Introduction.

The primary aim of a literary writing is to produce an emotional and aesthetic impact on the reader, thus bringing home to him the writer's way of looking at human nature, the inter-relation of events and the world. H.G.Widdowson points out that a literary work may be treated as a special form of communication "which conveys the unique reality of the individual vision".* Taken as such, the study of literature and especially the analysis of literary texts can develop a sharper awareness of the communicative resources of the language being learned. "It can help in the acquisition of essential skills of communication by extending the study of system to the practice of putting it to use in both the comprehension and the production of different kinds of discourse necessary for the learner's further education or his work".* Unlike texts based on argumentation, literary writing conveys the author's message implicitly through evocative imagery and artistic impression. For this purpose, the writer creates quasi-real worlds depicting people and events which have no reality other than the words used to describe them. Readers are to seek out hidden meanings and messages going by intuition, mainly. It is usually assumed that to winkle out the message no other information than the general knowledge of the language the text is written in and the general knowledge of the world is needed. It should be pointed out that the impressions formed in the readers are very often intangible and volatile. It is difficult to put them into words and to pinpoint the feelings evoked by the text. Moreover, different readers may come up with different impressions of the same piece and produce alternative interpretations, each equally , valid. Here another question arises: what language means are employed to convey the message? are there any language cues leading on to this or that interpretation? Those questions usually underlie the procedure of text analysis, but, didactically, what seems-to be lacking is an explicit set of principles to make the analysis more precise. As it has already been pointed out, interpretations offered by different readers may vary, but there are always points and impressions on which the majority of readers will agree. Teaching linguistic analysis of a literary work is | impossible unless individual ideas and appro[ * Widdowson H.G. Stylistics and the teaching of literature. Longman, London, | ; 'l990.pg.71. * Ibid., pg.83.

-2-

aches can be related to a more general scheme. In devising such a scheme it is logical to proceed from an assumption that text interpretations are based on the subtleties of the language use, and developing techniques of individual interpretation one should look for language cues in the text and try to discover how particular linguistic elements in a piece of writing contribute to its unique meaning. Since there are certain linguistic regularities, given concrete language facts, certain conclusions may be expected to emerge. It could probably serve as a guide to how some strategies for text interpretation may be developed and presented as the teaching material. So, learners need guidance as to what to look for, and below we would like to provide a list of major points one should bear in mind while analysing a literary text. There is another difficulty arising from the situation where stylistic analysis of English literary texts is taught to students whose mother tongue is not English: they are to enlarge their vocabulary to be able not only to explore but also to express what they have discovered about the text analysed. That is the second aim pursued by the present guide. The sections of the guide do not follow any definite pattern one can use in arranging material into an interpretation essay: such a pattern can hardly be said to exist since each literary work is individual and unique and personal impressions of it will vary from one reader to another depending on the peculiarities of individual perception. Each section dwells on a separate point which may be useful in text analysis and contains brief background information and a list of expressions which may be employed while dwelling on this particular aspect of the text.

- 3 - 1.Summing up the Text. Message. Text analysis is based on determining the message of the text and describing how the message is conveyed. Some texts may have a single, relatively simple message, others may suggest several ideas. There are texts which present serious ideas in a playful, lighthearted way thus performing two functions: first, to entertain the reader, and, second, to transmit the ideas intended. A combination of several purposes may also be observed in the texts where the writer seeks to inform the reader (e.g. historical novels, travelogues, etc.), besides conveying messages of educational, aesthetic or moral value. In many cases it might seem plausible to compare the general contents of the text and its message. It should be borne in mind that a summary in this case should be given in a very concise form, preferably in one sentence. Here are some samples. Summary Message

1. The poem offers a description of a 1. It symbolizes liberation but the horse ride, with horse and rider setting poem suggests that the ecstatic gallop out in the dark of an early morning and for liberation may also be a ride galloping in ecstasy towards the rising towards destruction. sun. 2. The text represents a series of 2. The text is the verbal equivalent of a unrecorded impressions, it is obviously painting, it expresses a sense of a recollected experience. dynamic movement in suspense from any particular time reference. 3. The poem centres on a man stopping 3. The poem expresses a longing to to admire the dark woods on a quiet perpetuate the sense of peace and a winter night. realisation that it is not possible. It symbolizes a natural freedom from constraint, a world apart from that which is circumscribed by a human system of rights and obligations.

Summary. Examples: The story/passage/extract depicts/presents a series of sinister events in a small Scottish village.
1. 2. 3.

The passage portrays an average American family, loving and united.

The action revolves around (centres on) the events taking place in France during World War II. Each of the three parts of the text is concerned with a different, albeit related, topic.
4.

The initial paragraph not only summarizes the conversation, but gives an insight into the emotional state of the characters.
5.

The third paragraph takes in the surrounding and presents the protagonist's outlook in general.
6.

Message. Examples: What the first verse expresses is not simply a sense of morality, but a recognition that things which are distinct and which indeed may represent opposites can be reconciled by a unifying vision of an ultimate reality.
1.

The author conveys/transmits this message using a whole range of stylistic devices.
2.

And it is only in the last lines that we feel that we have received the message the author intended for us.
3. 4. 5. 6.

The message is brought home to the reader gradually. In this text the readers might seek out different messages for themselves.

A switch from one prose system to another helps to bring out the message of the extract. 7. The alliterative linking of 'sternly it's instilled' and 'solitude is selfish' adds to the syntactic coherence of these words and thus to the authority of the message they carry.

2.General Tone. Mood and Atmosphere. Literary texts belong to the sphere of written communication and the written medium imposes some constraints on the spoken word. However, one should not ignore the fact that creating his own reality in literary writing the author 'tells' something to the reader, as the current metaphor has it, he tries to make the reader see the events from his point of view and share his vision of them. As a consequence, an image of a voice is formed and reading a text one can 'hear' the writer and the characters synthesized into a polyphonic chorus to produce the emotional impact, to create mood and atmosphere. No wonder that a whole set of metaphors, a special metaphoric conceptual system*, rooted in musical terms is used to describe the phenomenon (see Appendix to this section). In his writing the author is motivated by the emotive vision of the events he seeks to present, and since the aim of analytical reading is the accurate understanding of the writer's emotions and messages, much attention should be paid to the tone of exposition, and, consequently to the mood and atmosphere created. 2.1. General tone. - gentle, intimate, good-humoured, confidential;
-

conversational, indifferent, guarded, personal,

colloqual, casual;

- romantic, nostalgic, elevated, soul-stirring, subdued, dreamy, earnest; - musing, ironic, sarcastic, caustic; didactic, dispassionate, unemotional, monotonous; assured, convinced, argumentative, impersonal, serious;
-

- menacing, mournful; - pleading, deep-strung, high-strung, agitated, anguished, high-pitched; emotional, strident. * Lakoff G., Johnson M. Metaphors We Live BY. The University of Press. Chicago and London, 1980.

