Real Grammar in Fictional Contexts

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RealGrammarinFictionalContexts
CatherineEmmott
Grammarians have traditionally confined their studies to isolated sample sentences or phrases and
have typically drawn on their intuitions about how they believe language works rather than on
observationsofhowlanguageactuallydoeswork.Usingthismethod,agrammaticalsystemmaybe
developed without the analyst ever considering how linguistic features occur in real 1 naturally
occurringactsofcommunicationsuchasnovels,textbooks,newspapersandeverydayconversation.
Thereis,however,astrongassumptionamongstcertainlinguists(e.g.Chafe,1980,1994Thompson,
1987Sinclair(ed.),1987,1990Werth,forthcomingEmmott,forthcoming)thatthestudyofreal
actsofcommunicationshouldprovidetherawmaterialforcreatinggrammaticaltheories,ratherthan
beingviewedasanaftertheeventapplication.Therealgrammarwhichemergesfromstudying
thistypeofdatamaybesignificantlydifferentfromfindingsbasedonartificiallyconstructeddatain
termsofbothspecificdetailsandtheoveralltheoreticalapproach.
Thisstudyexaminesoneparticulargenre,narrativefiction,lookingathowlanguageactuallyoperates
inthesetexts.Themainobjectofthisworkisnottoprovideananalysisofthestylisticpropertiesof
specifictextsortocommentonthelanguageofthegenre(althoughsuchobservationswillarisefrom
the analysis), but to look at some of the canonical assumptions of grammatical theory, seeing how
applicabletheseassumptionsareinthefaceofrealdataandexploringtopicsonwhichthestandard
grammartextbooksremainsilent.Inparticular,thestudysuggeststhattheinterpretationofparticular
grammatical relationships in narrative texts can only be explained by such cognitive factors as the
involvement, perspective and orientation of the reader. This raises questions about the nature of
grammaticaltheoryandaboutwhatshouldbeincludedingrammartextbooks.
FROMUNREALTOREALDATA
Utilising unreal data has a long tradition in Linguistics and also in Social Science subjects such as
Psychology.Mostgrammartextbooksillustratetheirobservationsaboutlanguageusingexamplesthat
have been made up by the grammarians themselves and which they assume will be recognised as
representativeofhowlanguageworksingeneral.Oftenthishasbeendueeithertoconvenienceorto
an undue reliance on intuition. Sometimes, however, there are more deliberate reasons, both
theoreticalandpractical,forthechoiceofdata.Generativelinguists,forexample,haveshunnedreal
textsinthebeliefthattheyarerepletewithperformanceerrors,suchasslipsofthetongueinspoken
communication,andsodonotadequatelyreflecttheunderlyingknowledgeofalanguagepossessed
byaspeaker.ThispointofviewismadeexplicitbyChomsky(1965,p.4)whenhecommentsthat:
Observeduseoflanguageorhypothesizeddispositionstorespond,habits,andsoon,mayprovide
evidenceastothenatureofthismentalreality,butsurelycannotconstitutetheactualsubjectmatterof
linguistics,ifthisistobeaseriousdiscipline.Fordifferentreasons,manypsychologistswillalsoopt
touseselfcreatedlanguagematerialsintheirexperimentsonlanguagecomprehension.Thistypeof
dataisconsideredbyexperimenterstobemoreeasytocontrolempiricallythansentencesextracted
fromrealactsofcommunication.
Incontrasttothisapproach,discourseanalystsarguethatartificiallyconstructeddatalacksimportant
propertiesofreallanguage.Thisispartlyduetothebrevityofartificialdata,whichisoftenonlyone
or two sentences in length. Certain grammatical features have been shown only to be understood
properly when they are studied alongside related linguistic items spanning much larger stretches of
text, as shown by Halliday and Hasans seminal (1976) work on textual cohesion. Brief madeup
examplesarealsolikelytolackoveralldiscoursestructure,suchastopicshiftsinnonnarrativeand
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/STELLA/COMET/glasgrev/issue4/realgram.htm
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flashbacks or changes in point of view in narrative. Much research in discourse analysis has
demonstrated that major discourse boundaries can have an effect on grammatical form (e.g. Chafe,
1980Clancy,1980,1992Fox,1987a,b,1988Emmott,1989).
