REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter the theories that are relevant with the study will be reviewed. It consists of the theories about poetry, diction, and functions of diction, kinds of diction, and kinds of meaning. It also reviews some related research.
2. 1 Poetry
Poetry relies most on the power of words and in sense it is the most literary of all branches of literature; the most literary because it makes the greatest use of the raw material of literature, which is word (Wilson, 1987:10).
Poetry is a kind of work written in beautiful language and has certain patterns or elements that cannot find in another works. To read the poems, we sometime gets difficulties to catch the meaning or message in them. As stated by Jones (168:89) that most people find poetry difficult to read and much of the poetry is indeed difficult to read. It places demands on the reader. Almost anyone who can read poetry, but to get pleasure from poetry he must bring something to his reading. One can learn what it is, learn how to read it, practice it, and so gain the pleasure from it.
Poetry sometime is made for different reasons. Therefore, each poem has a different purpose. Reaske (1966:8) states that we should understand at the outset that poetry can be written for different reason and therefore each poem has a different purpose. Some poems are written purely to entertain us, others solely for the purpose of moral persuasion. We are urged perhaps to right action or perhaps to wrong action. We are tempted or told to resist temptation. Many poems try to be both entertaining and instructive, both amusing and edifying at the same time. Whenever we analyze a poem, we must consider, as best we can, the purposes the poet had in writing it (Reaske, 1966:8).
Poetry uses language that even adds more difficulties for the readers to catch its messages. It is because it uses much more connotative words than in prose. Like another works, poetry has certain elements. So, there are the elements of poetry according to Jones, (1968:96). They are:
.Diction. Talking about diction, we inquire into the stylistic and tonal qualities of the word chosen by the poet. Diction is concerned with the vocabulary of the poem.
2. 2 Diction
Reaske (1966:31-32) states that the diction is the process of using a word in poetry. When we ask about the diction of a poem, we are inquiring into the stylistic and tonal qualities of the words that the poet has chosen. We are concerned with the vocabulary of the poems. A poet should always try to select the word that most appropriately conveys his intended meaning. A good diction begins with this process of selection. In discussing diction, we are much more interested in the selection of the words than in the exact ways in which these words are presented. Analyzing diction, is no more than examining the appropriateness of the vocabulary within a given poem. Abrams (1960: 163) states that the term diction signifies the kinds of words phrases, sentence structure, and figurative language that constitute any work of literature.
By diction is meant simply the author’s choice of words. Our purpose in the analysis of diction is to recognize the choices the author has made and to infer when possible the reasons for which the choices have been made. Our assumption is that any choice may be significant and the sum of the choices in whole work will certainly be so, as we turn our attention from the diction of a brief passage to that of an entire story or novel. We look for the author’s guiding principles of selection. We may undertake the same kind of investigation of the diction in the total body of a writer’s work, seeking to discover what kind of choice the writer habitually makes and for what reason (Kenney, 1966:60).
Diction or the choice of word is defined as a skill to differentiate the nuances of the meaning of ideas needed to express accurately. The diction is related to the meaning of words. First, it is related to choosing the right meaning of words to express ideas. Second, diction is connected with the usage of a group of words effectively in connection with how to express the ideas. Third, diction is related with a certain style of language that is appropriate with the context (Keraf in Yuri, 2002:9).
Diction is one of the aspects in poetry. Dictions are the words chosen by the poet to express his ideas and his feeling. A word in a poem is used not only to connect between the reader and the poet, but also support an image and for connecting between the reader and the poet’s world imagination. Diction refers to the language of a poem, and how each word is chosen to convey a precise meaning. Poets are very deliberate in choosing each word for each word for its particular effect, so it is important to know the origins and connotations of the words in a poem, not to mention their literal meaning too (www. soyouwanna. com/site/syws/poem/poemfull).