Chicago

-6Examples: 1. An example of light verse is not to imply that it is without seriousness.

2. 3.

The conversation produces ^n effect of bitter irony.

The anthology of the genre has it that the tone here should not be pitched high, the texts should be distinguished by chastened sentiment and often be playful. The tone is neutral, business-like and serious and it is sustained consistently throughout the text.
4. 5. 6.

The author sounds compassionate and at times nostalgic. The general tone of the author's commentary is emotionally elevated. 2.2. Atmosphere.

radiant, refreshing, invigorating, cheerful, exciting congenial, cordial, friendly, pleasant homelike, quiet, restful, calm, serene
-

gloomy, grim, oppressive, depressing, suffocating uneasy, air-cooled, cool, hostile lifeless, frightening
-

charged, electric, tense, nervous, high-strung venomous, p< hot, venomous, poisonous agitated - weird, sinister, creepy, chilling, thrilling, deathlike - small-town, provincial, respectable, intimate - poetic, romantic, intangible - realistic - unreal, fairylike, ethereal - sleepy, slumberous

- 7Examples: 1. The writer masterfully creates the atmosphere of suspense. 2. From the very first passages the gloomy and oppressive atmosphere is imposed on the reader.
3. 4. 5.

These elements serve as atmosphere-setters. Such story calls for a dark and deathlike atmosphere.

The link with death is brought in by the word 'wreath', which evokes slow, steady, heavy associations.
6. 7. 8. 9.

It presents a comically contemptuous picture of the gathering. The atmosphere is actualized through description. This atmosphere is brought about by a masterful blend of different devices.

It is in the middle of the text that the author makes the atmosphere of growing tension felt. 2.3. Feeling. - instinctive, intuitive, inward, subconscious, half-defined, subdued, subtle, uncomfortable - tender, kindly, compassionate, warm - sad, bitter, morbid, sickening, jealous, annoying - spontaneous, lingering, ungovernable - strange, queer, uncertain, half-superstitious, discordant - vague, mingled, apparent, intense - genuine, poetic, sincere - vindictive, vehement

-3Examples:
^fy^.M^-'Ui - . > . --'.'kV.r\ - > .- "'

Emotive terms are graded in intensity and are intended to indicate the strength of feeling.
1.

Such use indicates the persona's growing anxiety and shows that there is a sincere feeling behind the rhetorical splendour.
2.

A string of similes is used to show the measure of violence of the persona's distaste for socializing.
3.

The present participles convey a feeling of things continuing endlessly or, at least, without any clear end.
4.

The fact that there are no verbs in the passage establishes a connection between their absence and feelings of unrelatedness, disorientation, no clear goaldirectedness.
5.

2.4. Appendix: Music Metaphoric Conceptual System.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

It works as an additional resonance at this point. The text ends on a superbly ambiguous note. That is the touch of irony with a note of sarcasm suggested earlier. A lyric note of the first and the third paragraph is re-introduced here. Note the grim overtones of 'despair' and 'dark'. Both of the words have vagueiy archaic overtones. Dark colours set the key note of the text. The authors employ both halves of the description in counterpoint. There is a strong satiric undercurrent in the text. The return to ordinary sight and ordinary speech is a modulation here.

The narrative is terse and idiomatic, the events are presented rather in the conversational key.
12.

Emotive terms set the key of the description.

13. The whole text is marked by tasteful moderation, high finish and completeness. .
14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

The key-note of the passage is the growing sense of loneliness and despair. The whole piece is done in a minor key. The final phrase strikes a note discordant to the rest of the text. The passage strikes a discordant note. This rasping note reverberates across the text.

- 10-3. The Voices in Literary Writing 3.1. Acting Personae. Stylistic analysis is intended to help determine interpretation through the examination of what the text contains. One of the first things to be registered while forming one's opinion of the text and working out an individual approach to its interpretation is a list of characters taking part or involved in the events depicted. Different terms may be used here: character personage; personality; person, portrayed in a novel, drama, etc. persona aspect of personality as shown to or perceived by others. personage person; character in a play, etc. chief person in drama or plot of story.

protagonist -

Character development or character-drawing makes an important aspect of the text on which the reader's attention is focused. Writers use a whole range of language means and devices to provide insights into their characters' inner self. Usually the characters are developed through description, through their speech or inner monologue and through direct or indirect commentary offered by the author. Character-drawing is felt to be implicit rather than explicit. Many of these implications are arrived at via a process which has come to be generally known as inferencing. Both background information and linguistic cues may be used as starting points for inferencing. Thus description gives information on persona's appearance and the reader is likely to draw inferences making use of the automatic connection between physical appearance and character. The natural assumption is that someone who looks ordinary is ordinary and that someone who is evil should appear evil. Kinesic information and sounds may also be suggestive: raised eyebrows imply surprise, knitted brows suggest that a person is deep in thought, contorted features are conductive to a conclusion that a person is seethed by hidden tension. The fact that a person has a metallic laugh will help us to suppose that he is ruthless; "the fact that he looks like an inflated baloon will lead us to think that he is rather pompous".* If one issues a command the reader can infer that he is in a position to do so, etc * Reading, Analysing & Teaching Literature. Ed. by Mick Short. Ch.8., Longman, London and New York, 1989.

-nExamples:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The first passage encodes the point of view of a child protagonist. We perceive Othello as a rounded character. Drama combines narrative with character development. Dialogue makes the characters seif-revealing.

The development of characters hinges on a contrast between two kinds of English. 6. Our impression of the protagonist is strongly based on the metaphors employed. On this basis we can begin to create a persona, the thinker of the thoughts that form the poem.
7.

Additional information of the persona is to be found in the mode of address employed.

8.

It is significant that in the first four passages, the persona seems to experience nature as something external.
9.

10. Making simple physical observation the reader recognizes or creates a substantially different dimension for the persona's character from that which can be derived from the opening passage. The meaning of 'stagnation' can be seen as applying to the inner state of the persona: totally passive, withdrawn from life.
11.

The result of the speech strikes us as a caricature rather than an image. The man is perceived as a 'flat character', unlike other, 'round characters'.
12.

Note the crucial importance of code-switching in creating the impression of a three-dimensional personality.
13.

The effect is curiously moving; as though we have been given a glimpse of a private man behind the public hero.
14.

- 12-

15. From what he says we gain a series of insights into the protagonist's character and his likely behaviour. There is greater stress on the man's fatness than on his shortness, but the former is presented in such a way as to persuade the reader to conceive of the man as the writer conceives of him: as a grotesque figure.
16. 17.

The aims and motives of the protagonist are not obvious.