Even if a single sentence of real text is compared with a single sentence of madeup text, the
differences can be considerable. Chafe (1994, p. 108) has found that the patterns of given and new
information in constructed examples are often quite unlike those found in a corpus of real texts.
Traditional grammar textbooks may also give undue emphasis to simple structures which are
comparativelyrareinreality(Chafe1994,p.17),asSinclair(1990,p.xi)pointsoutinrelationtotwo
word sentences comprising just a subject and verb. Conversely, structures which have a reasonable
frequency in real text might never be mentioned in a grammar textbook based on constructed
examplesalone.
Asanincreasingamounthasbeenlearntaboutthepropertiesofrealdiscourse,approachestowriting
grammartextbookshavebeenchanging,withsomeofthesetextbooksnowcitingextractsfromreal
texts(e.g.Freeborn,1987Downing&Locke,1992).Thepurposeofsuchextractsdoes,nevertheless,
oftenseemtobetoillustrateapreexistingmodelderivedfromartificialdataortofillinminorgaps
insuchamodel.Thisisverydifferentfromutilisingrealdatatobuildamodelofgrammarfromfirst
principles.
Morerevolutionaryinthisrespectarerecentattemptstoanalyselinguisticusageutilisinglargetext
corporawhichareanalysedwiththeassistanceofcomputerconcordances(e.g.Sinclair,1987,1990).
Suchprojectsarechangingmanyofourassumptionsaboutthelanguage.Thistypeofanalysisisnot,
however,theonlywayofanalysinggrammaticalitemsinrealdataandcanbecomplementedbyother
approaches. The following section discusses how grammatical items can be studied by tracing their
usage through specific passages and observing how linguistic forms are influenced by the
developmentofthetextsinwhichtheyoccur.
REALDATA,REALGRAMMAR
The approach taken to grammar in this article can be described as cognitivefunctional and text
orientated, in the tradition of American discourse analysts such as Chafe (1980, 1994), Du Bois
(1980),Clancy(1980,1992),Hopper(1979),HopperandThompson(1980),Thompson(1987)and
Longacre (1983). This approach involves identifying cognitive reasons for the use of a particular
grammatical form at a specific point in a text. This section illustrates this type of analysis by
examining instances of three grammatical features (the past perfect, the indefinite article and
anaphoric/cataphoric pronouns) in selected examples of narrative text. I argue that the textual
examplescitedcanonlybeaccountedforbypostulatingcognitivefactorssuchasthefollowing:
(i) Knowledge: for example, information which is available to enable the reader to identify the
referentofareferringexpressionortomakeinferencesaboutthepossibleidentityofthereferent(e.g.
Emmott,1994Werth,1995,forthcoming).
(ii)Orientationandreorientation:forexample,thereadersneedtotrackthecontinuityofevents
in a spatiotemporal unit or to recognise switches from one spatiotemporal unit to another (e.g.
Chafe,1980Clancy,1980Emmott,1989,1995b,forthcomingWerth,1995,forthcoming).
(iii)Involvement:forexample,theperceptionofasceneasbeingmoreorlessvividbyvirtueofits
narrativepresentation(e.g.Longacre,1970,1983).
(iv)Perspective:forexample,theidentificationwiththepointofviewofonecharacterratherthan
another (e.g. Fowler, 1977, 1986 Fludernik, 1993 Duchan et al (eds.), 1995 Werth, 1995,
forthcoming).
(v)Salience:thedegreeofimportanceofknowledge(see(i)above),duetofactorssuchasthestatus
ofacharacterorthecentralityofeventsintermsofplotexpectations(Clancy,1980,1992Grimes,
1975Grimes(ed.),1978).
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(vi)Distance:theamountoftext/discoursethathaselapsedsincerelevantknowledge(see(i)above)
wasacquiredfromthetext(e.g.Clancy,1980Emmott,1995a).
