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Monograph Final
Monograph Final
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Zesa S. Mino
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INDEX
C T
Linguistic
Cummings, E.E Transference of meaning
D
Dialectal deviation
Deviations in
G
Grammatical deviation
Graphological deviation Poems of E. E
H
Historical deviation
Cummings
Honest deception
I
I shall imagine life
L
L(a
Leech, G. N.
Lexical deviation
Love is more thicker than forget
P
Phonological deviation
S
Semantic deviation
Semantic oddity
R
Register deviation
32 1
Oxymoron, and Paradox have semantic absurdity that
contains self-conflicting information.
Register Deviation - The particular use of language in a
certain profession.
Transference of Meaning - it is classified into four tropes
of figurative language: Synecdoche, Metonymy, Metaphor,
and Simile.
2 31
GLOSSARY
30 3
2. LOVE IS MORE THICKER THAN FORGET
4 29
In 1952, his alma mater, Harvard University awarded Cummings
an honorary seat as a guest professor. The Charles Eliot Norton
Lectures he gave in 1952 and 1955 were later collected as i: six
Table of Contents
nonlectures. Cummings spent the last decade of his life traveling,
fulfilling speaking engagements, and spending time at his summer
Dedication 3
home, Joy Farm, in Silver Lake, New Hampshire. He died of a stroke on
Table of Contents 5
September 3, 1962, at the age of 67 in North Conway, New Hampshire
Preface 6
at the Memorial Hospital. His cremated remains were buried in Lot 748
Chapter I. Linguistic Deviations of Geoffrey Leech 7
Althaeas Path, in Section 6, Forest Hills Cemetery and Crematory in
Boston. In 1969, his third wife, model and photographer Marion Background of Geoffrey Leech 7
Morehouse Cummings, died and was buried in an adjoining plot. Eight Kinds of Linguistic Deviations 8
Cummings's papers are held at the Houghton Library at Harvard Chapter II. Linguistic Deviations in Poems of E. E Cummings 14
University and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at
Background of E.E Cummings 14
Austin.
Selected Poems of E. E Cummings 15
APPENDIX B Analysis of E.E Cummings Poems Using 16
THE SELECTED POEMS OF E.E. CUMMINGS Conclusion 22
1. L(a
l(a Bibliography 25
le Appendix 26
af
fa Glossary 30
ll Index 32
s)
one About the Author 34
l
iness
28
5
Cummings was married briefly twice; his longest
relationship was outside marriage. Cummings's first marriage, to
Elaine Orr, began as a love affair in 1918 while she was married
to Scofield Thayer, one of Cummings's friends from Harvard.
The conception of this material stemmed up from the
author’s desire to provide comprehensive yet simplified During this time he wrote a good deal of his erotic poetry.
discussion of linguistic deviation; thereby achieving fast pacing
of content delivery and content absorption. The author assumes After divorcing Thayer, Elaine married Cummings on
that E. E Cummings poems needs to be idealized into normal
March 19, 1924. However, they separated after two months and
utterances to fully understand the message of the poetry.
divorced less than nine months later. Elaine left Cummings for a
This monograph deals with the process of identifying
linguistic deviations present in a poem using the selected poems wealthy Irish banker, moved to Ireland, and took Nancy with her.
of Edward Estlin Cummings. The instrument used to determine
Under the terms of the divorce Cummings was granted custody
the linguistic deviations where the 8 Kinds of Linguistic
Deviations by Leech (1969). The deviations are the following; of Nancy for three months each year, but Elaine refused to abide
(1) Phonological Deviation, (2) Graphological Deviation, (3)
by the agreement. Cummings did not see his daughter again until
Lexical Deviation,(4) Grammatical Deviation, (5) Semantic
Deviation, (6) Dialectical Deviation, (7) Register Deviation and 1946. Nancy later married Joseph Willard Roosevelt, second son
(8) Historical Deviation.
of Kermit Roosevelt and Belle Wyatt Willard. Cummings married
The selected poems of E.E. Cummings’ are L(a, Love Is his second wife Anne Minnerly Barton on May 1, 1929, and they
More Thicker Than Forget and I Shall Imagine Life. English
teachers as well as English students can use this monograph as separated three years later in 1932. That same year, Anne
reference in studying about the kinds of deviations particularly obtained a Mexican divorce; it was not officially recognized in the
in the process of determining the presence of deviations in
certain poems. Definitions and descriptions for each type of United States until August 1934.
deviation are laid down in this monograph with examples for
each kind of deviation. The year Cummings and Anne separated, he met Marion
With this material, the author positively believes that at the Morehouse, a fashion model and photographer. Although it is not
completion of reading this monograph, readers can have a clear clear whether the two were ever formally married, Morehouse
and vivid understanding on what linguistic deviation is all about,
how to identify them and readers can appreciate the importance lived with Cummings in a common-law marriage until his death in
of linguistic deviations in poems for form and content purposes. 1962. She died on May 18, 1969, while living at 4 Patchin Place,
Greenwich Village, New York City, where Cummings had resided
since September 8, 1924.