Diction is a writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning. Formal diction consists of a dignified, impersonal, and elevated use of language; it follows the rules of syntax exactly and is often characterized by complex words and lofty tone. Middle diction maintains correct language usage, but is less elevated than formal diction; it reflects the way most educated people speak. Informal dictions represent, slang, contractions, and many simple common words. Poetic diction refers to the way poets sometimes employ an elevated diction that deviates significantly from the common speech and writing of their time, choosing words for their supposedly inherent poetic qualities. Since the eighteenth century, however, poets have been incorporating all kinds of diction in their work, and so there is no longer an automatic distinction between the language of a poet and the language of everyday speech. (http://web. cocc. edu/lisal/literaryterms/d_h. htm/Diction).
2. 3 The Function of Diction
Diction is use to create effectiveness on the language activity. For the writer, diction is use to express his ideas and wishes to other people. For the reader, diction is use to occupy other people ideas, mind, and also wish. (Keraf in 1994:21) said that word is an idea distribution. Then Keraf explained that they know many ideas or in other words, they have many vocabularies, can easily and fluently communicate with others.
Beside of those opinions, Arifin (1987:13) said that the used of the right words will help someone to express about what he wants to express, either written or spoken. In this case, the choosing of words must be appropriate with the situation and place where the words are used.
From all opinions above about the function of diction, it can conclude that the function of diction is to create effectiveness of the language activity, which done by someone to convey the people’s idea.
2. 4 Kinds of Diction
Kinds of diction is classified to five groups, there are: connotative diction, denotative diction, concrete diction, associative diction, and imaginative diction (Kenney 1966:60-61, Reaske 1966:29-31, Wellek and Warren, and Sayuti in Dwi, 2002:15):
2. 4. 1 Connotative Diction
Connotation is created when you mean something else, something that might be initially hidden. The connotative meaning of a word is based on implication or shared emotional association with a word. There are many words that denote approximately the same thing, but their connotations are very different. Innocent and genuine both denote an absence of corruption, but the connotations of the two words are different: innocent is often associated with a lack of experience, whereas genuine is not. Connotations are important in poetry because poets use them to further develop or complicate a poem’s meaning (soyouwanna. com/site/syws/poem/poemfull. , June 09, 2007).)
Connotation is the emotions, thoughts and ideas associated with and evoked by the word. Some words are neutral, but can have negative or positive connotations. For example, the word island is neutral when it refers to a vacation on a Greek island, the word has positive connotation. When it describes being shipwrecked on an island, the word has negative connotations. Also, words associated with smell can be either positive or negative. For example, “scent’ is positive, while “odor” is negative (Developed by Vivion Smith, adapted from work by Susan Giansanti, Jules Nelson Hill and Ellen Beck).
Reaske (1966:29) states that connotative is one of the various implications or associations that a word carries. Most words have many connotations. If we say “home” for example, we are not simply naming a house, but rather an idea – having members of a family joined in one place. A poet uses the connotations of a word to his own purposes and advantages. Kenney (1966:60-61) states that a word’s connotations are the suggestions and associations aroused by it.
Connotation-An Example from Poe: The American Edgar Allan Poe is a very different sort of writer. Here is the first sentence of his famous story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (Kenney, 1966:62-63).
“During the whole of a dull, dark and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horse-back, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher”.
The diction here is characterized by the vagueness denotation. Just how low is “oppressively low”? What, precisely, does a “dreary tract of country” look like? And how can a house be “melancholy” since the dictionary meaning of the adjective has to do with a human emotional state.
In short, Poe is choosing his words primarily for their connotations, for their suggestive power. His method is, in itself, as legitimate as Swift’s and as suited to the demands of his story and his temperament (Kenney, 1966: 62-63).
2. 4. 2 Denotative Diction
A word’s denotation is simply its dictionary meaning (Kenney, 60-61). Reaske (1966:31) states that denotation is the essential meaning of the word. As contrasted with connotation – the suggested or possible meanings of a word denotation has reference only to what is conventionally understood by a word. The denotative meaning of a word is thus void of any emotional or subjective overtones. When examining any word, a critic should differentiate between its denotative and its connotative meanings.
