Basically, an author uses linguistic deviation to accomplish several important goals as one of them is to make his language creative or inventive by
using a language which is different from the conventional and everyday language. By using that unconventional or unusual language, a poet gives his readers an
unexpected surprise and makes a strong impression on their mind. Furthermore, Leech divides linguistic deviation into eight types, i.e. lexical deviation,
grammatical deviation, phonological deviation, graphological deviation, dialectal deviation, deviation of register, deviation of historical period, and semantic
deviation. Leech further states that those types of linguistic deviation are distinguished in three main language levels: realization, form, and semantics.
Realization is realized by phonology and graphology, form comprises grammar and lexicon, and semantics is realized by denotative or cognitive meaning Leech,
1969: 37.
a. Lexical Deviation
Lexical deviation is an existing rule of word formation that is applied with a greater generality that the usual restrictions on its process of formation are
waived in a certain condition as in neologism. Neologism, or the invention of new words, is one of the more obvious ways in which a poet exceeds the normal
resources of the language. Leech 1969: 42 calls new words as
nonce-formations
if they are made up for the nonce, i.e. for a single occasion only rather than as serious attempts to augment the English word-stock for some new need. The
English rule of word formation permits prefixation of
fore-
to a verb, to convey the meaning
beforehand
as in
foresell
and
foreappear
.
b. Grammatical Deviation
Grammatical deviation can be drawn between morphology, the grammar of the word, and syntax, the grammar of how words pattern within sentences
Leech, 1969: 44. There are two types of grammatical deviation; they are morphological and syntactic deviations. Morphological deviation is an intentional
deviation from the ordinary spelling, formation, construction, or application of words. Meanwhile, syntactic deviation might be in the form of bad or incorrect
grammar and syntactic rearrangement. Leech further exemplifies the case of ungrammaticality as an important feature of grammatical deviation like in the
expression ‘I
does
not like him’. Grammatical deviation is also expressed by a poet or a writer when using
the double negation, the double comparative, and the double superlative. Writers or poets also deviate from grammatical rules by making a comparative or
superlative more emphatic by combining two ways of expressing comparison, i.e. the addition of suffixes and the use of the separate words
more
and
most
. Shakespeare, for example, combines
unkindest
and
most unkind
in the statement ‘This was the
most unkindest
cut of all’ Brook via Ouameur, 2013: 10.
c. Phonological Deviation
