European Journal of English Language Teaching
ISSN: 2501-7136
ISSN-L: 2501-7136
Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu
Volume 2 │ Issue 1 │ 2017
doi: 10.5281/zenodo.375669
LEXIC“L CHOICES IN THE ROAD NOT TAKEN ,
A POEM WRITTEN BY ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
Gabriel Kwame Ankrah1, Opoku Kwasi2, Patricia Nyamekye3
1,2,3
Valley View University, School of Education,
Techiman Campus, P. O. Box 183, Techiman, Ghana
Abstract:
This paper attempts to analyse the Lexical Choices in Robert Frost s The Road Not Taken
poem from the perspectives of stylistics. Stylistics is the study of style of language in
literature. It seeks to account for the interpretative effects of a text through close study
of its linguistic detail, such as syntactic structuring, semantic deviation, deixis,
modality, etc. A piece of work cannot be properly understood without a thorough
knowledge of the language, which is its medium of expression. Each register has its
own characteristics style with certain lexical and grammatical choices. Poets,
particularly modern ones, have successfully freed themselves from constraints of what
is so called poetic language Sharma,
:
. In this write up, the value of the game
considers the lexical choices in the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost in the
following categories: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, lexical categories such as
synonymy, antonymy, contradiction and their significance or effects in the poem.
Keywords: Robert Frost, lexical choices, The Road Not Taken
I. Introduction
The Road Not Taken is a poem by Robert Frost which was published in
in the
collection Mountain Interval. Robert Frost was an American poet born in March 26,
1874. The title of the poem is often mistakenly given as "The Road Less Traveled , from
the penultimate line: "I took the one less traveled by". The poem was intended by Frost as a
gentle mocking of indecision that has shown on many walks between him and his
friend Thomas. The Road Not Taken is a narrative poem consisting of four stanzas. The
speaker stands in yellow woods, considering a fork in the road. Both ways are equally
worn and equally overlaid with un-trodden leaves. The speaker chooses one, telling
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139
Gabriel Kwame Ankrah, Opoku Kwasi, Patricia Nyamekye
LEXICAL CHOICES IN THE RO‚D NOT T‚KEN , A POEM WRITTEN BY ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
himself that he will take the other another day. Yet he knows it is unlikely that he will
have opportunity to do so. This, he admits that someday in the future he will recreate
the scene with a slight twist and with a sigh: He will claim that he took the lesstravelled road.
The initial interpretation of the poem comes about as a result of looking at the
words in the poem. It was not like thinking about the deviant grammatical and
graphological elements. An examination of the lexical features will be a good place to
start a more detailed linguistic and stylistic analysis.
From a grammatical perspective, the most fundamental way to categorize words
is by part-of-speech. ‚lo,
:
defined lexis as…. the level of linguistic analysis and
description concerned with the way in which the vocabulary of a language or a text is
organized . Lexical items help the writer to crystallize his thoughts, express certain
emotions and create images all of which give a text its peculiar beauty. In this regard,
writers depend on lexical items and their connotative implications, to convey their
intended meanings. Therefore, the writer must choose the appropriate words to
effectively convey the intended meaning and also achieve aesthetic beauty. This is
inevitable because a writer must use linguistic resources imaginatively to have the
desired effect or significant on the reader or audience. This explains why writers,
particularly poets, make lexical choices with great care to achieve the delicate target of
conveying meaning in the best possible way.
According to Brumfit and Carter (1986), the literary text is seen as self-sufficient
as a language artifact, and as an object in itself. The critical point is that, the centrality of
language in a literary text makes the study of the patterns of language use in this
context quite fundamental and useful.
1.1 Contextual issues in the poetry
That language and context are two inseparable phenomena is a fact that has been long
standing and established Leech,
:
. Morley
:
points out that,
context
serves to itemize those aspects of the situation which have a bearing on the form used . The
critical point is that context is an important aspect of language use. As has been
demonstrated in the analysis of the texts, the true meaning of a text can be thought of as
a relationship between its linguistic elements and whatever contextual evidence is
available for clarifying it. In Robert Frost s poem, certain variables constitute the context
of situation. These include: genre type, background experiences of the poet, and subject
matter.