18. What distinguishes the speech of the two characters is the presence of striking contrasts in diction: the boasting assertion is followed by a completely unadorned statement of feeling. 19. The woman, by contrast to other characters, is educated and has refined manners. 20. Such effect is achieved because we never see into the protagonist's mind. 3.2. The author vs the characters. Wordsworth frequently described himself as possessing two consciousness or two natures 'The one that feels, the other that observes'. Dualisms of this kind are central to all forms of narration where the act of narrating is separated in space and time from the act narrated.* The aujhorj may'act as a narrator - the one who tells the story posing as a passive or dispassionate on looker or observer. In this case he acts in his own persona. However, 'assuming a persona' the author becomes one of the characters in his writing. Such imaginative 'presence of the author' as one of the acting personae indistinct from the cases when the author associates or identifies himself with one of the characters. There are even more complicated cases when one can distinguish the author's voice, the voice of the narrator and the voice of the protagonist of the narration. An example may be provided by Ch.Dickens where the narrator , the adult David Copperfield, expresses his temporal and mental separation from his earlier self and his greater maturity and rationality are reflected in a more elaborate syntax.** To achieve the desired artistic effect writers shift from their own 'point of view' to the 'point of view' of a character or an outside observer. Therefore, *Ibid.,Ch.9,pg.227. ** Ibid., Ch.9, pg.229.

evaluating the possibilities of intergrating textual elements into a general framework in the process of text interpretation it is advisable to pay special attention to the shifts in the 'point of view' and determine whom the reader, in a sense glistens to' - the author or one of the characters. Examples: 1. The opposition between spoken and written extends to a more general opposition between character and narrator. 2. As commentator, the author assumes a persona, moralising, sermonising, registering commendation or distaste for what he portrays.
3. 4. 5.

The author tends to identify himself with the more educated of his audience. The author hardly identifies himself with the protagonist.

The voice of the narrator is indistinguishable from the authentic voice of the author.
6. 7.

The author contrives to sink himself entirely in the character he presents.

Since the character is to be created there can be no question of the describer being constrained by any particular orientation: he may adopt the position of outside observer at one moment and describe appearance and character from that point of view, and then at another moment provide details normally only accessible to the described person himself.
8. 9.

The author makes us see the story through William's eyes.

The events are seen from the protagonist's point of view, it is done to help the author to manage personal closeness with the reader. 10. In the first lines a more or less neutral observer describes the scenery.

- 14-

4. Composition. One of the major points usually discussed in text analysis is the 'constuetion' of the text or the superstructure underlying the logical arrangement of the facts presented. J.Martin and J.Rothery* developed a story grammar analysis helping to write wellformed stories. The schematic structure of the plot (using W.Labov and J.Waletsky's terminology**) includes four parts: Orientation (the major characters are introduced and a setting is established) 2. Complication (a series of events unfolds, and a crisis develops). 3. Resolution (the crisis is resolved). 4. Coda (the final stage, in which the writer may express an attitude toward the story or give his perspective on its significance).
1.

However, a more complicated scheme of the compositional arrangement of a text gives a better insight into its logical structure: Introduction (the general outline of the topic tackled in the text is briefly presented). 2. Exposition/orientation (the major characters are introduced and the setting is established). 3. Complication (a series of events unfolds bringing out the complicating circumstance(s) which lead on to a crisis). 4. Climax (a crisis develops presenting a moment of the highest emotional tension). 5. Denouement/resolution (the crisis is resolved). 6. Coda (the final stage, in which the writer may express an attitude towards he story). 7. Moral (moral maxim or principle, moral lesson (esp. at the end of a fable, story, event).
1.

Points 2-3-4-5 are obligatory in the sense that they may be found in the majority of texts, based on narration. Points 1, 6-7 are optional. * Martin J.R., Rothery J. What a Functional Approach Can Show Teachers. - M: Functional Approaches to Writing: Research Perspectives, ed. by B.Couture, Norwood, ny: Ablex, 1986. ** Labov W., Waletsky J. Narrative Analysis: Oral Versions of Personal Experience. - M: Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts: Proceedings of the 1966 Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society. Ed. by J.Helm, 1214, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1967.

Here is a sample story with its text structure analysis. introduction orientation / am going to tell you a story helping to understand how the expression ''laconic phrase " originated. The Lacons lived in a part of Southern Greece called Laconia, and were known for their bravery and the simplicity of their life. There was in Northern Greece a land called Macedonia, which was once ruled by a king named Philip. Philip wanted to become master of all Greece. He therefore collected a great army and conquered all Greece, until only Laconia remained unconquered. Then he sent a letter to the brave Lacons saying: "If I invade your country, I will destroy your great city ". Ln a few days an answer was brought back to him. He found only one word written in it -that word was 'if. One of the rules of Lacons was always to speak briefly, using no more words than were needed. This was carried so far that to this day a very short answer is often called laconic, that is, such an answer a Lacon might have given. One should try to speak laconically - use short phrases containing much matter.

complication

climax denouement/ resolution coda moral

The discussion of the compositional structure is narrowed down to the texts (and genres) based on narration. The structure of different types of texts such as argumentation and exposition*, i.e. texts based on the logical consideration of pros and cous of a certain statement or assertion or texts centred on the development of different aspects of one particular object, scene or event, should be discussed along different lines.

* Note that it is the similarity of terms that often calls for a change in denomination when one speaks about the compositional exposition (the term 'orientation' is sometimes used).

- 16Examples:
1. 2.

Compositionaliy the text falls into four parts. The compositional structure of the text is rather elaborate.

3. The complication develops into a dramatic/ horrifying/ unexpected/ inevitable/ surprising climax.
' . - ' . L - V c V . ' - ' . O , }" . (' . " J U W ? " ' ' > '' ' . , > ' - " ' ' * * .>' r ^ ' . ,

4. Events mentioned in the exposition foreshadow a dramatic climax. 5. The climax is delayed.
6. 7.

The ultimate culmination seems a bit untimely.

That this is the key-phrase in the text is made perceptible by the fact that whereas the rest of the text is neatly divided into three parts, the last passage stands apart.
8.

The plot is quite predictable and unravels like a roll of cloth.

9. In order to bridge this incompleteness, the reader has to rely on world knowledge, as stored in his memory. Structural relationships within the text are incomplete and the reader has to conjecture what kind of internal links are necessary to integrate events into a logical whole.
10. 11. 12.

The point of these poetic effects is to bring out the moral. The wording of the moral is in sharp contrast to the description.

