“Semantic Analysis of Ode to Death Poem”
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Vol. 6(6), pp. 117-122, December 2018 DOI: 10.14662/IJELC2018.050 International Journal of Copy© right 2018 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article English Literature and ISSN: 2360-7831 http://www.academicresearchjournals.org/IJELC/Index.htm Culture Research Paper “Semantic Analysis of Ode to Death Poem” Taufique Ahmed Kehar University of Sindh Jamshoro, Pakistan. Cell No:03013317764. Accepted 11 December 2018 This study presents the semantic analysis of Daud Kamal’s poem “An Ode to Death” by applying the semantic theory within this poem. It seeks analysis of the poem by using Geoffrey Leech’s theory of seven types of meaning, by using this theory the research presents the meanings of the expression and devices used by the poet to differentiate life and death and also brings to the reader a clear picture of life and death. Key words: Ode to Death, Semantic meaning, Leech, life and death Cite This Article As: Kehar, T.A. (2018). “Semantic Analysis of Ode to Death Poem”. Inter. J. Eng. Lit. Cult. 6(6): 117-122 INTRODUCTION The Word semantics is derived from the Greek word. Geoffrey leech in his book, semantic has proposed “Semantics which means ‘significant’. It is the semantic as the study of meaning is central to philosophical and scientific study of meanings that communication, It is also at the Centre of the study focuses on the relation between the signifiers and the human mind, thought processes , cognition, signified in a language, which belongs with the conceptualization – all these are intricately bound with relationship between signifiers such as words, phrases, the in which we classify and convey our expression of the signs and symbols and what they stand for. According to world through language. When analyzing a literary text Babatunde the semantic as: The study of overall logical semantically the attempt is made to investigate proposed and conceptual meanings communicated through meaning of author occurred and incidental meaning , the language. (Alshar, 2016). Furthermore, semantics is the study also focuses the style of author in the way he uses study to focus on what an individual speaker might want the language to express his thoughts by this it means that them to mean on a particular occasion. This approach is to guess the style of the author means when he concerned with objective or general meaning and avoids expresses something through language. The first attempt accounting for subjective or local meaning .so as a result was made by Russian Formalists, who consider the doing semantics is attempting to spell out what one literature as the part of linguistic. Their main focus was knows when one behaves as if one shares knowledge of the scientific study literature for the prevailing view of that the meaning of a word , a phrase , or a sentence in a literary text is a system of signs serving for particular language ( Yule, 2010). So now it’s clear from the above function. The present study attempts to analyze Daud mentioned statements that semantics is the study of Kamal’s poem “ode to Death’ semantically. meaning in a language by analyzing text or spoken Daud Kamal (1935-1987) was a Pakistani English poet. document through linguistic devices and terms by He was a professor and chairman of English department indicating the relationship between words, phrase or at the University of Peshawar. His writing is influenced by sentence with the real world object or with a concept our the imagists; he follows the style of W.B Yeats and Era mind creates when speaking or listening word or phrase. pound. His poetry presents a blend of cultural, historical 118 Inter. J. Eng. Lit. Cult. and religious imagery which was one of the salient Social/Stylistic Meaning characteristics of modernist poetry. (Alshara,2016). In the poem of kamal there is a sense of loss, spiritual The situation or environment in which an utterance was displacement in the face of violence and crucial erasure, produced in a language describes the meaning of word cruelty and injustice of kings on common men and this meaning is called the social meaning. Leech (Mubeen,n.d). states that social meaning is that which a piece of a language conveys about the social circumstances of its use. In part we decode the social or stylistic meaning of a THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK text through our recognition of different dimensions and levels of style within the same language (leech 1981). Geoffrey leech has proposed seven types of meaning in The illusionary force of utterance that interpret an his book semantics, the study of meaning , he suggests expression as a request, assertion, an apology and a these types of meaning to analyze the meaning of a threat. piece of text or a language different aspects of linguistics. The types as conceptual meaning, connotation meaning, social/stylistic meaning, Affective meaning, Reflected Affective Meaning meaning, collocated meaning and thematic meaning so Leech’s theory of seven types of meaning is the Affective meaning reflects the personal feelings of a theoretical framework for this study. speaker and it includes the attitude of the listener or his attitude to something the listener was talking about. The reflective meaning can be conveyed with the conceptual Conceptual Meaning of positive or negative attitude and cognitive content of the words a speaker uses. through sentences Intonation counts more for the recognition of the meaning, either it is a request, threat or warning or Conceptual Meaning, It’s a universal meaning of a word anything else can be guessed that a speaker speaks or or sentence in a language the objective meaning. It was expresses his thoughts. assumed to be a central factor in linguistic communication. Leech has considered the conceptual meaning as primary because it is complete in Reflective Meaning organization and structure to the syntactic and phonological levels of language. To understand the Reflective meaning is due to the relation between words conceptual meaning leech proposed two structural on the lexical level of language. Reflective meaning tends principles. The principle of contractiveness and the to occur only when it has a strong suggestive power over principle of structure. Contractiveness feature of word or the other word that co-occurs with that. Reflected sentence underlie the classification of sounds in meaning arises in cases when a word has multiple phonology i.e. any label we apply to a sound defines it conceptual meaning, one sense of word forms the part positively and negatively by what features it possess our response in too another sense. In this situation the and what it does not(Leech 1981) the second principle dominancy of a word over the other word reflects the was structure by which larger units were built up of small meaning. units to analyze the constituents of a sentence. Collocative Meaning Denotative Meaning. Collocative Meaning consists of association a word Commutative meaning is the communicative value an requires on account of life the meaning of words which expression has virtue of what is referred to over and led to occur in its environment (leech, 1981). While co above its conceptual meaning ( Leech,1981). Denotative locative meaning is simply an idiosyncratic property of meaning is concerned with the experience of real world individual words. one associates with the linguistics expression one uses or hears. It’s peripheral when compared with conceptual meaning while the conceptual meaning is close ended Thematic Meaning the denotative meaning is open ended and relativity unstable according to culture , historical periods and Thematic meaning what was communicated by the way experiences of individual so the meaning one associates in which a speaker or writer organize the message, in when one hears or uses a word with the real world terms of ordering, focus and emphasis what a speaker or experience is being subjective. writer wants to convey through his expression depends Kehar 119 on the word order and emphasis on certain words and terms it is demanded about question that how much time phrases to clarify his idea or she wishes to say speaker your hair and bones will dissolve in the grave and how or writer give stress to the words and phrases to highlight much will remain in this scenario of the grave. the intended information in a sentence. Analysis step-II: Analysis of the poem “An Ode to Death” Connotative Meaning. Analysis step I: The communicative value an expression has virtue of Denotative Meaning what it refers to over and above its purely conceptual meaning. The following lines represent the idea of It is the cognitive and conceptual meaning. The poem “An reference about life and dreams of life and the always ode to Death” belonging to the core concepts of the world approaching death with the figurative use of language. as its very title suggests ode to Death. The concept of death reflects the motionless, demise and decay of a How many galaxies yet to be explored. living being in this world. Death in any form is destructive How many seeds in the pomegranate of time? in nature so poet shows the destructive nature of death in The pine tree blasted by last year’s following lines. thunderbolt And the burn out match-stick in ashtray. The pine tree blasted by last Year’s thunderbolt. Look so terribly alike. (6-10). And the burn out much-stick in my ashtray. Look so terribly alike. (8-10) The first line denotes the meaning of scientific exploration of the galaxies and discoveries of new planets. But the Death is same for all things, it brings end to actions and it here means the connotative meaning of words used in turns every living thing into the static condition.