These categories will be explained further in the remainder of the section, as the text examples are
analysed.Thelistaboveisnotintendedasacomprehensiveonesinceafullanalysisofatextwould
requireamuchfinergrainedsystem(Emmott,inpreparation).Itwill,nevertheless,servetoillustrate
the general point that cognitive factors are important in grammatical analysis and, furthermore, to
demonstrate how a number of cognitive factors may weigh against each other in the
production/interpretationofaparticulargrammaticalform.Ineachcase,thisexplanationiscompared
and contrasted with that of standard grammar textbooks and the differences identified are then
discussedinthefollowingsection.
(I)VERBALASPECT:THEPASTPERFECT
Onegeneralizationthatisoftenmadeingrammartextbooksisthatthepastperfect(e.g.hadspoken)
isusedtosignalremoteorpastinthepasttime,whichisanterior(Quirketal(1985,pp195
196) to that denoted by the simple past tense (e.g. spoke). In describing the language of narrative
texts,itwouldseemnatural,therefore,toassumethatwhenthemainnarrativeisinthesimplepast
tense, flashbacks will be in the past perfect. In fact, an examination of real narratives shows that
substantialportionsofflashbacksmayutilisethesameverbformasthemainnarrative.Indeed,the
past perfect is often found only at the beginning of a flashback and sometimes intermittently
throughout2.Duringmuchofaflashbackthesimplepastmaybeused,asshownbelow:
Example1
Thisaccount[ofherchildhood]Vivienhadgiveninanotatallselfpityingwaybutspeculating
astohowmanysiblingsshemightactuallybythenhave.Zosiehadbeenthereandhadlistened
withakindofstaringintensity,herelbowsonthetableandherlittlepalefaceheldinthecupof
herhands.
Mymothersabandonedmetoo,shesaid.
ThatwasbeforeshehadtoldVivienaboutthebaby.Shewasstillthemysterygirl,comeoutof
nowhere.
MymotherdoesntknowwhereIam,shesaid.Shedoesntcare,doesshe?Shehasnttried
to find me, she hasnt looked for me, she hasnt told the police. Im missing but she doesnt
care.
Howdoyouknow?Rufussaid.Itwasyouranawayfromhernotshefromyou.Orsoone
gathers.Howdoyouknowshesnotgoingspare?
Wevehadtheradiooneverydayandtheresbeennothing.Iboughtapaperwhilewewerein
London.IvelookedatpaperseverytimewevebeeninSudburyandtheresneverbeenaword.
Shedoesntcare,shesgladIvegone.
Sowhat?saidreasonableRufus.Isntthatwhatyouwant?Ithoughtyousaidthatthelast
thingyouwantedwastogohome.Youdontwantyourmotherfussingaroundyou,doyou?
Shivathought he had understood. Vivien certainly had. Vivien said it was one thing a young
girlrunningawayfromhomeandbeinggladtoleaveherparentsbutquiteanotherforherto
findouttheparentswererelievedshedgone.AndZosiesaid:
Dontyouseehowterribleitis?Immissingfromhomeandmymotherisntworried.Imight
havebeenmurdered.ForChristssake,Imonlyseventeen.
Shebegantocry,tearingsobs.Viviensatdownbesideherandputanarmroundher,thenshe
turned her round and held her in her arms. It was later that day that Zosie had told Vivien
everythingoralmosteverything.Atanyrateshehadtoldheraboutthebaby.
(BarbaraVine,1987,AFatalInversion,pp.194195)
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In this extract, all the events take place several years prior to those of the main narrative, recalling
eventswhichhappenedtothecharactersintheiryouths.Theextractbeginsinthepastperfect(had
given,hadbeen,hadlistened),butswitchestosimplepastwhilststilldescribingthesametimeperiod
(said,began,satdown,etc.).Towardstheendoftheextract,theverbformswitchestothepastperfect
again(ZosiehadtoldVivieneverything),signallingatimewhichisstillanteriortothemainnarrative,
butwhichisneverthelesssubsequenttothatoftheimmediatelyprecedingpassage.Clearly,thereisno
pervasive correlation between anterior events and the past perfect verb form. Quirk et al (1985, p.
