Deviation as an effective strategy for rhetorical effects - Essay Example

Function of Deviation Effects in Rhetoric From a particular semiotic norm, deviation refers to the concepts of creativity and innovation. The poetry classical field by deviation is stylistics, metaphor, and rhetoric. Indeed, some others consider deviation as the foundation of all forms of poetry. For example, Cohen refers to phonetic reoccurrences as a form of violation on the law of ordinary use of language. Every occurrence of a deviation presupposes a norm (Plett 97). Language system and reader’s expectations conceive the norm from which poetical structures are perceived to be deviating.

With emphasis on generative grammar, there were several attempts to define poetry based on deviations from language rules. A portion of the critiques argue that the deviation in rhetoric settings infringe the rules of the normal language. For instance, Postner argues that a system of rules would kill poetry, disregarding the assumption that rules could determine the structure of poetry. It may be difficult to have norms for poetry (as each form of poetry will require its norm), but the category or difference from semiotic norms are indispensible in semiotic stylistics and rhetoric (99).

Riffaterre expands these ideas by starting with the assumption that poetry expresses things and concepts indirectly, which occur in different forms of semantic and grammatical deviation. He develops a two-phase model for poetry reading (97). The first phase is where the reader encounters poetic ungrammaticalities based on their linguistic competence. At the heuristic stage, a mimetic or coherent referential interpretation is avoided as the reader faces difficulties resulting from textual indirection (saying a certain thing while meaning another).

The retroactive (second) stage the reader successfully resolves mimetic deviations through interpreting them into a new system of semantic, thus the text acquires its intended poetic function (101). At extreme levels, mimetic ungrammaticalities become poetically grammatical. Examples of deviation in rhetoric include sentential adverb, omitting conjunctions, and understatement. For instance, writing that “he was a hero, a winner” rather than “he was a hero and a winner”. Work CitedPlett, Heinrinch.

Literary Rhetoric: Concepts, Structures, Analysis. New York: Brill, 2009. Print.