foregrounding (n.)

A term used in STYLISTICS (especially POETICS) and sometimes in PRAGMATICS and DISCOURSE analysis, to refer to relative prominence in discourse, often involving deviance from a linguistic NORM; the analogy is of a figure seen against a background (and the rest of the text is often referred to as backgrounding). The deviant or prominent feature is said to have been foregrounded. For example, the use of rhyme, alliteration and metrical regularity are examples of foregrounding operating at the level of PHONOLOGY.