196),whichisoneofthemostdetailedgrammartextbooks,does,inpart,prepareusforthis:
Butofcourse,thepastperfectivedoesnothavetorefertoamoreremotetimethanthatreferred
to by the simple past. In some cases, particularly in a clause introduced by after, the two
constructionscanbemoreorlessinterchangeable:
[i]Iate[T2]mylunchafterSandrahadcome[T3]backfromhershopping.
[ii]Iate[T2]mylunchafterSandracame[T3]backfromhershopping.
Afterplacestheeating(T2)afterSandrasreturn(whichwemaycallT3),sothepastperfective,
which places T3 before T2, is redundant. What difference it does make is a matter of the
standpoint of the speaker. In [sentence (i)] the past in past time T3 is identified as being
earlierthanT2bythepastperfectivebutin[sentence(ii)]itislefttotheconjunctionafterto
signalthistemporalrelation.
Thisexplanationalertsustothepossibilityofvariabilitybutdoesnotadequatelyaccountforwhyin
oneofQuirketalsexamplestheconjunctionisfollowedbythepastperfect(orpastperfectiveasitis
termed in Quirk et al) whereas in the other it is omitted as redundant. To ascertain this type of
information, it would be necessary to look at the communicative context of real examples of this
structuretoseewhatmotivatestheuseofaparticularverbform.
Variability of the verb form in the narrative extract in Example 1 might be partially explained by
redundancy after the initial setup of the scene. The initial events would therefore be in the past
perfecttoestablishtheanteriorityoftheensuingsequenceofevents,butonceestablishedalleventsin
the sequence might be assumed to belong to the same time period without the need for a linguistic
indicator.Inaddition,thesimplepastmightberegardedasamoreimmediateform,moreappropriate
toasceneincorporatingafairamountofdirectspeechandfromapracticalpointofviewthesimple
pastmayalsobeeasiertosustainoverlongstretchesoftextsinceithasalesscumbersomestructure
than the past perfect 3. The switch to the past perfect at the end of the extract might be seen as a
reaffirmationoftheanteriorityoftheflashbacktimeframeafteraminorshifttotheparameters(later
thatday),eventhough,atthisparticularpoint,timeismovingforwardsratherthanbackwards.The
useofpastperfectverbformsatthispointalsocoincideswithsummarisingoftheconversationrather
thanthemoremimeticdirectspeechthathascomeearlier.
Ifthisanalysisiscorrect,thepastperfectcanbeseenasacharacteristicofreorientationratherthanas
atimemarkeroforientation.Thereadersassumptionofthecontinuityofeventswithinthepastin
thepasttimebandwouldmakeunnecessaryrepeatedgrammaticalsignallingandalackofrepeated
signalling would allow greater involvement in the action, making the events come to life for the
reader. However, in cases where a flashback may intermittently signal orientation, there may be a
tensionbetweenremindingthereaderofthetimeframeoftheactivityandincreasinginvolvementby
makingthepresentationmorevivid.
(II)DEFINITENESS
Examiningrealtextsshowsthearticlestohaveamorecomplexrangeoffunctionsthansuggestedby
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thestandardgrammarbooks.Consider,forexample,standardstatementsabouttheindefinitearticle,
asfoundinQuirketal(1985,p.272):
...a/an X will be used where the reference of X is not uniquely identifiable in the shared
knowledgeofspeakerandhearer.Hencea/anistypicallyusedwhenthereferenthasnotbeen
mentionedbefore,andisassumedtobeunfamiliartothespeakerorhearer:
An intruder has stolen a vase. The intruder stole the vase from a locked case. The case was
smashedopen.
Althoughcommon,thisisnottheonlypatterntobefoundinnarrative.Anentitymayalsobedenoted
with an indefinite article when it has been previously mentioned in the text and can therefore be
assumedtobefamiliartobothwriterandreader.ConsiderthefollowingsituationinMervynPeakes
TitusGroan.SteerpikehasbeenclimbingacrosstheroofofGormenghastforseveralhourstryingto
findawayofenteringthecastle.Heeventuallymanagestoforcehiswaythroughawindowand,in
exhaustion,landsunconsciousonthefloorofFuchsiassecretattic.Sometimelater,Fuchsiaenters
theattic:
Example2
Herlongcolouredcandleswerebythedoorandshelitoneofthemimmediatelyfromthelittle
whiteoneinherhand.Turningtoplaceitonthetable,herheartstoppedbeating,forshefound
thatshewasstaringacrosstheroomatabodylyinghuddledbeneathherwindow.
