Linguistic Study Of Generation Of Poetic Implications

Based on the theory of poetic linguistics formed in the early 20^th century in Russia, this dissertation, with meanings of poems as its centre and the starting point of its argumentation, makes an elaborate study of the origin, existence and nature of poetic implications by synthesizing the theories and methods of semantics, rhetoric, semeiology, and cognitive linguistics. The author also places texts, writers, the universe and readers in interactive scenes, analyses the factors that contribute to the generation of poetic implications, including the structure, contexts within and without texts, and reveals the theoretical models and practical values in the ontological analysis of poetic implications.The dissertation is composed of eight chapters besides preface and epilogue. These eight chapters fall into three sections according to the inner logic of generating process of poetic implications.The preface makes a brief review of the background and development of the Russian poetic linguistics, together with its studies and translations in China; takes an overall view of theories, modes, gains and losses in the poetic linguistic study both in Russia and in China. It analyses as well the linguistic aspects in poetic implications study, then the original purpose, the research intention, methods, and its significance.The first section includes Chapter One and Chapter Two, functioning as the basic part of the whole dissertation. This section spells out the noumenon structure as well as the concept of poetic implication, and at the same time defines and analyzes it in a cognitive way. The author points out that as a sign system, the meaning of language is original and its structure is derivative; the synthetic structure possesses the potential to generate new implications; the linguistic meanings can be divided into language meaning and language implication, which respectively correspond to the deep meaning and surface meaning of the literary works. Poetic implication represents not only the highest level and is the aesthetic utters of speech implication, but also the highest and most beautiful original cognitive experience; it is the semantic rules that regulate the language structure. The original meaning is embodies in and guides the creation of poetry. Sense (or implication) is the origin and also the terminal node of poetry creation. Poetic implication is born and then generated by the surface semantic structure. It is the "semantic crystallization of language category".In normal speech activities, the subject's operation on the linguistic signs is not so complicated and in fact there are only two operations: selecting and combinating. The selecting operation is based on equivalence, including similarities and differences, antonym and synonym, meaning nearby and meaning faraway; and the combining operation (i.e. organizing sentences) is based on adjacency, such as semantic valence and grammar rules. The grammatical structure is allocated by the semantic relationship and the rhetoric function and the production of speech implication is influenced by both the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations of the word meaning. Generation and embodiment of speech implication are not direct accumulation of word meanings in sentences, but ratios of meaning, which are equivalent and parallel on longitudinal and transverse axes. Meaning ratios of language unites in poetry can not be one, because poetry is full of suggestion, concealment and symbols. The implications are far-reaching and significant. The repetition in poetry will not be exactly equivalent.The second section that consists of Chapter Three and Chapter Four, is a study focusing onthe semantic construction of pronunciation and forms of poetry, and on the interactionalrelationship between the above-mentioned poetic implications. The language sign system is acombination of sound, form and meaning. The trinity is relatively independent, but at the sametime inseparable. Among the three factors, meaning dominates the other two, which counteract itconversely. All of the three together form an open and evolved meaning system. In actuallanguage use, sound and form function differently in carrying meaning. That is, language can beused to express additional feelings and senses by the charge of both. It is poetry that calls out allthe abilities of language signs to form meanings, and improve them. On phonetics, with seriesand repetition, poetry builds its rhythm, rhyme and intonation, resulting in a fantastic soundeffect; soliloquy can even endow digital combined serial poetry with unique implication, andbring about to people emotional experience, happy or sad. On morphology, poetry organizes itsintegrated structure according to its theme and concentrates on the grammar structure to formparallelism, antithesis, climax as well as chiasmus, and thereby the complicated emotions andexquisite image of the poetry are implied outside the langue or overflow from the rhythm sound.Systematic and regular building of the form and sound of poetry can also make salience ofthe paradigmatic relation of the semantic. This method of salience will transform theexpressive function of words, realize aesthetic sublimation of the semantic, and then generatepoetic implications with literature and philosophical significance, which can not be expressedby any other linguistic devices. This dissertation takes personal pronoun and demonstrativepronouns as examples to specifically analyze how the salience of paradigmatic relation ofsemantic exerts influence on their demonstrative significance. But the semanticized aesthetic constructuion of form and sound of the poetry only have subordinate effect to the generation of poetic implications. When there are conflicts among sound, form and the semantic, sound and form often give way to the meaning.The third section is composed of Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven and Chapter Eight. This part is the core of the whole dissertation. Based on intrinsic logic of the generation of poetic implications, these four chapters respectively provide cognitive studies of strangeness, equivalence principle, parallel contrasting principle and semantic translation. It has as well made a brief exposition on the theory and proposition about the generation of poetic implications in Chinese poetics. By using these four poetic principles as a theoretical