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Dependency

Psychology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Reliance on another for emotional, physical, or psychological support.

Detailed Definition
Dependency in poetry explores power imbalances, vulnerability, and the fear of abandonment. It appears through pleading tones, images of clinging or leaning, and narratives of caretaking or addiction. Poets use dependency to illuminate intimacy's complexities, from tender mutual need to toxic enmeshment, often in love poems, elegies, or dramatic monologues where the speaker's fate hangs on another's presence.
Example
Example in poetry:
Dependency in Charlotte Smith's "SONNET [57] LVII. To Dependence" calls dependence "heavy, heavy are thy chains"; Sylvia Plath's "In Plaster" discusses how dependency can both heal and harm; Tim Steele's "Dependent Nature" examines the dependent nature of power; Eva Vázquez Tarrío's "La dependencia" explores emotional dependency in relationships; In "My Dependance," the speaker would rather be watched than left alone; William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow" shows how meaning depends on simple things.
Additional Notes
Dependency in poetry explores power imbalances, vulnerability, and the fear of abandonment through pleading tones, images of clinging or leaning, and narratives of caretaking or addiction. Poets use dependency to illuminate intimacy's complexities, from tender mutual need to toxic enmeshment, often in love poems, elegies, or dramatic monologues. The term is closely related to attachment but implies a more one-sided reliance. Teaching tip: examine how a speaker's language reveals dependency through supplication, repetition of the beloved's name, or imagery of being held or carried. Dependency can also critique social structures, such as colonial or economic relationships.
Also Known As
Dependence reliance neediness clinging codependency Powerlessness
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