(MervynPeake,1985,TitusGroan,pp.147148)
Theindefinitearticleaisusedinthenounphraseabodyeventhoughthereadermustknowboththat
thereisabodyintheatticandthatthecharacterisSteerpike.Thisknowledgecomespartlyfromthe
previous account of Steerpikes entry into the room and partly from the chapter heading
(incorporating a definite article), The body by the window. Clearly, the reason for the indefinite
articleisthatSteerpikeisatthispointunknowntooneoftheothercharacters,Fuchsia,throughwhose
eyesthereaderiswitnessingtheaction.Thisuseoftheindefinitearticleoftenaccompaniesaswitch
inperspective,eitherfromonecharactertoanotherorasthephysicaldistanceincreasesbetweenthe
perceiverandtheperceived.
Example3
...He[Matty]thrusthisbooksintotheirhandsandlimpedquicklyaway.Theyheldontoeach
other, laughing like apes. They broke apart, clamorously collected their fellows. The whole
troupeclatteredupthestonestairs,up,up,one,two,threestoreystothelandingbythegreat
window. They pushed and shoved against the great bar that ran from one end to the other at
boyheight,andheldtheverticalsthatwerelessthanaboyswidthapart.Fiftyyardsawayand
fiftyfeetdownaboylimpedquicklytowardstheforbiddentree.
(WilliamGolding,1980,DarknessVisible,p.24)
In this example, Matty is represented by the indefinite expression a boy at the point at which he
moves into the distance and this device also serves to highlight his alienation from the other boys.
Thislinguisticsignallingofperspective, by means of the indefinite article, therefore overcomes the
usual requirement for a definite article when the reader has knowledge of the characters identity
(particularlywhentheindividualhasbeensorecentlymentioned,sothelinguisticdistanceissmall).
Of course, narratologists and text linguists are increasingly studying the relationship between
language and point of view (e.g. Fludernik, 1993 Duchan et al (eds.), 1995 Werth, 1995,
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forthcoming), so these observations about perspective are not new. However, there does need to be
sometransferoftheseideasfromthedomainofliterarylinguisticstothegrammaticalcanon.Thisuse
oftheindefinitearticleisnotjustfoundinliterarytexts.DuBois(1980,pp.258272)findssimilar
features in oral narratives he examines and comments that The literature on definiteness....has
isolated definiteness from larger considerations of discourse structure as a whole.....many crucial
phenomenarelatedtodefinitenessareeithernotfoundornoteasilyrecognizedwithinthedomainof
onesentenceortwosentenceexampleswhicharetypicallyused.
(III)ANAPHORICANDCATAPHORICREFERENCE
The distinction between anaphora and cataphora is rarely examined critically in the grammar
textbooks.Quirketal(1985,p.347)offerthefollowingexplanations:
...wedistinguishbetweenAnaphoricandCataphoricusesofa3rdpersonpronoun,accordingto
whethertheelementwithwhichitcorefers(theAntecedent)precedesorfollowsit.
andalso(p.351):
Cataphoric reference occurs less frequently [than anaphoric reference], and under limited
conditions.Whereitdoesoccur,anaphoricreferenceisalsopossible,sothatwecanequatetwo
synonymoussentencessuchas[i]and[ia]inwhichthepositionsofpronounandantecedentare
reversed.
[icataphoric]BeforehejoinedtheNavy,Geraldmadepeacewithhisfamily.
[iaanaphoric]BeforeGeraldjoinedtheNavy,hemadepeacewithhisfamily.
This explanation takes no account of the fact that a sentence may be preceded by prior text. The
following example would be cataphoric by Quirk etals criterion, but is, arguably, anaphoric in its
naturalcontext:
Example4
InadditiontohisfivefamousnovelsandcollectionofshortstoriesavailableasPenguins,E.M.
Forsterhaspublishedaboutfourteenotherworks...
