time, and the multiple negations used by Hughes tried to portray them. Another example of multiple negation is shown as follows.
I aint got
no friend
Subject Verb
object ln 11
The standard English : I didn‟t get any friends.
Aint nothin
for a ruined gal
Auxiliary Verb object
Prepositional phrase ln 21 The standard English: I am nothing for a ruined gal
Datum No.31 This datum taken from a poem entitled
“Midwinter Blues” in which the poem narrates the feeling of a woman who feels lonely because her man leaves her but
she still loves him. The persona uses several multiple negations to express the problems that she faces with her man. “Now, if a man loves a woman that ain’t no
time to go ” means that if a man loves a woman, he will not leave her because he
does not have time to go out. The persona feels so frustrated that she says “So when I’m dead they won’t need no flowers from the store”. She says that when she
passes away later on, her family does not have to buy her flowers. On the previous line in the poem, it is explained that the woman plants a red rose. Thus, her family
does not need to buy flowers as she has planted them. It was so tragic that she has planned her death scene later on. The last example of multiple negation is shown
in the following datum.
fortune tellers Never tell
me nothin kind
Subject Verb
Direct object Indirect object ln 7 The standard English: Fortune tellers never tell me something kind.
I wont live
no mo
Subject Verb
Adv ln 15
The standard English : I won‟t live again
Datum No.34
Datum No.34 is taken from the poem entitled “Fortune Teller Blues” in
which tells readers about an unfortunate life of an African-American. Even when the persona goes to the fortune teller, she still gets misfortune. She is told that her
man would leave her someday. In expressing his sorrow, Hughes used multiple negations through words
never, nothing, won’t and no more. From the sentence “These fortune tellers never tell me nothin’ kind”, it is
shown that the persona has gone to a fortune teller before, and the last fortune teller she met is just like the previous fortune tellers who never tell her anything
good. She thinks that they are all just the same, they tell something bad would happen to her. She emphasizes again on the next line
by saying “I say fortune tellers never tell me nothin’ kind”. In the poem, the fortune teller tells her that her
man would leave her. She paid more money to the fortune teller, but it did not change the prediction. Thus at the end she says, “If my man leaves me, I won’t live
no mo ’”. She is so desperate that she does not want to live without her man.
In standard English, double negatives are no longer used. Generally speaking, double negatives in a sentence are usually used to convey positive
meaning or make the utterance sound more polite. However, in the Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, the double negatives are not a device for strengthen
the positive meaning of an utterance, but still a way to express the negative meaning used by lower-class characters, as well to give an emphasis and attention
to his utterances.
b. Inversion
Inversion is the second type that mostly occurred in the poems. There are ten inversions in the collection of poems written by Langston Hughes. Galperin
1977 in his book “Stylistics” as quoted in Hoang 2010 makes a very clear definition of stylistic inversion that unlike grammatical inversion, stylistic
inversion does not change the structural meaning of the sentence, that is, the change in the juxtaposition of the members of the sentence does not indicate
structural meaning but has some super structural function. Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotion coloring to the surface meaning of
the utterance. An example of inversion is presented in the following.
No safety, no love, no respect was I due . ln 16
The standard English: I was due no safety, no love, no respect.
Believe in the right, let none push you back. ln 43
The standard English: Let none push you back if you believe in the right.
Datum No.6 This datum is taken from the poem entitled
“The Negro Mother”. It tells about the struggles and conflicts that a Negro mother has as a slave but she wants
to convince African-American children that there is a hope to break free from the chains of slavery. She told her children about her darkest moments.
The persona was taken from a desert in Africa. She was taken to be a slave in cotton and corn fields. She was beaten and mistreated during the slavery
moment. She was taken apart from her husband and children. She received no love, safety and respect during that moment. She felt like living for three hundred
years of despair. T hen finally she got a better hope through her children‟s future.
She used to be uneducated, now that she figured out that it was the reason of her
being a slave. Thus, she encouraged her children to achieve better life and be a better person.
Same elements in datum No.6 are inversed to give more emphasis on the complement of the sentence rather than on the subject. On the first sentence No
safety, no love, no respect was I due, the inversion appears after the negative noun phrase. This sentence means that the persona received no safety, love or even
respect and the poet wanted to emphasize more on the things the persona did not receive. However, on the second sentence believe in the right, let none push you
back; the inversion appears as the conditional form. This sentence means the children should stay strong if they believe they are right and let no one fails them.
