Examination of Structural Deviations in The Linguistic Elements of Attar Neyshabouri’s Sonnets based on Geoffrey Leech’s Linguistic Theory

One of the importantfactors in the emergence of a literary style is deviation and its frequency in a literary work, leading to its elegance and prominence. Employing new stylistic methods for analyzing literary texts could open new doors to a more accurate perception of such texts. Examining the kinds of deviation is one of the latest methods of stylistic examination of texts which explores the text through all of its linguistic, literary, and semantic layers. In this essay, the sonnets of Attar Neyshabouri have been examined and undergone a descriptive-statistical analysis on structural deviation according to Geoffrey Leech’s (1969) linguistic perspective.The statistical analysis of various aspects of phonetic and lexical deviation in the first 200 sonnets of Attar-E-Neyshabouri’s divan showed the high frequency of newly created Sufist compositions in Attar’s sonnets, which is one of the stylistic prominence of his sonnets. This high frequency shows  that Attar was a poet devoted to mystic values and principles. The results also indicates that phonetic deviations, particularly methods such as “omission and reduction in the structure of words,” are used more than other phonetic elements in Attar’s poems due to the melodic necessity and metric limitations. Furthermore, Attar has expressed a significant portion of his desired mystic themes and experiences in newly created compositions with a Sufist approach. Compositions constructed by Attar’s Sufist mind and language and have never been used in any Sufist text, whether poem or prose, before him. Only 20 percent of these compositions have gone beyond Attar’s lyrics and become his legacy throughout the poetry of Sufist poets coming after him. The rest of these newly created compositions has remained irreplaceable in Attar’s poems.Methods such as “omission and reduction” have the most frequency compared to other phonetic methods. It should be noted that the “reduction” phonetic method is more conspicuous than “omission” in its lexical diversity.Another Attar’s stylistic features that has a high frequency in his sonnets (75 words and compositions) is lexical deviation as well as new and creative words and compositions. This, aligned with Attar’s sonnets, has led to prominence and defamiliarization in his poems and has expressed Attar’s Sufist thoughts in a softer and more literary way. Giving life to new compositions using his power of imagination and mystic worldview has placed Attar among the pioneers of creating mystic compositions and expressions. This could be divided into compound compositions, newly created derived words, and new Sufist compositions in his sonnets. New and invented Sufist compositions comprise 90 percent of the whole terms and compositions. The poet sometimes has attempted to create a word or composition which he used only once. More than 77 percent of the lexical deviation and newly created compositions in Attar’s sonnets belong to inventive words and compositions not found in any other poet’s works. These are among Attar’s innovations in Sufist compositions that no one after him did it again.