain works, works, s uch as Hamlet. They may a lso refer to Freu d's psychology psychology of child de velopment, which which includes the o ral stage, the anal stage, stage, and the gen ital ital s tage. Jungian Approach:
Jung i s also an influential influential force in myth (arche typal) typal) criticism. Psychol ogical ogical critics are generally conce rned with his concept concept of the proce ss of in dividuation dividuation (the proce ss o f discovering discovering what makes makes one different form everyone else). else). Jung l abeled three parts of the s elf : the shadow, shadow, or the darker, unco nscious self (usually the vil lain in l iterature); iterature); the persona, persona, or a ma n's social personality personality (us ually the h ero); ero); and the anima, or a m an 's "soul i mage" (usuall (usually y the he roine). roine). A ne urosisoccurs urosisoccurs whe n s omeone omeone fails to a ssimilate ssimilate one of these unconscious unconscious compo nents into his conscious conscious a nd p rojects it on someone someone else. The p ersona must be flexible flexible and be ab le to balance balance the compo nents of the psyche. psyche. Practitioners: Ernes t Jones, Otto Rank, Marie Marie Boa parte, and others Advantages: It can b e a useful tool tool for und erstanding erstanding some works, such a s H enry James The Turning Turning of the Screw, i n which characters obvi ously have psychological psychological i s sues. Li Li ke the the biographical biographical a pproa ch, knowing something something a bou t a writer's psychological psychological mak e up can give us insight insight into his work. work. Disadvantages: Psychol ogical ogical criticism can turn a work i nto little more more than a ps ychological ychological case s tudy, tudy, negl ecting ecting to view it a s a piece of a rt. Criti Criti cs sometimes sometimes attempt to di agnose long dead authors based based on th eir wo rks, which is perhaps not the best evidence of their their ps ychology. Cri Cri tics tend to see sex i n e verything, exaggerat exaggerating ing this a s pect of literature. literature. Finally, Finally, some works do n ot lend lend themselves themselves rea dily to this approach. approach. Examples: (1) A p s ychological ychological approach approach to John Milton's Samson Agoni sties sties might suggest that the s horn ing of Samson's locks locks is s ymbolic of his castration at the ha nds of Dalila and that the the fi ghting words he exchanges with
Ha rapha constitute a reassertion reassertion of h i s ma nhood. nhood. Ps Ps ychologic ychological al criti cs might see Samson's Samson's bon dage as a symbol of his s exual exual i mpo tency, tency, and his destruction destruction of the Phi listine temple temple and the ki l ling of hi mself and and many others a s a final orgasmic event event (since de a th a nd s ex are are o ften ften closely a s sociated i n Freudian ps ychology). The The total absence of Sa ms on's on's mother mother in Samson Agoni sties sties would make it difficult to argu e an ything ything regarding regarding the Oed i pus complex, complex, but Samson refus al to to be ca red for by his fa the r and his remorse over failing failing to rul e D alila alila may be seen as i ndi cative of hi s own fears rega rding his s exuality exuality.. (2) A p s ychological ychological approach approach to "The S i lence of the Llano" would al low us to look look into the moti vations of Rafael--it Rafael--it would a l low us to examine examine the effects effects of i s olation and and loneliness loneliness on his cha racter and provide provide some rea s oning oning for why he might chose to es tablish an i ncestuou ncestuouss rel ationship with his daughter. daughter. A s pe cifically cifically Freudian approach approach will tune us i n to the relevan relevantt s ymbolism which will enable us to be tter un derstand derstand the conclusion. For i ns tance, with such a mind fram e, we can i mmediatel mmediately y recogn ize that Rafael's statement statement to hi s daughter daughter "I will will turn the ea rth fo r you. The s eeds will grow grow"" i s th e establishment establishment of a sexual rel ationship that will result result in chil dren. dren. We can see the water in whi ch she bathes a s symbolic symbolic of that b irth that is to come. Samp le Paper: Paper: A Fre udi an Approach Approach to Erin McGraw's McGraw's "A Thief" Back to Top Mythol Mythol ogical / Archetypal / Symbolic Note : "Symbolic" approaches approaches may a l so fall under the category of forma lism because they i nvolve nvolve a clo s e reading of the te xt. Myth Myth criti cism generally has broader, broader, more unive rsal applications applications than s ymbolic cri ticism, although although b oth
as sume that certain images have have a fa i rly universal a ffect ffect on readers. Definition: A mythol ogical / archetypal ap proach to literature assumes assumes tha t there is a collection of s ymbols, im ages, characters, characters, and moti fs (i.e. archetypes) archetypes) that evoke s basically basically the the same res ponse i n all people. According According to the p s ychologist ychologist Carl Jung, ma nkind po ssesses a "collective "collective unco nscious" that contains these these arche types and that is common common to al l of humanity. Myth Myth cri cri tics i de ntify these archetypal archetypal patterns an d discuss how they function function in the works. They believe that these these arche types are the s ource ource of much much of l i terature's terature's power. power. Some Archetypes (See (See A Ha ndbook of Critical Approaches Approaches to Lite rature rature for a complete complete list): arche typal women - the Goo d Mother, the Terrible Mothe r, a nd the Soul Mate (such (such as the Virgin Mary) Mary) wa ter - crea tion, birthde ath-resurrection, ath-resurrection, purification, purification, rede mption, fertility, fertility, growth ga rden - paradise (Eden), (Eden), i nno cence, cence, fertility fertility des ert - spiritual spiritual emp tiness, death, hopelessness hopelessness red - bl ood, sacrifice, sacrifice, passion, disorder gree n - growth, fertility fertility bl a ck - cha os, death, evil evil s erpent - e vil, sensuality, sensuality, myste ry, wi sdom, destruction destruction se ven - perfection perfection s ha dow, dow, persona, persona, and ani ma (see (see p sychological sychological criticism) criticism) hero archetype archetype - The hero i s involved involved in a quest (in whi ch he o vercomes vercomes obstacles). obstacles). He expe riences initiation initiation (involving a s ep aration, aration, transformation, transformation, and return) , and finally he serves serves as a s capegoat, that is, he dies to atone. Practitioners: Maud Bod kin, Bettina L. L. Kna Kna pp, an d others. others. Advantages:
Provide s a universalistic universalistic approach to l i terature and identifies identifies a rea s on why certain literature literature may s urvive the test of time. It works works wel l with works works that a re highly highly symbolic. Disadvantages: Lite rature may become little more more tha n a vehicle for archetyp archetypes, es, and thi s approach approach m ay ignore the "art "art" of l iterature. iterature. Examples: (1) In Go Do wn, Moses Moses by William Fa ulkner, for example, example, we might vie w I saac McCas McCas lin's lin's repudiation repudiation of the lan d as an attemp attemptt to deny the e xistence of his a rchetypal rchetypal s ha dow--that dow--that dark part of him that ma i ntains ntains some degree of compl icity in slavery. slavery. Whe n he s ees the gra nddaughter nddaughter of Ji m, a nd ca n barely tell she is black, his horri fied reaction reaction to the mi s cegenation cegenation of the ra ces may may be i ndi cative of h is shadow's shadow's (his de eply racist dark side's) side's) emergence. (2) In He rman Melville's Moby Moby Di ck, Fedallah can be s een as Aha b's shadow, his defiant pagan s i de wholly unrestrained. unrestrained. Nume rous archetypes archetypes appear in Moby Dick . The sea is associated associated both wi th spiritual mystery mystery (Ahab i s ultimately on a s piritual piritual quest to to de fy God because evil exists) and wi th death an d rebirth rebirth (all but Is hmael die at sea, bu t Ahab's Ahab's de a th as if crucified i s suggestive suggestive of reb i rth). rth). Three is symbolic of s pi ritual awarenes awareness; s; thus we see num ero us triads triads inMoby Dick, i ncl uding Ahab's Ahab's three mysterious mysterious crew me mbers and the three harpooners. (3) In "Th e Si lence of the Llano" by Rud olfo Anaya, a mythological mythological / a rchetypal approach would allow us to exa mine mine the archetypes archetypes that i l licit similar reactions in most rea ders. We can s ee how Anay Anaya a is dra wi ng on the archetype of wat water er to i mply pu rification rification (when Rita ba thes after her pe riod) and fe rtility and growth (when Rita wa s hes before the the i ncestuou ncestuouss rel ationship is established). established). The red b l ood Rita washes away away ca ca lls
up vi s ions of violent passions, passions, whi ch will be evidenced evidenced i n the rap e. The garden conjures up i ma ges of innocence, unspoiled be a uty, uty, an d fertility. fertility. Thus, the rea der can s ense in the end that a s tate of i nnocence nnocence has been rega ined and that growth will will en s ue. This approach, approach, however, however, is l i mited in that by assuming assuming it, the criti c may begin to view the story not a s a work within itself, but but me rely as a vessel for for tra tra nsmitting nsmitting the s e archetypes archetypes . He may al so overl ook the possibility that s ome ome s ymbols are not associated with the i r archetype; archetype; for instance, the the s un, wh ich normally normally i mplies the pa ssage of time, seems seems in its i nte nsity i n the llano llano to actually s uggest a s lowing lowing down of ti me, a ne a r static s tate in the llano. Samp le Paper: Paper: A Cata logue of Symbols Symbols in Kate Chopi n's The Awakening Awakening Back to Top Fe mi nist Approach Approach Definition: Fe mi nist criticism criticism is concerned concerned with the impact of gender gender on writi ng and reading. reading. It usually begi ns with a critique critique of pa triarchal culture. culture. It is con cerned cerned wi th the place of female writers in the ca nnon. Finally, Finally, it includes a s earch fo r a feminine feminine theory or a pproa ch to texts. Feminist Feminist criti cism is political and often revis ionist. Feminists Feminists often argue tha t mal e fears are are portrayed throug h femal e characters. characters. They ma y argu e that ge nder nder determin determines es eve rythi rythi ng, or just the opposite: opposite: tha t all gen der differences a re i mpo sed by society, society, and gender determines nothing. Ela ine Showalter's Showalter's Th eory: eory: In A Li terature of Their Own, Ela ine Showalter Showalter argued that that l i terary s ubcultures al l go through three ma jor phases of de velopment. For literature literature by or a bou t women, women, she labels labels these s tag es the F eminine, eminine, Feminist, Feminist, and Female: (1) Femi nine Stage - involves "i mi tation tation of th e prevailing prevailing modes
of the dom inant tradition" a nd "in ternalization ternalization of i ts s tandards." tandards." (2) Fem i nist Stage Stage - involves "prote st a gainst gainst these standards standards an d values and a dvocac dvocacy y of mi nority ri ri ghts...." ghts...." (3) Fema le Stage Stage - this is the "pha se of self-discovery, self-discovery, a tu rning rning i nwards freed from from some of the de pe ndency ndency of o pposition, a s earch for identity." Practitioners: Ell en Mores, Sandra Gilbert, Elaine Elaine Sho walter, Nina Baym, etc. Advantages: Wome n have been somewhat somewhat und errepresented in the tradi tional tional cannon, and a feminist ap proach to literature redresses redresses this problem. problem. Disadvantages: Fem i nist turn literary cri cri ticism ticism i nto nto a p ol itical itical battlefield and overlook the me rits of works they consider "pa triarchal." When arguing for a di s tinct feminine writing writing styl styl e, the y tend to re legate women's l i terature to a ghetto status; this i n turn p revents female literature literature from be i ng naturally included included in the l i terary terary ca ca nnon. The feminist feminist ap proach is often too theoretical. theoretical. Example: Sho walter's three stages of fem i nine, nine, fe minist, minist, and female are i de ntifiable ntifiable in the life of Cleófilas i n Sa ndra Cisneros' Cisneros'ss "Woman Hollering Creek." Cle ófilas begins to internalize the pa ternalistic ternalistic values of the society in which she lives at least least as early as the ice house scene. She "accom panies her husband," husband," as is expe cted of her (48). Since wom women en sh ould be seen and not heard in a pa ternalistic ternalistic society, she "sits mute be side their conversation" conversation" (48). She goes through all of the moti ons that are expected of h er, l au ghing "a t the appropriate appropriate mome nts" (48). (48). She submits, i f unh a ppily, ppily, to to the rule of her hus band, "this man, this this father, thi s rival, this keeper, this lord, thi s m aster, this husband husband till ki ngdom come" (49). Yet Cle ófilas gradually gradually begins to eme rge from the feminine feminine stage
i nto the fe minist minist stage, where where she be gi ns to revolt revolt and advocate for for he r own ri ghts. It begins begins with "[a] dou bt. Slender as a hair" (50). (50). When she returns returns from the hos pital with her new son, s ome thing thing seems different. "No. "No. He r imagination. The house was the s ame as always. Nothing" (50). (50). Thi s is true b ecause the house is not d i fferent; i t is Cleófilas Cleófilas who ha s b egun to change. Perhaps Perhaps givi ng birth to a child has made her a ware of the power and i mpo rtance rtance women possess. She be gi ns to think of re turning turning home, but i s n ot ready for the the pos sibility sibility yet. It wou l d be "a disgrace" (50). She be gins gins to i nternally nternally protest protest a ga inst the society, society, thi nking nking about the to wn "with its silly pride for a bron ze p ecan" and the fact that the re i s "nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing nothing of i nte rest" (50). The patriarchal patriarchal s oci ety, with its ice house, city ha l l, liquor liquor stores, and bail bail bonds is of no intere interest st to her. She is ups et that the town is built so that that "you "you h ave to depend depend on hus bands" (51). Though her hus band says says she is "exa ggerating," s he seems to to be be coming convinced that her so ciety is a b ad one, one, where men ki l l their wi ves with i mpunity. mpunity. "It s ee med the newspape newspapers rs were full of s uch s tories. tories. This woman found on the s ide of the interstate. interstate. This This one pus hed from a moving car . . ." (52). Altho ugh s he does does nothing when he throws throws a bo ok at her, Cle ófilas does (if only meekly) meekly) in sist that he take her to the docto r. And And th ere she solidifies solidifies he r i nternal rebellion with action actions: s: s he leaves her husband with Felice Felice to return to Mexi co. Fe l ice is actually actually more repre sentative sentative o f the third, fe ma le, stage than than Cleófilas, Cleófilas, but the f a ct that Cl Cl eófilas eófilas enjoys her compa ny s uggests uggests that when she returns to Mexico, Mexico, she may s eek to en ter that third stage herself. Fe l ice is not phalocentric--sh phalocentric--she e is not i nterested in revolting against me n, sh e simply simply does n ot need the m. She d oesn't oesn't have a husband husband
