Poetic Necessity Between the Syntax of a Sentence and the Syntax of a Text

DOI: 10.5176/2251-3566_L312126

Authors: Manal Najjar

Abstract: Poetic Necessity is a linguistic phenomenoncharacterized by the irregular use of the conventionallanguage where grammatical requirements are violated,creating linguistic oddness. This phenomenon has beenmarked in old as well as modern Arabic poetry andsince old times it has been a controversial issue ofconflicting views among Arabic scholars in syntax,rhetoric and criticism. Some of these scholars see poeticnecessity as a sign of ill competence. Others believe inits need to maintain rhyme and rhythm in a specificlinguistic environment.This study seeks to establish a comprehensively newargument through adopting a new approach tounderstand and gauge this phenomenon in the light ofpragmatics.Poetic Necessity is undertaken by poets where they add,omit, or change the morphological structure of words ortheir case ending. The paper attempts to prove that suchchanges are meaning – driven, through which the poetutilizes the latitude permissible in the language tosurprise his/her readership in an attempt tocommunicate a particular, intended meaning in all itsshades within a given context. Hence, this paperadvocates a new perspective to judge poetic necessity interms of innovation and pragmatic value rather thanlinguistic defect.