The distinction between denotation and connotation is that the latter reveals attitudes about an object or event but the former does not. These attitudes may be favorable or unfavorable. In “That is a cute hat” and “That is an absurd hat”, the word “hat” is used denotatively in both sentences, but “cute” has favorable and “absurd” unfavorable connotations. Some words, such as cute, brave, efficient, fame, glory, hope, and valuable usually have only favorable connotations. Others, such as absurd, callous, hate, idiotic, lust, treason, and vicious usually have only unfavorable connotations. Still others have favorable connotations in some contexts but unfavorable ones in others. Compare, for example, free enterprise and free speech with free thinker and free love, or a fat check with a fat girl (Crimmon, 130-131).
Denotative-An Example from Swift: The diction of Guilliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift may seem to take little advantage of the suggestive powers of language. Here, for instance, is a passage describing the Emperor of Liliput (Kenney, 1966:60-61):
He is taller, by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of his court, which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders. His features are strong and masculine, with an Austrian lip and arched nose, his complexion olive. His countenance erect, his body and limbs well proportioned, all his motions graceful, and his deportment majestic.
This is about as close to pure denotation as we can expect a passage of prose fiction to come. The meaning of the passage is little more than the sum total of the dictionary meanings of the words that make it up.
2. 4. 3 Concrete Diction
Concrete diction has characteristic to present description, thing, or certain moment description concretely.
In poetry, symbols are concrete and recognizable; they are as emblematic and visual as images are sometimes only suggestive and even vague. Some symbols have been used again and again and thus by this use have become “archetypes” in literature (Reaske, 1966:109). In another hand, the abstract ideas often presented through the concrete objects as a symbol. Every poet tries to concrete thing that he wants to express the reader’s imagine like what he means. The exactness of the poet in concreting the words that will make the reader sees, listens, and feels what the poet described.
Concrete diction refers to words that stimulate some kind of sensory response in the reader; as we read the words, we can imaginatively use our senses to experience what the words represent http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/concretediction/Poetry. And concrete words include below:
Concrete words include: Dog, Cat, Computer, Classroom, Tree, Candy Bar, Car, Chair, Department Store, Pencil, Hat, Clock, Rain, Ice Cube, Beer, etc.
The word “dog” is a concrete word; we are able to form a mental picture of it. Because concrete diction imaginatively appeals to the senses, it tends to involve readers more than abstract diction does.
2. 4. 4 Associative Diction
Association diction has characteristic to arise the readers’ consciousness to the others of words which have relation. Wellek and Warren (1990:219) stated that the meaning of poetry is contextual; each word is not only taken the dictionary meaning but also the synonym and homonym circle. The word not only has certain meaning but also arise the readers’ consciousness to the other words, which have related with sound or the meaning of those words.
Because it has relation with the reader activity that actually associated to unlimited characteristics, that is why every words have association characteristics. However, the context still will become the control that limit the association alternative occurs. Another hand, association occurs because of that context.
An example of associative diction (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Poetic-diction).
“Harlem”
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
(Langston Hughes)
In this poem uses the words like or as, or a verb like seems or appears to draw two objects or images into a relationship (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Poetic-diction).
2. 4. 5 Imaginative Diction
Imaginative diction is a word which have characteristic to present the description of certain situation with imagination. Language in poetry is used to present the certain situation with imagination. The words that already choose are used for a certain situation, so the reader can imagine.
Example: some lines from John Donne’s poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” (Reaske, 1966:30-31):
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two,
Thy soul the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’other do.
And though in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me who must,
Like th’other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
In this poem’s Donne imagines that the souls of himself and his mistress are like the two legs of a drawing compass; when one moves in a certain way the other, though remaining stable, leans toward the leg that moves, and yet draws it back to the beginning. This is very imaginative and constitutes an intellectualized way of saying that he and his mistress are one-but not quite one (Reaske, 1966:30-31).
2. 5 Kinds of Meaning
When we talk about the meanings of words, it is helpful to distinguish between two types of meaning: the one we find in a dictionary definition of a word-its denotation-and type of meaning that arises from the various associations-connotation- the words evokes. The words we use just to name things often have little connotative meaning. For example, tree represents a physical thing, as do the words flower, car, ship, and cow. These words denote the things they stand for. (Bridges and Lunsford, 1984:315).