frame, the concepts link up relations in these aspects, such as structural elements, pragmatic functions, cultural backgrounds, authors and readers; synthetically analyse the functions and effects of all these elements in the generation of poetic implications so as to meet omnidistance from creation to reception of the poetry.Chapter Five describes the core poetic principle - "strangeness", and "foregrounding", which relates with "strangeness", and "surprising sense", which is close to "strangeness". The theory of "stranginization" in fact is a "technique", moving literary analysis from the world outside the text into the text itself, and emphasizes that art is an application of the technique of "blocking". It aims to unveil concept shadow on languages to "revive words" and to return to their original visage which however, does not mean returning to ideographs, but the poetry itself. The theories of stranginization and foregrounding attract people to re-examine text from the view of linguistics, to think about the techniques of generation of poetic implications, and to find a cut-in point, which stimulate the literary criticism and linguistic analysis.Chapter Six explores the relationship between equivalence principle and the generation of poetic implications, discusses connotations, cognitive mechanisms, categories of the equivalence principle, and provides omnidirectional analysis of poetry. The equivalence principle is an important poetic theory. Although the theory was proposed by Jakobson from the view of linguistic functions, but it can be completely used to answer the question of mechanism to generate semantic, certainly including poetic implications; The theory "the poetic function projects the principle of equivalence from the axis of selection into the axis of combination" enlightens us to find the mechanism of generation of poetic implications, the purpose of reconstructing "the linguistic view of the world", the salience of the sound, the form and the semantic, its poetic function to generate poetic implications, the semantic comparison and their ratios of linguistic units in poetic text, the equivalent projections in and out of the text, and their effect on the generation of poetic implications.Chapter Seven analyses the poetic principle of parallel contrasting, including its ideological foundation, basic features and innovation. This chapter also makes comments by specific examples on the maneuverability in the explanation of the generation of poetic implications.In fact, the principle of parallel contrasting carries forward and develops Jakobson's principle of equivalence, for the principle of parallel contrasting points out mechanism of the semantic construction of poetic text on vertical and lateral axes, especially pays attention to the special function of polymerization sequences, because of which language units (pronunciation, rhyme, word, syntax, verse line and whole text ) of poetic text gain their referential targets in parallel contrasting on equal footing, cause variation of their ratios and semantic interproduction, and endows the subtle world of poetey with profound or multi-implications. It is innovation that the principle of parallel contrasting points out that the mechanisms of automatization and an automatization react simultaneously; the principle of parallel contrasting regards grammar which traditionally only belongs to structure, as semantic cognitive model; breaks the concept that "grammar is only the operating rule system of language"; makes grammar category into positive factors in the generation of poetic implications; puts works, writers and readers in a dynamic historical and cultural context, holds that the reader, acting as reading subject, also participates in the generation of implication of the text. There are equivalent contrast between writers, works, writers and works, and all of these factors have influence on generation of poetic implications.Chapter Eight is about the principle of semantic translation. By means of intralingual translation this chapter discusses the relationship between poetic and linguistic implications to show that under the effects by the equivalence and parallel contrasting principles, complex changes are taking place within semantics of poetry, turning from linguistic meanings to poetic implications. Thus, the surface structure of the language of poetry will not express its usual meaning, or the same meaning of the deep structure. Poetic implications which can not return to the deep linguistic structure of poetic text are crystallized and precipitated from the surface structure of poetry. The deep semantic structure only is an interpretation of the poetic implications on metalanguage. Poetic implications must be tasted with rhythm, tonality and tempo of the poetry. By means of intralingual translation, the surface structure of the poems can be embodied in various forms on meta-language. These forms will refer linguistic equivalence for poetry from different aspects, such as "ideas", "theme" and "conception",etc. concepts of literature science. The theory of translatable embodiment can solve many important problems about poetic sound, grammar, rhetoric and pragmatics.This chapter analyses operation procedures by means of inter-lingual translation on the vertical selection and horizontal combinations of equivalent semantic units in different languages, reveals how the equivalence principle and the principle of parallel contrasting penetrate into the inter-lingual translation of poetry. This osmosis can ensure the maximum approach of mechanisms for poetic implications generating.The conclution of the dissertation points out that the linguistic study of the generation of poetic implications, through analyzing interaction between sound, form and the semantic, roles of the principles of strangeness, equivalence and parallel contrasting, can not only solve the problems concerning linguistic analysis of poetry, make out the relationship between language and poetry, language meaning and poetic implications, but also weave literature, psychology, sociology, philosophy, etc. into poetry analysis, and eliminate the rampart between the creation, the spreading, and the appreciation of poems. The linguistic study of the generation of poetic implications has a guiding role on creation, translation of poems, and provides theoretical support and practical evidence for the development of poetic linguistics and linguistics.