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Gabriel Kwame Ankrah, Opoku Kwasi, Patricia Nyamekye
LEXICAL CHOICES IN THE RO‚D NOT T‚KEN , A POEM WRITTEN BY ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
20
1.2 Lexical Choices / Features
Giving a more precise definition of lexical choices requires making distinction between
open-class words and closed-class words. Lexical choice can be categorized as the
choice of open-class lexical items (whether phrasal patterns or individual words)
appropriate to express the content units of the utterance being generated in a given
situation of enunciation. Let us first of all consider the open class words in the poem.
Open class words are those which carry the majority of meaning in a language (nouns,
verbs, adjectives, adverbs), as opposed to closed class words such as determiners (the, a,
all etc) and prepositions (in, to, for etc) conjunctions (and, yet etc). Closed class words
act like adhesive to a sentence and link together open class words in meaningful
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LEXICAL CHOICES IN THE RO‚D NOT T‚KEN , A POEM WRITTEN BY ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
arrangements (sentence) (Ling, 2009: 4) Table 1 shows how the open class words are
distributed throughout the poem, and whether they are nouns, pronouns, verbs,
adjectives or adverbs.
Table 1
Nouns
Pronouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
roads
(2×)
I
(9×)
diverged
(2×)
yellow
not
wood
(2×)
both
(2×)
could
(2×)
sorry
down
traveler
it
(2×)
travel
fair
long
undergrowth
that
(3×)
be
better
as
other
them
stood
grassy
far
claim
this
looked
black
where
wear
one
bent
first
then
(2×)
passing
took
same
having
perhaps
morning
was
though
leaves
wanted
there
step
had
day
worn
equally
lay
how
trodden
if
has
ever
made
back
kept
somewhere
knowing
hence
leads
less
way
(2×)
sigh
ages
(2×)
difference
(2×)
(5×)
just
(2×)
really
doubted
should
come
shall
telling
travelled
21
19
31
7
24
From the table it will be clear that the poet has used (21) nouns of which four (4) of
them (roads, wood, way, ages,) have been repeated. He made mention of nouns such as
roads, wood, traveler, undergrowth, other, claim, wear, passing, same, morning, leaves,
step, day, way, sigh, ages and difference. Nine (9) of the nouns are concrete nouns and
eight (8) are abstract nouns.
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Gabriel Kwame Ankrah, Opoku Kwasi, Patricia Nyamekye
LEXICAL CHOICES IN THE RO‚D NOT T‚KEN , A POEM WRITTEN BY ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
Table 2
Concrete/common
Abstract
roads, wood, traveler, morning, undergrowth, leaves,
claim,
way, step day
difference, sigh, ages
other,
wear,
passing,
same,
Road, wood, traveler, undergrowth, way, step, leaves can be seen and touch whereas claim,
same, difference, ages cannot be experienced by any of the five senses. The difference
between the concrete and abstract nouns is exemplified by the choice that the speaker
has to make between two roads. The concrete shows the grief or regret because of the
tangible one the person has taken. Whereas the intangible one is what the speaker, wish
to have taken but did not. In life, the choices we make can affect us either positively or
negatively. Inanimate nouns are predominant in the poem. For instance roads, wood,
undergrowth, other, claim, wear, passing, same, morning, leaves, step, day, way, sigh, ages and
difference are all nouns within the ambiance of non-human category. The pervasiveness
of the abstract nouns in the poem could be said to account for what one perceives as
indecisiveness of the persona in the making of choice. Some of the nouns (wood,
undergrowth, leaves,) fall within the domain of natural things and they are all nouns
relating to things on earth. Things on earth are but a stepping stone. Whereas nouns
such as (other, claim, same, sigh, difference) fall within the province of abstract quality.