an d s he owns owns her own car. car. "The pi ckup was hers. She herself had chos en it. She herself was paying paying for i t" (55). Fel ice is most likely a pa rt of a community community of women; women; s he is certainly friends friends with the nurs e Graciela. Cl Cl eófilas eófilas is a ttracted to Felice, who "was l ike no wo ma n she'd she'd ever met" (55). At ho me , in Mexico, Cleófilas recou nts the story of Felice's Felice's yel l ing when when they crossed crossed the cree k. "Just like that. Who wou l d've d've thought?" (56). (56). Cleófilas se ems to have enjoyed enjoyed her compa ny an d has kept kept the expe rience in her mind. Felice's l a ughter, "gurgling out of her own throa t, a l ong ribbon ribbon of laughter, laughter, l i ke water" suggests suggests that Felice ha d com pleted the s elf-discov elf-discovery ery s tag e. (Water is often symbolic of rebi rth.) Cl Cl eófilas has witnessed witnessed the th i rd stage stage in Felice, and it is up to her wh ether she will will enter it or regres s to the feminine feminine stage a nd i nternalize nternalize the paternalistic paternalistic val ues of h er father father and brothers brothers wi th who m s he is now living. living. Back to Top Re a der Response Response Criticism Criticism My arti cle on reader res res ponse criti cism is availabl available here. here. Please return to thi s page using the the back a rrow of your browser when when you a re do ne reading the article. Back to Top Miscellaneous Aris totle (Augustine) (Augustine) - reality i n concrete substance vs vs . Plato (Aqui nas) - reality in a bstract bstract ideal ideal forms dra ma tic unities - rules governing governing cla ssical dramas requiring requiring the uni ty of action, tim e, and and place (The i dea was based based on a Re naissance mis interpre interpretation tation of pa ssages in Aristotle's Aristotle's Poetic.) pa thetic fallacy - Ruskin a ttributing human traits to non human objects objects fa ncy - Col Col eridge -- combining s eve ral known properties into into new combinations
i ma gination gination - using known prope rties to create create a whole that is entirely entirely new Pate r: Aes thetic experience experience permi ts the greatest greatest i nte nsification nsification of e ach moment moment "Of su ch wisdom, the poetic pa ssion, the desire of beauty, beauty, the lo ve of a rt for its own sake, sake, has most." Longi nus: em phasis phasis on greatness of s entiments entiments - the s ublime ublime Goe the: "The poet makes himself a s eer by a l ong, prodigious, prodigious, and rati onal disordering disordering of all the senses." Howe lls: "Ou r n ovelist ovelists..conce s..concern rn the ms elves elves with the more more smiling as pect of life, which are the more Ameri can." a lso "When "When man is at hi s very best, he is a so rt of low grad e n ickel-plated ickel-plated angel." Morris : "Art "Art was once the commo n possession of the whole pe ople..today..art ople..today..art i s only en joyed...by comparatively comparatively few pe rsons...the rsons...the rich and the pa rasites that minister to them." Swe etness and Light: Delight and In s truction truction (in reference to the Ancients) Newm a n: "I say that a cultivated i nte llect, because because it is a g ood in i tself, b rings rings wi th it a p ower and a grace to every work." Cri Cri tica l Approaches to Li terature terature Plain text text version of this document. De s cribed cribed below are n ine commo common n criti cal approaches approaches to the l i terature. Quotations Quotations are from X.J. Kenne dy and Dana Gioia’s Literature: An Introduction to Fi ctio n, Poetry, Poetry, a nd Drama, Si xth Edition (New York: York: Ha rpe rCollins, rCollins, 1995), 1995), pages 179017901818. Forma list Criticism: This approach approach rega rds literature literature as “a unique form of h uman knowledge that nee ds to be examined on its own terms .” All the elements n eces ecessar sary y for und erstanding erstanding the work are conta ined within the work itself. Of pa rticular interest interest to the forma list critic a re the elements elements of form—s tyle, structure, tone, ima gery, gery, etc.—that are found
wi thin the text. A pri mary goal for forma list critics is to determine determine how s uch elements elements work together with the text’s text’s con tent to to s hape its ef fects upon readers. readers. Bi ographical Criticism: Criticism: This a pproa ch “begins “begins with the simple but ce ntral i nsight nsight that literature i s wri tten by actual people people and tha t u nderstanding nderstanding a n a uthor’ uthor’s li fe can he lp readers readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.” Hence, it ofte n a ffords ffords a practical method method by whi ch readers ca ca n better better und erstand a text. However, However, a bi ographical critic critic must be careful not to ta ke the biographical biographical facts of a writer’s life life too far in criti cizing the works of that writer: writer: the biographical critic “focuses on expl icating the the literary work by us i ng the insight insight provi provi ded by kno wledge of the a uthor’ uthor’ss l ife.... ife.... [B]i ographical data data should am plify plify the m eaning of the text, not not drown i t out with irrelevant irrelevant material.” Hi s torical torical Criticism: Criticism: This a pproach pproach “se eks to u nderstan nderstand d a literary work by i nvestigating the social, social, cul tural, a nd intellectual intellectual context that produced it—a context that ne cessarily includes the artist’s bi ography and milieu.” milieu.” A key goal for hi s torical torical critics critics is to und erstand the the ef fect fect of a literary work up on its o riginal riginal readers. Ge nder Criticism: This approach “exa mines how s exual exual identity identity i nflu ences ences the creation creation and rece ption of literary works.” Origi nally an offshoot of femi nist nist movem ents, gender cri cri ticism ticism toda y includes a number of a pproa ches, ches, including including the socal led “masculinist” “masculinist” approach approach rece ntly a dvocated dvocated by po et Robert Robert Bl y. The b ulk of gender criticism, criticism, how eve r, is feminist and takes as a cen tral precept that the pa triarchal attitudes attitudes that have dom i nated western thought have res ulted, consciously consciously or unco nsciously, in literature “full of une xamined ‘male-produced’ a s sumptions.” sumptions.” Feminist criticism criticism a ttemp ts to correct this imbalanc imbalance e by an al yzing and combatting combatting such
attitudes—by qu estioning, for examp le, why why none of the characters in Shak espeare’s pl ay Othello ever challenge the right o f a husband husband to murder murder a wi fe accused of adultery. adultery. Othe Othe r goa ls of feminist cri cri tics include include “an al yzing how sexual identity i nflu ences ences the reader of a text” a nd “e xamin*ing+ xamin*ing+ how the images images of me n a nd women i n imaginativ imaginative e l i terature reflect reflect or reject reject the s oci al forces that have historical historically ly ke pt the sexes from achieving achieving tota l e quality.” quality.” Psychol ogical ogical Criticism: This a pproa ch reflects the effect that mod ern psychology has had up on both l iterature iterature and literary criti cism. Fundamental Fundamental figures figures i n ps ychological ychological criticism include Si gmund Freud, whose “ps ychoanalytic theories theories changed our no tions of human behavior behavior by expl oring new or con troversial troversial a reas l ike wish-fulfillmen wish-fulfillment, t, s exual ity, ity, the the unconscious, unconscious, and repre ssion” as w ell as expanding our un derstanding derstanding of how “la nguage and symbols operate by by de monstrating their ability to refl ect unconscious unconscious fears or de s ires”; and Ca Ca rl Jung, whose whose the ori es a bout bout the u nconscious nconscious are also a key foundat foundation ion o f Mythol Mythol ogical Criticism Criticism.. Psychol ogical ogical criticism has a num ber of a pproaches, pproaches, but in ge ne ral, it usually usually employs employs one (or more ) of thre e approach approaches: es: 1. An i nvestigat nvestigation ion of “the crea crea tive tive process process of t he a rtist: what is the nature nature of l i terary ge nius a nd how does it rel ate to normal mental functions?” 2. The ps ychological ychological study of a particular a rtist, usually noting noting how an a utho r’s biographic biographical al circums tances affect or influence the i r motivations and/or behavior behavior.. 3. The a nalysis nalysis of fi ctio nal characters characters using the l a nguage a nd me thods thods of psychology. Soci ological Criticism: Criticism: This a pproa ch “examines “examines literature literature in
the cu l tural, economic a nd pol itical context context in which it is writte n o r received,” received,” exploring the the rel a tionships between between the artist an d s ociety. ociety. Sometimes Sometimes it exa mines the a rtist’s rtist’s society to be tter un derstand derstand the a uthor’s uthor’s l i terary terary works; other times, it may exa mine th e representat representation ion of s uch s ocietal ocietal el ements ements within the the l i terature itself. itself. One influential influential type of s ociological criticism i s Marxist criticism, criticism, which focuses on th e e conomic and political political el ements of art, often emp hasizing the ideological ideological conte nt of literature; literature; because because Marxis t criticism often argues that that al l art is political, political, either cha l lenging lenging or endorsing (by si lence) lence) the status status qu o, it is freq uently eva luative luative and jud gme ntal, a te ndency that “can l ead to reductive reductive judgment, as whe n So viet critics critics rated Jack Lond on b etter than William William Fa ulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Edi th Wharton, and Henry Ja mes, be cause he illustrated the pri nciples of class struggle more cle arly.” arly.” Non etheless, etheless, Marxist criti cism “can illuminate political political an d e conomic conomic dimensions of l i terature other other approaches overlook.” Mythol Mythol ogical Cri Cri ticism: This This ap proach emphasizes emphasizes “the recurren t universal patterns patterns und erlying most li terary terary works.” Combi ning the the i nsights nsights from an thropology, thropology, psychology, psychology, history, an d comparative religion, mythol ogical criticism “explores the a rtist’s common common humanity by traci ng how the individual i ma gination gination uses myths and s ymbols common to different different cul tures and epochs.” One One key conce pt i n mythlogical mythlogical criticism is symbol, the a rchety rchetype pe, “a symbol, cha racter, situation, or image that evoke s a deep universal universal res ponse,” which entered entered literary criti cism from Swiss psychologist psychologist Carl Ju ng. According to Jun g, all i ndividuals share a “‘collective unco nscious,’ a s et of primal mem ories common to the human
race , existing below each person’s person’s conscious mind”—often deriving from pri mordial ph enomena enomena such a s th e sun, moon, fire, night, night, and bl ood, archetypes a ccording ccording to Jung “tri gger the collective unco nscious.” Another critic, Northrop Frye, d efined archetypes archetypes in a m ore limited limited way as “a s ymbol, us ually ually an i mage, which which recurs often enough in literature literature to be recognizable as an element of one ’s lit literary experience as a who l e.” Regardless of the de fi nition of archetype they use, mythol ogical critics critics tend to vi vi ew l i terary works in the broader broader conte xt of works sharing a s imilar imilar pattern. Re a der-Response der-Response Cri Cri ticism: This a pproa ch takes as a fundamental fundamental exists not te ne t that “literature” exists a s a n artifact artifact upon a p rinted rinted page but a s a tra nsaction nsaction between the phys i cal text and the mind of a rea der. It a ttempts ttempts “to “to d escribe escribe wha t happens in the reader’s reader’s mi nd w hile interpreting interpreting a text” a nd re flects flects that reading, like writi ng, is a creative creative p rocess. rocess. Accordin g to reader-response reader-response criti cs, literary texts do not “conta in” a meaning; meanings meanings deri ve only from from the act of i ndi vidual readings. Hence, two di fferent readers may derive derive completely different i nte rpretations rpretations of the same l i terary text; lik ewise, ewise, a reader who re -reads a work years years later ma y find th e work work shockingly shockingly di fferent. Reader-response Reader-response criti cism, then, emphasizes emphasizes how “rel i gious, gious, cultural, cultural, and social val ues affect readings; readings; it also overl aps with gender criticism criticism in expl oring how men and women rea d the same text with different a s sumptions.” sumptions.” Though this a pproa ch rejects rejects the notion that a s i ngle “correct” “correct” reading exists exists for a li terary terary work, it does not cons ider all readings permissible: permissible: “Each te xt crea crea tes l imits to to its pos sible interpretations.” interpretations.” De constructionist constructionist Criticism: This a pproa ch “rejects “rejects th e traditional traditional a s sumption sumption that language language can
a ccurately rep resent resent reality.” De constructionist constructionist critics regard l a nguage as a f undamentally undamentally uns table table medium—the words “tree” or “do g,” for instance, und oubtedly con con jure jure up dif ferent ferent me ntal i mages for for different people—and therefore, because l i terature is made made up of words, l i terature possesses possesses no fixed, s i ngle meaning. meaning. According to critic Paul de Man, deconstructionists deconstructionists in sist on “th “th e impossibility of ma ki ng the actual actual expression expression coin cide with what has to be expre ssed, of making the a ctual s i gns [i.e., words] words] coincide with wha t is sig nified.” nified.” As a re sult, de constructionist constructionist critics critics te nd to em phas ize not what is being said but h ow l anguage anguage is used in a te xt. The m eth ods ods of this approach approach tend to resemble those those of fo rmal ist criticism, but whereas forma lists’ primary goal is to l oca te unity wi thin a text, “how “how the d i verse verse elements elements of a text cohe re into meaning,” meaning,” de constructionists constructionists try to s how how the text “deconstructs,” “how it ca n be broken broken down ... in to mutu al ly i rreconcilable rreconcilable positions.” positions.” Othe r goa ls of deconstruction deconstructionists ists i ncl ude (1) challenging the notion of a uthors’ “ownership” “ownership” of texts the y crea crea te (and their ability to control the meaning of their texts) texts) a nd (2) fo cusing cusing on how language language i s u sed to achieve achieve power, a s when the y try try to un de rstand rstand how a s ome interpretation interpretationss of a literary work come to be regarded regarded as “truth.”
