Lecture notes
Literary Devices
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This document captures the fundamental literary devices appropriate to first year university students of literature.
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LITT 123 ELEMENTS OF STYLE (CONT.)GRAMMATICAL DEVIATION/SYNTACTICAL DEVIATION
The term syntax presupposes a set conventional rule which govern words. Words can be
combined to make meaningful utterances in a sentence.
Thus grammatical deviance/deviation occurs when a writer transgresses established language
codes i.e. (As mentioned earlier, language consists of patterns that are rule-related)
When the accepted norms of language on a sentence structure are violated. E.g.
Spelling – The Beautyful Ones not Yet Born
Achieve rhyme are in poetry as word gal/girl
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, PHONOLOGICAL DEVIATION
Every language has its own set of speech, its own way of connecting these sounds with other
sounds into bigger units such as syllables, phonemes and morphemes. Every language also has
its own canons for moderating sounds as they occur in speech.
Thus phonological deviation occurs when writers transgresses the rules of sound patterning and
alteration in their writings. Such transgression is purposeful and for certain aesthetic reasons.
Through elision-
Aphesis
Omissions of initial letter or syllable of a word
(i)t was
(e) scape
Through tongue twisters – aimed at testing the eloquence of a speaker.
LEXICAL DEVIATION
The term “lexis” alludes to the word stock of language: the available vocabulary in the language.
Lexical deviation therefore means transgressing principles governing the word-stock by coming
up with non-existent words, using obsolete word forms, borrowing from other language or
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, employing words considered inappropriate for a particular context. Lexical deviation therefore
comes out as: unheard of, unusual, unexpected or unpredicted. However just like other forms of
deviance, Lexical deviation is intended for clarity and forcefulness.
FORMS OF LEXICAL DEVIATION
Neologism
Writers may take liberty at their disposal to come up with new words- words that never before,
belonged to the pool of the language in question. The technical term for coining of words in
literary studies in “Neologism”. These words are deliberately coined. Coined depending on the
context purpose. Sometimes the words are eventually incorporated into a language, some are
short-lived. Writers can coin words through ‘affixation’ or may not exist outside the literary text
e.g ‘sheng’.
Affixation
In coining words, writers may opt to add prefixes or suffixes that grammatically would not be
affixed to certain words. For example
For Satan in helldom and
God in paradise
(Jared Angira’s “Soft Corals”).
Angira adds the suffix “dom” to the word “hell” instead of simply saying “hell” in this regard,
Angira is saying that ‘hell’, just like the heavenly ‘kingdom’ of Jehovah, is a domination, an
empire, sovereignty, with Lucifer as the grand monarch.
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