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Foregrounding

Foregrounding refers to making certain linguistic features prominent in a text to achieve special effects. It can be done through deviation from linguistic norms, such as unusual metaphors, or through repetition of sounds or syntactic patterns. There are two main types of foregrounding: paradigmatic foregrounding through deviation, and syntagmatic foregrounding through repetition. Foregrounded elements stand out against background features and are intended to attract attention by making familiar language unfamiliar. The purpose is to add unusual ideas to the text and create memorability.

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2K views3 pages

Foregrounding

Foregrounding refers to making certain linguistic features prominent in a text to achieve special effects. It can be done through deviation from linguistic norms, such as unusual metaphors, or through repetition of sounds or syntactic patterns. There are two main types of foregrounding: paradigmatic foregrounding through deviation, and syntagmatic foregrounding through repetition. Foregrounded elements stand out against background features and are intended to attract attention by making familiar language unfamiliar. The purpose is to add unusual ideas to the text and create memorability.

Uploaded by

Anonymous 6rSv4gofk
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Meaning of Foregrounding

Foregrounding refers to the concept of making certain features prominent in a text.


Some linguistic features can be made prominent for special effects against the
background features in a text. Scholars have examined the term as used in the literary
enterprise as being for purely aesthetic exploitation of language which has the aim of
making what is familiar unfamiliar in order to attract attention. The concept of deviation
is closely related to that of foregrounding in that what is foregrounded is made to
deviate from the familiar pattern.

Also, when the content of a text has deviated from the norms of language use, then we
can say that a style is being carved out. In the process of determining the area of
deviation in the study of stylistics, one has to identify the different highlighted aspects
that have been made prominent. Thus, foregrounding is related to the notion of
deviation and it provides the basis for a readers recognition of style. As Halliday (1994)
says, foregrounding is prominence that is motivated. He also defines prominence as the
general name for the phenomenon of linguistic highlights whereby some linguistic
features stand out in some way. Thus, to Halliday, a feature that is brought into
prominence will be foregrounded only if it relates to the meaning of the whole text. He
posits that foregrounding can be qualitative i.e. deviation from the language code, or
quantitative, deviation from the expected frequency.

The purpose of foregrounding, linguistic or non-linguistic, is to add an unusual and


unique idea, to the language. Thus, foregrounding can manifest in various ways in a
text. These include unusual capitalisation, italicisation, bold words, contractions,
underlining, picture/art works and so on. We can say that the use of these
foregrounding devices creates some visual imagery which adds to the memorability of
a text.

Two Main Types of Foregrounding

According to Wales (1989: 182), foregrounding can be achieved in a variety of ways


usually grouped into two main types: deviation and repetition, that is, paradigmatic and
syntagmatic foregrounding. Wales explains further that deviations are violations of
linguistic norms, e.g. grammatical/semantic norms, strange metaphors, similes or
collocations that are deployed to achieve special effects in a text, especially poetry,
amount to foregrounding. Consider, for example, these lines from Okaras New Years
Eve Midnight:

A year is born.
And my heart-bell is ringing.

Here, a year is said to be born and a bell is said to be ringing in the poets heart!

Repetition is also said to be a kind of deviation as it flouts the normal rules of usage by
over-frequency (Wales, 1989: 182). Repetition of sounds or syntactic patterns have the
tendency to strike the readers as uncommon and thereby engage their attention. Such a
device is seen at work in Senghors poem: I will pronounce your name. See the first
line of the poem:

I will pronounce your name, Naett, I will declaim you, Naett!

Lines two, three and four of the poem also continue with this form of
foregrounding:

Naett, your name is mild like cinnamon, it is the fragrance in which the lemon
grove sleeps,
Naett, your name is the sugared clarity of blooming coffee trees.

As Wales hints, what is or is not foregrounded may be difficult to determine in some


contexts since the elements of subjectivity may not be ruled out. When this seems to be
the case, Wales advises the students of style to consider the significance or effect of
the foregrounded items (p. 183). Thus, we have to go beyond mere identification of
the

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, foregrounding is stylistically significant in literary texts, especially poetry,
but it is not limited to literary texts. Other texts such as advertisements, postals, obituary
notices, etc may also deploy foregrounding to create some effects. Any text that
successfully deploys foregrounding becomes multi-semiotic or, multi-vocal, and its
interpretation will call for a pluralistic approach.

SUMMARY
In this unit, we have been able to point out that deviation and repetition are important
means of achieving foregrounding. As students of stylistics, we need to go beyond mere
recognition of foregrounded elements to consider their stylistic significance in a text.
When an item is made prominent in a text by foregrounding it, the author wants to draw
our attention to its significance.

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