Lin guistics is th the s cientific study of [1][2][3][4 [1][2][3][4][5] ][5]
huma n language. language.
Linguist
i cs ca n be broadly broken i nto three categories or subfields subfields of s tudy: lan guage guage form, language language me anin g, and language language i n context. context. The e a rliest rliest known activities activities i n de scriptive scriptive lin guistics guisticshave have been attributed to to Panini around 500
BCE, with h is analysis analysis o f Sa nskrit nskrit inAshtadhyayi. inAshtadhyayi.
linguistics, linguistics, which investigates into [6]
que stions stions related to the origins
The f i rst subfield subfield of linguistics is
an d growth of
the s tudy of language s tructure, tructure,
languages; languages; historical linguistics, linguistics,
or grammar. grammar. This focuses on the
whi ch explores language language
s yste m of rules followed followed by the the
change; change; sociolinguistics, sociolinguistics, which
us ers o f a language. It includes the the
l ook s at the relation between between
stud y of mo rphology rphology (the
l i nguistic va va riation riation a nd social social
forma tion and composition composition of
structures; structures; psycholinguistics, psycholinguistics,
words), words), syntax (the formation and
whi ch e xplores xplores the re presentat presentation ion
compo sition of phrases phrases and
a nd fu nction of language language in the
s en tences tences from these words), words),
mind; mind ; neurolinguistics, neurolinguistics, which
a nd phonology (sound
l ook s at language language processing processing in
systems). systems). Phonetics is a related
the brain; brain; language acquisition, acquisition, on on
bra nch o f linguistics linguistics concerned
how ch i ldren or adults adults acquire
wi th the actual properties properties of
la nguage; nguage; and and discourse analysis, analysis,
s pe ech sounds and and nonspeech nonspeech
whi ch involves involves the s tructure tructure of
so unds, and and how they are
texts texts a n d conversations. conversations.
produ ced and perceived. perceived.
Alth ou gh linguistic linguisticss is the
The s tudy of l anguag anguage e meaning is
s cie ntific ntific study of language, a
conce rned with how languages languages
num ber of oth er intellectual intellectual
emp l oy l ogical ogical s tructures tructures and real-
di s ciplines ciplines are relevant to to
worl d references to convey, convey,
l a nguage a nd i ntersect ntersect with
proce ss, and as sign meaning, as
i t. Semio tics, ics, for example, is the
wel l as to manage manage and
ge ne ral study of signs and symbols symbols
resolve resolve a mbiguity mbiguity.. This category category
both w i thin l anguage anguage and
i ncl udes udes the study study
without. without. Li terary theorists theoristsstudy study
o f se mantics mantics (how meaning is
the u se o f language language in in l iterature iterature..
inferred from words and concepts)
Lin guistics additionally additionally draws on
a nd pragmatics (how meaning is
a nd i nforms nforms work from s uch
i nfe rred from context).
di verse fields fields
Lin guistics also l ooks at the
a s a coustics coustics,, anthropology, anthropology, biolog
broa der context i n which language language
y, computer science, science , human
i s i nfluenced nfluenced by social, cultural, cultural,
anatomy, anatomy, informatics, informatics, neuros cienc
hi s torical torical and political political f actors. actors. This This
e , ph ilosophy ilosophy,, p sychology sychology,, s ociolo ociolo
i ncl udes udes the study of evolutionary evolutionary
gy, a n d s peech-la peech-language nguage
Audi tory phonetics: phonetics: the study of
Phono logy is o ften distinguished distinguished
pathology. pathology.
the re ception and perception perception of
from phonetics. phonetics . Whi le phonetics
əˈ nɛtɪks/ Phone tics (pronounce (pronounced d /f /f əˈ
s pe ech s ounds ounds by the listener listener
conce rns the p hysical hysical production, production,
, from the Greek: Greek: φωνή, phōnē,
The s e areas are inter-conn inter-connected ected
acoustic transmission
's ound, voice') is a branch
throug h the com mon mechanism mechanism
a nd perceptionof perception of the so unds unds of
o f li nguistics nguistics that comprises the
of s ound, such as wavelength wavelength
speech, speech,
stud y of th the s ounds ounds of
(pitch), (pitch ), amplitude, and harmonics.
the wa y sounds function function within a
huma n s peech peech, or—in the case
Phonology is a b ranch
gi ven language or across
o f s ign languages languages—the equivalent
o f li nguistics nguistics concerned with the
l a nguages to encode meaning. meaning. In
as pects of sign. sign. It i s concerned concerned
s yste matic organization organization
othe r words, phonetics phonetics belongs
wi th the physical properties of
o fsounds in languages. languages. It ha s
to de s criptive criptive linguistics linguistics,, and
sp eech sounds sounds or signs (phones): (phones ):
tradi tionally tionally focused largely on
pho nology totheoretical
the i r physiological physiological production, production,
study of
linguistics. linguistics. Note that this
a coustic p roperties, roperties, auditory auditory
the systems o fphonemes i n
di s tinction tinction was not always always made,
perception, and
particular particular lan guages guages,, but it may
pa rticularly before the
neurophysiological
al so cover cover any any l inguistic inguistic
de velopment of the modern
status. status . Phonology, Phonology, on the other
analysis either at a level beneath
concept of of phoneme in the mid
ha nd, is concerned with the
the word (i nclud ncludin ing g syllable, syllable, onset
20th century. Some subfields subfields of
a bs tract, grammatical
a nd rhyme, rhyme , articulatory ge stures, stures,
mod ern p honology honology have have a
cha racterization racterization of systems of
arti culatory fe atures atures,, mora, mora, etc.)
cross over over with phonetics in
so unds or signs. signs.
or at a ll levels levels of language language
de s criptive criptive disciplines disciplines such
The f i eld of phonetics is a multiple multiple
where where sound sound is considered to be
a s psycholinguistics psycholinguistics a nd s peech peech
l a yered s ubject ubject of of lin guistics guistics that
s tructured for conveyin conveying g linguistic
perception, perception, resulting in s pecific pecific
focus es on speech. In the case of
meaning. meaning. Phonology also includes
areas likearticulatory likearticulatory
ora l lan guages guages there are are three
the study of e quival quivalent ent
phonology o r l aboratory aboratory
ba s ic areas of study: study:
orga nizational s ystems ystems in i n sign
phonology. phonology.
Articul atory phonetics: the study
languages. languages.
n linguistics, linguistics, morphology morphology is th e
of the prod uction uction of speech
The wo rd phonology phonology (as in in the
i de ntification, ntification, analysis analysis and
s oun ds by the the a rticulatory rticulatory and
pho nology of English) English) can also
de s cription cription of the structure of a
vocal tract by the speaker speaker
refe r to the p honological honological s ystem
given language' language's m orphemes orphemes and
Acous tic phonetics: the study of
(so und system) system) of a given given
othe r linguistic units, units, such
the p hysi cal transmission transmission of
la nguage. nguage. This is one of the
a s wo rds rds, a ffixes ffixes, parts of
s pe ech s ounds from the speaker
fun damental systems which a
speech, speech, intonation/stress intonation/stress,, or
to the l istener
l an guage guage is considered considered to
implied implied context (words in
comprise, like its its syntax and
a lexicon are the subject subject matter
i ts voca bulary bulary.
o flexicology). flexicology). Morphological
[1]
[1][2]
phonology describes
typologyrepresent typology representss a method for
by the s peaker reflect specific specific
a fi erce headache.' headache.' The
cla ssifyi ssifyi ng languages languages a ccording ccording to
pa tterns, or regularities, regularities, in the
morph ology of such languages languages
the wa ys by which morphemes morphemes are are
way words are formed formed from
a l lows for each consonant consonant and
us ed i n a languag language e —from
sma ller units units and how those
vowel to be u ndersto nderstood od as
the analyticthat analyticthat use o nly isolated isolated
s ma ller units interact interact i n speech. speech. In
morph emes, just as the grammars grammars
morph emes, through through
thi s w ay, morphology morphology is the
of the l anguage key the usage and and
the agglutinative ("stuck-
bra nch of l inguistics inguistics that studies
und erstanding erstanding o f each mo rpheme rpheme..
together") andfusional andfusional
pa tterns of word formation formation within
The d i scipline scipline that that deals
languages that use use bound
an d a cross cross languages, languages, and
s pe cifically cifically with the sound
morphemes (affixes), (affixes ), up to
atte mpts to formulate rules rules that
cha nges o ccurring ccurring within within
the polysynthetic, polysynthetic, wh ich compress compress
mode l the knowledge knowledge of the
morphe mes is
l ots of separate morphemes morphemes into into
s pe akers akers of th ose languages. languages.
called called morphophonology. morphophonology.
si ngle words. words.
