Transitivity As a Means of Communication: A Stylistic Study of Langston Hughes's Selected Early Poems

Abstract

It is one of the distinctive features of Langston Hughes's (1902-1967) poetry to wield the many types of transitivity for many poetic demands. This paper examines the functions of different processes of Hallidayís Systemic Functional Linguistics theory in creating the poetic voice in Langston Hughesís three early poems: "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1921), "Mother to Son" (1922), and "I, Too" (1926). The present paper is also an endeavour to analyse and interpret these three poems for they deal with the essential themes of the negritude, showing the poetís awareness of the stylistic features of simplicity, spontaneity and flexibility of poetic diction. Transitivity reflected in Hughes' poetry will be stylistically parsed as a communication utility on one hand, and as for their implicatures on the other. Through examining Hughes' selected poems, it has been concluded that he employs some materialistic and mental processing to prove the very noteworthy clues supporting the reader's comprehension of the five W's of who/what does what/ whom then when relative to the individuals of the poems.