5. Prose systems. Five varieties of expositional prose are usually singled out: dialogue, narrative, description, commentary and interior monologue. Each prose system is distinguished by its own pragmatic aims and language peculiarities. Description is used to establish the setting and scenery; it helps to present visualized images of objects, people or scenes. Since descriptions reflect the author's vision of the things described they are instrumental in creating mood and atmosphere and often serve as means of character development. Descriptions are usually static (mainly stative verbs are employed here) and often lack time element. The core of the lexical structure of description is formed by nouns; attributes adding detail and evaluation are also abundant in this prose system. Narrative presents a succession of events. The narrator tells a tale covering any time period ranging from several minutes to several decades or even centuries. Narrative is one of the main prose systems since development of the plot and presentation of events are the core features on which story-telling hinges. Narrative is based on educated speech and consists predominantly of complex sentences with subordinate clauses. Narrative is dynamic and abounds in verbs, especially verbs of action. Commentary is a form of writing where the author of the literary work, acting in his own persona, offers his opinion of the characters and events or discusses related topics. Commentary is, as a rule, emotive and sometimes includes a direct address to the reader. Commentary is, by nature, evaluative and is based on value-laden lexis. Syntactic peculiarities refer to the use of short-winded sentences, questions and exclamations. In some instances, commentary is very close to argumentation. Dialogue reproduces the moment of conversation, and as such it may be used to accomplish a number of goals. First of all, speech presentation immitating the process of oral communication makes the events depicted in a literary text more true to life since oral speech is one of the most common and natural ways of communicative interchange. It livens up fiction making it more readable. Besides, conversation may give much information on the events relevant to the plot and do it in a concise and condensed way. But primarily dialogue is employed as a means of character-drawing since characters can be make self-revealing through their speech. The choice of

- 18words, accent, the use of grammatical forms are informative of the speaker's social and educational background, his regional dialect and emotional state. Dialogue tries to echo correctly the reality of oral speech including the use of contracted forms, elliptical and unfinished sentences, colloqualisms, direct addresses to the interlocutor, etc. However, there are certain constraints imposed on the representation of oral speech in fiction. On the one hand dialogue takes place in real time and thus cannot take up too much of the space in a literary writing. On the other hand, any representation of speech in fiction is necessarily idealized for the sake of reading fluency because hesitations, false starts, lisp, stammer, pauses or dialectal peculiarities, would soon become tiresome for the reader if fully presented. Represented inner speech is used when the author seeks to give a verbal transcription of the movement of thought giving the reader a direct insight into a character's way of thinking and his feelings. A variety of forms may be observed here. The writer can represent the characters' thoughts in a form close to direct speech with quotation marks removed, e.g. / won 'tfail this time, he thought. Inner/interior monologue represents those instances when a character 'speaks to himself in thought. In a way it might be considered parallel to monologue in drama. The following example may illustrate the point: He is in my room. My room, all right, Jackman thought. My bed. Nice irony in that. Strategy. Up the stairs, take the chance the door is closed? No - the damned runners are liable to creak loudly as those floorboards, and if the door isn 7 shut, there is no way to get to him without being seen first. Have to make him come out of there, then; make him come downstairs. Not too much time, it has to be fast. Knock something over, make some sort of noise? No good. That would only alert him, bring him down armed and prepared and blow the only advantage I've got. Has to be another way. But what? what? (Bill Pronzini) Like oral speech, interior monologue is characterized by the use of elliptical sentences, contracted forms, disrupted sentence structure, questions and exclamations. However, it is quite clear that interior monologue is an idealized version of a person's thoughts: it is logically well organized, there

are no switches from one topic to another, the presentation is coherent and not based on free association. An attempt to represent the hectic inner thought in all its complexity brought into existence 'a stream of consciousness3 approach to representing inner speech. This prose system takes the form of a long, syntactically disrupted sequence of noun phrases, interjections, exclamations and speech-based sentences usually without any punctuation marks. The main purpose of employing represented inner speech is to give an insight into the character's inner self; so, this prose system mainly serves as a means of character-drawing. It is noteworthy, however, that shifting to the internal point of view does not mean that the reader gets no information on what conventionally is known as 'plot development', but in represented inner speech this information is perceived indirectly through the attitude of the characters to the event of reality. Narrative. Examples:
1. 2. 3. 4.

The story begins with straight narrative. The Narrator points to (a river and a house somewhere in the country). It is an impersonal narration where 'no-one speaks'. The narration is first - or third person.

5. Their Odyssey emerges from the narrative becoming more and more personalized. Dualisms of this kind are central to all forms of narration where the act of narrating is separated in space and time from the act narrated.
6. 7.

Many of his narratives invoke the distinction between narrator and narrated: this may be a difference between past and present states of consciousness, between observing and feeling. The passage begins with narrative, but then starts to change into description. It is a summary hardly distinguishable from the narrative.

8. 9.

-20-

10. Elements of commentary and description are blended into the narrative of the story.
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

The author's thoughts are integrated into the narrative. The passage has the structure of a flashback sequence. Some kind of a flashback might be expected. This passage presents a chronological narrative.

The voice of the narrator is indistinguishable from the authentic voice of the author. Description. Examples: One obvious strategy to achieve such an end is to resort to exaggerated and comic description.
1.

Such elements have reference to the real landscape or the physical setting of the story.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

These words give a much more specific descriptive impression. The metaphors noted earlier assist this particular aspect of description. Let us consider the descriptive aspect of the three initial paragraphs. These elements act as scene setters. Prose is essentially the art of analytical description. The primary aim of description is to establish the setting and scenery.

The description is presented here in a business-like manner and lacks any emotional overtones. 10. Description is the primary means of evoking atmosphere and mood.

11. Prose fiction is marked by frequent description of persons and settings: they represent the necessary situational context within which the actions, including the verbal actions, of the participants can be understood. In short stories it is common to find information of this kind introduced at the beginning. Conventionally, we can have a description of appearance or a description of character but literary descriptions tend to combine the two.
12.

We are lead to the consideration of what it is that controls the selection of detail in this particular description.
13.

The information in this description is not precise, the reader is made to believe that it is because it has to be recalled from past impressions by a casual observer who did not expect to be required to furnish a description.
14.

Commentary. Examples:
1. 2. 3.

Most of the comments in this sentence are evaluative and derogatory. It is a basic question-plus-answer or topic-plus-comment form.

As a commentator the author assumes a persona, moralising, sermonising, registering commendation or distaste for what he portrays.
4.

The author offers no sharp commentary in his own persona.

Dialogue. Examples:
1. 2. 3.

The author tries to echo the reality of modern speech. Dialogue is meant to consistently echo the accepted speech of the day.

Dialogue reproduces the movement of conversation in a variety of regional accents and/or on different social levels. Dialogue provides an extended speech range often used as a means of character-drawing.
4.

Through the use of dialect and uneducated speech the author extends his sympathies for the characters.
5.

Interior monologue. Examples:

. _ .

1.

Interior monologue is a verbai transcription of the movement of thought.

2. In the middle of the passage there is a shift to an internal point of view. Interior monologue is characterized by the non-syntactic language of free association.
3. 4. 5.

