The Inner Form of the Word and Meaning Construction in the Poetic Speech (Based on the Russian and English Languages)

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of semantic perception of a poetic text, in which the reader’s attention is de-automized by such foregrounding technique as the defamiliarization of the inner form of the word. Relying on the methodological frameworks of creative linguistics and cognitive linguistics, the author of the article aims at describing the inner-form-defamiliarization technique in terms of its functioning in poetic speech. Particular attention is devoted to identifying the factors of verbal and conceptual creativity, which determine the possibility of speech conventions transformations in poetry. The article provides a terminological clarification of the notions of “the inner form of the language” and “the inner form of the word”; emphasis is placed on the importance of studying these phenomena from the non-conventional meaning construction perspective. It is shown that the technique of the inner form defamiliarization has a complex implementation in poetry and contributes to performing a number of interrelated functions of the poetic language — cognitive, expressive, poetic and metalinguistic. Based on the examples of Arkadii Dragomoshchenko’s essays from the book “Phosphorus” and Charles Bernstein’s essay-poem “Artifice of Absorption”, the linguo-creative intentions of the poets are reconstructed. The techniques of the inner form defamiliarization, typical of these poets, are described, including poetic etymologization of the word through its occasional definition; paronomasia; renomination and attribution of occasional formmeaning motivation to the word. The cognitive universality of linguo-creative techniques of the inner form defamiliarization is described in relation to general functional mechanisms for switching and developing verbal associations, which provide for the non-conventional meaning construction.