2. 5. 1 Denotative Meaning
Kenney states that the analysis of diction leads to some consideration of denotations and connotations of word chosen by the author. A word denotation is simply its dictionary meaning; its connotations are the suggestions and associations arouse by it. A number of different words may have essentially the same denotations, while differing significantly in their connotations (Kenney, 166:60).
The statement or the situation in which a word is used is called its context. In practice we learn the meanings of words by their contexts. When we are learning our language we do not meet the word “run” by itself; we always meet it in some situation – a man running for a bus, a child running a temperature, a quarterback running a team, and so on. We learn the meaning of “run” by repeatedly experiencing it in context. This is exactly how the writers of dictionaries get their definitions. They gather sample contexts and write the definitions to describe the meanings these convey, so that when a dictionary lists different meanings for the word “spring”, it is recording the contexts in which “spring” most frequently occurs (Crimmon, 1963:128).
To illustrate the relationship between context and meaning, suppose you were editing a dictionary and had found for “man” and “make up” the following contexts recurring in your samples. For each the two terms, write as many definitions as your samples require. Then check your dictionary to see if it records your definitions. If it does not, consider whether your definitions or the dictionary’s are deficient (Crimmon, 1963:129).
2. 5. 2 Connotative Meaning
In literary usage, the denotation of word is its primary significance or reference, such as a dictionary mainly specifies; its connotation is the rage of secondary or associated significances and feelings which it commonly suggest or implies. Thus “home” denotes the house where are lives, but connotes privacy, intimacy, and coziness; that is the reason real estate agents like to use “home” instead of “house” in their advertisements. “Horse” and “steed” denote the same quadruped, but “steed” has a different connotation, deriving from the chivalric or romantic narratives in which this word was often used. The connotation of word is only a potential range of shard secondary significance; which on these connotations are evoked depends on the way a word is used in particular contexts which bring into play some part of the connotative meaning of words. In his poem “Virtue” George Herbet wrote.
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky…
The denotation of “bridal”- a union between human beings-serves as part of the ground for applying the word as a metaphor to the union of earth and sky; but the specific poetic context in which the word occurs also evokes such connotations of “bridal” as sacred, joyous, and ceremonial. (Abrams, 1981:36).
In this chapter the theories that are relevant with the study will be reviewed. It consists of the theories about poetry, diction, and functions of diction, kinds of diction, and kinds of meaning. It also reviews some related research.
2. 1 Poetry
Poetry relies most on the power of words and in sense it is the most literary of all branches of literature; the most literary because it makes the greatest use of the raw material of literature, which is word (Wilson, 1987:10).
Poetry is a kind of work written in beautiful language and has certain patterns or elements that cannot find in another works. To read the poems, we sometime gets difficulties to catch the meaning or message in them. As stated by Jones (168:89) that most people find poetry difficult to read and much of the poetry is indeed difficult to read. It places demands on the reader. Almost anyone who can read poetry, but to get pleasure from poetry he must bring something to his reading. One can learn what it is, learn how to read it, practice it, and so gain the pleasure from it.
Poetry sometime is made for different reasons. Therefore, each poem has a different purpose. Reaske (1966:8) states that we should understand at the outset that poetry can be written for different reason and therefore each poem has a different purpose. Some poems are written purely to entertain us, others solely for the purpose of moral persuasion. We are urged perhaps to right action or perhaps to wrong action. We are tempted or told to resist temptation. Many poems try to be both entertaining and instructive, both amusing and edifying at the same time. Whenever we analyze a poem, we must consider, as best we can, the purposes the poet had in writing it (Reaske, 1966:8).
Poetry uses language that even adds more difficulties for the readers to catch its messages. It is because it uses much more connotative words than in prose. Like another works, poetry has certain elements. So, there are the elements of poetry according to Jones, (1968:96). They are:
.Diction. Talking about diction, we inquire into the stylistic and tonal qualities of the word chosen by the poet. Diction is concerned with the vocabulary of the poem.