Majority of the nouns (11) are count nouns (roads, wood, traveler, undergrowth, other,
claim, way, step, day, difference, leaves). In linguistics, a count noun (also countable noun)
is a common noun that can be modified by a numeral and that occurs in both singular
and plural form. Significantly, they give an idea of number; whether plural or singular.
Undergrowth is a very significant word in the poem. It is essentially just bushes
and vegetation that grows beneath the trees. This also is important, because it belongs
with this line in the first stanza, to where it bent in the undergrowth which lets the
reader be aware of the fact that the narrator cannot see what is on the other side of the
roads, so he cannot be sure where he will end up either way. This can relate to the real
life choices and decisions, because unless you have a crystal ball telling you where each
decision will take you, one can never be sure of where you will end up.
Apart from the words belonging to the open class system, the poet used 19
pronouns (I, both, it, that, them, this one of which I was repeated
× and that
× , both
×
it
× .The predominant use of the pronoun I in the poem in stanza ,
3,and 4) I could not travel both, I stood, I could (in stanza 1), I kept the first, I doubted, I should
ever come back (stanza 3) I shall be telling this with a sigh, and I, I took the one less travelled
(stanza 4) make the poem seem too individualistic. The occurrence of this pronoun is
designating the person speaking ( I ) to be excessively personal. A person has to take a
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Gabriel Kwame Ankrah, Opoku Kwasi, Patricia Nyamekye
LEXICAL CHOICES IN THE RO‚D NOT T‚KEN , A POEM WRITTEN BY ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
decision and own it. I is a personal pronoun which has a definite function in the
poem.
In terms of the distribution, the verbs are the highest. There are (31) of them
depicting the various process of transitivity and five (5) of them (diverged could, be, took,
had) recurred.
According to Halliday and Matthiessen, (2004) the verb can be referred to as the
process. The process is centrally important in what he refers to as clause as
representation. Halliday refers to it as the system of transitivity. Transitivity is the
overall resource for constructing goings on (experience). It means the kind of activity
expressed by a sentence or a speaker, participants and the manner of participants.
Halliday opines that there are six types of processes in the transitivity structure which
include; material, mental, verbal, existential, relational and behavioural processes. And
Frost uses these process types to convey his message in the poem. Material Processes
(processes of doing): Verbs of action like travel come, travelled, stood, took, kept, trodden,
made were used in the poem. Mental processes: processes of perception, affection,
cognition (thinking, knowing) These are expressed by verbs of feeling, perceiving and
thinking such as knowing, doubted, want which were used in the poem. Relational
processes (being and having): verb like having was used. Behavioral processes:
physiological and psychological, verbal and mental behavior: They were expressed by
verbs such as stood, bent, look, worn which were used in the poem. Verbal processes:
(processes of saying): the verb telling was used. Existential processes: These represent
that something exists or happens verbs like was, diverged, be, lay, had, could, has, shall,
should, leads were used.
Table 3
Material
Mental
come,
knowing,
travelled, took,
doubted, want
Verbal
telling
Existential
was, be, lay,
Relational
having
had, could,
kept, trodden,
has, shall,
made
should, leads
Behavioural
worn, looked,
stood, bent
The verbs connected with the speaker are (12) and they include (could, travelled, be, stood,
took, having, kept, knowing, doubted, come, shall, telling). These verbs catapult the material,
mental, verbal, existential, relational and behavioral processes and decisions that the
speaker need to make ahead of him. The verbs which relate to the two roads are (8) and
they are (diverged, bent, was, wanted, worn, lay, leads, travelled).
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Table 4
Verbs related to the speaker
Verbs related to the two roads
could, travelled, be, stood, took, having, kept,
diverged, bent, was, wanted, worn, lay, leads,
knowing, doubted, come, shall, telling
travelled
The two roads are diverged or swerved, bent or twisted, which indicates that it will be
fairly difficult to see what is ahead and chosen one will be a miserable decision in life.