(OpeningbiographyinE.M.Forster,1954,CollectedShortStories)
ThepronounhisprecedesthenameE.M.Forsterinthisparticularsentence,asheprecedesGeraldin
Quirketals example. The biography has, however, begun with the statement that EdwardMorgan
Forster was born in London in 1879 and the intervening text contains a succession of anaphoric
pronouns.Thepronounhiscanbeinterpretedautomaticallyifwehavealreadyreadtheprecedingtext
andcanthereforebeanalysedasanaphorictotheantecedentnounphraseEdwardMorganForsterin
the first sentence rather than cataphoric to the succeeding E.M. Forster in the sentence cited in
Example4.
This may seem as if the notion of anaphora simply needs to be expanded to take account of
antecedents in previous sentences of the text. This is the approach suggested by cohesion analysts
(e.g.HallidayandHasan,1976)whoseetextsasbeingcomprisedofintersententialtiesorchainsof
linguistic items. The problem with this approach is that there are cases where there is no recent
antecedent,butwheretherearestillcluestotheidentityofthereferent,asinthefollowingextract:
Example5
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Im going to work on that kid every hour of the day until I get something. She rose
formidablyandmovedacrosstherestaurant,likeawarshipgoingintoaction,awarshiponthe
rightsideinawartoendwars,thesignalflagsproclaimingthateverymanwoulddohisduty.
Herbigbreasts,whichhadneversuckledachildofherown,feltamercilesscompassion.Rose
fledatthesightofher,butIdamovedrelentlesslytowardstheservicedoor.
(GrahamGreene,1943,BrightonRock,pp.120121)
Thisexamplebeginsinmediasresatthestartofanewchapter.Thepreviousepisode(pp.116120)
doesnotmentionthereferent,Ida,atall.Intermsoftheproximityofanantecedent,thepronounsin
this extract would have to be considered cataphoric, with the antecedent being the name Ida in the
final line. It is, nevertheless, relatively easy to guess, before encountering the name, that these
pronouns refer to Ida. The mention of going to work on that kid every hour of the day and the
warship metaphor link in with the fact that she is pursuing Pinkie, a character who is referred to
throughoutthestoryastheBoyordescribedasakid.Thisissocentraltotheplotofthestorythat
thereadermustbeawareofthisinformation.Thephysicaldescriptionalsocorrespondstoprevious
descriptionsofIda.Althoughthefinalmentionofthenamemayconfirmtheidentityofthereferent,
thereseemsafairpossibilitythatthereaderwillhavealreadyascertainedit.Makingassumptionsof
thiskindispartofreading,butisnottakenaccountofingrammaticaltheory.Iftheaboveexampleis
classified according to Quirk et als criterion (or by that of Halliday and Hasan), it cannot be
anaphoric.If,however,anaphoraistakentomeanthatinformationisavailabletodecodeapronoun
(whether or not in the form of an explicit antecedent), then the pronouns could be classified as
anaphoric, depending on the interpretive strategy of the reader. As far as cognitive functions are
concerned,thereadersknowledgeofthecharacter,reinforcedbythesalienceoftheindividualdueto
herplotcentrality,meansthatthedistanceofthelastmentioncanbeovercome.
Sometimes, the ability to identify a character in such circumstances may be due not just to general
plotsaliencebuttothereinstatementofaspecificcontextualframe(Emmott,1989,1994),asinthe
followingextract:
Example6
ButhewasFred.HetoldmehewasFred.
HewasCharles.Youcanreaditthere.CharlesHale.
That dont signify, Ida said. A man always has a different name for strangers. You arent
telling me your real names Clarence. And a man dont have a different name for every girl.
Hedgetconfused.YouknowyoualwayssticktoClarence.Youcanttellmemuchaboutmen
Idontknow.
Itdontmeananything.Youcanreadhowitwas.Theyjusthappenedtomentionit.Nobody
tookanynoticeofthat.
Shesaidsadly,Nobodystakenanynoticeofanything.Youcanreadithere.Hehadntgotany
folkstomakeafuss.Thecoroneraskedifanyrelationofthedeceasedwaspresent,andthe
police witness stated that they could trace no relations other than a second cousin in
Middlesborough.Itsoundssortoflonely,Nobodytheretoaskquestions.