A l anguage like like Classical
In linguistics, linguistics, syntax (from Ancient
Whi le words are generally generally
Chinese i nstead uses unbound
Greek Gree k σύνταξις "arrangement"
accepted as being being (with (with cl itics itics)) the
("free ") morphemes, morphemes, bu t depends depends
from σύν syn, "toge ther", ther",
sma llest llest units of of syntax, syntax, it is clear
on p os t-phrase t-phrase affixes, affixes, and and word
a nd τάξις táxis, "an o rdering") rdering") is
tha t in most languages, languages, if not all,
order to con vey meaning. meaning.
"the s tudy of the principles a nd
words can be related to other
Howe ver, this cannot be said of
processes by which which sentences are
words b y rules rules (grammars). (grammars). For
pres ent-day ent-day Ma Ma ndarin, in which
cons tructed tructed in
example, example, English speakers
mos t words are compounds compounds
particular particular languages". languages".
recognize that the
(a roun d 80%), 80%), and most roots are
In a ddition to referring referring to the the
words dog and dogs are closely
bound.
overa rching discipline, discipline, the
related — differentiated only by
In th e Chi nese l anguages, anguages, these
term s yntax is also used to to refer
the pluralitymorpheme plurality morpheme "-s",
are und erstood erstood as grammars that
di rectly to the rules and principles principles
whi ch is only foundbound foundbound to
repre sent the morphology morphology of the
that govern the sentence
nou ns, and is never separate. separate.
l an guage. guage. Beyond Beyond the
s tructure of any individual
Spe a kers kers of English (a fusional
ag gl utinative utinative languages, languages, a
l a nguage, for example example in
l a nguage) recognize recognize these these
pol ysynthetic ysynthetic l anguage anguage
"the s yntax of Modern Irish." Irish."
rel ations from their tacit
l i ke Chukchi will h ave words
Mode rn research i n syntax syntax
kno wledge of the rules of word
compo sed of many morphemes: morphemes:
attemp ts to to describe languagesin languages in
forma tion in English. They infer infer
The word
terms of s uch uch rules. rules. Many
i ntuitively that dog is
"tə meyŋə levtp əγtə rkən" is
profe ssionals i n this discipline discipline
to dogs as cat is to cats; cats;
compo sed of ei ght morphemes morphemes t-
attemp t to find find g eneral eneral rules that
si milarly milarly,, dog is to dog
ə
catche r as dish is to dis hwasher hwasher,, in
can be b e glossed glossed 1.SG.SUBJ-great-
The te rm syntax is also used to
one s ense. The rules understood
head-hurt-PRES.1, head-hurt-PRES.1, meaning 'I h ave ave
refe r to the rules governing governing the
-meyŋ-ə -levt-pə γt- ə-rk ən, that
[1]
a pply to a ll natural l anguages. anguages.
be havi or of mathematical mathematical
la nguage, nguage, and and proxemics have
Di s course course analysis (DA),
sys tems, such as as formal
s emantic (meaningful) content,
or di s course studies, studies, is a general
languages used in in logic. logic.
an d e ach has several several branches branches of
term for a n umber of approaches approaches
Sema ntics ntics (from Greek: Greek: sēmantiká
s tudy. In written l anguage, anguage, such
to a na lyzing written, written, vocal, or sign
, ne uter plural
thi ngs as paragraph structure structure a nd
la nguage nguage use or any
pun ctuation have semantic semantic
significant significant semioticevent. semioticevent.
o fmeaning. fmeaning. It focuses on the
content; i n other other forms of
The ob jects of discourse analysis analysis
rel ation between signifiers, signifiers, such
l an guage, guage, there is other semantic
—
a s words words, ph rases rases,, signs, signs,
content. conten t.
discourse, discourse, writing, writing, co nversation nversation,,
a n dsymbols, dsymbols , and what they stand
The f ormal s tudy tudy of semantics
communicativeevent communicativeevent,, etc. — a re
for, their thei r denotata. denotata.
i nte rsects with many other fields
vari ously defined in terms of
Lin guistic semantics is the s tudy tudy of
of i nquiry, nquiry,
cohe rent sequences sequences
me anin g that is used to
includinglexicology includin glexicology,, s yntax yntax,, pragm
o f se ntence ntences,propositions s,propositions,, speech
und erstand human expression expression
atics, atics, etymology a nd others, others,
acts , or or turns-at-talk. turns-at-talk. Contrary to
throug h lan guage. guage. Other forms of
al though s emantics emantics is a well-
much o f trad itional linguistic linguistics, s,
s em antics include include the semantics
de fi ned field in i ts own rig ht, oft often
di s course course analysts analysts no t only study
of progra mming mming languages, formal formal
with synthetic synthetic
l a nguage use 'beyon 'beyon d the the
logics, and and semiotics. semiotics.
properties. properties. I n p hilosophy hilosophy of
s en tence tence boundary', boundary', but also
The w ord s emantics emantics itself denotes
language, language, semantics
pref er to a nalyze nalyze 'naturally 'naturally
a ra nge of i deas, deas, from the popular popular
a nd referenceare reference are cl osely osely
occurrin g' language language use, and not
to the h i ghly technical. It is often
conn ected. Further related fields
i nven ted examples. examples. Text
us ed i n ordinary ordinary l anguage to to
include include philology,communication philology,communication,,
linguistics is re lated. lated. Th e essential essential
den ote a problem problem of
a nd semiotics. semiotics. The fo rmal study of
di fference between between discourse
und erstanding erstanding that comes down
s emantics is th erefore erefore complex.
a na lysis lysis and text linguistics linguistics is that
to word s election election or or connotation. connotation .
Sem a ntics contrasts contrasts with with syntax, syntax,
it ai ms at revealing revealing socio-
Thi s problem problem of un derst derstandin anding g has
the s tudy of the combinatorics combinatorics of
ps ychological ychological characteristics characteristics of a
be en the subject subject of many formal
uni ts of a language (without
pe rson/persons rson/persons rather than text
i nquiries, over a l ong ong period of
refe rence to their meaning), meaning),
structure. structure.
tim e, mos t notably notably in the field
a nd pragmatics, pragmatics, the study of the
Di s course course a nalysis nalysis has been taken
o fformal s emantics emantics.. In In linguisti cs,
rel a tionships between between the
up i n a variety variety of of so cial
i t is the study of i nterpret nterpretation ation of
s ymbols of a language, their their
science disciplines,
si gns or symbols symbols as used
mea ning, ning, and the users of the
includinglinguistics includin glinguistics,, sociology, sociology, ant
by agents o r communitieswithin communities within
language. language.
hropology, hropology, s ocial work work, cognitive
pa rticular circumstances circumstances and
In i nternational nternational s cientific cientific
psychology, psychology, social
contexts contexts . Wi thin this view,
vocabularys vocabulary s emantics emantics is also
psychology,international psychology,international
s oun ds, facial facial expressions, expressions, body
called called semasiology semasiology..
relations, relations, human
of sēmantikós )
[1][2]
is the study study
[3]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[1]
geography, geography, communication
In a ddition, stylistics stylistics is a
be l oved oved friend or family me mber.
studies, studies, and and translation studies, studies,
di s tinctive tinctive term that that may be u sed
Howe ver, what what may be s een as
ea ch of which is subject to to its own
to de termine the connections connections
poe tic in this language language is not so
a s sumptions, sumptions, dimensions dimensions of
be tween the form and effects
much in the
a na lysis, lysis, and me thodolog thodologies. ies.
wi thin a p articular articular va va riety of
formulaic formulaic phraseology but in
Styli stics is the study a nd
l an guage. guage. Therefore, Therefore, s tylistics tylistics
whe re it a ppears. ppears. The verse verse may
i nte rpretation rpretation of texts from a
l ook s at what i s ‘going ‘going on’ within
be gi ven undue reverence
l i nguistic perspectiv perspective. e. As a
the l a nguage; nguage; what the linguistic linguistic
preci sely because of the sombre
di scipline scipline it links links literary
as sociations sociations are that the style of
s i tuation in which i t is placed.
criticism and an d lin guistics guistics, but has no
language reveals. Poetry
Wi ddowson suggests that, unlike unlike
a uton omous omous domain of i ts [1][2]
own .
The p referred object of
s tylistic studies is is literature, literature, but not e xclusively "high literature" but a lso other forms of written
la nguage nguage there are the unconventional – the most obvious of which is is p oetry oetry. In Pra ctical Stylistic Stylistics,HG s,HG
texts s uch as text text from the doma ins ofadvertising, fadvertising, pop culture, culture , politics o r religion. religion.
As we ll as co nventional nventional styles styles of
[3]
Styli stics also attempts attempts to es tablish principles principles capable of expl aining the particular particular choices ma de by individuals individuals and social social group s i n their use of language, such a s socialisation, socialisation, the prod uction and reception o f mea ning ning, criti cal d iscourse iscourse analysis a nd literary cri cri ticism. ticism. Othe r fea tures tures of stylistics include include the use of o f dialogue dialogue, i ncluding ncluding regional regional accents a nd people’s people’s dialects, dialects , descriptive
la nguage, nguage, the use of of grammar, grammar, such as the the active voi voi ce o rpassive voice, voice , the distribution distribution o f se ntence ntence lengths, lengths, the us e of particular particular language registers, registers, etc.
Widdowson examines the tradi tional tional form of the the e pitaph pitaph, as fou nd o n headstones headstones i n a ceme tery. For example: example: His memory memory is d ear today today As i n the h our he passed passed away. (Ernes t C. Dra per ‘Ern’. Died
4.1.38) (Wi ddowson. 1992, 1992, 6) Wid dowson makes the point that s uch s entiments entiments are usually usually not very i nte resting resting and suggests that that the y may even be dismissed as ‘crude ve rbal carvings’ and crude
words set in stone in a graveyard, graveyard, poe try i s unorthodox language language tha t vibrates with inter-textual inter-textual i mplications. (Widdowson. (Widdowson. 1992, 1992, 4) Two prob lems with a stylistic stylistic a na lysis lysis of poetry are noted by by PM Wetherill i n Literary Text: An Exami nation nation o f Critical Critical Me thods. thods. The fi rst is that there there may be an over-p reoccupation reoccupation with one pa rticular feature that that may well mi nimise the s ignificance ignificance of other otherss tha t are eq ually ually important. important. (Weth erill. 1974, 1974, 133) 133) The s econd i s th at any attempt to see a text text as s i mply a coll ection ection of stylistic el ements will tend to ignore other wa ys whereby meaning is
verba l d isturbance isturbance (Wi ddowson ddowson,,
prod uced. (Wetherill. (Wetherill. 1974, 133) [edit]Implicature [edit]Implicature
3). Neverthe less, Widdowson Widdowson
In ‘Poetic Effects’ from Literary
recogn ises that they they are a very
Pragma Pragma tics, the the linguist linguist Adrian
rea l attempt to convey feelings feelings of
Pilkington analyses analyses the idea of
hum an l oss and p reserv reserve e
‘implicature ’, as instiga instigated in the
af fe ctionate ctionate recollections recollections of a
previous work of of Dan
[who?] [who?]
Sperber a nd D eirdre eirdre Wilson. Wilson.
