Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m42fx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T02:17:37.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

‘he danced his did’: an analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Richard D. Cureton
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois

Extract

In the last twenty years, Cummings's line ‘he danced his did’; has been at the centre of almost every major discussion of the deviant language of literature. In the last two decades, hundreds of pages and scores of articles have been written which have attempted to assess and motivate its linguistic status and aesthetic success. Without question, ‘he danced his did’ has been more closely scrutinized and extensively analysed than any other single phrase in English literature.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aarts, J. (1971). A note on the interpretation of ‘he danced his did’. JL 7. 7173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, T. R. (1977). A linguistic approach to the style of the English Early Romantic Poets. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Banfield, A. (1973). Stylistic transformations: a study based on the syntax of Paradise Lost. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Butters, R. R. (1969). On the interpretation of ‘deviant utterances’. JL 5. 105110.Google Scholar
Chatman, S. & Levin, S. R. (eds) (1967). Essays on the language of literature. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1961). Some methodological remarks on generative grammar. Word 17.2. 219 239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1964). Degrees of grammaticalness. In Katz, J.J. & Fodor, J.A. (eds). 384389.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cummings, E. E. (1972). Complete poems 1913–1962. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Cureton, R. (1979). E. E. Cummings: a study of the poetic use of deviant morphology. Poetics Today 1. 12: 213244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, R. (1969). On the interpretation of nonsense strings. JL 5. 7583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendricks, W.O. (1969). Three models for the description of poetry. JL. 5 122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, A. A. (1967). Some further thoughts on grammaticality and poetic language. Style 1. 8191.Google Scholar
Katz, J. J. (1964). Semi-sentences. In Katz, J. J. & Fodor, J. A. (eds). 400416.Google Scholar
Katz, J. J. & Fodor, J. A. (eds). (1964). The structure of language: readings in the philosophy of language. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Levin, S. R. (1965). Internal and external deviation in poetry. Word 21. 225237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, S. R. (1967). Poetry and grammaticalness. In Chatman, S. & Levin, S. R. (eds). 224230.Google Scholar
Levin, S. R. (1977). The semantics of metaphor. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipski, J. M. (1977). Poetic deviance and generative grammar. PTL 2. 241256.Google Scholar
Nowottny, W. (1962). The language poets use. London: The Athlone Press.Google Scholar
Quirk, R. et al. (1972). A grammar of contemporary English. New York: Seminar Press.Google Scholar
Reinhart, T. (1976). Patterns, intuitions, and the sense of nonsense: an analysis of Cummings' ‘anyone lived in a pretty how town’. PTL 1. 85103.Google Scholar
Sebeok, T. A. (ed.). (1966). Current trends in linguistics. Vol. 8. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Thorne, J. P. (1965). Stylistics and generative grammars. JL 1. 4959.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorne, J. P. (1969). Poetry, stylistics and imaginary grammars. JL 5. 147150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinreich, U. (1966). Explorations in semantic theory. In Sebeok, T. (ed.). (1966). 396477.Google Scholar
Ziff, P. (1964). On understanding ‘Understanding Utterances’. In Katz, J. J. & Fodor, J. A. (eds). (1964). 390399.Google Scholar