Referring closely to any literature text studied on your 3rd year course, identify and discuss the prominent linguistic features that contributes to its message. NANSUBUGA ASHA, MULOKI SHAMIM, NAKIDDE MOUREEN

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLY 1792-1822 OZYMANDIAS OF EGYPT I met a traveler from antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert. Never them on the sand, Half sunk, a sshatter’d- visage lies, Whose frown And Wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that it’s sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things, The hand that mock’d them and heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of king: Look on my works, ye might, and despair! Nothing besides remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far a way .   Linguistic features refer to elements of language. Language is broken down into aspects which work together to come with a complete text and meaning. These aspects or elements are; Lexis, morphology, phonology, syntax, semantics and graphology. In this poem, the speaker meets a traveler from an ancient place who narrates to him the ruine of Ozymandias. The scattered pieces of the desert with their emotional expressions of arrogance and pride still alive and well displayed on the half sunk visage. Only the legs still stand without a trunk. On the pedestal, Ozymandias declares his supreme authority and dares the powerful ones to marvel at his works and fear yet in actual sense the lonely sand of the desert surround his scattered self. Lexis, which is the prominent linguistic features in the poem, refer to choice of words. In other words, the diction that the poet selectively employs in a poem to make full meaning. Here, the poet uses nouns like, Land, Legs, desert, visage, King, Ozymandias through which we convey vivid images of the situation in the poem. Furthermore, the setting of the poem is clearly stated which also reveals the atmosphere of the poem. The poet mentally involves us in the poem through these nouns. The poet also uses adjectives such as ancient, trunkless, wrinkled, lifeless, lone, shattered, cold, boundless which display a vivid description of the images conveyed or event. We are able to see, using our mind’s eye, Ozymandias’ sculpture without a trunk, the broken pieces of his face with the arrogant and proud look, the widely stretched lonely environment of only sand in the desert. So through the adjectives, we ably tell the situation and implied character of Ozymandias. Also, the poet uses verbs like met, sneer, despair, mocked, stamped. Met, for instance brings to our realization the two voices in the poem. The speaker’s and narrator’s, sneer clearly portrays Ozymandias’ arrogance, despair reveals his pride. Such verbs unveil the underlying character of Ozymandias and the different voices in the poem. Morphology is another outstanding linguistic feature in the poem. Morphology refers to word formation, say, how words are formed from smaller units. The poet uses words like trunkless, traveler, lifeless. The poet adds suffixes on the root words to form the appropriate word. For example trunkless, which comes from the word trunk shows that Ozymandias’ sculpture did not have a trunk, lifeless reveals that his sculpture did not have any life or liveliness in it. Regarding this, we are able to attach the desired meaning to the poem. Some suffixes are ‘ed’ which indicate past tense. This then also indicates a drift of time and how it has shammed Ozymandias. Regarding this, we are able to attach the desired meaning to the poem. Phonology is also outstanding as a linguistic feature in the poem. It refers to sound patterns in a language. In the direct speech and reported speech. The direct speech is by the persona who meets a traveler, and further explains what the traveler narrates about Ozymandias which becomes the reported speech. During the narration, the narrator directly quotes Ozymandias’ words as displayed on the pedestal which read “My name Ozymandias king of kings.” The difference in speech levels, mostly the direct speech by Ozymandias provides first hand information and emphasises Ozymandias’ arrogant, authoritative and proud character. Further more, concerning Ozymandias’ words “Look on my works, ye might and despair!” The poet uses ‘ye’ which is the ancient version of the contemporary ‘you’ word. Through this, the aspect of the drift of time or difference in time is clearly put across as time has ashamed Ozymandias and rendered him a useless entity. Also, there is alliteration of in the poem. The poet uses the phrase ‘King of Kings’ in which there are consonant sounds repeated at the beginning of the words. This phrase emphasizes Ozymandias’ greatness and supremacy as he is a King of all the kings. The poet involves the /K/ sound. This sound is uttered with a certain authority which also contributes to the meaning of the poem This is in a way that it shows Ozymandias as a great and authoritative leader. Semantics refers to the meaning of words and phrases in the poem the poets uses different meanings to bring out the of the poem for example denotative and connotative meaning of the poem. Denotative meaning of this poem is that ozymandias was a proud king who under minded people (his subjects) which is portrayed in the poets description of ozymandias “whose frown and wrinled lip and sneer of cold command” which means that his facial expresses under minding his subjects since he take himself to be supreme than the rest. Further more the writer (poets) quotes ozymandias words directly form the pedestal which reads. “My name is ozymandias, king of kings”. Look on my works, ye mighty and despair” than any other being in his kingdom but his words have a shamed him since he is no more. Connotative meaning of the poem is that no man is immortal because of one point in time they all have to die despite the fact of ones mighty and powerfulness which is portrayed in the poem ozymandias of Egypt. Who consider himself to be superior than the rest of the people in his world but the words written on the pedestal mock him in that he dies and his kingdom is shattered therefore time has ashamed him and through the power of words which do not die we are able power of words which do not dies we are able to know about how powerful ozymandia was. Syntax is a structure of a phrase or phrases and sentences in a text and the poet uses a different sentence structure than the normal one which is supposed to be SVO (subject, verbs, object) for instances he uses sentences like; Near them on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies Rather than Near them on the sand lies a half sunk shattered visage. This means that the emphasis is on the visage. … Tell that it’s sculptor well those passion read. Rather than …Tell that it’s sculptor read those passion well, here emphasis is on how explicit the passions were displayed on the visage. Look on my works ye mighty and despair! Rather than Look on my works, you mighty and despair! The emphasis is to the word “ye” which is written in Shakespearean English which focuses on a drift of time. Where the word would be “you” in current English. Graphology refers to the physical manifestation of language. In other wards the study of handwriting in terms of revealing character and also meaning of a particular text. Referring to Ozymandias’ of Egypt, the poet uses run on lines for concrete explanation. For example, the persona reports the words of the traveler, --- Who said, “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk , a shattered visage lies whose frown, And wrinkled lip---” These run on lines enable ample explanation and description which helps us to visualize the events in the poem and understand it better. Also, the poet uses an exclamation mark. For example Ozymandias’ words on the pedestal read, “ Look on my works, ye mighty and despair!” The exclamation mark in this case emphasizes Ozymandias’ arrogant and patronizing character, also the proud tone is implied in the poem. Further more, the colons are also employed in the poem. For example “ I met a traveler from an antique land, who said: “Two vast and trunkless --- And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias ---” The colons differentiate the levels of speech, say, direct and reported. They also differentiate the words of the speaker from those of the traveler so through this, we realize the different voices in the poem. In addition to the above, the poet uses commas. For instance “ Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and shear of cold command” These set the pace of the poem. The reader is able to read the poem in the intended tone with the commas as guidelines for the pace. This indeed makes the poem more lively. Also, the poet uses direct and indirect speech ranging from persona to the traveler, “ I met a traveler from an antique land, Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs---” These two levels of speech emphasize the drift or difference in time implying that Ozymandias’ reign was ancient since the traveler is also from an ancient land and the speaker, throughout the poem, simply reports what the traveler tells him. Lastly, the poem is a sonnet. It consists of fourteen lines. This style of writing considered ancient. Regarding the fact that the persona simply reports what he was told by the ancient traveler, there is a clear implication that Ozymandias’ reign was indeed ancient. In conclusion therefore, features of language complement each other to make full meaning of a text.