PHONETIC ECONOMY IN “THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES” BY RAY BRADBURY
Abstract
This article investigates the phenomenon of phonetic economy in The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury from a linguistic and stylistic perspective. Phonetic economy refers to the tendency of language to reduce phonetic material in order to achieve greater efficiency, ease of articulation, and fluency in communication. The research focuses on key mechanisms of phonetic economy, including contractions, elision, vowel reduction, assimilation, and phonetic minimalism in proper nouns. The data were collected from dialogue-rich sections of the novel and analyzed using a qualitative descriptive method. The findings demonstrate that phonetic economy enhances the naturalness of dialogue, increases narrative pace, and contributes to stylistic expressiveness. Special attention is given to minimal forms such as “K..” and Martian names like “Yll”, which represent extreme phonetic reduction. The study concludes that phonetic economy functions both as a linguistic principle and as a stylistic device in literary discourse.
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