Have you ever noticed that each situation requires a certain type of language? We can say that each message contains an intention, just as each social environment requires a type of speech. Thus, the vocabulary we choose when communicating has a specific function: to move, to convey reality, to persuade or simply to establish greater contact with the receiver.
We are talking about language functions, which are: referential or denotative, emotive or expressive, conative or appellative, factual, metalinguistic and poetic.
For now, let's stick to that last function.
poetic function
language exercises poetic function When values the text in its elaboration, that is, when the author uses a combination of words, figures of speech (metaphor, antithesis, hyperbole, alliteration, etc.), exploration of senses and feelings, expression of the so-called lyrical self, among others.
Thus, it is more common in literary texts, especially in poems that most often emphasize subjectivity. However, we can find this type of function in advertisements and in prose, as well as allied to other types of function, such as emotive.
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
It is very common to use words in their connotative (figured) sense instead of the denotative (dictionary) sense.
See examples of the poetic function at:
Advertisement:
“The blue miracle has arrived to wash!
Wash in Omo foam and have the cleanest laundry in the world!
Where Omo falls, the dirt leaves!" (Omo advertisement, 1957)
Poem:
"...I, who so often have not had the patience to take a shower,
I, who so often have been ridiculous, absurd,
That I have publicly wrapped my feet in the label mats,
That I've been grotesque, petty, submissive and arrogant,
That I've been spoiled and silent,
That when I haven't been silent, I've been even more ridiculous..."
(Fernando Pessoa, Poem in a straight line)
Emotional function:
"Of everything, to my love I will be attentive
Before, and with such zeal, and always, and so much
That even in the face of the greatest charm
My thoughts become more enchanted.”
(Vinicius de Morais. Sonnet of fidelity)
By Sabrina Vilarinho
Graduated in Letters
See more!
language functions - Learn more about the other functions that the language has!
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
VILARINHO, Sabrina. "The Poetic Function of Language"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/funcao-poetica-linguagem.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