6 27
APPENDICES CHAPTER I
Linguistic Deviations of Geoffrey Leech
APPENDIX A
Edward Estlin Cummings’ Biography Background of Geoffrey Leech
The last classification is Honest Deception. According to 2. Graphological Deviation – There are only 2
stanzas in the poem both consisting of 4 lines in
(Leech 74), the term honest deception is classified into three tropes"
stanza number 1, line 3 the words “and when “are
Hyperbole "the figure of over-statement", Litotes "The figure of enclosed with the open and close parenthesis,
understatement", and Irony. The three are connected in the sense that same as with stanza number 2 lines 4 & 5, the
they all misrepresent the truth. words “you feel certain” are enclosed also with the
The sixth type of linguistic deviation is Dialectal Deviation. open and close parenthesis, to bring a great
According to (Leech 75), he uses the term dialectism for dialectal emphasis to these words.
deviation; Dialectism refers to the "borrowing of features of socially or 3. Lexical Deviation – There are no new words
regionally defined dialects". It occurs when the writer uses words or present in the poem.
structures which are from a dialect different from that of standard 4. Grammatical Deviation – In the poem, two same
words are used in the same line. Evident in stanza
language. However dialectism is commonly employed by story tellers
number 2, line 3.
and humourists, as in Spenser's "The Shepheardes Calender". In this
5. Semantic Deviation – The poem uses the symbol
type of deviation he uses words like Heydeguyes (a type of dance), “rose” to represent beauty which further means the
Rontes (young bullocks), and weaned (a newly weaned kid or lamb) as beauty of life. That if roses complains that their
beauties are vain, so is life, if people keep on
12 21
standard rules of the language. Another deviation from the norm is such use evokes a flavor of rustic naivety in keeping with the
Cumming’s use of adverbs of time like: seldom, always, never into
the main slot in the adjective phrase frame. And we know that sentiments of pastoral.
adjectives describe qualities, whereas adverbs describe Register Deviation is the seventh type of linguistic
circumstances, examples in the poem involve phrases like: more deviation. Each profession has its particular uses of language,
seldom, less always…etc. which is known as a register. Literature as a literary profession
has its own particular use of words. But modern writers have
5. Semantic Deviation – Another deviation from the norm is done freed themselves from the constraints of poetic language. In
by Cummings in the aspect of semantics. One of the semantic
order to convey their message they often use one or more sorts
devices or techniques he uses in the poem is 'tautology' which
means saying the same thing twice. This is usually embodied in of registers. In prose writing, register borrowing is usually
everyday phrases like “war is war”, “If she goes, she goes”. accompanied by register mixing (Leech 82).
Cumming’s examples in the poem are “the sea is deeper than the
The last type of linguistic deviation is the Historical
sea”, “the sky is …higher than the sky”. Cummings used two
opposing words such as thicker and thinner (lines 1 & 2) and the Deviation. In this kind of deviation writers are not restricted to
words seldom and frequent (lines 3 & 4). It is observed throughout the language of their own particular period they use archaic
the poem that although 'love', as a human emotion, is involuntary, words or structures which are no longer used in standard
it is better not to be deeply involved in for its unreliability and language to enhance the aesthetic or musical value of the
instability. literary work (Leech 82). Leech calls historical deviation
6. Dialectical Deviation – There is no dialectical deviation present archaism and he defines it as "the survival of the past into the
in the poem.
7. Register Deviation – There is no register deviation observed in language of present time" (Leech 83).
the poem. It is worth mentioning that linguistic deviation is not
8. Historical Deviation – There is no historical deviation present in merely found in poetic language but also in non-poetic one.
the poem. Although, Leech examines only the language of poetry, it seem
that his method can be applied to the language of English
prose as he admits the need of the categories Prosaic Poetry
or Prosaic Prose. Since the linguistic deviations of poetry is
more imaginative, concentrated, complex, and powerful than
that of ordinary prose, it is very difficult, sometimes impossible.
Nevertheless, it is necessary for the reader of poetry to
pay a close attention to the linguistic deviation matters, for
these marks the authorship of a poem. To find the style of a
certain poem, the instances of linguistic deviation should be
investigated.
20 13
2. Graphological Deviation – In the lines of the poem, it is
very noticeable that no punctuation marks are seen. The first
Chapter II and second stanzas are composed of 4 lines while the last
stanza was composed of 8 lines. The poem certainly bears
Linguistic Deviations in Poems many of the familiar stylistic imprints of its author, notable
among which, is the conspicuous spelling and orthography
of E. E Cummings resulting from the removal of standard punctuation devices
such as commas, full stops and capital letters. Thus, lack of
full stops, commas, and lack of the use of capital letters in
Background of E.E Cummings sentence initial positions all refer to a deviation from the
norms of English punctuation marks, which play a vital role in
text organization.