Wid dowson points out that
Thi s language gi ves us
Imp licature may be divided into
i n Sa muel Taylor Coleridge Coleridge’s poem
pe rspective on familiar themes
two ca tegories: ‘strong’ ‘strong’ and
"The Ri me of the Ancient Mariner Mariner""
an d a llows llows us to look at them
‘wea k’ implicature, implicature, yet between
(1798), (1798), the mys tery of the
wi thout the personal or s ocial
the two e xtremes there are a
Mari ner’s a brupt brupt appearance appearance is
cond i tioning tioning that we
vari ety of o ther alternatives. alternatives. The The
s us tained by an i diosyncr diosyncratic atic use
unco nsciously associate associate with
s trongest implicature is what is
of ten s e. (Widdowson. (Widdowson. 1992, 1992, 40)
the m. (Wi ddowson. ddowson. 1992, 1992, 9) So,
em phatically implied implied by the
For i ns tance, the Mariner ‘holds’ ‘holds’
al though though we we
s pe aker or writer, while weaker weaker
the wed dingding-guest with his ‘s kinny
s a me exhausted words and vag vag ue
i mplicatures are the wider
ha nd’ in the the present tense, tense, but
terms l ike ‘love’, ‘love’, ‘heart’ and ‘soul’
pos sibilities sibilities of meaning that the
rele ases ases it in the the past tense ('...his
to refe r to human experience, experience, to
he a rer or reader may conclude.
ha nds dropt he.'); only to hold hold him
pl ace these words words in a new and
Pilkington’s ‘poetic e ffects ffects’, as he
ag a in, this this time with his ‘glittering ‘glittering
refre s hing context context allows the poet
terms the concept, are those that
eye’, i n the p resent. resent. (Widdowson. (Widdowson.
the a bility to rep resent resent humanity
a chi eve most relevance through through a
1992, 41)
a nd co mmunicate honestly. honestly. This,
wi de array of weak im plicatures plicatures
Wid dowson notices notices that wh en the the
i n pa rt, is stylistics, stylistics, and this, this,
a nd no t those meanings that that are
conte nt of poetry i s summarised, summarised,
a ccording to Widdowson, is the the
si mply ‘read ‘read i n’ by the the hearer hearer or
it often refers refers to very general and
poi nt of poetry (Widdowson. (Widdowson.
rea der. Yet the di stinguish stinguishing ing
uni mpressive mpressive o bservation bservations, s, s uch
1992, 76).
i ns tant at which weak im plicatur plicatures es
as ‘nature is beautiful; beautiful; l ove ove is
er’s and th e hearer or read er’s
grea t; life is lonely; ti ti me passes’,
conje cture of meaning diverge diverge
an d s o on. (Widdowson. (Widdowson. 1992, 1992, 9)
rema ins highly s ubjectiv ubjective. e. As
But to sa y:
commu nicative approach approach to teaching the l anguage, anguage, foc
Pil kington says: ‘there is no clear
Lik e as the waves make towards towards
s tuden ts to complete assigned tasks. tasks. In this section we
cut-off point between
the p eb bled shore,
a s sumptions sumptions which the speaker
So do our mi nutes nutes hasten to their
certa i nly endorses a nd
end ...
a s sumptions sumptions derived purely on the
William Shakespeare, ‘60’.
he a rer’s rer’s re sponsibility. sponsibility.’’
Or, indeed:
(Pil kington. 1991, 1991, 53) In ad dition, dition,
Love, al l alike, no season knows
the s tylistic qualities of p oetry oetry can
nor clime,
be s een as a n accompanime accompaniment nt to
Nor h ours , days m onths, which which are are
Pil kington’s kington’s poetic effects effects i n
the ra gs of ti me ...
und erstanding erstanding a po em's meaning. meaning. [edit]Tense [edit]Tense
John Donne, ‘The Sun Rising ’, Poems (1633)
[who?] [who? ]
a new
ma y still use use the
One o f the m ain goals of language language teachers teachers is to provid i n the TL. Often when students students a re assigned assigned projects a s tudy) their l ack of practical practical tools to pro duce duce the actual mi ght very well h ave the necessary necessary reso reso urces urces to a ccom
tau ght i n the SL classroom. classroom.
Wha t i s communicative communicative language language teaching? The co nce pt of communicative communicative l an guage guage teaching has grown out of of the n otion that solely teaching teaching
gram ma r is not enough to prepare s tuden ts for using the language language i ndep endently endently.. This method of tea ching proposes that that s tudents tudents ne ed to understand understand the meaning an d the communicative function of a la nguage nguage in order to to l earn earn the language. Da vid Wilkins, a theorist theorist closely l i nked with communicative communicative l an guage guage teaching, suggests suggests that l an guage guage teaching should should be orga nized into notional (relating to meaning) and functional (relating to commu nication) syllabi. syllabi. He s uggests that the concept of commu nicative functions functions (to w hich he credits Holladay) may be the mos t important aspect aspect of this fram ework. Other contributors contributors to this theory theory,, such as Jan van Ek, bui ld on Wilkins’ terms and ideas, but i nterpret them somewhat somewhat differently. In place ofcom municative function, function, they s ubs titute language language function, function, referring to what pe opl e do through language. To l earn more about communicative communicative l an guage guage teaching and and its history click click here. here. Wha t are l anguage anguage functions? functions? A l ot of what we say is for a s pecif pecific ic purp ose. Whether we are ap ologizing, expressing a wish or as king permission, permission, we use language i n ord er to fulfi ll that that purpose. Each Each purpose can be k nown nown as a l anguage function. function. Savignon de s cribes cribes a l anguage anguage function as “the u s e to which language language is put, the p urpose of an u tterance tterance rather tha n the p articular articular grammatical grammatical form an utte rance rance takes” (Savign (Savignon on,, 1983). 1983). By us i ng this idea to to s tructure teaching, teaching, the i nstruct nstructional ional focus becomes less about about form and more a bout bout the m eaning eaning of an uttera nce. In this way, s tudents tudents use the l a nguage nguage in order to fulf ill a s pe cific purpose, purpose, therefore therefore ma king king the i r speech more meaningful. meaningful.
back to top What a re some example exampless of fun ctions of language? language? If we think about a function o f languag language eas one that serves serves a purpose we ca n see that much o f what we see can be considered considered to be fun ctional. Let's Let's take the examp le of going going to a di nner party. Arri Arri ving a t the d inner party we may i ntroduce ourselves, ourselves, than k the host and ask where to put our coats. Durin g the dinner we may congratulate congratulate so meone on a recent accomplishment, ask a dvice, express affection affection a nd compliment the host host on the meal. Each Each of these individual utte ran ce are considered considered fun ctions of language. language. How can we tea ch functions functions of language? Kras hen and Terrell (1983) (1983) s uggest uggest tha t ba sic communication communication goals can be expressed in te rms rms of si tuations, tuations, functions and topics. topics. It is u p to the tea cher to plan the the situations wi thin which students will will be a ble to us e their language for a purpose i n the classroom context. For For i ns tance if the topic being being learned i s f amily and relatives relatives then the s i tuation may be i ntroductions ntroductions or vis i ting relatives. By creating creating a s i tuation the teacher teacher is providing the ne cessary cessary conte xt students students ne ed to use the language for a function. In a ddition to creating creating situations, situations, tea chers must also be prepared to expl ain that there there may be a large nu mber of possible ways to fulfill ea ch function of l anguage. anguage. For i ns tance greeting greeting a n elderly lady on the s treet would differ from from
greeti ng a peer in their home. home. Choos ing the appropriate appropriate way in whi ch to say something will partly partly depe nd on: 1. your social standing relative to
the p erson you are talking talking to; 2. how we ll you you know the person; person; 3. who is listening; listening; a nd 4. the ci rcumstances rcumstances under which which the co mmunication occurs.
What is Linguistics? Origins
Lin guistics is the systematic systematic and s cie ntific ntific study of human language. language. Its ori gins gins go back to the s tudy tudy of cla ssical authors authors and languages i n the Renaissance an d i nto nto the early early 19th centu ry. ry. The R osetta Stone, Stone, di s covered covered at the end of the 18th cen tury, contain ed an ancient ancient bi l ingual text which provided the ke y to und erstanding erstanding Egyptian hi ero glyphics glyphics and generated generated a g ood ood dea l of i ntere nterest st i n ancient ancient l a nguages. Europea European n scholars in pa rticular were influential influential in the
ea rly study of l anguages. anguages. The Grim m Brothers in Germany were were i nte rested not only in origins of fa i ry tal es but also of languages. languages. Ge rman l inguists inguists in the 19th cen tury le d the way i n the study of l an guages guages such as Sanskrit. Sanskrit. Branches of Linguistics
Toda y, historical historical and comparative l i nguistics, such as that done i n the 19th centu ry, ry, conti nues, nues, focusing on h ow l anguages anguages have developed developed an d h ow they differ, differ, but there is more i nterest today i n descriptive descriptive l i nguistics, This is the study of ho w l an guage guage is structured and how it is us ed by contemporary contemporary s peakers of the l a nguage. nguage. Particular influent influential ial i n the direction of linguistics linguistics study study toda y are Ferdinand Ferdinand de Saussure, the fa ther of structural linguistics linguistics an d Noa m Chomsky, Chomsky, the originator of trans formation formational al grammar. Spe cific areas of study i n linguistics linguistics toda y include phonetics, morph ology, s yntax, yntax, and s emantic emantics. s.
Exercises
Ha ve you read the intro? intro?
An i mpo rtant rtant aspect of the the study of of ph onetics is learning the In ternational Phonetic Alphabet Alphabet (IPA), who se symbols are used to de s cribe cribe specific s ounds. ounds. The IPA IPA is i nd ependent ependent of any specific specific l a nguage, all world languages languages can be trans cribed cribed using its symbols, symbols, whi ch include sounds such such as the cli cks used in some African l a nguages. The word "fish" "fish" is
ɪʃ /. Note that rende red in I PA as / f ɪʃ the I PA s ymbols are placed be tween slashes. slashes. Here are s ome of the the I PA symbols symbols for Engl ish vowels: vowels:
ɑ father ʌ
run, enough not,
ɪ sit
ɑ
i see
ʊ
ɛ be d
u
lad, æcat,
ə
wasp put, wood soon, through
about
fi elds as diverse a s astronomy astronomy and folklore studies. In l i nguistics nguistics morphology morphology i s the stud y of how the forms of words cha nge wh en used in actual speech, speech, i ncl uding uding endings endings and transformations which indicate how words grammatical function. function. In the s en tence tence "he s ees ees the children", the "s " is added to the verb verb see when it is used in the 3rd person person s i ngular a nd "children" i s the plural trans formation formation of "child". Some l anguages anguages have extensive extensive se ts of changes to words words such as nou ns an d adjectives. adjectives. French French and Spa nish, for example, change forms forms of a dje ctive ctive e ndings ndings for masculine masculine versu s feminine nouns. nouns. German an d Ru ssian ssian have have much for exte nsive endings, that correspond to cha nges in grammatical grammatical case, i.e. di fferent e ndings ndings for no minative minative (s ubject case), accusative accusative (direct obje cts) and for dative (indirect (indirect obje cts). On the other hand, some l an guages, guages, such as Chin Chin ese, ese, unde rgo very very little in the way of word tra nsformations. nsformations. Plural forms i n Chi nese, for example, a re i de ntical to to singular forms. forms.
ra n
Syntax Phonetics The Sounds of language
Phone tics is the s tudy of the sound soundss of a l a nguage. nguage. In English, English, and in ma ny other l anguages, anguages, how words are s pelled does not necessarily corres pond to how they are pron ounced. Some languages languages are much clo ser in p ronunciation ronunciation to the wa y they are s pelled. pelled. English i s noto rious for its erratic spelling spelling in rel ation to pronunciation. pronunciation.
Morphology Word formation
The conce pt of morphology morphology i s not un i que to linguistics. linguistics. In fact, it was fi rst used by the German writer writer Goe the i n the early early 19th 19th cen tury tury in rel a tion to plants, as a way to de s cribe cribe the different varieties varieties of pl a nts that have have arisen from commo n a ncestors. ncestors. In a ddition ddition to bi ology, morphology morphology is also used in
How sentences are put together
Syntax i nvolves the way that words are put tog ether to construct s en tences. tences. In English normal word order i s s ubjec ubjectt - verb - object as in "We s a w him". Word order var varies ies in di fferent languages. In En glish word word orde r is i mportant mportant in determining determining gram ma tical function, for e xample, xample, whether a noun noun is a s ubjec ubjectt or di rect object. This is because because Engl ish is not a heavily heavily inflected l an guage, guage, that is it does not have a rich s et of endings. In contrast, i n
l an guages guages like German German or Russian, word order is often not as i mpo rtant as case endings endings in de termining grammatical function. function. Syntax i s also concerned with s en tence tence connectors connectors such as conju nctions. In English, clauses are ofte n combined with coordinating coordinating conju nctions ("and", "but"), "but"), s ubo rdinating rdinating conjunctions conjunctions ("be cause", "although"), "although"), or ad verbs verbs ("ho wever", "nevertheless"). "nevertheless"). Longe r sentences sentences with more than one clause are compound compound s en tences, tences, while short utterances wi thout a verb are called ellipses ellipses
Semantics The meaning of words
In l i nguistics nguistics semantics semantics i s the study of the me aning of words. words. Linguists di s tinguish tinguish between "signifiers" "signifiers" - the w ords us ed to identify things or i de as -- a nd "signified" "signified" -- the actual i tems re ferred to. This distinction distinction wa s fi rst made made by Ferdinand Ferdinand de Sa ussure in his lectures on l i nguistics - this has has become not onl y a major area of modern l i nguistics, bust has a lso spawed spawed the the fi eld of s emiotics emiotics - the study of s i gns (not just words) words) and their s i gnificance. gnificance. Semantics Semantics is a crucial el ement in the philosophy philosophy of l an guage. guage. In i nternatio nternational nal s cientific vocab ulary semantics is also ca ca lled lled semasiology. One o f a reas reas of interest interest in s em antics is the re lationship lationship amon among g words , including including synonyms -- same or s i milar meaning meaning --, antonyms -opp osites --, and homonymes homonymes -words that sound sound the same but ha ve different meanings.
