The mental architectonics of poetic syntax: the cognitive role of inversion, ellipsis, and anacoluthon

Abstract

The article presents a comprehensive study of poetic syntax within the cognitive paradigm of modern linguistics, where grammatical structures are viewed as a dynamic tool for modelling conceptual content and generating meaning. The study is based on a synthesis of the principles of cognitive grammar developed by R. Langacker and C. Broccias, as well as the cognitive poetics of J. Steen, J. Gavins, and M. Giovanelli. The main focus is placed on rethinking traditional syntactic figures — inversion, ellipsis, anacoluthon, and parallelism — as specific “mental gestures” capable of directing the reader’s attention, shifting the perspective of perception, and activating complex cognitive mechanisms.

The article theoretically substantiates that poetic syntax in literary discourse performs a meaning-generating function, acting as a form of embodied conceptualization of reality. Based on the poetic works of Mykhailo Kameniuk, it is demonstrated that syntactic deformations are not merely means of stylistic expressiveness, but cognitively relevant operations that shape the “emotional framework” of the text. In particular, the analysis of inversion makes it possible to reveal its role in cognitive profiling and in the reconfiguration of spatial and temporal coordinates, where the shift of logical emphasis cuts through the linguistic surface with a new semantic depth. Ellipsis is examined as a means of creating cognitive gaps that activate the reader’s creative imagination and prompt intensive emotional and associative completion, transforming the “silence” of a grammatical construction into a powerful means of profiling significant concepts.

Special attention is paid to the phenomenon of anacoluthon, which, in the context of cognitive poetics, is interpreted as a strategic resource for realizing a multilayered perspective. The article shows that the disruption of linear syntactic connection opens up multiple ways of seeing a situation, in which past and present, presence and absence coexist simultaneously within a single conceptual blending. The cognitive potential of syntactic parallelism is also revealed; in combination with paronymy, it ensures the discursive modelling of complex psycho-emotional states such as despair, fatigue, and the fragility of existence. Based on the analysis of image schemas of space, force, and direction, the bodily basis of M. Kameniuk’s poetic language is demonstrated, enabling the reader both to understand rationally and to intuitively “experience” the concepts embodied in the text.

The results obtained confirm the productivity of an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of literary language, where syntax appears as a cognitive action that involves the reader in the joint construction of meanings together with the author. The article opens up new prospects for the development of Ukrainian cognitive poetics by proposing a methodology for studying individual authorial models of the world through the prism of the grammatical organization of the text.