Exploring Dialogic Potential through Lexical and Grammatical Deviations in Shakespeare’s Othello

Abstract

The paper focuses on the monologues as well as dialogues of the protagonist Othello to see how effectively the lexical and grammatical deviations lead to dramatic effects. The critical analysis is led through the guidance of oratorical or rhetorical features of the speech acts. It is noticed that the linguistic deceptivity through the use of antimeria which refers to the use of one part of speech as another such as a noun as a verb; heterography which refers to spelling in which the same letters represent different sounds in different words or syllables; paraprosdokian i.e. a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part; using disfluency features in expressions which are interruptions in the regular flow of speech, such as using uh and um, pausing silently, repeating words, or interrupting oneself to correct something said previously; use of run-on sentences and predicate-structure focus and grammatical incorrectness lead to cognitive manifestations and expressions of emphatic motives adding to the artistic height of the play.