The verb diverged is very significant in the poem because it means to split into two
different ways, which is important in regards to the roads. Had they just been two
straight roads, they would have most likely gone off in the same direction, and there
wouldn t really be any choice, since these two roads go off in different directions, their
ending-up points would be different therefore making there be a choice between two
roads that appear the same. Trodden is the past tense form of tread. While tread
simply means to step on something crushing whatever it is one is walking on is the
definition, the importance of the word Trodden is the fact that it s in past tense.
‚mongst other words in this poem in the first three stanza s, for example, in stanza one,
all verbs are in past tense, (diverged, stood, looked) as they are in stanza two (took,
was, wanted, had, worn) and stanza three (trodden, doubted). However, in the fourth
stanza the tense changes to future, (shall, telling (progressive)) to give us the
speculation that the narrator is, in fact, at the same place he was in the beginning. He
has probably made no choice, and knows he ll regret not making a choice later.
However, he knows he can t since he is paralyzed by the fear of the wrong choice
of the two similar things…. Roads. The following verbs travel, lay, come) were used in
their bare or base form and they are also used in the present tense. They signify the
choice that the person seemed to have made in the present but failed. Again, the poet
used these verbs (diverged, stood, looked bent, was, wanted, had, has, worn, trodden, made,
kept doubted, travelled) in the past. They also connote the choice or decision that the
person made. In addition, all these verbs which are in the past are marked for tense in
the poem (finite verbs), except for the verbs in the first and last lines of the last stanza,
i.e. shall be telling and has made . ‚ finite verb is a form of a verb that has a subject
(expressed or implied) and can function as the root of an independent clause. The Verbs
can be classified according to their valency or the number of arguments that they take.
Majority of the verbs have trivalent valency – that is the verb has a subject, a direct
object, and an indirect object. For example: I kept the first for another day (stanza 3 line 3), I
took the one less travelled by (stanza 4 line 4) Three of the verbs (having, knowing, telling)
are all in the progressive form. The speaker is regarded as having perhaps the better claim,
knowing how way leads on to way, yet he is stacked with indecision and regrets and later
on be telling this with a sigh somewhere and ages. This is significantly clear that the
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speaker s personal or self-reflection on what he did or did not select in the past and on
what has resulted in is very paramount. Thus, it contributes the idea that choice is
inevitable but he never knows what his choice means until he has lived it.
The adjectives are used to describe or qualify things in the poem. There were
seven (7) adjectives which were used (yellow, sorry, fair, better, first, grassy, black). Two (2)
of the adjectives (yellow, black are for colour. Two
of them fair and better are
adjectives of quality. Grassy’ is an adjective of touch whereas first’ is an adjective of
number which deals with position. The speaker is traveling in a yellow wood. Yellow
is positively regarded as something for gold, hope, perseverance, happiness, and so
forth. This high spirited tone is consistent throughout the poem. With that in mind, it is
not wrong for the reader to regard the sigh as a contented sigh . Negatively, yellow
can be seen as irrationality, fear, emotional fragility, depression, anxiety, suicidal etc.
This can also show the speaker is doubted if he should ever come back in stanza 3 last line.
Yellow is a word that should be looked at in the poem. Not because it s a mere
vocabulary word, but because this word carries a symbol along with it for the poem.
When a wood is yellow, it is a representation that there is obviously (dry) leaves on the
ground (stanza three, line two) it is apparent that the season is (dry) autumn. Autumn
comes right before the season (wet) winter, which is a symbol of death (dry leaves).
Therefore, one can assume that the narrator is at the demise of his life, and is still frozen
by the fear of missing out on one choice, and is therefore getting the double whammy of
choosing either missing out on both, causing a mass contradiction and a bit of absurdity
or inconsistency.
‛esides, black positively depicts sophistication, glamour, security, emotional
safety, efficiency, substance etc so the speaker claims no step had trodden the roads
black. On the contrary, black implies oppression, coldness, menace, heaviness etc.
Black is essentially an absence of light, since no wavelengths are reflected, it
communicates absolute clarity.
