Literary Language and Foregrounding

What makes literary language,the carrier of the artistic value of literary works,differs from none-literary language is the novelty and creativeness in language use.Foregrounding is the basic technique which is employed by writers of literature to make what they want to express stand out,and to create unique artistic or aesthetic effect of literary works.In artistic creation,the writers of literature intentionally deviate from the norm of language use to make something salient for some artistic or aesthetic purpose.This paper clarifies such basic terms as literary language,foregrounding and deviation,analyzes the relationship between foregrounding,prominence and deviance,explores the functions and approaches of foregrounding,and illustrates the special literary effects created by the writers by means of foregrounding with examples.