Historical Process and Semantic Study of Rhetorical Apostrophe

• Main Authors: Abdollah Radmard, Homa Rahmani
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: University of Isfahan 2013-04-01
• Series: Literary Arts
• Subjects: Rhetoric; apostrophe; turning the face; semantic extension
• Online Access: http://liar.ui.ac.ir/article_19689_3ab12a01ab6b314ee8b20c57a2fce008.pdf

 Abstract Apostrophe means paying attention to someone or something. It is a literary technique which has not been studied deeply despite its widespread role in fo regrounding the literary language , norm-breaking and creating a sense of defamiliarization in the audience. Its meaning is limited to the " transferring the speaker from the absence to the audience and vice versa ". In rhetorical texts apostrophe is attributed to the three areas of semantics , eloquence and rhetoric. Such triple attribution is due to two factors : the mixing of rhetoric areas in previous periods and the extension of apostrophe &#39s meaning in rhetorical books. But it seems that a variety of notions which are raised in traditional rhetorical books should be examined in the field of semantics. The only type of apostrophe which can be analyzed in rhetoric is the one proposed in some contemporary books as the result of semantic extension and is used in the vertical axis of poem. Therefore , regarding semantic extension, we consider apostrophe as any change in semantic structure , narrative , texture , etc which occurs without any background and surprises the reader. The presence of different types of apostrophe in various branches of rhetoric and literature lead to the creation of many names for this literary technique. This technique was not called apostrophe in the first period of the Arab rhetoric which coincided with the rise of Islam in Ibn Motaz period. It was always called âmetonymyâ. Then Asmaee used apostrophe in its technical sense in the second century (A.H) and Ibn Motaz presented it in Albadi. Gradually and in later periods rhetoricians such as Qodame Ibn Jafar, Ibn Rashigh Ghiravani, Abu Halal Asgari etc. gave other names to this technique such as inflection and dissuasion, completion, objection, Estetrad, Talvin, Shojaol Arabiyat and so on. Apostrophe has the same meaning in Persian rhetorical books. The first rhetorical book is Tarjomanol Balaghat written by Radviyni which is an imitation of Mahasenol Kalam by Marghinani. After that other rhetorical books were written to imitate it. Fortunately, contemporaries present apostrophe in their books such as The Art of eloquence by Mohammad Rastgoo and the works of Poor Namdariyan such as Journey in the Mist, Missing at the Beach and It the Shadow of the Sun.   Types of apostrophe are not directly presented in rhetorical books. In the following section, some definitions of apostrophe are presented. We study each of them in terms of new meanings and add a number of new types.   1. Change of register in language: change of context and structure of a literary language to a slang language and vice versa.   2. Colloquial change : successive changes to address several audiences .   3. Grammatical change : changing pronouns, verbs and so on   4. Semantic change : it can be recognized only through semantic analysis. It includes varieties such as mentioning individual words in a speech or prayer after the speech, semantic change in poetry and hidden meanings.   5. Apostrophe   5.1. Appealing technique which means that the poet asks for an invisible power.   5.2. Rhythmical change: a sudden change in rhythm during the speech such as the poem of Jamshid, the sun and some of Molanaâs sonnets.   5.3. Narrative change : ( story in story mode ): consecutive stories which are not related to each other such as Baha Valad âs Maaref and Molanaâs Masnavi. Each technique has rhetorical and literary functions which are its aesthetic criteria. Zemakhshari was the first person who presented the technical and aesthetic values of apostrophe. He considered apostrophe as the criterion for consciousness of the reader which brings him joy and happiness. Other rhetoricians followed Zemakhshari and mentioned this advantage for apostrophe . Here we mention other rhetorical functions for apostrophe which are associated with linguistic concepts:   1. Norm-breaking, defamiliarizing, foregrounding: apostrophe destroys the familiar and common processes of words and sentences and hence creates pleasure and surprises the reader . Thus, words become foregrounded and more pleasant and tasteful .   2. Art ambiguity : apostrophe creates the sense of defamiliarization a nd unexpected changes and makes the text ambiguous. it makes the reader to explore and understand the ambiguity and the result would be the reader&#39s enjoyment .   3. Increasing text coherence : apostrophe in its broad sense is based on the collocation axis. Semantic cohesion and coherence can be achieved by the collocation of couplets and hemistiches. Although using apostrophe destroys the form and body of the language, it makes more motivation and tension in text and strengthens the vertical axis of the language and finally increases the coherence.   Â