Interior monologue is designed to echo the ebb and flow of reminiscence.

It will be difficult to check the relationship between the stream of consciousness narratives and the dominance of nominal group (verbless) structure.

The Choice of Words. Connotations and New Values. Text interpretation is based on text comprehension and implies the ability not only to find answers to questions which are based on what is explicitly stated in the text, but also to weave together the ideas in the text, to draw inferences from the context, to follow the structure of the text and recognize a writer's purpose, attitude, tone and mood*. Language means and, above ail, words seem to be the only guide to what is expressed in the text and here one, first of all, has to recall word meanings going by vocabulary-type definitions and to draw inferences about word meanings from context. In unlocking new meanings and in winkling out hidden meanings the reader relies on the associations the words evoke and on cues from the surrounding linguistic context. Lexical units may be analysed separately or against the background of the lexical sets they belong to. 6.1. The significance of connotations and associations. Examples: The words have (possess) connotations; in context they may acquire new connotations or retain their usual connotations.
1. 2.

The word 'war' here comes to connote fear and has an additional implication of an alien oppressive force. Many lexical items evoke an emotional response in the reader. Sometimes it is difficult to deduce the hidden meanings. The name carries a specific meaning here. A whole flux of associations may be trigged by the word 'drivel'.

3. 4. 5. 6.

7. Sometimes metaphors should be viewed against the background of their literal, non-metaphoric meanings. * Davis F.B. Research in comprehension in reading. - In: Reading Research Quarterly, 3, 1968.

8. 9.

The key-words in this context have to be interpreted non-literaily.

The meaning of these words may find a vague echo an resentment' and the syntactic function of 'yet'. To resolve these ambiguities one should turn to evidence provided by the context.
10.

The idea of rapid motion is made even more markedly intrusive by the dense alliteration.
11. 12.

Mingled shine and darkness is vaguely poetic.

13. It establishes a connection/link between the absence of movement and feelings of unrelatedness, disorientation and no clear goal-directedness. Our analysis is based on a figurative interpretation of the ambiguous lexical units.
14.

The word 'lightening' often has unplesant associations if the dictionary entries are anything to go by. Cf. The word calls forth unpleasant associations.
15.

The reader realises that there must be a latent meaning beneath the manifest one.
16. 17.

The use of the term 'save', with its religious connotations, is itself significant. 6.2. Connotative meanings. Examples:

1. 'Fleece', 'coop' and comb are all metaphorical here and all have possible animal connotations.
2. 3. 4. 5.

The verb 'to flute' is metaphorical here and it makes a musical sound. A number of lexical itemsciearly have figurative meanings. This simple metaphor is enriched by a whole set of additional metaphors. The author mentions people who are labelled metaphorically as 'monsters'.

-25, , .

6. 'Foal' and 'foam ' may be interpreted as symbolizing the noise of the stream thundering down.
7. 8. 9.

'Buf suggests opposition. Predominance of the present tense seems to suggest an inescapable immediacy.

When the word 'rustle' appears the idea of a silken sheet or blanket suggests itself. 10. 'Blow' in this context can be seen as representing the sound. One can point at the connotations of peace and rest for the words 'home', 'flute', 'low'.
11.

The words 'old' and 'dilapidated' are used to prompt their negative evaluative comments.
12. 13. 14.

'Asking the ass' is expressive of contempt rather than benign interest.

The present participles convey a feeling of things continuing endlessly or, at least, without any clear end.

The other contextual patterns in which the word 'silence' is placed also accrete to it a wealth of meanings over and above that which can be recovered from the code (its vocabulary meaning).
15.

The word 'eye' contains a whole range of possible references and therefore a whole range of conflicting associations.
16. 17.

Note the use of words with rather banal connotations (cf. 'broth'). 6.3. Connotations and Associations evoked by whole lexical sets. Examples:

Now we shall analyse the way in which lexical items may be grouped together to the same lexical 'set' or 'field'.
1. 2.

Let us proceed to the analysis of the lexical make up of the poem.

3.

This lexical set is to be found in the first three paragraphs.

- 264. 5. 6.

In the fourth paragraph the author brings in a new lexical set. Such set groups words that referjto dark colours

This lexical string denotes the physical aspect of the ride ('heels', 'mane', 'hands', 'bridle'). 7. There is a clustering of poetic words. The text seems to have two sets of colours, brown and black, and also a set of despair words which can be linked with blackness.
8.

The set of verbs denoting movement in water has a lexical connection with 'foam'.
9. 10. 11.

Dark colours are associated with despair, threatening, death, cruelty, etc.

Words 'spring', 'sunshine', 'awakening' are value-laden and give grounds for evaluation.
12. 13.

Dynamic terms have all to do with the brook.

Note that the grou P ings occur within a predominantly borrowed words' frame. The words in the passage appear to be patterned in a way which allows them to be interpreted in a systematic fashion.
14.

15. We have already alluded to one such lexical field.

16.

The overflow of 'human' meaning potential on to the various descriptions of the stream has the effect of personifying nature. 17. The darkness of the colour becomes thematically linked to the notion of despair and death.
18. 19.

The result is that elements of natural scenery acquire animate associations. 'Despair' and 'disgust' tie up lexically with 'drowning' and 'frowning'.

The lexical pattern also shows a decrease in activity from the very active '.oaring' via 'turns' to the passive degged' ana dappled' ana finally to the statives 'sits', 'be'. 'be left' and 'live'.
20. 21. 22. 23.

The pattern of light and dark is not exploited at all. Colour terms denoting bright colours are synthesized into a single image.

All the words used to describe the man's height are unmarked for attitude and all those used to describe his bulk and particularly the fatness of his face, are marked for attitude. Thus these three terms are associated as having some reference to the notions of death and this notion would appear to be particularly prominent in relation to 'crow' since this term also has features 'black', a coiour associated with mourning, and 'bird of ill-omen'.
24.

The investigation into the meanings of these four terms and the way they are linked yields evidence that what they refer to in combination, as themselves features a composite notion, is death or lifelessness.
25.

-23-7.

Cohesion. Texts as information-carriers, able to transmit information through time and space, are vehicles of communication. The ability of the text to serve as a means of communication is, to a great extent, accounted for by the fact that it is an integral whole where all the elements are related in a sense tharrserve the same purpose - to convey messages from the writer to the reader. In other words, the integrity of the text is ensured by its cohesion. G. Leech defines cohesion as "the way in which independent choices in different points of a text correspond with or presuppose one another, forming a network of sequential relations"*. Cohesion consists of forward and background pointing among linguistic elements occurring in the text. This may be brought about by a wide variety of means: e.g. verb tense, metaphoric expressions, repetition, syntactic parallelism, metre, rhyme, associations between lexical fields or meanings, etc. Because cohesion is a constitutive element of the text structure, it is projected into the reader's mind, thereby creating expectations** which form an impression important for text interpretation. 7.1. Cohesion and correlation. Examples: It is not an opposition. Rather it is the case when the two structures interact in a complex way.
1.

