When Anomalous Language Is Acceptable: Suspension and the Motivations Behind Breaking Convention in Shaun Tan’s Cicada

Abstract

Abstract The English on display in the picturebook Cicada by Shaun Tan includes various breaks with grammatical convention, such as a lack of tense morphemes, subject omission, and non-use of the first-person pronoun. However, not only are these deviations acceptable to native speakers, but the anomalous English plays a crucial role in showcasing the protagonist as a communicatively undeveloped outsider (Ikarashi and Maher). Building off Eugenio Coseriu’s integral linguistic ideas, this article investigates how what may seem grammatically insufficient language can in fact function quite naturally given appropriateness at the textual level. In exploring the motivations for a writer to opt for such non-standard expressions, this study proposes that the protagonist’s characterization demands a strange, nuanced manner of speaking, though such deviation is not without its own peculiar conventions. Furthermore, comparison with the Japanese translation of Cicada will allow for a better understanding of just what kind of unique leeway exists at the textual level for defying linguistic standards in English as opposed to Japanese.i