michael riffaterre _ poetic language _ signo - applied semiotics theories

7/27/2019 Michael Riffaterre _ Poetic Language _ Signo - Applied Semiotics Theories

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9/22/13 Michael Riffaterre : Poetic Language / Signo - Applied Semiotics Theories

www.signosemio.com/riffaterre/poetic-language.asp

RIFFATERRE

POETIC LANGUAGE

By Johanne Prudhomme and Nelson Guilbert

Universit du Qubec Trois-Rivires

[email protected]

1. ABSTRACT

According to Michael Riffaterre, a poem does not signify in the same

way as a prose text. When poetry is analyzed, often "words are judged

in relation to things, and the text is judged in comparison to reality"

(Riffaterre, 1983, 26). In order to avoid this, we must understand what

distinguishes poetic language from the language of prose: A poem

establishes a system of significance, generated by processes such as

accumulation and the use of descriptive systems. Poetic language is also

set apart from prose by the special status of its neologisms.

This text may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided the complete reference is given:

Johanne Prudhomme and Nelson Guilbert (2006), Poetic Language , in Louis Hbert (dir.), Signo [online], Rimouski (Quebec),

http://www.signosemio.com/riffaterre/poetic-language.asp.

2. THEORY

According to Michael Riffaterre, poetic language is different from prosaic language. A poem engenders a system of significance based

on processes such as accumulation or the use of descriptive systems. The neologism is a special element of language in the same

vein, whose specific features are important to examine.

2.1 HOW DO PROSE AND POETRY SIGNIFY?

Prose is generally interpreted along a vertical axis, also known as the paradigmatic axis or the axis of selection. On this axis, we look

for the meaning of the text based on selected referents and terms, following the metaphors and metonymies, or by try ing to attribute

a coherent meaning to the obscure passages. However, "[...] in the semantics of the poem the axis of significations is horizontal"

(Riffaterre, 1983, 35). The poem does not at tempt to refer to reality, but to establish a coherent system of significance. A poetic text

must therefore be analyzed in terms of the relationships t hat develop amongst the words along the horizontal axis, also known as the

syntagmatic axis or the axis of combination.

2.2 THE HORIZONTAL AXIS OF SIGNIFICATIONS

There are four structures that make up the horizontal axis of significations:

1. Linguistic;

2. Stylistic;

3. Thematic;
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4. Lexical. (This st ructure is exclusive to poetry: It involves "similarities in form and posit ion among certain words in the text,

similarities that are rationalized and interpreted in terms of meaning" (Riffaterre, 1983, 36)).

Within the lexical structure, there are two categories of formal and positional similarities on which the reader of the poem can reflect:

1. One category includes similarities derived by p arataxis, which are observable by identifying semantic accumulations.

2. In the other category we include similarities involving hypotaxis, which has to do with the co-occurrence of words grouped

into descriptive systems.

2.3 ACCUMULATION

Each word is made up of one or more semes (minimal units of meaning, or semantic features). For example, the word "monster"

contains the semes: living being, big, ugly, frightening, inhuman, etc. These are the semes in the poem that are used in the process of

accumulation.

This process occurs when the reader encounters a series of words that are related through an element of meaning that links them

together, that is, ashared seme. As the reader p rogresses, accumulation "filters through the semantic features of its words, thereby

overdetermining the occurrence of the most widely represented seme and cancelling out the semes that appear less frequently"

(Riffaterre, 1983, 39). For example, if we encounter the words "rose", "tulip" and "sunflower", then we might think that the shared

seme is /flower/; if to this list we add the words "grandiose", "woman" and "art", then the overdetermined seme will be /beauty/.

What's more, the words that are part of the accumulation "become synonyms of one another irrespective of their original meaning in

ordinary language" (Riffaterre, 1983, 39). Accumulation does more than just emphasize the overdetermined semes; the semes take

the place of the words, and by substituting in this manner, the reader will come within reach of the poem's significance.

2.4 DESCRIPTIVE SYSTEMS

A descriptive system is a constellation of words associated with a concept, or nuclear word(ornucleus): "a nuclear word whose

function as such stems from the fact that its signified encompasses and organizes the signifieds of the satellite words" (Riffaterre,

1983, 39). In the following diagram, the nuclear word "king" is surrounded by its satellites.

Diagram of a descriptive system

In other words, a descriptive system is a group of words, expressions and ideas that are used in the text to designate the parts of the

whole that the author wants to represent. With accumulation, the relationship between the terms is synonymous, whereas in the

case of a descriptive system, "each component of the system functions as a metonym of the nucleus" (Riffaterre, 1978, 39).

(Metonymy: naming the part to represent the whole.) This metonymic relationship subordinates all of the words in the descriptive

system to the nuclear word, establishing a set of words t hat are linked together throughout in such a way that if the nucleus is used

as a metaphor in the p oem, then its descriptive system becomes a metaphor as well.


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The descriptive system is usually a set of stereoty pes and conventional ideas about the word with which it is associated; this is how

the reader realizes, when we make mention of nothing more than white hair, for example, that we are talking about an old person.

These systems are located outside the poem; they are part of common sense. Anyone who uses the language has recourse to these

systems, and can either conform to them or convert them into unexpected images.

NOTE ON INTERTEXTUALITY

Intertextuality is a phenomenon that is greatly dependent on descriptive systems, for in this case, one text refers to another text, by

means of a fragment, a sentence, or even a single word in some cases. If the reader understands the allusion, then he is familiar with

the descriptive system involved in the particular intertext, and when he sees the part, he guesses the whole. Intertextual relationships

are therefore metonymic by nature.

In their basic construction, all t exts seem to have one or more descriptive systems as their foundation, whether the author conforms

to them or converts them. A set of clichs and descript ive systems is the starting point, so to speak, in constructing thegrammar of

the text, and the author produces ungrammaticalities by distorting the clichs and systems.

2. 5 THE POETICS OF NEOLOGISMS

Another characteristic that is specific to poetic language is the poetic neologism.

In everyday language, neologisms, or lexical inventions, are essentially used to designate new realities that have not yet received

names. However, the literary neologism is an anomaly, and this aspect of verbal creation is precisely what authors are after.

The anomaly is, in fact, an ungrammaticality, the function of literary neologisms being to "condense the dominant characteristics ofthe text" (Riffaterre, 1983, 74). This function implies that the word is created specifically for the text; but from this standpoint, the

primary advantage of neologisms is that they can generally be used to condense the ungrammaticality into a single term. As the

following diagram illustrates, this unusual condensation attracts the reader's attention, since poetic neologisms do not refer to reality,

as do words in their everyday usage, but rather to their own structure, as well as the structure of the text from which they are

derived.

Diagram illustrating the difference between words in everyday usage and literary neologisms

There are two kinds ofneological derivation:

1. Implicit derivation: This kind of neologism distorts or condenses terms that are outside the text, but present in the mind of

the reader. (The term from outside the text might originate from a clich or a descriptive system familiar to the reader, for

example.)

michael riffaterre _ poetic language _ signo - applied semiotics theories

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