Function Words in Edgar Alan Poe’s A Dream Within A Dream: A Psychological Analysis

Lanja Abdul razzaq Dabbagh

doi:10.25212/lfu.qzj.6.1.37

Authors

Lanja Abdul razzaq Dabbagh Department of English, College of Languages, Salahaddin University, Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25212/lfu.qzj.6.1.37

Keywords:

Function words, psychological analysis, surface meanings, hidden meanings, literature

Abstract

Language in general reﬂects the inﬂuence of the psychological state in human beings when they communicate with each other. All the aspects of language are involved in producing the state of mind of the speaker, including the simplest parts of speech. Function words are not an exception to this process. That is why there is a powerful connection that joins the function words with the psychological state of the speaker specially in literature, because in literature every word, article, punctuation carries both surface and hidden meanings. These hidden meanings are related to the psychological condition of the producer. Function words also reﬂect the cognitive architecture of the speaker. The study is supporting the cognitive reﬂection model. The aim is to show that the psychological state of the poet Edgar Alan Poe affected his use of the function words in his poem A Dream Within A Dream. It also aims at showing how it affected his use of function words to convey his message and both the surface and hidden meanings. The conclusions arrived at depend on the social psycholinguist’s views only.

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