Experimental deixis in the space of poetic text

Abstract

The article deals with the linguopoetics of deixis as one of the key mechanisms for expressing subjectivity in artistic communication. The aim of the study is to discuss the specifics of deictic words and constructions in experimental poetic discourse. The second part of the article analyzes the functions of personal, spatial, and discourse (textual) deixis in the visual layout of a poetic text (spatial design of verse). The material for analysis encompasses Edward Cummings’ experimental verse, conceptual poetry, US Language Writing, and Arkadii Dragomoshchenko’s poetic texts. The study has found that the deictic means of language, interacting with the visual space of the poetic text, actualize the dynamic subjec­tivity of the aesthetic utterance. In poetic discourse, the spatiality, length and duration of the utterance (message) as such is a particularly active field of indexicality.

Keywords

• deixis
• language experiment
• poetic discourse
• spatial design
• subjectivity
• linguistic pragmatics