2. 2 Diction
Reaske (1966:31-32) states that the diction is the process of using a word in poetry. When we ask about the diction of a poem, we are inquiring into the stylistic and tonal qualities of the words that the poet has chosen. We are concerned with the vocabulary of the poems. A poet should always try to select the word that most appropriately conveys his intended meaning. A good diction begins with this process of selection. In discussing diction, we are much more interested in the selection of the words than in the exact ways in which these words are presented. Analyzing diction, is no more than examining the appropriateness of the vocabulary within a given poem. Abrams (1960: 163) states that the term diction signifies the kinds of words phrases, sentence structure, and figurative language that constitute any work of literature.
By diction is meant simply the author’s choice of words. Our purpose in the analysis of diction is to recognize the choices the author has made and to infer when possible the reasons for which the choices have been made. Our assumption is that any choice may be significant and the sum of the choices in whole work will certainly be so, as we turn our attention from the diction of a brief passage to that of an entire story or novel. We look for the author’s guiding principles of selection. We may undertake the same kind of investigation of the diction in the total body of a writer’s work, seeking to discover what kind of choice the writer habitually makes and for what reason (Kenney, 1966:60).
Diction or the choice of word is defined as a skill to differentiate the nuances of the meaning of ideas needed to express accurately. The diction is related to the meaning of words. First, it is related to choosing the right meaning of words to express ideas. Second, diction is connected with the usage of a group of words effectively in connection with how to express the ideas. Third, diction is related with a certain style of language that is appropriate with the context (Keraf in Yuri, 2002:9).
Diction is one of the aspects in poetry. Dictions are the words chosen by the poet to express his ideas and his feeling. A word in a poem is used not only to connect between the reader and the poet, but also support an image and for connecting between the reader and the poet’s world imagination. Diction refers to the language of a poem, and how each word is chosen to convey a precise meaning. Poets are very deliberate in choosing each word for each word for its particular effect, so it is important to know the origins and connotations of the words in a poem, not to mention their literal meaning too (www. soyouwanna. com/site/syws/poem/poemfull).
Diction is a writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning. Formal diction consists of a dignified, impersonal, and elevated use of language; it follows the rules of syntax exactly and is often characterized by complex words and lofty tone. Middle diction maintains correct language usage, but is less elevated than formal diction; it reflects the way most educated people speak. Informal dictions represent, slang, contractions, and many simple common words. Poetic diction refers to the way poets sometimes employ an elevated diction that deviates significantly from the common speech and writing of their time, choosing words for their supposedly inherent poetic qualities. Since the eighteenth century, however, poets have been incorporating all kinds of diction in their work, and so there is no longer an automatic distinction between the language of a poet and the language of everyday speech. (http://web. cocc. edu/lisal/literaryterms/d_h. htm/Diction).
2. 3 The Function of Diction
Diction is use to create effectiveness on the language activity. For the writer, diction is use to express his ideas and wishes to other people. For the reader, diction is use to occupy other people ideas, mind, and also wish. (Keraf in 1994:21) said that word is an idea distribution. Then Keraf explained that they know many ideas or in other words, they have many vocabularies, can easily and fluently communicate with others.
Beside of those opinions, Arifin (1987:13) said that the used of the right words will help someone to express about what he wants to express, either written or spoken. In this case, the choosing of words must be appropriate with the situation and place where the words are used.
From all opinions above about the function of diction, it can conclude that the function of diction is to create effectiveness of the language activity, which done by someone to convey the people’s idea.
2. 4 Kinds of Diction
Kinds of diction is classified to five groups, there are: connotative diction, denotative diction, concrete diction, associative diction, and imaginative diction (Kenney 1966:60-61, Reaske 1966:29-31, Wellek and Warren, and Sayuti in Dwi, 2002:15):
2. 4. 1 Connotative Diction
Connotation is created when you mean something else, something that might be initially hidden. The connotative meaning of a word is based on implication or shared emotional association with a word. There are many words that denote approximately the same thing, but their connotations are very different. Innocent and genuine both denote an absence of corruption, but the connotations of the two words are different: innocent is often associated with a lack of experience, whereas genuine is not. Connotations are important in poetry because poets use them to further develop or complicate a poem’s meaning (soyouwanna. com/site/syws/poem/poemfull. , June 09, 2007).)