Shannon's Model of the Communication Process
Sha nnon's nnon's (1948) (1948) model of the commu nication process is, in i mpo rtant rtant ways, the beginning of the m odern field. It provided, provided, for the first time, a general general model of the commu nication nication process that coul d be treated treated as the common common groun d o f such diverse disciplines disciplines a s journalism, rhetoric, rhetoric, linguistics, linguistics, a nd s peech peech and hearing sciences. sciences. Part of its success is due to its s tructuralist reduction reduction of commu nication to a set of basic cons tituents that that not only explain ho w commu nication nication happens, but why commu nication sometimes sometimes fa i ls. Good timing played played a role as we l l. The world was barely thirty yea rs i nto the age of mass radio, ha d a rguably rguably fought a world war in its wake, and an even more po werful, tel evision, evision, was about to a s sert itself. It was time to create the fi eld of communication communication as a un i fied discipline, discipline, a nd Shannon's Shannon's mode l was as good an e xcuse xcuse as a ny. The mo del's del's enduring val val ue is rea dily evident in introductory introductory textbo oks. It remains one of the fi rst things most s tudents tudents learn learn a bou t communicatio communication n when they tak e a n introductor introductory y commu nication cl cl ass. Indeed, Indeed, it is on e o f only a handful of theoretical theoretical s tatements about the commu nication process process that ca n be fou nd in introductory introductory textbooks textbooks in bo th ma ss communication communication a nd i nte rpersonal rpersonal communication communication..
Figure 1: Sha nnon's nnon's (1948) (1948) Mode Mode l of the communication process.
Sha nnon's nnon's model, as shown in Fi gure 1, breaks the process of commu nication do wn i nto eight discrete components: 1.
An i nformation nformation source. Pres umably a p erson who creates a message. message.
2.
3.
4.
The message , which is both s ent by the i nfo rmation rmation source a nd recei ved ved by the destination. A transmitter. For Sha nnon's nnon's immediate purpo se a telephone telephone i ns trument trument that captures an au dio signal, converts converts it i nto an electron electronic ic s i gnal, and amplifies it for trans mission mission through the telephone network. Trans mission mission is readily generalized within Sha nnon's nnon's information information the ory to encompass a wid e range of transmitters. The simplest trans mission mission system, that as sociated with face-tofa ce comm unication unication,, has at l east two layers layers of trans mission. mission. The first, the mo uth (sound) and and bod y (gesture), create an d modulate a signal. signal. The s econd layer, layer, which migh t a lso lso b e described described as a channel channel,, is built of the a ir (sound) (sound) and light (ge s ture) ture) that enable the the trans mission mission of those si gnals gnals from one person to an other. A television broadcast would obvi ously include many many more l ayers, with with the ad dition of ca ca meras meras and mi crophones, editing editing and fi l tering tering systems, a na tional tional signal signal di s tribution tribution network network (ofte n satellite), and a lo cal radio wave wave broadcast antenna. The signal, whi ch flows throug h a channel. There ma y be multiple parallel si gnals, gnals, as is the case case in fa ce-to-face interaction interaction whe re sound and gesture i nvol ve different different signal syste ms that depend depend on di fferent channels channels and mod es o f transmission transmission.. There may be multiple multiple
5.
6.
7.
s erial signals, with sound and/or gesture turned i nto e lectronic lectronic signals, signals, radi o waves, waves, or words an d pictures in a book. book. A carrier or channel, whi ch is represented represented by the s mall u nlabel nlabeled ed box in the mi ddle of the model. The most com monly used cha nnels i nclude nclude air, l ight ight, el ectricity, radio waves, pa per, and postal postal s yste ms. Note that there ma y be multiple channels channels as sociated sociated with with the mul tiple tiple l ayers ayers of tran s mission, mission, as described above. Noise, i n the form of s eco ndary ndary signals that obs cure or confuse confuse the s i gnal carried. carried. Given Sha nnon's nnon's focus on tel ephone tra tra nsmissio nsmission, n, carri ers, and reception, reception, it s ho uld not be surprising surprising tha t noise is restricted to noi se that obscures obscures or obl iterates some portion portion of the signal within the chan nel. nel. This is a fairly restrictive notion of noi se, by current current s tan dards, dards, and a s ome what what misleading misleading one . Today we have have at le ast some media which which are so noise noise free that compre ssed signals are cons tructed with an absolutely minimal a mou nt i nformation nformation and l i ttle likelihood likelihood of s ignal ignal lo ss. In the p rocess, rocess, Sha nnon's nnon's s olution olution to noi se, redundancy, redundancy, has be e n larg ely rep laced laced by a minimally redundant s ol ution: ution: error detection detection a nd co rrection. rrection. Today we us e noise more more as a me tap hor for problems a s sociated with effective listening. A receiver. In Sh annon's annon's conce ption, the receiving tel ephone instrument. instrument. In
8.
face to face commu nication a set of ea rs (sound) and and eyes (ge s ture). ture). In television, television, s eve ral layers layers of receiver, i ncl uding uding an antenna antenna and a tel evision evision set. A destination. Pres umably a p erson who cons umes and processes the me ssage. ssage.
Lik e all mo dels, this this is a minimalist minimalist a bs traction traction of the reality reality it a ttemp ts to rep roduce. roduce. The reality of mo s t communication communication systems is more complex. Most i nformatio nformation n s ou rces (and destinations) destinations) a ct as bo th s ources and destinations. destinations. Tran s mitters, mitters, receivers, channels, channels, s i gnals, and even even messages are ofte n l ayered ayered both serially and i n pa rallel s uch that that there a re mult multiple iple s i gnals transmitted and received, eve n when they are converged converged into a co mmo n signal stream a nd a commo n channel. Many other el aborations aborations can be re adily adily de s cribed.. cribed.. It remains, however, however, tha t Shannon's model is a useful a bs traction traction that identifies identifies the most i mpo rtant rtant components components of commu nication and their general rel a tionship to to on e another. another. That val ue is evident in its similarity to rea l world pictures of the design designss of ne w communication communication systems, i ncl uding uding Bell's original sketches sketches of the tel ephone, ephone, as seen in Figure 2. 2.
Figure 2: Bell's drawing of the workings workings of a telephone, telephone, from his original sketches (source: (source: Bell Family Pap ers; Library Library of Congres Congres s; http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mcc/0 04/0001.jpg)
Be l l's sketch sketch visibly contains an information source and destination, tran s mitters mitters and receivers, a cha nnel, a signal, and an implied implied me s sage (the information information source is tal king). What is new, in Shannon's Shannon's mod el (aside from the the concept of no i se, which which is only partially rep rodu ced by Bell's batteries), is a forma l vocabulary that is now
ge ne rally rally used in describing describing such de s igns, igns, a vocabulary vocabulary that sets up both Shan non's non's mathematical mathematical the ory of in formation formation and a large amount of subsequent commu nication theory. theory. This corres pondence pondence between Bell's s ke tch and Shannon's Shannon's model is rare l y remarked (see Hopper, 1992 for one instance). instance). Sha nnon's model isn't isn't really a mod el of communication, communication, however however.. It i s, i nstea nstead, d, a model of the flow of information through a medium, and an i ncomplete and biased model that i s far more a pplicab pplicable le to the sys tem it m aps, aps, a telephone telephone or tel egraph, than it is to m ost other other me dia. I t suggests, for i nstance, nstance, a "pus h" model in which which sources sources of i nfo rmation rmation can inflict it on de s tinations. tinations. In the real real world of me dia, destinations are are m ore typica lly s elf-selecting elf-selecting "consumers" "consumers" of i nfo rmation rmation who have have the ability to s elect the messages they are mos t interested interested in, turn off me s sages that don't don't i nterest nterest them, focus on on e message in p refer referenc ence e to othe r in message message rich rich en vironments, and can choose to s i mply not pay a ttention ttention.. Shannon' Shannon'ss mod el d epicts transmiss transmission ion from a trans mitter mitter to a receiver as the pri ma ry activity of a me dium. dium. In the the rea l w orld of media, media, messages messages are freq uently s tored for elongated pe rio ds of time and/or modified in s ome way before they they are a ccesse ccessed d by the "de stination". stination". The model s uggests that communication communication wi thin a medium is frequently di rect a nd unidirectional, unidirectional, but in the real world world of media, commu nication is almost almost never uni directional directional and is often indirect. Derivative Models of the Communication Process
One o f the se shortcoming shortcomingss is ad dressed in Figure 2's 2's intermediary model of commu nication (sometimes (sometimes refe rred to as the gatekeeper gatekeeper mod el o r two-step two-step flow (Katz, 1957)). 1957)). Thi s m odel, which which is
freq uently depicted in i ntroductory ntroductory texts i n mass communicat communication, ion, focus es on the important important role that i nte rmediaries rmediaries often play in the commu nication process. process. Mass commu nication texts frequently s pe cifically cifically associate editors, who who de cide what stories stories will fit in a ne ws paper paper or news b roadcast, roadcast, with with thi s in termediary termediary or ga tekeeper tekeeper rol e. There are, however, however, many i nte rmediary rmediary roles (Foulger, 2002a) 2002a) as sociated with communication. communication. Many of the se i ntermedia ntermediaries ries have the a bility to decide what messages messages othe rs see, the context context i n which they a re s een, een, and when they they see the m. The y often have the the a bility, bility, more over, to change messages or to preven t them from reaching reaching an au dience (destination). (destination). In extreme varia tions tions we refer to such ga tekeepers as censors. Under Under the more n ormal conditions conditions of mass me dia, i n which publication publicationss choo s e some content content in preference preference to o the r poten tial content based on on an ed itorial policy, policy, we refer to them them as editors (most (most mass media), mod erators (Internet discussion discussion group s), re viewers viewers (peer-reviewed (peer-reviewed pub lications), lications), or a ggregators ggregators (cl i pping services), services), among other titl es . Delivery workers (a postal de l ivery ivery worker, for instance) al so a ct as intermediaries, intermediaries, and have the ab i lity to a ct as gatekeepers, gatekeepers, but are ge nerally nerally restricted from d oing s o a s a matter of ethics ethics and/or l aw.
Figure 3: An An Intermedi ary Model.
Vari ations ations of F igure 3's 3's gatekeeper mode l are also used in teaching teaching orga nizational comm unication unication,, whe re gatekeepers, in the form of bri dges an d liaisons, liaisons, have have so me ab i lity to s hape the organization organization throug h their selective s haring haring of i nfo rmation. rmation. These variations variations are ge ne rally rally more complex complex in de piction and often take the form of s ocial network diagrams diagrams that
Figure 4: An An In teractive Model:
de pict the i nteraction nteraction relationships relationships of d oze ns of people. They network network di a grams grams often presume, presume, or at least a l low, bi-directional bi-directional arrows arrows s uch tha t they are more consistent consistent with the notio n that communicatio communication n is mos t often bidirectional. bidirectional. The bi direction directionality ality of commu nication is commonly a ddressed i n interperson interpersonal al commu nication text with two el aborations aborations of Shannon's model (whi ch is o ften labeled labeled as the action action mod el o f communication) communication):: the i nte ractive ractive model and the tran s active model. The interactive interactive mod el, a variant of which which is shown i n Fi gure 4, elaborates Shannon's Shannon's mod el with the cybernetic con con cept of fe ed back (Weiner, (Weiner, 1948, 1948, 1986), 1986), often (as is the case in Figure 4) 4) wi thout changing any other other el ement of Shannon's Shannon's model. The ke y con con cept associated associated with this el aboration i s that destinations destinations provi de fe edback edback on the messages they receive such that the i nfo rmation rmation sources can adapt their me s sages, in real time. This is an i mpo rtant rtant elaboration, elaboration, and as ge ne rally rally depicted, a radically overs implified one. Feedback is a me s sage (or a set of messages). messages). The The so urce of feedback feedback is an i nfo rmation rmation source. The consumer of fe ed back is a destination. destination. Fe ed back i s transmitted, transmitted, received, a nd potentially disruptable via no i se sources. None of this is visible visible i n the typical depiction of the i nte ractive ractive model. This doesn't di minish the importance importance of fe ed back or the the usefulness usefulness of el aborating Shannon's Shannon's model to i ncl ude ude it. People really really do a dapt the i r messages messages based on the fe ed back they receive. receive. It is useful, howe ver, to notice notice that the i nte ractive ractive model d epicts feedback feedback at a much higher level of a bs traction traction than it does messages. messages.