Iknowwhatlonelinessis,Ida,thesombremansaid.Ivebeenaloneamonthnow.
Shetooknonoticeofhim:shewasbackatBrightononWhitMonday,thinkinghowwhileshe
waitedthere,hemusthavebeendying,walkingalongthefronttoHove,dying,andthecheap
dramaandpathosofthethoughtweakenedherhearttowardshim.
(GrahamGreene,1943,BrightonRock,pp.3132)
Inthefinalparagraph,thefirstmalepronoun(him)referstothesombreman,butthesecondone(he)
referstothedeadmanwhoiscalledbothCharlesHaleandFred.Sincethereisnoantecedentbetween
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these two pronouns, there needs to be some explanation of how the second pronoun can be
interpreted.Itcouldbearguedthatthereisadirectanaphoricconnectionbetweenthelastmentionof
the character (hadnt got any folks) and this one (he must have been dying), made possible by the
lexicalcohesionbetweenthewordsdeceasedanddying.Arguably, however, the shift of contextual
frame(tothepastWhitMondayinBrighton),recallingapriorsalientsceneinvolvingIdawaitingfor
thedeceasedman,reinstatesthesecharactersinourmindsbeforeweevenreachthepronoununder
analysis.Ifthisisthecase,theframeswitchistakingovertherolethattheantecedentissupposedto
take, providing the necessary information for the reader to interpret the pronoun 4. The relevant
cognitivefactorsinExample5areasfollows.ThereorientationproducedbytheflashbacktoWhit
Mondayallowsabreakbetweenthepronouns,sothatthesecondpronounisnotlikelytocoreferwith
thefirstone(denotingthesombreman).ThereadersknowledgeoftheWhitMondayepisodeandthe
salienceofthatepisodetotheplotmakeitpossibleforthescenetobereinstatedandthecharacterset
tobeinferred.
FROMUNFOLDINGTEXTSTOAGRAMMAROFCOGNITION
Some linguists might argue that the type of analysis performed in the previous section is more a
matter of usage or style than of grammatical theory. Many grammar books concentrate on
decontextualisedsentencesfirstandthen,iftheylookattextsatall,moveontoconnectedsentences
atalaterstage.HenceQuirketal(1985)finishtheirbookwithachapterentitledFromsentenceto
text(pp.14211514),asifconnectedtextisonlytobelookedatafteragrammarofsentenceshas
beenproposed.Analternative,however,istocreatetheinitialgrammardirectlyfromcontextualised
sentences, moving from texts to grammar. Although standard grammar textbooks do include some
points of this type within their canon of topics, they do not generally seem to be prepared to go
beyondthistraditionalrepertoireofobservationstotakeaccountofnewfindingsfromtextlinguistics.
Mostgrammartextbooksthereforeincludetheobservationthattextscanbegininmediasreswiththe
definite article, but do not note the opposite point that referents can become indefinite part way
throughastory.Theseobservationsdo,however,haveverysimilarstatusanditisdifficulttoargue
thatonehasaplaceinagrammarbookandtheotherdoesnot.Itisonlyahistoricalmatterthatin
medias res openings have been observed and perspective switches have not, probably due to the
prominent position of in medias res openings at the beginning of texts. Similar ad hoc textual
observationscanbefoundwithrelationtoverbforms.Virtuallyeverytextbookincludesadiscussion
ofthehistoricpresentinoralstorytelling,explainingthattheremaybeaswitchfromthepasttenseto
thepresenttenseatclimacticmomentsinastory.Theobservationsmadeearlierinthispaperabout
thepastperfectareverysimilarinnature,butdonotseemtobenoted.Moreover,thepointthatthe
past perfect may signal reorientation rather than a straightforward time signal is fundamental to
understandingthebasicmeaningoftheverb.