Connotation is the emotions, thoughts and ideas associated with and evoked by the word. Some words are neutral, but can have negative or positive connotations. For example, the word island is neutral when it refers to a vacation on a Greek island, the word has positive connotation. When it describes being shipwrecked on an island, the word has negative connotations. Also, words associated with smell can be either positive or negative. For example, “scent’ is positive, while “odor” is negative (Developed by Vivion Smith, adapted from work by Susan Giansanti, Jules Nelson Hill and Ellen Beck).
Reaske (1966:29) states that connotative is one of the various implications or associations that a word carries. Most words have many connotations. If we say “home” for example, we are not simply naming a house, but rather an idea – having members of a family joined in one place. A poet uses the connotations of a word to his own purposes and advantages. Kenney (1966:60-61) states that a word’s connotations are the suggestions and associations aroused by it.
Connotation-An Example from Poe: The American Edgar Allan Poe is a very different sort of writer. Here is the first sentence of his famous story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (Kenney, 1966:62-63).
“During the whole of a dull, dark and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horse-back, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher”.
The diction here is characterized by the vagueness denotation. Just how low is “oppressively low”? What, precisely, does a “dreary tract of country” look like? And how can a house be “melancholy” since the dictionary meaning of the adjective has to do with a human emotional state.
In short, Poe is choosing his words primarily for their connotations, for their suggestive power. His method is, in itself, as legitimate as Swift’s and as suited to the demands of his story and his temperament (Kenney, 1966: 62-63).
2. 4. 2 Denotative Diction
A word’s denotation is simply its dictionary meaning (Kenney, 60-61). Reaske (1966:31) states that denotation is the essential meaning of the word. As contrasted with connotation – the suggested or possible meanings of a word denotation has reference only to what is conventionally understood by a word. The denotative meaning of a word is thus void of any emotional or subjective overtones. When examining any word, a critic should differentiate between its denotative and its connotative meanings.
The distinction between denotation and connotation is that the latter reveals attitudes about an object or event but the former does not. These attitudes may be favorable or unfavorable. In “That is a cute hat” and “That is an absurd hat”, the word “hat” is used denotatively in both sentences, but “cute” has favorable and “absurd” unfavorable connotations. Some words, such as cute, brave, efficient, fame, glory, hope, and valuable usually have only favorable connotations. Others, such as absurd, callous, hate, idiotic, lust, treason, and vicious usually have only unfavorable connotations. Still others have favorable connotations in some contexts but unfavorable ones in others. Compare, for example, free enterprise and free speech with free thinker and free love, or a fat check with a fat girl (Crimmon, 130-131).
Denotative-An Example from Swift: The diction of Guilliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift may seem to take little advantage of the suggestive powers of language. Here, for instance, is a passage describing the Emperor of Liliput (Kenney, 1966:60-61):
He is taller, by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of his court, which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders. His features are strong and masculine, with an Austrian lip and arched nose, his complexion olive. His countenance erect, his body and limbs well proportioned, all his motions graceful, and his deportment majestic.
This is about as close to pure denotation as we can expect a passage of prose fiction to come. The meaning of the passage is little more than the sum total of the dictionary meanings of the words that make it up.
2. 4. 3 Concrete Diction
Concrete diction has characteristic to present description, thing, or certain moment description concretely.
In poetry, symbols are concrete and recognizable; they are as emblematic and visual as images are sometimes only suggestive and even vague. Some symbols have been used again and again and thus by this use have become “archetypes” in literature (Reaske, 1966:109). In another hand, the abstract ideas often presented through the concrete objects as a symbol. Every poet tries to concrete thing that he wants to express the reader’s imagine like what he means. The exactness of the poet in concreting the words that will make the reader sees, listens, and feels what the poet described.
Concrete diction refers to words that stimulate some kind of sensory response in the reader; as we read the words, we can imaginatively use our senses to experience what the words represent http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/concretediction/Poetry. And concrete words include below:
Concrete words include: Dog, Cat, Computer, Classroom, Tree, Candy Bar, Car, Chair, Department Store, Pencil, Hat, Clock, Rain, Ice Cube, Beer, etc.
The word “dog” is a concrete word; we are able to form a mental picture of it. Because concrete diction imaginatively appeals to the senses, it tends to involve readers more than abstract diction does.