This differen difference ce in the level of ab s traction traction is addressed addressed in the trans actional actional model of commu nication, a va riant of which i s s hown hown in Figure 5. 5. This model ack nowledges neither creators creators nor cons umers of messages, preferring preferring to l ab el the people associated with the mod el as communicators communicators who both crea te and and consume me s sages. The model presumes presumes ad ditional symmetries symmetries as well, with ea ch participant creating creating messages tha t are re ceived ceived by the o ther commu nicator. This is, in many wa ys, a n excellent excellent model of the the fa ce-to-face interactive interactive p rocess rocess whi ch extends extends readily to to a ny i nte ractive ractive me dium that provides us ers with s ymmetrical ymmetrical interfaces interfaces for crea tion and consumption consumption of me s sages, including including notes, letters, C.B. Ra dio, electronic electronic mail, a nd the rad i o. It is, however, however, a distinctly i nte rpersonal rpersonal model that implies implies an eq uality between communicators communicators tha t ofte n doesn't doesn't exist, eve n in i nte rpersonal rpersonal co ntexts. ntexts. The caller in mos t telephone conversation conversationss has the i nitial upper hand i n setting setting the di rection and tone of a a telephone cal lr than the receiver receiver of the call (Hop per, 1992).In 1992).In face-to-face he a d-complement d-complement interactions, interactions, the bos s (head) has considerably considerably more free dom (in terms of message choi ce, media choice, ability to fram e meaning, ability to s et the rul es o f interaction) interaction) and power to to al locate message message bandwidth bandwidth than doe s the e mployee mployee (complement). (complement). The m od el certainly certainly do es not apply i n ma ss media contexts. contexts.
i ntrod uctory communication communication cours es that are missing from, from, or ou trigh t inconsistent inconsistent with, these mod els. Consider that:
A New Model of the Communication Process
we now routinely routinely teach s tuden ts that "receivers" "receivers" of me ssages really really "consume" messages. Peop l e usually usually have a ri ch menu of p otent otential ial me s sages to to choose from an d they select the the me s sages they want to hea r in much the same way tha t diners select en trees from a re stauran staurantt me nu. We teach s tudents tudents that mo st "noise" "noise" is gene rated rated within within the l i stener, stener, that we engage mes sages sages through "s elective a ttention", ttention", that that one of the most imp ortant ortant things we can do to i mprove our commu nication is to learn learn how to listen, that mass mass me dia a udience udiencess have choi ces, and that we we need to be "literate" "literate" in our me dia choices, even in (a nd p erhaps erhaps especially in ) our choice of tel evision messages. messages. Yet al l of these models models s uggest an "injection "injection mod el" in which message message rece ption is a utomatic utomatic.. we s pend a l arge arge portion portion of our introductory cours es te aching aching student studentss ab out language, includin including g writte n, verbal, and nonverba l languages, yet l an guage guage is a ll but ignor ignored i n the se models models (the use of the term in Figure 5 is not the usual practice practice in dep ictions ictions of the trans active model).
Exis ting models of the commu nication process process do n't n't provi de a reasonable basis for und erstanding erstanding s uch e ffects. ffects. Indeed, Indeed, the re a re many many thi thi ngs ngs that we routi nely teach undergraduates undergraduates i n
we s pend large portions portions of our introductory cours es te aching aching student studentss ab out the importance importance of pe rception, attribution, attribution, an d relationships relationships to our interpretation of
Figure 5: A Transactional Model:
The "masspersonal" (xxxxx, 199x) me dia of th e Internet through through this this i mplied s ymmetry ymmetry into e ven great greater er rel i ef. ef. Most Internet Internet media grant eve ryon ryon e s ymmetrical ymmetrical creation and cons umption umption i nterface nterfaces. s. Anyone wi th In ternet ternet access access can create a web s ite and participate participate as an equal equal pa rtner in e-mail, instant instant me s saging, saging, chat rooms, computer confe rences, collaborative collaborative composition sites, blogs, interactive ga mes , MUDs, MUDs, MOOs MOOs , and other me dia. It re mains, mains, however, however, that us ers have very different different pref erences in their message message cons umption umption and creation. Some pe opl e are very comfo rtable rtable crea ting messages for others onl ine. Others prefer to "lurk"; to free l y browse browse the messages messages of othe rs without adding adding anything of the i r own. Adding Adding comments to a compu ter co nference nference is rarely mor more di fficult than sending an e-mail, but mos t In ternet ternet discussion groups groups ha ve ma ny more lurkers lurkers (cons umers of messages that never pos t) than they have contributors contributors (pe ople who both create and cons ume messages). messages). Oddly, the the l urke rs sometimes sometimes feel more i nte grated with the community community tha n the contributors do (Baym, 2000).
mes sages; sages; of the imp ortance ortance of commu nication to the pe rceptions that others others ha ve of us, the pe rceptions we have of ours elves, and the crea crea tion and mai ntenenc ntenence e of the rel a tionships we have have wi th others. These These mod els say nothing about about the rol e of p ercept erception and and rel a tionshp to the way we i nte rpret messages messages or our wi l lingness to consume mes sages from from different people. we s pend large portions portions of our introductory cours es te aching aching student studentss ab out the socially socially cons tructed aspects of l an guages, guages, messages, messages, and med ia use. Intercultural Intercultural communication presumes both s ocial construction construction an d the presumption that that pe ople schooled i n one s et of con ventions ventions will al most certainly certainly vi vi olate the e xpectations xpectations of pe ople schooled i n a di fferent set set of expe ctations. ctations. D iscussions iscussions of the effects of media on on cul ture presume that commu nication within within the s ame medium may be very di fferent in different cul tures, but that the effe cts of the medium medium on vari ous cultures will be more u niform. Existing Existing gen eral models provide provide li ttle in the way of a pl a tform tform from which which thes e effects effects can be discussed. when we use these mod els in teaching courses i n both both i nte rpersonal rpersonal and mass communication; in tea ching students students about very di fferent kinds kinds of media. Wi th the the excep tion of the Shannon Shannon
mode l, we tend to use the s e models s electiv electively ely i n de scribing scribing those those media, an d without any strong in dication dication of where the med ium b egins egins or ends; wi thout any i ndication ndication of how me dia interrelate interrelate with languages, mes sages, sages, or the people who create and consume consume messages.without a ddressing the ways in whi ch they are . while the s e media describe, describe, in a ge ne ralized ralized way, way, media, The e cological model of commu nication, shown in Figure 6, atte mpts to provide a p latform latform on whi ch these iss ues can be explored. explored. It a s serts that communicatio communication n occurs i n the intersection intersection of four fun damental constructs: constructs: commu nication between people people (crea tors and consumers) consumers) i s me diated by messages which which are crea ted using language within within me dia; consumed from me dia a nd i nte rpreted using language.Th language.This is mode l is, in many ways, a more de tail ed elaboration elaboration of Lasswell's Lasswell's (1948) (1948) cla ssic outline of the study of com mun ication: ication: "Who ... ... says wha t ... in wh ich channel channel ... to who m ... with what effect". In the eco l ogical model , the "who" are the cre ators of messages, the "says "says wha t" are the messages, the "in whi ch channel" is elaborated elaborated into l an guages guages (which are the content of cha nnels) and media (which (which cha nnels are a component component of), the "to whom " are the consumers consumers of me s sages, and the effects are fou nd in va rious rious relationships relationships be tween the primitives, i ncluding ncluding rel ationships, ationships, perspectives, perspectives, attri butions, butions, i nterpretat nterpretations, ions, and the co nti nuing nuing evolution evolution of l an guages guages and media.
Figu re 6: A Ecol Ecol ogical ogical Mode l of the Communication Proces Proces s A n umb er of relationships relationships are de scribed scribed in this model: 1. 2. 3.
4.
5.
6.
Mes sages are created and and cons umed using language language Lan guage occurs within within the con text of media Mes sages are constructed constructed an d consumed within the context of media The rol es of consumer an d creator are refl refl exive. Peop l e become creator creatorss whe n they reply or supply supply fee dback to o ther people people.. Crea Crea tors become become cons umers when they ma ke use of feedback to ad a pt their their messages to me s sage consumers. Peop l e learn how to crea te messages through through the a ct of consuming consuming othe r peoples messages. The rol es of consumer an d creator creator are i ntrosp ective. ective. Creators Creators of mes sages sages create me s sages within the context of their pers pectiv pectives es of and relationships with an ticipated consumers consumers of me s sages. Creators Creators opti mize their their messages to the i r target audiences. audiences. Cons umers of messages messages i nte rpret those those messages messages wi thin the context of their their pe rspectives of, and rel ationships ationships with, creators o f messages. Consumers make attri butions butions of meaning ba s ed on their opinion of the me ssage creator. Peopl e form form these perspectives and rel ationships ationships as a fu nct nction of the i r communic communication. ation. The me ssages creators creators of me s sages construct construct are ne cessarily i mperfect mperfect repre sentations sentations of the
mea ning they imagine. Mes sages are created wi thin th e expressive expressive l i mitations mitations o f the medium medium s elected an d the meanin meaning g repre sentation sentation space provid ed by the language language us ed. The message message crea ted is al most most always always a pa rtial and imperfect imperfect repre sentation sentation of what the cre a tor would like to say. 7. A consumers i nte rpretation rpretation of a mes sages necessar necessarily ily attri butes meaning meaning i mpe rfectly rfectly.. Consumers i nte pret messages within the l imits of the l an guages guages used and the med ia those languages languages are us ed in. A consumers consumers i nte rpretation rpretation of a mes sage sage may be very di fferent than what what the crea crea tor of a message message imagined. 8. Peop l e learn language by throug h the e xperienc xperience e of en countering language language be i ng used within me dia. The l anguages they l earn earn wi l l almost always always be the languages when communicating with pe ople who al ready ready know know an d use those languages. languages. That communication al ways occurs occurs within within a med i um that that enables enables those languages. 9. Peop l e learn me dia by us i ng media. media. The media media the y l earn will necessar necessarilly illy be the me dia used by the people they communicate with. 10. Peop l e invent invent a nd evolve l an guages. guages. While While some be havior expressions expressions (a ba by's cry) occur n a turally urally an d s ome aspect aspectss of l an guage guage structure structure may mirror the ways i n which the bra in s truct tructur ures es ideas, l an guage guage does not occur occur na turally. Peo Peo ple invent invent
ne w l anguage when when there there is no language language that that they can b e s ocialized ocialized into. into. Peop l e evolve evolve language language when they ne ed to to commu nicate ideas that exi s ting language language is not su fficient fficient to. 11. Peop l e invent invent and evolve evolve med ia While some some of the mod al ities ities and channels channels associated with communication are na turally occurring, occurring, the med ia we use to to communicate are not. A me dium of communication communication is, in sh ort, the the product product of a set of compl ex interactions interactions between its pri ma ry consituents: consituents: messages, messages, pe opl e (acting (acting as creators creators of me s sages, consumers consumers of messages, messages, an d i n other rol es), es), languages, and and me dia. Three of these consituents are the mselves mselves complex sys sys tems tems an d the s ubject ubject of entire fields of s tudy, i ncluding ncluding psychology, psychology, s oci ology, ology, anthropology anthropology (all three of wh i ch study people), linguistics (l anguage), media ecology (me dia), dia), an d comm unication unication (messages, l an guage, guage, and media). media). Even Even me s sages can can be regarded as compl ex entities, entities, but its compl exities can be d escribed escribed en tirely within the scope scope of l an guages, guages, media, and the the people who u s e them. This This ecological ecological mod el o f communication communication is, in its mos t fundamental fundamental reading, a compa ct theory of messages messages and the s ystems that enable them. them. Mes sages are the central central feature of the mo del and the most fun damental product product of the i nte raction raction of peo ple, language, language, an d me dia. dia. But there a re other other prod ucts of the mo del that that build up from tha t base of messages, messages, i ncl uding uding (in a rough ordering ordering to i ncreased com plexity) plexity) o bservation, bservation, l earni ng, interpretation interpretation,, s oci alization, alization, attribution, pe rspectives, rspectives, a nd relationships. relationships.
