Literature I / Literariness
Practice question · Sort into groups

Sort each phrase by whether it describes PRACTICAL language or POETIC language in the Formalist account.

Groups: Practical · Poetic

Hints
  1. One column is transparent, the other opaque.
  2. If paraphrase loses nothing, the wording was doing no work.
Show the answer

Practical: You look through the words at what they say, Efficiency of transmission is the criterion, Paraphrase loses nothing that matters

Poetic: The sequence is organised by equivalence, The message draws attention to itself, Repetition of sound is structurally load-bearing

Why

The paraphrase test is the practical one to remember. If a message survives rewording intact, the wording was a vehicle; if rewording destroys it, the wording was the thing. Most utterances are somewhere between, which is exactly why literariness resists being a yes-or-no property.

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