Bridging Literature
and Linguistics
Abdul Wahab
Two
major linguistics and literature in the schools of letters both in the state
and private universities throughout Indonesia are commonly separated sharply.
Courses of literature in the Department of Linguistics are offered minimally,
such that the students of linguistics are not given a conducive
atmosphere to express their literary appreciation. Likewise, courses of
linguistics in the Department of Literature are very restricted, so that the
students of literature are unable to analyse literary works from the points of
linguistic view. This paper tries to bridge linguistics and literature. The
attempt to bridge linguistics and literature is based on three postulates: (1)
literature consists of linguistics objects designed with an artistic end, (2)
linguistic objects are formal objects, and (3) a formal account of linguistic
object designed with an artistic end approximates a formal account of that artistic
design. Two major directions in the approaches and emphases will be presented
in the article exogenous and endogenous. Exogenous approach tries to search for
adequate description of poetic language as contrasted with ordinary language,
language of a particular author contrasted with that of other authors, and a
particular work contrasted with other works of the same author. This part
touches upon three areas of exogenous approach isolation, description, and
characterization. Endogenous, on the other hand, is based upon an assumption
that a writer exhibits, probably without realizing it, certain systematic
preferences for particular aspects of linguistic patterns. Planning a bridge
between linguistics and literature is by no means without problems. Therefore,
this article also presents some possible solutions.
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Wahab, A. (2002). Bridging literature and linguistics.
TEFLIN Journal, 13(1), 1-11.
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