Noun Phrase Displacement Types of Syntactic Deviations in the Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

“The Weary Blues”, the writer figures out not only noun phrase displacement but also preposition displacement. The writer categorizes those two sentences as preposition phrases because the place where preposition phrases are found is commonly after the main clause within the main verb. However, in those sentences, PP comes before the main clause, and change S-V-PP configuration becoming PP-S-V configuration. This PP displacement occurs in many other configurations in poetic texts Thoms, G., 2010. The co rrect order of the first sentence is “He made that poor piano moan with melody, with his ebony hands on each ivory key ”. Here, the persona explains that someone is playing piano beautifully, by tickling the piano toots. On the other hand, the second senten ce‟s correct order is “I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan, in a deep song voice with a melancholy tone ”. The persona does not only hear the sound of piano but also the voice of someone‟s singing. The preposition phrases are put at the back to give further description on the situation and also the way the melody is playing to strengthen the image drawn by the persona. The last example of preposition phrase displacement is explained as follows. With silver rain, Preposition Phrase ln 2 One almost ln 3 could be good again . ln 4 Main Clause Datum No.22 As presented in this datum, the preposition phrase displacement is found in the poem entitled “When Young Spring Comes”. It tells about the beginning of year as a chance to be a better man, but when summer comes, some distractions will also come to wobble. The persona describes the spring as the beginning of a year that decorated with the silver rain which symbolize a good start of something good. On the other hand, summer is described as the old time that filled up with bees, puppies and any other creatures which express the feeling of happiness. The same as previous sentences, the order of the PP and Main clause is mixed up. Since the preposition phrase functions as the additional information strengthen the image given by the persona, it should be put at the end of sentence. The phrase “with silver rain” is interpreted as the nominal “one almost could be good again ” yet it has been displaced from its normal position following the head noun one. Thus, the sentence should be put as “One almost could be good again with silver rain ”. As mentioned in chapter 2, preposition phrases can be used as modifiers of other phrases, as complements of other phrases, and as nominal functions. A prepositional phrase indicated a relation between things mentioned in a sentence or in another simpler term, a preposition is a prior explanation, typically found before a noun, pronoun, or substantives that explain the noun, pronoun, or substantives. Somebody has to be able and be careful in using preposition phrase correctly because it affects the speaking and writing of English.

f. Adjectival Phrase Displacement

Adjectives are traditionally defined as “words that describe nouns.” Adjective phrases are defined as phrases that consist of an adjective plus any modifiers or complements such as adverbs, prepositional phrases, verb phrases, and noun clauses. It has three functions which are: 1 to change or add to the meaning of nouns; 2 to complete the meaning of verbs that describe what the subject is, does or experiences; and 3 to give more information about an object underlined so as to complete its meaning object complement Carter, 2011: 324. The adjectival phrase then usually comes before modifying the noun. There are two adjectival phrase displacements in the collection of poems written by Langston Hughes. They are found in the poem entitled “A Ruined Gal” and “Kid Sleepy”. The example of adjectival phrase displacement is presented in the following datum. Damn ma black old mammys soul ln 17 Adjective For ever havin a daughter . ln 18 Datum No.51 The first adjectival phrase displacement is found in the poem entitled “A Ruined Gal ” that tells about a black girl who is dissapointed with her mother and this world because her mother is black and in the world nobody wants her as a friend. She is standing alone on the riverside, and after the boat has gone she feels more desperate. She has a thought of being nobody‟s bride since she has not got any friends. When the night comes, she wants to jump into the river. At the end, she curses her mother who delivers her into this world. Adjective has functions as the modifier of a noun or object. In this sentence the adjective does not modify the noun but rather gives description to the meaning of the whole sentence. Here, the adjective is displaced since it is put at the beginning of a sentence. It should perform after the subject and verb. Thus, The standard English is “My black old mammy’s soul is damn forever havin’ a daughter ”. Since there is no subject in this sentence, the writer adds verb and put the adjective afterward. One more example of adjectival phrase displacement is illustrated as follows. Listen, Kid Sleepy, ln 1 Kid Sleepy said, ln 8 Listen, Kid Sleepy, ln 10 Kid Sleepy said, ln 16 Datum No.3 This datum No.3 is taken from the poem “Kid Sleepy” that tells about a sleepy kid who does not care about anything around himher. Even though he is under the hot sun, he will not make a move to where the shade is. In the sentence, there is an categorized as adjective displacement because in the standard structure, the adjective i.e. sleepy must come first before the noun since it modifies the noun. Thus, “Kid Sleepy” should be written as “Sleepy Kid”. The term “Sleepy Kid” is used to show a relationship among black people. Sometimes few of them would rather be quiet and neglect some cases. They are just too sleepy or lazy to take care of the problems again. There are just too much problems. Hughes used this term to compare the character of a “Sleepy Kid‟ with the relationship among African-American. The term adjectival phrase is commonly used for any phrase in attributive position, whether it is technically an adjective phrase, noun phrase, or prepositional phrase. These may be more precisely distinguished as phrasal attributives or attributive phrases. This definition is commonly used in English