The Phonological Rhetoric and Poetical Texture in Ulysses: A Cognitive Phonological Perspective

The phonological figures in Ulysses have been the weakest aspect in Joycean studies, calling for a systematic scrutiny. From a cognitive phonological perspective, this article aims at a brief survey of those phonological figures in Ulysses and illustrates how much phonological figures have contributed to the poetic texture of the novel. Taking as the point of departure the phonological figures in Ulysses, by means of a revised model of phonological figures by Plett, this article explores some 15 phonological figures concerning phonemic deviations and phonemic enforcement, and their stylistic effects. These figures have contributed much to the musicality and playfulness, and also to the textual cohesion and coherence of the novel, and in some contexts they may produce synaesthesia in the reader’s mind and carry an obvious interpersonal function. Moreover, they have played an important part in the linguistic poeticity of the novel.