The persona wanted to encourage her children by using the inversion to convey the lesson she got from her past-life.
More humbly did I teach.
ln 4 The standard English: I taught more humbly
Datum No.32 This datum No.32 is taken from the poem entitled
“Teacher”. This poem tells about the persona
‟s opinion of being a teacher. He told the readers that a humble teacher comes from an effort of trying to be a humble one. The persona
wanted to be a good man although he was not. Now that he could only live with the dream of being a teacher.
The sentence from datum No.32 is emphasizing on the way of the persona‟s teaching. In doing so, the persona put the word more humbly before the
activity. Besides, the inversion also appears in the words did I teach. This shows
that the persona wants to say that he indeed teaches more humbly. Another example of inversion is shown as follows.
Then out ma door he goes . ln 12
The standard English: Then he goes out ma door. Datum No.52
Datum No.52 is taken from a poem entitled “Black Gal”. Through this
poem, the persona wants to tell that she never gets what she deserves. She always treats her boyfriend well but her boyfriend does not care as she is black. It is
narrated in the poem that men takes anything they want from the persona. She even bought a nice suit for him, but as soon as he went out to the bar, she was
forgotten. In the sentence from datum No.52, the subject and verb he goes should
come first before the preposition phrase out ma door since the preposition phrase gives extra information. The main activity that wants to be emphasized is he goes.
Besides, in grammar rules, subject and verb should come first before the complement preposition phrase.
Another example is shown as follows.
And only in the sorrow songs Relief was found . ln 22
The standard English: and relief was found only in the sorrow songs. Datum No. 26
This datum is taken from the poem entitled “August 19
th
” which is written as the commemoration of Clarence Norris, a poor boy who was given a capital
punishment by the government on 18 August. He paced his lonely cell in death house of Alabama, doomed to die on August 18
th
. Clarence Norris was one of the
Scottsboro defendants who were sentenced to death, and the poem reflects gravely on matters of minority citizenship.
In the sentence from datum No.26 , the subject and verb “relief was found”
should come first before the complement “only in the sorrow songs”. The complement adds details to the main activity
“relief was found”. Therefore, it should follow the main activity.
Hoang 2010 states that inversion as a stylistic device is always sense- motivated. There is a tendency to account for inversion in poetry by rhythmical
considerations. This may sometimes be true, but really talented poets will never sacrifice sense for form and in the majority of cases, inversion in poetry is called
forth by considerations of content rather than rhythm.
c. Subject Displacement
Previously, the researcher has talked about some kinds of displacements
such as noun phrase and prepositional phrase displacement. Typically, the analysis is taken due to the position of the subject which has been assumed to be
something constant. Yet there are also sentences found in the poems in which the subject is displaced from its standard sentence-initial position to some other
position. According to Thoms, G. 2010: 60, this kind of displacement has been analyzed and assumed that it happens in poetry constantly.
The sentences should have normal order of SVCA Subject, Verb, Complement, Adjunct and ASVC Adjunct, Subject, Verb, Complement Akhter
and Hayat, 2012:12. Those that belong to complement are a word or group of
words added to a sentence to make it complete. On the other hand, those which belong to adjunct are adverb and prepositional phrase that provides added
information about the meaning of a verb by expressing a relation of time, place, manner, etc.
The writer figures out nine sentences that happen to experience subject displacement. Below is an example of subject displacement found in the poems.
and maybe
was I
blind
Conjunction Adjunct Verb
Subject Complement ln 6
Datum No.53
This datum No.53 is an example of subject displacement showing that the subject was put at the end of a sentence. It is found in the poem entitled
“So Long” that tells about someone who has gone for so long to another place, and
perhaps another world. “I” in the sentence “and maybe was I blind” breaks the rule of a standard
structure in which subject should come first before the verb. The author used subject displacement to emphasize the persona in the poems for he did not realize
what the reality was. The person that the persona waited for had gone for a long time. However, the persona had not really understood the reason for
the person‟s leaving as he stated “but it‟s like a foreign language in my mind”. The persona felt
very lost after the person‟s leaving that he did not want to see the reality that the person had gone for a very long time.
