DOI: 10.5176/2251-2853_2.1.101
Authors: Dr. Manal Najjar
Abstract:
Poetic Necessity is a linguistic phenomenon characterized by the irregular use of the conventional language where grammatical requirements are violated, creating linguistic oddness. This phenomenon has been marked in old as well as modern Arabic poetry and since old times it has been a controversial issue of conflicting views among Arabic scholars in syntax, rhetoric and criticism. Some of these scholars see poetic necessity as a sign of ill competence. Others believe in its need to maintain rhyme and rhythm in a specific linguistic environment.
This study seeks to establish a comprehensively new argument through adopting a new approach to understand and gauge this phenomenon in the light of pragmatics.
Poetic Necessity is undertaken by poets where they add, omit, or change the morphological structure of words or their case ending. The paper attempts to prove that such changes are meaning – driven, through which the poet utilizes the latitude permissible in the language to surprise his/her readership in an attempt to communicate a particular, intended meaning in all its shades within a given context. Hence, this paper advocates a new perspective to judge poetic necessity in terms of innovation and pragmatic value rather than linguistic defect.
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