2. 4. 4 Associative Diction
Association diction has characteristic to arise the readers’ consciousness to the others of words which have relation. Wellek and Warren (1990:219) stated that the meaning of poetry is contextual; each word is not only taken the dictionary meaning but also the synonym and homonym circle. The word not only has certain meaning but also arise the readers’ consciousness to the other words, which have related with sound or the meaning of those words.
Because it has relation with the reader activity that actually associated to unlimited characteristics, that is why every words have association characteristics. However, the context still will become the control that limit the association alternative occurs. Another hand, association occurs because of that context.
An example of associative diction (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Poetic-diction).
“Harlem”
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
(Langston Hughes)
In this poem uses the words like or as, or a verb like seems or appears to draw two objects or images into a relationship (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Poetic-diction).
2. 4. 5 Imaginative Diction
Imaginative diction is a word which have characteristic to present the description of certain situation with imagination. Language in poetry is used to present the certain situation with imagination. The words that already choose are used for a certain situation, so the reader can imagine.
Example: some lines from John Donne’s poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” (Reaske, 1966:30-31):
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two,
Thy soul the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’other do.
And though in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me who must,
Like th’other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
In this poem’s Donne imagines that the souls of himself and his mistress are like the two legs of a drawing compass; when one moves in a certain way the other, though remaining stable, leans toward the leg that moves, and yet draws it back to the beginning. This is very imaginative and constitutes an intellectualized way of saying that he and his mistress are one-but not quite one (Reaske, 1966:30-31).
2. 5 Kinds of Meaning
When we talk about the meanings of words, it is helpful to distinguish between two types of meaning: the one we find in a dictionary definition of a word-its denotation-and type of meaning that arises from the various associations-connotation- the words evokes. The words we use just to name things often have little connotative meaning. For example, tree represents a physical thing, as do the words flower, car, ship, and cow. These words denote the things they stand for. (Bridges and Lunsford, 1984:315).
2. 5. 1 Denotative Meaning
Kenney states that the analysis of diction leads to some consideration of denotations and connotations of word chosen by the author. A word denotation is simply its dictionary meaning; its connotations are the suggestions and associations arouse by it. A number of different words may have essentially the same denotations, while differing significantly in their connotations (Kenney, 166:60).
The statement or the situation in which a word is used is called its context. In practice we learn the meanings of words by their contexts. When we are learning our language we do not meet the word “run” by itself; we always meet it in some situation – a man running for a bus, a child running a temperature, a quarterback running a team, and so on. We learn the meaning of “run” by repeatedly experiencing it in context. This is exactly how the writers of dictionaries get their definitions. They gather sample contexts and write the definitions to describe the meanings these convey, so that when a dictionary lists different meanings for the word “spring”, it is recording the contexts in which “spring” most frequently occurs (Crimmon, 1963:128).
To illustrate the relationship between context and meaning, suppose you were editing a dictionary and had found for “man” and “make up” the following contexts recurring in your samples. For each the two terms, write as many definitions as your samples require. Then check your dictionary to see if it records your definitions. If it does not, consider whether your definitions or the dictionary’s are deficient (Crimmon, 1963:129).
2. 5. 2 Connotative Meaning
In literary usage, the denotation of word is its primary significance or reference, such as a dictionary mainly specifies; its connotation is the rage of secondary or associated significances and feelings which it commonly suggest or implies. Thus “home” denotes the house where are lives, but connotes privacy, intimacy, and coziness; that is the reason real estate agents like to use “home” instead of “house” in their advertisements. “Horse” and “steed” denote the same quadruped, but “steed” has a different connotation, deriving from the chivalric or romantic narratives in which this word was often used. The connotation of word is only a potential range of shard secondary significance; which on these connotations are evoked depends on the way a word is used in particular contexts which bring into play some part of the connotative meaning of words. In his poem “Virtue” George Herbet wrote.
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky…
The denotation of “bridal”- a union between human beings-serves as part of the ground for applying the word as a metaphor to the union of earth and sky; but the specific poetic context in which the word occurs also evokes such connotations of “bridal” as sacred, joyous, and ceremonial. (Abrams, 1981:36).