Fair and better are all adjectives of quality. Fair
implies that something is neither excellent nor poor; moderately or tolerably good. The
speaker claims to have taken the road which is as just as fair and that has made all the
difference. Better is a comparative form of good or well, meaning effectively more
good or more well. The speaker claims to have better claim in the choice that he made.
Grassy is an adjective resembling or suggestive of grass, and has sense of touch and
sight. First is an adjective of number which denotes position on ascending order.
There are two roads and the speaker claims to have kept the first for another day.
We need to establish that, the study goes beyond the analysis of the meaning and
stylistic value of individual words or lexical choices. It also analyses multi-word
language units, as used in the context of the texts. This is in cognizance of Halliday s
(1966:15) thesis that, in the analysis of lexical categories which reflect contextual
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Gabriel Kwame Ankrah, Opoku Kwasi, Patricia Nyamekye
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meaning, the scholar should be concerned with Synonymy, Antonymy, Hyponymy as
well as Contradictory devices for semantic unity and cohesion. As Carter and McCarthy
(1988) put it, multi-word units behave largely like single words for the purposes of
examining meaning relations in the lexicon.
2. Synonymy as a Device for Semantic Unity and Cohesion
Synonymy simply describes a lexical item that is in some sense similar in meaning with
a preceding one. It is not a straightforward repetition of the same lexical item but a
repetition of the sense of it. Ogbulogo (2005) defines the concept as a lexical relationship
of close relatedness in meaning. According to Longe (1996), synonymy refers to a
situation whereby two or more forms are associated with the same meaning. The critical
point is that, there are instances of both partial and complete synonymy. For instance,
the following lexical items in the poem illustrate the lexico–semantic operation of
synonymy: (diverged and bent). These two words are in the same ambiance or paradigm
of verbal category. In the road not taken, Frost describes the kind of rigor mortis that is
characteristic making decision or choice in life. He expresses the realization that many
of the things that a man does without difficulty in his prime become very hectic and
energy- sapping for him somewhere ages and ages. The words diverged, bent are used in
extending this idea and elaborating it. The critical point is that, all these words pointing
to the roads which are regarded as pictogram of choice and they are used by the poet in
tracking the readers through the message of the poem. The synonymous lexical items
further serve in amplifying the message of the poem; the poet uses them in describing
different perspectives on the problems of sorrow or weariness all of these suggest
attenuation in the power of man as associated by choice and age. Through these lexical
items, the poet is able to develop the idea of regression or being disappointed as the
general feature of indecision in life. The words sorry and sigh themselves suggest
languish, insecurity, apologetic, regretful, remorseful, sad, unhappy, groan, moan and
lack of freedom. Other synonymous lexical items in the poem which seem to perform
this function include doubt and difference. The seemingly synonymous words like worn
and trodden are deployed to describe the two roads which now swerved into a yellow
wood. The critical point here is that, as Carter and McCarthy (1988:201) put it, surface
cohesive ties, such as synonymous should not be looked on just as interesting formal
patterns, but as manifestations of how we are making sense of the message of the text.
2.1 Antonymy as a Device for Semantic Contrast and Cohesion
Antonymy describes lexical items which are opposite in meaning. These words,
according to Carter and McCarthy (1988), also function as cohesive ties in a text. In The
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LEXICAL CHOICES IN THE RO‚D NOT T‚KEN , A POEM WRITTEN BY ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, the device is used in achieving or expressing challenge
of ideas. Some of them appear in the form of phrasal expressions. For instance, the
poem describes two roads. The two antonymous phrasal lexemes which describe this
differing behavior are looked down in stanza one line four. The expression looked
down means to turn one s gaze downward at someone or something. Therefore, the
speaker looks down upon one of the roads as far as he could to where it bent in the
undergrowth. ‚lso leads on in stanza three, line four implies to show the way by
going in advance and the speaker describes the roads as leading on to the undergrowth.