Much depends on the reader's ability to detect cohesive relationships that are not spelt out formally in the text.
2. 3. 4.

Our interpretation of this paragraph depends on previous portions of the text.

Here the cohesion between the two sentences is spelt out explicitly by means of the cohesive conjunction 'but'.
5.

So the word 'here' is important as it makes the connection more obvious.

* Leech G.N. A linguistic guide to English poetry. Longman, London, 1969. ** Reading, Analysing and Teaching Literature. Ed. by Mick Short. Longman, London, 1989.

- 29 Our interpretation is based mainly on the expectations about textual/semantic relations.

6. 7. 8.

One seeks to relate the two topics. The link here is brought about by the comparative construction.

9. One feels it necessary to relate the word 'jump' to the earlier animal references. The reader has to set up similar situational descriptions to relate 'coop', 'comb' and 'fleece' together.
10.

These notions are somewhat indirectly related to the themes of the previous paragraphs.
11. 12. 13.

Semantic relations between these items are difficult to perceive.

The last paragraph seems to lack any strong links with the pattering set up in previous parts of the text. 14. The topic-sentence connection in the paragraph is implied rather than expressed, but the other sentences bear relation to it. 7.2. Blending: the highest degree of cohesion. Examples: 1. Elements of commentary and description are blended into the narrative of the story. This description of India is part mystical and part geological and the two are inextricably blended: the formation of the mountains and the consequent silting up of the ocean are described in the same compound sentence as the gods taking their seats and bringing the river into being.
2. 3.

The associations are mingled into a single image.

4. There is no line of demarcation/demarcation line between description and narrative. 5. There is no clear-cut dividing line between these two images.

-306.

Interior monologue and narrative overlap and run together.

7. The author does not keep description and narrative as separate sryiistic strands. 8. Different prose svstems interwine even in a single sentence. 9. Narrative here contains commentary. The first passage gives us features of the person's appearance and the second passage also gives the features of his character, and these are not kept distinct but are fused together.
10.

Those are two different kinds of detail, but they are brought together into an amalgam.
11. 12.

Colour terms denoting bright colours are synthesized into a single image.
:::-:. to

8. Contrast and Opposition. Trying to get a better understanding of the text and interpret it bringing together the language used and the ideas expressed, the reader looks for textual clues of various kinds. Patterns of similarity and contrast seem most suggestive as far as possible interpretations are concerned, in other words, an inquisitive reader observes oppositions, contrasts, shifts and incongruities which might be conductive to possible implications about the kind of message expressed in the text. 8.1. Opposition/Difference. Examples: 1. The initial and final part of the text are widely dissimilar in the lexis employed. One can say that the result is a vast incongruity between the exclusively colloqual level of idiom and the presence of poetic markers.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Such use is totally at variance with what the rules of polite conversation allow. And it is the alternation of the two styles that brings out the effect desired. The use of epithets further supports the contrast. The everyday lexis is opposed to the previous poeticalities.

The last sentence in the extract provides an interesting comparison with the first two.
8.

This curious amalgam of opposites is a common feature in literary writing.

9. For the reader there can be no clear distinction between 'facts' and 'impressions', between neutral referring expressions (like 'large' and 'small') and subjectively charged evaluative expressions (like 'vast' and 'enormous').

- 52- 8.2. Contrast. Examples:. The wording of the morai is in sharp contrast to the description (to the rest of the text).
1.

This paragraph contrasts sharply with the previous one in the use of tense forms.
2. 3. 4. 5.

This is done in order to provide a contrast between the two speakers. Lines 1-2 are placed in creative contrast with lines 4-5.

Bringing together archaic and common literary words provides a relevant and illiminating source of contrasts.
6. 7. 8.

It helps the author to contrast one utterance to another. The second passage, by contrast, describes a peaceful scene.

The development of characters hinges on a contrast between two kinds of English. What distinguishes the speech of the two characters is the presence of striking contrasts in diction: the boasting assertion is followed by a completely unadorned statement of feeling.
9.

10. Such effect is brought about by sheer force of contrast with the opposing co4e (mode of expression).
11. 12. 13.

There are no adjectives here in contrast to the preceding paragraphs. Written-spoken distinctions are especially important here.

The writer allows these half-dead metaphors to collide with other metaphors, less dead.
14.

The smallness of the man's stature and features is set in contrast with the vastness of his copulence and the writer uses that word to describe the man.

15. The sound of the harness bells, which might be said to suggest the world of human affairs, is contrasted with the sound of the wind.

-J J

8.3. Change/Shift. Examples:.

1.

There is a shift from one stratum of vocabulary to another and it is

matched on the level of 'plot' by a shift between perception and conception.

2. 3.

A change is effected from transitive to intransitive verbs. There is also a iarge jump from the elaborate description of the particular

to the general. One observes markers of a split between written and spoken, literary and colloqual.
4. 5.

It is noteworthy that the switch from description in the first paragraph

to the generalized question is accompanied by the switch to the generic use of the article: the world, the wildness. 6. The second sentence in the paragraph marks a return to conversational English. The use of code (mode of expression) - switching lends itself to interpretation as the expression of a sudden movement of mind.
7. 8.

We have already pointed out at the break in the use of colour terms that

may be observed in the poem between stanzas I-III. 9^A similar break may be observed on the grammatical level.
10. 11.

There is often a noticeable change of prose from one system to another.

The shift from the author's speech to represented inner speech is marked by the shift of tense forms to the present and by the use of exclamatory sentences. 13. Thus the actual shift from normal code meanings to meanings which are individual to the context represents part of the message the author is trying to

convey.

-34-9. Stylistic Devices.

The ultimate purpose of analysing a literary text is to reveal how the author uses the variety of forms to create particular effects. Special stylistic devices and imagery are of special interest here. We do not intend to give a general outline of the main stylistic devices*, but offer a few suggestions on how reference to stylistic devices may be introduced into an essay on text analysis. Examples:
1. 2.

No special symbolism emerges from the explicit statements the author makes. Linguistic devices are reduced to a series of near-synonyms and repetitions as

the text ties up.

3. 4. 5.

We shall now analise the allusive properties of the poem. Their earlier affair is now explicitly alluded to. It produces the image of a voice.

ji For that purpose the author brings in the image of a storm.

7. 8. 9.

The readers are presented with the disconcerting image of death. Note vowel parallelism in coop - comb/flute - low.

Note that the examples of grammatical parallelism contain supplementary phonetic parallelism.
10. 11.

Reference to a 'monster' has the effect of personifying the storm. This noun does not commonly occur with verbs denoting movement.

