Unusual combinations in Nguyen Phuc Loc Thanh's poetic language

Abstract

Literary language is a language system derived from the natural language. The task of re-creating to "derivate" the literary language belongs to the artists. Because of that, the literary language is imbued with the creative personality of poets and writers. Approaching a specific case of Nguyen Phuc Loc Thanh's poetry through a poem collection "Dream of the Thuong River" (Giấc mơ sông Thương), the article aims to clarify the stylistic imprints of his poetic language through unusual combinations in terms of grammar and semantics. The unusual combinations in Nguyen Phuc Loc Thanh's poetic language show both  the poet's creative imprints in the Surrealist style and  the rich expressive potential of the Vietnamese language.