Language Specificities and Poetry: A Comparison of the Poems of Hafez and Shakespeare

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Abstract

Some believe that language and literature are two independent systems while others hold that the two areas are not independent of each other. The present study has tried to demonstrate that Persian poetry is closely tied with the language by evaluating the influence of scrambling, word order, complex predicates, subject-verb agreement as well as some supersegmental features in Hafez’s works as one of the most outstanding poets in Persian literature. To do so, some sonnets of the poet have been analyzed in terms of the above -mentioned features. The study indicates that in addition to complex predicates that restrict the Persian verbs to a few forms like “kardan”(to do) and “Zadan”( to hit), the six agreement markers increase the number of repetition. A contrastive study of Shakespeare’s and Hafez’ sonnets in the study showed that literary devices of Persian and English literature are different. It has been argued that in Persian repetition of agreement markers as well as light verbs are important devices in creating literary works while the English language lacks them.

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