These expressions indicate that the persona is both indecisive and inordinate. The
incongruous relation of the lexemes helps the poet in achieving the humorous sense he
wants the poem to produce in readers.
2.2 Contradictory as a Device for the Expression of Paradoxical Relations for
Cohesion
According to Ogbulogo, (2005) contradiction presents two opposing propositions at the
same time. Frost also expresses contradicting relations. This is true, the association of
certain words which do not have the kind of semantic relationship but rather whose
association is that of disassociation. The poet enunciates the feeling of discrepancy that
envelopes human beings when they are struck by indecision. The contradiction of the
title the road not taken and the line and I took the one less travel is captured and
adumbrates the fact that decision or no decision life must go on. The title suggests that
the speaker did not take any of the roads yet continued to say that he took the one less
travelled and that is a contradictory statement. Also, where we find the expression
yellow wood and wanted wear; This raises the question- how can it be yellow if it were
wood? And how can it be wanted and wear if it were a road? Though the association of
the two words describes the phenomenon of contradiction, their choice is strategic in
the poem as they amplify the description of the roads in the undergrowth which they
describe, making it more concrete than when describe simply as being wood. These
lines appear to contain a contradiction. The poet says that the paths were equally fair
and yet he also indicates that one path had the better claim . The poet has contradictory
feelings about his decision to take a particular path. Difference, in the very last line of
this poem is another contradiction. There really isn t a difference in the choices, so what
difference is the poet speaking about exactly? It can be taken in two ways. One, Frost is
merely mocking the unconformity one seems to adhere with this poem, and bringing
out the fact that with everyone being so-called different, aren t you really just all being
the same? This also coincides with the roads being another symbolic peace. Also, the
word difference’ can help bring out the fact that choosing a road actually being no
longer in indecision would make all the difference’ because you d actually be moving
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along with your life. In
, Frost himself commented that The Road Not Taken is a
tricky poem, very tricky . The trickiness may lie in the speaker s contradictions in
characterizing the diverging roads. At first, the two roads seem very different, but upon
closer analysis, these differences all but vanish. Again, the second stanza opens by
asserting that the one road is just as fair as the other and ends with the statement that
the passing there had worn them really about. Secondly, it is antithetical because the
traveler comes to the fork in the road; he wishes he could travel both. Within the
current theories of our physical word, this is not possible unless he has a split
personality. The traveler realizes this and immediately rejects the idea. Yet another
slight contradiction is the two remarks in the second stanza about the road less traveled.
On one hand, it is described as grassy and wanted wear, after which he turns to say
the roads are actually worn about the same. Perhaps the road less traveled by makes
travelers turn back.
3. Conclusion
In a nutshell, the analysis of the lexical choices show one can use stylistics to espouse an
interpretation of a poem, and how it can also highlight elements of a poem that one
might otherwise miss. Of course, my original thought of the poem was the same as
everyone else s that the poem was simply about being unique. However, with some
careful analysis, we have come to a much different conclusion. On the whole though,
the write up has shown how the linguistic features of a poem are directly related to
meaning, and in so doing the writer has upheld his initial interpretation of The Road
Not Taken . ‛y using a systematic analytical technique like stylistics, we can ensure that
our interpretation is as explicit and grounded in fact, as it can be. The work has looked
at lexical categories such as nouns in terms of their concreteness and abstractness, verbs
in terms of their tenses, valency and kinds, pronouns with respect to case, adjectives
with colour and quality. It has also looked at synonymous, antonymous, and
contradiction as semantic unity and cohesion. We hope that the work has profoundly
explain why stylistic is a useful tool in the analysis of a text.
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LEXICAL CHOICES IN THE RO‚D NOT T‚KEN , A POEM WRITTEN BY ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
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European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 2 │ Issue 1 │ 2017
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Gabriel Kwame Ankrah, Opoku Kwasi, Patricia Nyamekye
LEXICAL CHOICES IN THE RO‚D NOT T‚KEN , A POEM WRITTEN BY ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
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