* For information see V.A.Kukharenko. Seminars in Style. Higher School Publishing House. Moscow, 1971.

- JO -

13. One can point at the presence of poetic markers such as rhyme and metre. Another stylistic feature that arrests our attention is the frequent repetition of one and the same lexical item (viz: the noun 'silence').
14. 15. 16. 17.

AH the stylistic devices used in the passage aim at the same effect. The use of the word runs counter to the norm.

In this text natural but inanimate objects, in particular the wind, are conceived of as living things. Literary writers make liberal use of the device known as personification. The personification is seldom absolute. The wind acquires the features of an animate object, but 7/' (not 'he' or 'she') tears the elm-tops down.
18.

It has often been observed that Woodsworth achieves a 'poetic' effect with the absolute minimum of stylistic devices: often the words he uses are almost semantically empty - 'something', 'objects', 'things', and his collocations are common to the point of banality: 'the light of setting suns', 'the round ocean', 'the blue skv'.
19.

The inversion of the usual word order in the opening sentence on re-reading confirms the intention suggested by the final sentence.
20. 21. 22.

The threat of bathos is averted here by alternative forms of heightening.

The effects of surprise and irony often involve comparing the statement one reads with the real or fictional word, noticing that there is a mismatch which is unlikely to be explained by mere error. One central insight into the peculiarities of the text concerns the concentration of metaphoric extensions, semantic incompatibilities and generally unusual collocational relations in the last passages.
23. 24.

The vocabulary here works on both semantic and stylistic levels.

- JO -

10. Registering Facts and Drawing Inferences. 10.1. Text analysis usually starts with registering the peculiarities of the text analysed. Examples: A helpful starting point may be to suggest that the text works on two planes/levels.
1.

What is of essential interest here is that the author mixes different modes of expression.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Metrical structure is important in the interpretative process. We shall focus our attention on the nature of the textual organization. The following aspects of textual pattern may be mentioned. Now we proceed to the discussion of the poem's semantic organization. The stanzaic structure of the poem is important here. Let us analyse the stylistic devices encountered in the text. Emotive terms occur in combination with the verbs of motion. This change is reflected in the more elaborate syntax of the second sentence. Reference to death is mirrored in the use of dark colours. The descriptive character of the passages is mirrored in their syntax. All this is within the conventions of the genre. The language used in the first paragraph is highly symmetrical. The analysis of syntax suggests that the writing is too loose. All language features must be interpreted in a systematic fashion. The pattern of light and dark is not exploited at all.

10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

-3718. 19. 20. 21. 22.

Note the conversational manner in which the author tells his story. The passage abounds in short-winded sentences and evocative imagery. The syntax is exclamatory rather than expositionai. The series of linked images is expressed as a pattern of noun-phrases.

There is a string (a long sequence) of short speech-based sentences and exclamatory phrases running into each other without punctuation.
23. 24.

The sentences are made up of a series of loosely linked clauses.

Tnere are three noun phrases in parallel, each being therefore structurally equivalent to the others at the most immediate level of analysis.
25. 26.

Notice that although the syntax is elaborate the lexis is simpie.

We would like to center our attention on the implications of the absence of tense in the poem. 27. The experience here is represented as dissociated from a particular time orientation, it extends over time but is not fixed in time.
28. 29.

The text may be represented as the verbal equivalent of a painting.

In accordance with the literary practice two meanings are expressed here simultaneously, both at the same time. 10.2. The distribution of language means. Examples: Even distribution Colour terms are spread out over the whole text/poem/paragraph/extract fairly evenly.
1.

Neologisms occur throughout the text. Likewise colloqualisms do not occur randomly but pattern in with other linguistic features.
2.

 J O *

Few 1. The author is sparing in his use of emotive terms.

2. 3. 4.

Verbs seem to be completely absent from the first stanza.

Obsolete words are (similarly) restricted to the three initial paragraphs. The author is unusually sparing of simile and metaphor. Many

1. There is a striking predominance of sibilants in the first three lines. 2. There is a predominance of deviant lexical collocations which are foregrounded against normal usage. This kind of deviance, arising from a violation of collocation rules is extremely common in literature.
3.

This part of the text is pointed out for its density of grammatical foregrounding devices.
4.

Moving on to alliteration, we should first of all point to the impressive number of instances to be observed in the text.
5.

The number of nouns denoting emotions gradually increases as the poem progresses.
6. 7. 8. 9.

There is a gradual increase in closed vowels in the poem. There is a sharp increase in the number of verbs in the third paragraph.

Some density of grammatical foregrounding may be located towards the middle of the story.
10. 11. 12.

Note the overuse of metaphors in the middle passages. The text abounds in metaphorical expressions already stereotyped. Literary writers make liberal use of the device known as personification.

- Dyer.

13. Mixing different modes of expressions is a common feature in humorous stories. 14. The initial passages abound in metaphors. 10.3, Drawing inferences. Examples:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

This assessment is not objective but subjective. Those undercurrents are felt to be implicit rather than explicit. The word 'indicisive' indicates indirectedness versus directedness. This feeling is expressed in words which can make it conceptually available. The author hints at the possibility of a change. The readers infer information that is not explicitly stated. He is, by implication, the villian of the piece.

The author makes evaluative comments suggesting that he associates himself with the protagonist. Key words are the lexical items that must be prominent in the perception of the text.
9.

One has to make use of meanings supplied via the application of background knowledge.
10. 11. 12.

Some obscure points will be disambigueted as the story unfolds. There was a lot of meaning condensed in there that I had to get out.

13. The absence of structural links means that the events which are described are not arranged in any temporal sequence. 14. The lack of connection between the events in the passage and any specific time-bound reality outside it is matched by a lack of connection between the events described by the passage itself.

-4015. 16. 17.

One has to infer aopropriate conditions for this remark. All readers are likely to come up with similar interpretations/meanings here.

One starts looking for cues that are conductive to the overall meaning of the poem.
18. 19. 20.

Both sentences are given the weight of maxims by their Its use here exemplifies the compression of statement. These words give the text a religious interpretation.

2 Lit permits a wide range of individual perceptual preference. 22. It is the kind of text where linguistic level is least directly relatable to interpretation and the reader has to go by association.
23. 24. 25.

The reader is left with an increased insight into the future events. Metaphors here add strength and humour.

The image here is not purely ornamental, moreover, it is relevant and suggestive. These impressions are associated as the similarity of the syntactic pattern of the noun phrases suggests.
26.

The reminiscences are incomplete and they are not registered by complete sentences.
27. 28. 29. 30.

Let us consider the implications of the title. The direct textual involvement of the reader is achieved by different means. The author creates this effect by his selective use of indirect forms.

31. The author's insights into human sentiments and psychology are not less valid for being presented in a relatively playful way.

-41,32. 33. 34.

