Foregrounding is a significant literary stylistic device based on the Russian
Formalist's notion that the very essence of poeticality lies in the
"deformation" of language. The Prague scholar Jan Mukarovsky (1891-1975) shaped
the notion of foregrounding into a scholarly literary concept.
"Foregrounding" literally means "to bring to the front."
The writer uses the sounds of words or the words themselves in
such a way that the readers' attention is immediately captivated. The most
common means employed by the writers is repetition.
Our attention is immediately captivated by the repetition of the
sounds of certain words or by the words themselves and we begin to analyse the
reasons why the writer is repeating this particular sound or word.
There are two main types of foregrounding: parallelism (grammar) and deviation. Parallelism can be described as unexpected regularity, while deviation can be seen as unexpected irregularity.[4] As the definition of foregrounding indicates, these are relative concepts. Something can only be unexpectedly regular or irregular within a particular context. This context can be relatively narrow, such as the immediate textual surroundings (referred to as a 'secondary norm') or wider such as an entire genre (referred to as a 'primary norm').
A great deal of stylistic foregrounding depends on an analogous process, by which some aspect of the underlying meaning is represented linguistically at more than one level: not only through the semantics of the text--the ideational and interpersonal meanings, as embodied in the content and in the writer's choice of his role--but also by direct reflection in the lexicogrammar or the phonology."
There are two main types of foregrounding: parallelism (grammar) and deviation. Parallelism can be described as unexpected regularity, while deviation can be seen as unexpected irregularity.[4] As the definition of foregrounding indicates, these are relative concepts. Something can only be unexpectedly regular or irregular within a particular context. This context can be relatively narrow, such as the immediate textual surroundings (referred to as a 'secondary norm') or wider such as an entire genre (referred to as a 'primary norm').
A great deal of stylistic foregrounding depends on an analogous process, by which some aspect of the underlying meaning is represented linguistically at more than one level: not only through the semantics of the text--the ideational and interpersonal meanings, as embodied in the content and in the writer's choice of his role--but also by direct reflection in the lexicogrammar or the phonology."
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