Inadditiontolookingathowgrammaticalfeaturesareactuallyusedinrealtexts,itisalsopossibleto
observehowgrammarreflectsthedynamicunfoldingofatext 5.Thisapproachobservesthetext
unravelling,simulatingthereadingprocess.AsFillmore(1982,p.254)pointsout:
Theinterpretersexperiencealwayshasacleardynamicaspect,towhichourworkhastopay
closeattention.Weneedtoshow,forexample,thatatextcancreateexpectationsinthereaders
mindatonepointwhichitthensatisfiesorsubvertsatalaterpoint......Inordertopresentthe
dynamic aspect of a readers experience with a text, we have developed a method of text
analysis which takes the text one segment at a time, asking ourselves at each point in this
unrollingofthetextsomethinglike,Havingreadthisfar,whatwouldithavefiguredout,orbe
puzzledby,orbeexpecting?
Thismethodmightappearonlytobevalidforeachspecifictext,butitispossibletomovefroman
analysisofanumberofspecifictextstomakebroadstatementsabouthowcertaintextualfunctions
areachieved.Soalthoughtheexactnatureoftheknowledgethatareaderhasaboutacharacterwillbe
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differentforeverytext,thewayinwhichknowledgecaninteractoroverrideotherfactors(suchasthe
distancebetweenapronounandthelastmentionofacharacter)canbeobserved.
This approach produces a grammar which takes account of cognitive factors such as the need for
orientation and the ability to switch perspective. It can be used to explain both the writers and
readers relationship with the text. The writer may be assumed to follow the communicative
contract of producing text which takes account of the cognitive abilities and limitations of an
imagined reader. Of course, each reader will respond differently as a result of factors such as their
abilitytorememberdetails,theirattentiveness,theirreadingstrategies,etc.Henceananalystcanonly
saywhichfactorsareavailabletobetakenintoaccountratherthanwhichareactuallyutilisedinthe
readingprocessandhowtheyareweighted.
CONCLUSION
Oncecognitivefactorsareincorporatedintotheanalysis,grammaticaltheorybecomesanextensionof
textual processing in general, with the readers awareness of the development of a fictional world
being relevant in both cases. Grammatical theory then begins to reflect cognitive constraints and
abilities. Some grammatical items provide explicit linguistic signalling to reorientate the reader or
identify a specific referent. Other items provide less explicit information but rely on the reader 's
knowledge of the fictional world, particularly where information which is salient to the plot is
concerned.Often,basicstorytellingtechniques,suchasswitchingperspectiveorcreatingamorevivid
representationofpastevents,willhaveaneffectontheformused.
The assumption that grammatical relations are linked to the dynamic unfolding of a text is rather
differentfromtraditionalgrammaticaltheoryandcohesiveapproachestolinguisticpatternsintexts.
Suchapproacheshavefocusedonthelinguisticsurfaceoftexts.Soanaphoraandcataphorahavebeen
seenintermsoflinguisticantecedence,whilstdefinitenesshasbeenamatterofwhetherareferenthas
orhasnotbeenmentioned.Bycontrast,acognitiveapproachputsthereaderbackintotheequation
and views the interpretation of grammatical items as being a matter of knowledge and inferencing.
Ultimately,therefore,acognitiveapproachislikelytohavemorerelevanceforpracticalapplications
ofgrammarsuchasartificialintelligenceandeducation.
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1Sinclair(ed.)(1987,1990)usestheterm"realEnglish"todescribethecorpusexamplesdrawnon
intheCOBUILDdictionaryandgrammar.Morerecently,MilroyandMilroy(eds.)(1993)haveused
thesametermtodescribesociolinguisticvariationingrammaticalusage.Fordetaileddiscussionsof
the distinction between constructed and natural data see Chafe (1994) and Emmott (forthcoming,
Chapter3).
BacktoText
2SeeEmmott1989,1992,1994.
BacktoText
3Theuseofthesimplepastfortheflashbackalsoallowsthecontrastinguseofthepastperfectasa
meansofsignallingeventswhichareeitherpriortothe"pastinthepast"eventsorearlieroninthe
flashbackeventsequence.
BacktoText
4Insometexts,examplescanbefoundinwhichasceneshiftcancognitivelyreinstateareferent
whentherehasbeennolexicalmentionofthecharacterforaconsiderablestretchoftext(Emmott,
1994).
BacktoText
5SeeSinclair(1983,pp.7175)foradiscussionofthe"dynamicapproach"alsoRavelli(1991)for
adetailedstudy.
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