Linguistic Deviations in Gabriel García Márquez’s A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

This paper explores Mick Short’s model of deviation to analyze linguistic deviations in Gabriel García Márquez’s short story The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. The study adopts a qualitative research approach, and the investigation within the text involves the paradigmatic analysis of various types and forms of deviations of discoursal, semantic, lexical, grammatical, morphological, phonological, graphological nature, and even internal and external deviations as exist in the text of García Márquez. Literally challenging the normative semiotic code, García Márquez undermines readers’ expectations and adds to the plot the element of magical realism. The paper also stresses that these deviations are not merely matters of the author’s stylistic preferences; these deviations are part of the work’s depth on the thematic and symbolic levels. The usage of repetition and other techniques can be seen in this text as well. García Márquez deliberately distorts language which contributes to building an atmosphere of dream-like reality, where even such trivial things as the loss of a tooth turn into a miracle, and the readers are forced to experience not only the events but their reflections. This paper aims to investigate how linguistic deviations contribute to the thematic depth and symbolic richness of García Márquez’s work, examining how these deviations enhance the narrative’s magical realism. The objective is to provide a detailed linguistic analysis that clarifies the interaction between form and meaning, demonstrating how García Márquez’s stylistic choices shape the reader’s experience of the text.