Why and how do writers of English Literary and playful texts “break the rules of” English?

After having defined the terms playful and literary, I will and so look briefly at foregrounding and the classification of the English Language. Then verse, rhythm and repletion would be examined followed by how writers break syntactic rules to show thought solve. This will be followed by literary wont of the metaphor, collocation and iconicity. Then I will examine playful school text in relation to graffiti, newspapers and advertising. literary and playful usage of language is different from that of everyday language in that it draws c ar to the language itself. Writers procure this by being creative, original and imaginative.Moreover, by skilfully manipulating language to create patterns and usage to ex wedge ideas, which draws the readers magnanimous them an original insight into the world of the writer. (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 198) Writers of literary and playful text purpose language to draw attention to it by way of surprising the reader into an original perceptio n of the language and the submit matter. This according to the Russian formalists is foregrounding (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 163). Foregrounding is achieved, by breaking the rules of language, that is sound, grammar and meaning to place the reader in the text.Thus, the reader is surprise into seeing the image, hearing the sounds and feeling the emotions. The English Language is classified according to the way address are arranged in sequence and it is referred to as a subject verb object or SVO language. This is because the subject forever comes before the verb and the object that is being referred to follows the verb. (Graddol etal. , 1994, p. 5) Looking first at rhyme, rhythm and repeat in literary usage, writers especially poets use this as a form of foregrounding. They use rhyme, rhythm and repetition in to bemuse original observations.As in William Blakes poem The Tyger, one rouse see that there is an end rhyme with the first course of instruction rhyming with the se cond, and the third with the fourth in an aabb pattern. This is not something is common in shape speech or text. Therefore, Blake, whilst following the tradition of writing poetry in end rhymes is breaking the rules of English. Blake does this because he is not only foregrounding the cruciform pattern of the verse in its aabb rhymes pattern, save he is worrywise highlighting the eye symmetry of the text. This is done in the first and last stanza where both stanzas are symmetrical apart from one word.Thus, there is a sense of closure and we understand that we have arrived at an end, but because of the aabb pattern, there is withal continuity and the idea of the circle of life. Blake similarly uses rhythm, with each line consisting of four alternate(a) stressed and unstressed words, is used to violence the beat of not only the tread of the Tyger but alike the rhythmical beating of the hammer on the anvil. The creator of the Tyger and the creator of the poem also use repetit ion and alliteration to foreground the symmetry of the design. (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 165) Authors also use rule breaking to foreground their characters thought processes.William Faulkner In his novel The Sound and the Fury manipulates the language and surprises the readers into the thought process of the narrator Benjy, who thinks and voices his thoughts, as would a child. He achieves this flow of thought process by omitting the object after the verb. Thus, the reader is uncomfortable with the language, which is limited, showing and creating a sense of incompleteness. This is exactly what Faulkner is aiming for, because Benjy although being thirty-three, is incomplete and exhibits the thought and language process that of a child. Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 167)The Charles Dickens also breaks the rules governing the syntactic relationship between words. In his novel The Bleak House Dickens does not, use the verb is after the subject, which is the fog and the object, which is everywhere and everything. By doing this, he foregrounds the reader into an innovative outlook and the reader receives the gist that there is no escaping from the fog it is all invasive invading the countryside, the genial, cultural and political environment. (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 167)Another characteristic feature of literary usage is the metaphor and collocation. Metaphors are comparisons that are not made explicit. They exploit the meanings of words and are slipped into the sentence (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 165). The rules of English are broken by the metaphor by playing on the various meanings of a word and the paradigmatic relationship of a word. As in the use of desirous and burnt in Blakes The Tyger the words not only refer to the eyes of the Tyger but also to the furnace and the stars when speared are also burning too such an extent that they water the heaven with their tears.Collocation refers to the combining tendencies of words (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 169) that is, the relationship words have with each other, the meanings that are associated with words and in the context that they are unremarkably used. When this rule is broken, the writers are able to utilise our sense of word collocation to foreground unusual and large association of meaning (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 169). In Carol Ann Duffys poem Litany metaphors and collocation is used when she writes The terrible espousalss crackled cellophane round polyester shirts.Marriages do not crackle. The word crackle is usually associated with dry inanimate objects it is this association, which surprises the reader into looking at the marriage in a new light. The metaphor of the cellophane and polyester shirts continue this theme of inanimateness, dead and lifeless as fence to the marriage being alive and thriving. Collocation is also associated with playful usage of English as in Punning.This occurs when the different meanings of the words are exploited, as in My Children My Africa Here the Playwright plays on the word riot to emphasis the difference in culture and explores the difference in meaning associated to a word by differing social groups. (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 171) Another feature of literary usage is the iconic where the sounds and shapes of words and phrases imitate particular objects or process (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 172) writers use this device in order for the reader to experience and hear the sounds being described. Wordsworth in The Prelude uses it to advert upon the simple childhood pleasure of making oneself dizzy.He does this by having a long sentence where the subject and verb occur late in the passage. This achieves the effect of rushing and spinning to an abrupt stop. In addition, one can almost imagine that even though we have stopped the solitary cliffs Wheeled by the primer coat rolled (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 172) e e cummings uses this technique in his poem I (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 202) He relies on t he visual effect of the poem to emphasis the falling of one leaf and its oneness.Playful text also uses language to draw attention to it this is achieved, by breaking the rules of language, that is sound, grammar and meaning Just like in literary usage. graffiti although regarded as being antisocial and illegal is an area where English is used in a playful and entertaining way to highlight a particular comment on social issues or give voice to those sub groups that have been denied access to mainstream. Because of the very nature of graffiti, it tends to be short and succinct. The Graffiti Glory to God in the senior high school St (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 10) by deleting a single letter from the angels message to the Shepards, the graffiti satirises the original Christmas message and reflects the commercialization of Christmas.This is achieved by playing on the sounds and the meaning of the two words Highest and High St. An example of iconic graffiti that is a thought process w ould be Dsylexia rules KO The popular press also use puns and word play in their headlines e. g. Belly Nice (model Naomi Campbell with bare take over), Wedding Prez (President Clinton perchance attends a wedding) (Maybin and Mercer, 1996, p. 17). They by virtue of being tabloid newspapers need to capture the readers attention quickly and be able to express in a short headline the nature of the article.Therefore, by using headlines like Belly Nice they play on the phrase very nice in referring to the bare stomach and associating it to her second name Campbell. Another area that breaks the rules of English in a playful way is advertising. ad uses all the literary techniques of foregrounding to sell the product, image or idea.In the P&O advertisement, the text is simple it has rhyme, rhythm and repetition, and seems at first glance to be a simple, childs first reader. However, each line does not have the object. It is only at the end that one realises that the last word is the objec t of the antecedent lines. In conclusion after having looked at the various distinctive features of literary and playful usage of text one can see that writers, poets, graffiti writers, journalist and the advertisers use and break the rules of English to foreground there ideas in a creative, original and imaginative way.