Dis cussion: Positioning Positioning the study study of media in the field of communication
It i s in this layerin layering g of i nte rdependent rdependent social construction construction tha t this model picks up its name. Our commun ication i s not prod uced within any single system, bu t in the i ntersection ntersection of s everal everal i nte rrelated rrelated systems, systems, each of which i s s elf-standing elf-standing necessarily necessarily de s cribed cribed by d edicated edicated theories, theories, but e ach of which is both both the product of the o thers thers a nd, in its own l imited way, way, an i nstance nstance of the othe r. The medium is, as McLuhan McLuhan fa mously observed, a m essage that that i s i nherent nherent to every me ssage that is crea ted i n or consumed consumed from a med ium. The medium medium is, to the exte nt that we can s elect among among me dia, a lso a language language such that the message of the medium medium is not on l y inherent to a m essage, but often an e lemen lementt of i ts compo sition. In what may be the mos t extreme vi vi ew enabled by the proce ssing of messages within me dia, the me dium may also be a pe rson an d consumes consumes messages, messages, recrea tes them, them, and makes the mod i fied messages messages available available for furthe r consumption. consumption. A medium is rea lly none of these things. It is fun damentally a s ystem that that en ables the construction construction of me s sages using a set of languages languages s uch that they can be consumed. consumed. But a med ium is also both all of the s e things things and the product of the i r interaction. interaction. People learn, crea te, and evolve media as a vehi cle for enabling enabling the creation creation a nd consumption of messages. messages. The s ame might might be said of each each of the constitu ents of this model. Peop l e can be, and often are, the me di um (insofar (insofar a s they a ct as me s sengers), sengers), the l anguage anguage (insofar a s d ifferent people ca ca n be selected selected a s mess engers), engers), or the message message (on e's ch oice of messenger can be profo undly meaningful). meaningful). Fun damentally a p erson is none of the s e things, things, but they ca ca n be used as any of these things and and are the
prod uct of their e xperience xperience of a ll of the s e things. things. Our experience experience of me s sages, languages, languages, media, and throug h them, other people, is fun damental in shaping shaping who we become a nd how we think think of ours elves and others. We invent ours elves, and others work work di l igently igently to shap e that invention, invention, throug h our consumption of me s sages, the languages we ma s ter, and the media we use. Lan guage can be, a nd often are, the the me s sage (that is inherent to eve ry me s sage constructed with it), the me di um (but (but only trivially), trivially), the pers on (both at the level level of the "la nguage instinct" instinct" that is i nherent nherent to p eo ple ( following following Pinker, xxxxx) xxxxx) an d a socialized socialized semiotic o verlay verlay on pe rsonal experience), experience), a nd eve n "the l anguage" (insofar (insofar as we have a choi ce of what language language we use use in cons tructing a given message). message). Fun damentally a lan guage guage is none of the se things, but it ca n be used as any of these things things and is the prod uct of ou r use of med ia to cons truct messages. messages. We use l an guage, guage, within within media, to cons truct messages, messages, such as de fi nitions nitions and dictionaries) that cons truct language. language. We invent and evol ve language as a product of our communication. As fo r messag es, es, they reiterate all of the s e constituents. constituents. Every me s sage is a partial and incomplete incomplete preci s of the language that i t is cons tructed with, the medium it i s crea ted i n and consumed consumed from, and the p erso n who who created it. Every Every me s sage we co nsume allows allows us to le arn a l ittle ittle more about the l an guage guage that we interpret with, with, the me dium we create create and cons ume messages messages in, and the the pe rson who created the message. Every mes sage we create create is an opp ortunity to change and extend extend the l a nguage nguage we use, evolve the me dia we use, and i nfluence nfluence the pe rspective that con con sumers sumers of o ur mes sages sages have of us. Yet fun damentally, damentally, a mess age is simply a me ssage, an attempt to
commu nicate something something we i ma gine such that that another person can correctly intepret the message an d thus i magine the same thing. Thi s welter of intersecting intersecting McLuhanesque/Burkean metaphors an d i nterdepend nterdependencies encies provides provides a s eco nd source of the models name. Thi s model seeks, more more than an ything, to p osition osition language and and me dia a s the intermediate intermediate building building bl ocks o n which which communication communication is bui lt. The position of language as a bui lding block of messages messages and a nd commu nication is well understood. understood. Over Over a century of study in semantics, semiotics, and linguistics ha ve pro duced sys sys tematic tematic theories of me s sage a nd language prod uction which are well well understood and generally accepted. The s tudy of language is routinely i ncorporated into virtually virtually all programs in the field of commu nication, including including jou rna lism, rhetoric a nd s peech, fi l m, theater, broadcast broadcast media, media, l an guage guage arts, speech speech and hearing s cie nces telecommun telecommunication ications, s, and othe r varian varian ts, including de partments of "language and and s oci al interaction" interaction".. The positioning of the study of media within within the fi eld of com munication munication is cons iderably iderably more tenuous. tenuous. Many de partments, including including most of thos e named in this paragraph, paragraph, focus almost entirely on only one or or two me dia, effectively effectively a ssumin ssuming g the me di um such such that the focus of s tudy can b e constrained constrained to the a rt of me s sage production production and and i nte rpretation, rpretation, with a heavy heavy focus on the languages languages of the medium medium an d l ittle ittle real in trospection trospection about wha t it means to use that medium medium i n pre ference ference to another or the ge ne ralized ralized ways in whi ch all media media are i nvented, nvented, learned, learned, evolved, s oci alized, alized, selected selected or used meaningfully. Such i s, however, however, the primary su bject matter matter of the newly em erging discipline discipline of media ecol ogy, ogy, and this this model can be s ee n as a n attempt attempt to position
me dia e cology relative to language a nd mess ages as a building block block of ou r communication. This model wa s created specifically specifically to s upport upport the ori es of media and position them relative relative to the process process of commu nication. It is ho ped that the the rea der finds value value in that positioning. Conclusion: Theoretical and Pedogogical Value
Mode ls a re a fundamental fundamental building bl ock of theory. They are also a fun damental tool of instruction. instruction. Sha nnon's nnon's i nformation nformation theory theory mod el, Weiner's Cybe Cybe rnetic rnetic model, a nd Ka tz' two s tep flow each a l lowed allowed allowed scholars scholars de compose the process process of commu nication into discrete discrete s tructural el ements. ements. Each provides provides the ba sis for considerable considerable bodies of commu nication theory and res earch. Each model also also p rovi rovi des tea chers with a p owerful owerful pe dagogical tool tool for teaching s tuden ts to un derstand derstand that commu nication is a complex proce ss i n which which many thin thin gs ca ca n, a nd fre quently quently do, go wrong; for tea ching students students the ways ways in whi ch they can perfect different s ki lls at different points in the commu nication process process to become more ef fective communicators. communicators. But whi le Shannon's Shannon's model has proved ef fe ctive ctive across the primary di vides vides i n the field of communication, communication, the othe r models Katz' and Weiner's Weiner's mod els have not. Indeed, they in ma ny ways e xemplify xemplify that divide a nd the dif ferences ferences in what is tau ght i n courses courses oriented to i nte rpersonal rpersonal communication communication a nd mass communication. Wei ner's cybernetic model a ccentuates the interactive s tructure o f communication communication.. Katz' mod el acce ntuates ntuates its production production s tructure. Students of i nterper nterpersonal sonal commu nication are tau ght, through through the use of the i nte ractive/cybern ractive/cybernetic etic and tran s active models that a ttending ttending to the f ee dback dback of their a udience udience i s
an important important part of being an eff ective communicator communicator.. Stu dents dents of ma ss communication are taught, through the intermediary/gatekeeper/two-step fl ow mo del, that that controlled prod uction processes processes are an i mpo rtant part of b eing an effectiv effective e commu nicator. The The dif ference ference is a s ma ll one and there is no d enying enying tha t bo th attention to feedback feedback and atte ntion to detail are critical skills of e ffe ctive communicato communicators, rs, but ma s s media programs programs focus heavily heavily on th e mi nutiae nutiae of production, production, i nte rpersonal rpersonal programs focus he a vily on the munitiae of attent attention to fe ed back. Despite Despite the the fa ct that that both teach both message prod uction the languages used used in me s sage production, and the de tail s of the small range of media tha t ea ch typically typically covers, they di s cuss different different media, to some exte nt di fferent languages, languages, and di fferent approaches to message prod uction. These differences, differences, far more tha n more obvious obvious di fferences like audience audience size or techn ology, are the divides divides that s ep erate the the study of interpersonal interpersonal commu nication from mass communication. The e cological model of commu nication presented presented here can not, by i tself, remediate remediate such di fferences, but it does reconsitute reconsitute an d e xtend these these models in ways that ma ke it useful, useful, both pe dog ogically ogically a nd theoretically, theoretically, acros s the normal disciplinary boun daries daries of the field of commu nication. The author has mad e good use of the model model in tea ching a variety of courses within within s eve ral communication communication disciplines, disciplines, i ncl uding uding on i nterpersonal nterpersonal commu nication, mass media criti cism, o rganization rganizational al commu nication, communication communication eth i cs, communicatio communication n in rel ationships ationships an d communities, communities, and ne w comm unication unication technologies. technologies. In i ntroductory ntroductory Interpersonal Interpersonal Commun ication classes classes the model ha s shown considerable considerable value value in outl ining and tying tying together s uch
di verse topics as the social cons truction of the s elf, elf, verbal and non -verbal languages, listening, listening, rel ationship formation and de velopment, m iscommunicat iscommunication, ion, pe rception, attribution, attribution, and the wa ys i n which communication communication cha nges in different different interpersonal interpersonal me dia. In a n Organization Organizational al Commun ication class the model has proved va lue in tyi tyi ng comte mporary Organizational Organizational mod els , including network network analysis analysis mod els , satisficing, satisficing, and Weick's mod el to k ey organizational organizational skills skills l i ke effective presentation, presentation, l i stening, and matching the medium medium to the go al and the stakeholder. stakeholder. In a co mmunication ethics ethics class it has proved valuable in elaborating elaborating the ran ge o f participant participantss i n media media who ha ve e thical responsibili responsibilities ties an d the the s cope o f their responsibilities. responsibilities. In a ma s s media cri cri ticism cl cl ass it has proved useful in showing how di fferent critical methods relate relate to the p rocess of communication communication and to e ach other. In each course course the mod el h as proved valuable, valuable, not onl y in giving students students tools with whi ch they can decompose commu nication, but w hich they can can orga nize th e course materials materials into into a cohesive whole. Whi le the model was originally originally compo sed for pedagogical pedagogical purp oses, the primary valu e for the the au thor has been th eoretical. eoretical. The fi eld of communication communication en compasses a wide range of very di fferent and often unintegrated unintegrated the ori es a nd me thods. thods. ContextContextba s ed gaps gaps in the field like the one one be tween mass media and and i nte rpersonal rpersonal communication communication have bee n equated to to those of "two s overeign nations," with "different "different purp oses, d ifferent ifferent boundaries", boundaries", "di fferent methods", methods", a nd "different "different the oretical orientations" orientations" (Berger an d Cha ffee, 1988), 1988), causing at least so me to doubt doubt that the the fi eld eld can eve r be u nited by a common theory theory of co mmun ication ication (Craig, 1999). 1999). xxxxx xxxxx The au thor thor repeatedly repeatedly finds the s e gaps and boundaries boundaries problematic
It ma y be be that complex model of of the commu nication nication process that bri dges the theoretical orientations orientations of i nte rpersonal, rpersonal, organizational organizational,, a nd mass media perspectives perspectives can he l p to bridge this this gap a nd provide s ome thing thing more than the kind of me tam odel that Cra Cra ig calls for. De fi ning media media directly i nto the proce ss of communication communication may he lp to provide provide the kind of s ub strate that that would satisfy satisfy Cappella's (1991) suggestion we can "rema ke the field by a ltering ltering the orga nizational format", format", replacing conte xts with processes that that op era te within the scope of media. Thi s perspective perspective does exactly that. The re s ult does does not integrate all of commu nication theory, but i t may provi de a useful starting point on whi ch a mo re integrated integrated commu nication theory ca ca n be built. The construction of such theory theory is the au thor's thor's primary objective objective in forwa rding this model for your comme nt and, hopefully, hopefully, your your response.