E.E. Cummings was a 20th 3. Lexical Deviation –The poem contains a number of
century poet and novelist known for his invented words, neologisms, such as the adjectives “sunly”
innovations in style and structure. E.E. and “moonly”, as well as the verb “unbe” which suggest a
Cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings) kind of reversal in sense from “being” to “not being”.
was born in 1894 in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. He was a fine artist, 4. Grammatical Deviation – We can observe that in spite of
playwright and novelist and poet. He their one-syllable status, adjectives like ‘thick’ and ‘thin’
earned both his B.A. and M.A. degree receive both the inflectional morpheme and the separate
from Harvard University. Cummings then intensifier (“more thicker”). Moreover, superlative forms of
other one-syllable adjectives like “mad” and “sane” do not
went to serve in World War I overseas as a volunteer for the receive the inflectional morpheme (as in “maddest” or
ambulance corps. He adopted a cubist style in his artwork. He “sanest”) but are instead fronted, more unusually, by
considered himself a painter as well as a poet, spending much of the separate words: “most mad” and “most sane”. A further
day painting and much of the night writing. Cummings particularly variation emerges where markers of both positive and inferior
admired the art work of Pablo Picasso. He uses the poetic term “free relations are mixed together in the same adjective phrase.
verse” in his poetry. He has disregard for capital letters. He does not Conventionally, in comparative constructions, the
observe the traditional rules and regulations of writing. As far as comparative adjective normally compares entities that are
Cummings is concerned, his poems can be categorized into three compatible at least in some features, e.g. ‘blood is thicker
types satirical poems, love poems, and poems on natures and than water’. Whereas Cummings, in ‘love is thicker than
forget’, compares the incomparable: “love” which denotes
animals. He has his own way of presenting thoughts by words
one of human emotions is compared to a verb “forget” which
scattering, word splitting, line breaking, unnecessary punctuation and
expresses a mental process. The writer constantly
capitalization. He claims that all these techniques helped in conveying
‘reduplicates’ the grammatical rules for comparative and
the real essence of his poems. superlative gradation; and all with deviations from the
14
19
6. Dialectical Deviation – There is no dialectical deviation
present in the poem. Selected Poems of E. E Cummings
7. Register Deviation – There is no register deviation L(a
present in the poem.
l(a
8. Historical Deviation – There is no historical deviation le
present in the poem. af
fa
ll
LOVE IS MORE THICKER THAN FORGET
s)
one
Love is more thicker than forget
l
more thinner than recall
iness
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fall
It's most mad and moonly LOVE IS MORE THICKER THAN FORGET
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only Love is more thicker than forget
is deeper than the sea more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
Love is more always than to win more frequent than to fall
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin It's most mad and moonly
less littler than forgive and less it shall unbe
It's most sane and sunly than all the sea which only
and more it cannot die is deeper than the sea
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky Love is more always than to win
less never than alive
Literary Analysis: less bigger than the least begin
1. Phonological Deviation – There is a less littler than forgive
deviation in the pronunciation of the word It's most sane and sunly
“forgive” to rhyme with “alive”. and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
Love is more always than to win
is higher than the sky
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive 15
18
3. I SHALL IMAGINE LIFE consonants, both indicating, perhaps, the twisting motion of
the leaf as it falls. The parentheses aid this twisting
i shall imagine life movement, showing first, descent one way, then another.
is not worth dying if The downward movement is enhanced by lines 5 ("ll") and 8
(and when)roses complain ("l"), which can be seen as visually enacting the journey.
their beauties are in vain
3. Lexical Deviation – The poem which consists of just
but though mankind persuades four words, splits into two distinct phrases- "loneliness,"
itself that every weed's and "a leaf falls"-the poem has generated a wide range
a rose roses(you feel of critical analysis. These words in the poem are
certain)will only smile chopped; like the word “leaf” is chopped into
le
Analysis of Cummings’ Poems Using Leech’s af
This is evident in lines 3 and 4, another word is,
Linguistic Deviations
“falls” which is chopped into
L(a fa
ll
l(a s)
le Another word is, “loneliness” where the letter “L” is
af placed at the first line in the stanza while the –oneliness is
fa chunked into
ll one
s) l
one iness
l This is evident in lines 7, 8 and 9.
iness
4. Grammatical Deviation – There is no grammatical
Literary Analysis: deviation present in the poem.
1. Phonological Deviation – In the poem, Cummings
uses the sound of “/ɛl/”. 5. Semantic Deviation – The theme of the poem which
is loneliness is equated to a fallen leaf and this is quite
2. Graphological Deviation – Cummings used an example of a metaphor under transference of
unconventional punctuation like the open and close meaning. The falling of a leaf is a concrete act, whilst
parenthesis, word displacement, and unusual the word "loneliness" is an abstract concept. The single
arrangement lines, words, and even individual letters leaf falling is a metaphor for both physical and spiritual
to produce visual typographical forms. We see that the isolation. Thus, "Loneliness is like a falling leaf".
poem is organized into stanzas of alternating lines of Metaphorically, then, the poem enacts the vastness of
1-3-1-3-1, whilst the first four lines alternate vowels / space and the smallness of man within that space.
16 17