The loss of poetic effects

What is it about?

This study focuses on the diachronic evolution of poetic figurative language and, to the extent possible, of its aesthetic effects. It is known that humour, honorifics and insults change over time, because their original force decreases. This paper addresses the question of the change in the aesthetic power of figurative language, and proposes an explanation for this phenomenon.

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Why is it important?

By bringing together concepts from Relevance Theory and from the theory of semantic change, this paper could have wider implications on the understanding of pragmatic implicatures. It also investigates the proposed hypothesis regarding the evolution of poetic effects through an original methodology using corpora, translations and dictionaries.