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material diction

Device
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

Language that foregrounds physical substance, texture, or bodily experience

Detailed Definition
Material diction employs vocabulary drawn from the physical world—nouns and verbs denoting objects, actions, and sensations—to create vivid, sensory-rich language; this choice emphasizes tangibility and immediacy, allowing readers to experience the poem through sight, touch, sound, or smell.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Fish,” Bishop uses “brown skin hung in strips,” “rainbow, rainbow, rainbow” for material diction; In “The Red Wheelbarrow,” “glazed with rain / water” uses tactile language; In “Fog,” Sandburg’s “little cat feet” employs physical diction; In “Digging,” Heaney’s “cold smell of potato mould” uses material diction.
Additional Notes
Material diction: Word choice emphasizing tangible, physical, or sensory terms; helps ground a poem in reality.
Also Known As
Concrete diction Material words Substance language
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