These oppositions may be taken as indices of different perspectives of life. Reality here is presented in a strange new perspective.

The details of this passage are meant to create an impression and make the scene real through words. The grotesqueness of the man's fat face and small features which is conveyed through the writer's choice of marked vocabulary is represented as another aspect of the man like his shortness and his age.
35. 36.

To me, this man was a strikingly new way of performing this phrase highlightening its meaning in a fresh and unforseen way.

The degree and nature of indirectness can vary considerably from paragraph to paragraph.
37. 38. 39. 40. 41.

The point of these poetical effects was to illustrate the moral. It gains its effect from the main semantic oppositions in the lexicon. The dominant connotations are instrumental in conveying the message.

We are perfectly aware of the fact that we have touched upon only very few of the manifold contextual problems. No matter how exhaustive an analysis is made, it can never exhaust all possible meanings.
42. 43.

Different readers will bring their own preconceptions and values to bear on their reading of the text and will associate the text with their own experience of reality, thus in effect creating their own connotations.

44. The text provokes alternative responses which can not be reconciled in a single interpretation.

-42- 10.4.Registering Effects. Examples: Marking off

.

It does not, however, appear to augment the patterns seen in the lexis, grammar and partly in the segmental phonetic structure, which mark off the final paragraph from the rest of the text.
1.

Final statement is set off quite markedly from the rest of the conversation - It sets the final statement off from the rest of the conversation.
2. 3. 4. 5.

This remark stands out as an exception. The last line stands apart from the rest of the poem.

The last paragraph is separated sharpiy from the others in terms of general grammatical structure.
6.

Chapter I is separated from the rest of the book. Foregrounding

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

This idea is foregrounded and therefore gets the maximum of attention. The author therefore maintains the focus on the protagonist. As a result, the first paragraph is foregrounded and placed in focus. This remark becomes the focus of the conversation. It is a text with the culmination point in the last but one paragraph. It forms sort of crux point at the beginning of the text.

To highlight certain passages which are important for the story the author clashes two different lexical sets.
8.

A whole range of stylistic devices is used to highlight the contrast between the two parts of the text.

9. These words heighten the local atmosphere of the Scottish scenery.

10. Colour terms in this paragraph are foregrounded and given force by the contrast with the predominantly 'colourless' context. 11. The persona is sharply focused on" the moments of dialogic glossing. 12. This additional opposition widens the focus much more dramatically. The monosyllabic structure of the words in this passage and the alliterative pattern they form reinforce the semantic import of the words as lexical items.
13. 14. 15. 16.

This last item is thus foregrounded. It works as an additional resonance at this point.

The use of adjectives with derogatory connotations reinforces the note of biting contempt carried by the colloqualism.
17. 18.

Internal rhyme 'comb 7'foam' strengthens this interpretation.

Thus the emotional state of the protagonist is foregrounded and given additional force by the contrast with the predominantly neutral context. Such use can be seen as reinforcing the stealthy way in which Death is approaching.
19.

J20. Different means and devices are used to heighten the effect of condemnation.
21. 22.

Sentences 3 and 4 amplify sentence 6.

The contribution of the second half of the text is to reinforce the message brought out in the first half. The contrast between dark and bright colours reinforces the framing effect of the initial and final description.
23.

Change
1. 2.

One can note a change in topic close to the middle of the text. As a result, there is a change of focus.

-44-Bringing out similarities 1. The meanings these contrasts assign are not far apart. 2. The author links them syntactically and alliteratively places them in an equivalence. 3. One tries to account for the incongruity of the contrastive connotations the words 'cadaverous' and 'sensual' convey. 4. This opposition brings out similarity which has the effect of equating the high places, which refer to geology, and the holy places, which refer to religion.
, : - -j ' l i '. / = - ' > ' ^ ' '' ' '

- -o -11. Arranging material in a text interpretation essay. Analysing a text one should, or at least tries to, look for the message early on. Further on, initial insights and impressions may be confirmed, if they are supported by the language evidence, or they may be modified to suit the linguistic evidence provided by the context. Such changes of attitudes and impressions may find reflection in your analytical essay. Here are some suggestions: The situation that immediately suggests itself to us is (that the characters are in love).
1. 2. 3.

It seems that one can grasp the general sense at a first reading.

One might think that metaphors are of no particular relevance to the main idea of the passage.
4. 5. 6. 7.

We shall begin with a simple observation. At first the reader is tempted to interpret them as mainly decorative devices. The reader feels prompted to interpret 'despair' as being linked to 'darkness'. At first one tends not to think much of a poem.

8. At first glance the text seems straightforward.

9. 10.

The context provides little evidence of the author's personal involvement.

It seems that the relation between what he calls the story and moral is not ciose enough.
11. 12.

Such cases are typically interpreted as (deviant collocability structures).

The first thing to note in terms of linguistic features is (what stylisticians usually call 'alliteration').

- H-0 "

13. Even a brief look at the syntax suffices to say that (complex syntactic structures are almosi totally absent). Contrary to normal expectations the text reduces in complexity and entropyut unfolds.
14.

A closer look at the text involves not so much a change of referent, as a reanalysis of it.
15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

The focus of the re-read seems to be upon obscure parts of the text. After a second run-through the attitude changes considerably. Much re-thinking, however, is not needed.

Then the opposition between the native and borrowed words is revalued, and the dual lexicon becomes as much the source of dramatic tension as of jokes.
20.

But then the scope for variation of response begins to widen.

21. The initial attitudes have to be revised in the light of new information provided by the denouement. . If we now turn to the analysis of lexis we shall see that the author concentrates on the notion of death.
23. 24.

If we now move on to the second half of the paragraph...

If we look at the text from this perspective we are to interpret it in a different way.
25. 26.

There is an obvious decrease in boldness as the text progresses.

One can observe the gradual movement of the focus of the description as the text unfolds. The text exhibits a number of grammatical parallelisms which increases as it progresses.
27. 28.

Emotional tension gradually increases as the poem progresses.

22

-47-

29. In the first exirac: :ne aumor often SODS worn renoriea saeecn fo interior monologue. 30. The description then moves into what iaoks as if it wii! be''totally irrelevant for the plot, but as the sentence progresses more reievant detail is aaded.
31.

The effect of this progression is cinematographic.

32. Conversation goes through a progression of forms. The wording of the following passages hardly backs up earlier comments the author has made.
33. 34. 35. 36. 37.

The meaning of the 'gold'- 'black' opposition is much harder to work out. Effects become more noticeable as one goes down the text. The author's commentary takes a new direction.

This use further upsets the expectations that arise from the reader's constant exposure to the spoken language. The author deviates from his own pattern and thereby from our expectations created by the text.
38.

Though everything is described with a touch of humour we observe a pattern of being more serious than is immediately suggested by the surface of his writing.
39.