CHAPTER 1

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 547.

THE LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

PART TWO

Благодарности

Я хотел бы поблагодарить мою семью, Rob Weisbach,

Alvina Ling, Brandon Dorman, the Little, Brown team,

Glenn Rigberg, Meredith Fine, Alla Plotkin, Erica Tarin,

Ashley Fink, Pam Jackson, Jamie Greenberg, съемочный состав

и бригаду Glee, и, последнее, но не менее важное,

Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm.

THE REQUIREMENTS TO THE LINGUISTIC
ANALYSIS OF A LITERARY WORK

The linguistic analysis of a literary work is done after the text has been read. It is the knowledge of the plot that makes it possible to find out specific features of the creation of images of the literary work. Another important thing is the possibility of establishing the explicit and implicit ideas that are embodied in the narration.

The explicit presentation of the events, characters and ideas calls no difficulty. But it is the implicit that attracts the attention and makes reading the source of knowledge. There are many definitions of what the implicit is, but the common feature of all of them is that it is the additional, specific sense which is derived from the linguistic units used.So, one of the most crucial things that is found out through the analysis of the text is the disclosure of the indirect way of the author's presentation which requires deep knowledge of the meaning of the linguistic means.

The adequate perception of the implicit information shows strong dependence on the reader, his thesaurus, attention and interest in the plot of a literary work. As an example of the implicit information embodied in the author's narration Faulkner's story “That Evening Sun” can be taken. “Monday is no different from any other weekday in Jefferson now. The streets are paved now, and the telephone and electric companies are cutting down more and more of the shade trees – the water oaks, the maples and locusts and elms – to make room for iron poles bearing clusters of bloated and ghostly and bloodless grapes…” The word “now” describes not only the present state of the town of Jefferson but also implies that the look of the place in the past was different. The words “telephone and electric companies” give information on the technical progress that has at last reached the town. At the same time the activities of the companies affect the nature and the expression “shade trees” shows the author's if not concern than pity about the changes. Electric lamps, called by the author “ghostly and bloodless grapes”, evaluate the taking place alternations rather negatively than positively.

The linguistic analysis is a good opportunity to understand the inner state of the characters, the motivation for their actions and the dependence of their life on the society, circumstances and surroundings. The author has no other means of depicting of everything going around but the language. That is why any literary work demands attentive reading. Literature is not only a kind of art or a means of entertainment or a way of pass-time. It is always a message, an appeal to the reader. Attentive reading gives an opportunity to compare the attitude or the point of view of the author, the reader and the society on the problem presented. In this respect a literary work presupposes the adequate knowledge of the customs, traditions, history, and modern state of the development of the society in the reader. Thus, the inattentive attitude to the title of the story “Old Folks' Christmas” by R. Lardner will not lead to deep and full understanding of the idea of the text. The word “folk” means not only people but also those who share a certain way of life, or who belong to a small community. Actually this meaning of the word makes it possible to understand the conflict between the parents and the children who try to change the traditional way of spending the holiday and, on the whole, the attitude to it.

The linguistic analysis of the text demands much work with dictionaries. Even native speakers cannot rely on intuition. Learners of English face even more difficulties. They concern valency of words, connotational meaning of lexical units, non-correspondence of meanings of lexemes, absence of identical syntactic structures, difference in parts of speech, existence of easily confused words, false friends of interpreters and many others. Besides, dictionaries give information on the stylistic reference of words and their belonging to either British or American variant. Such information is of great importance not only for understanding of the literary work itself, but also for mastering the language.

There are some examples. The word share means the part belonging to, owed to, or done by a particular person, but in the meaning ploughshare it is considered to be old fashioned. The meaning an owner of shares in a business is rendered in British English as shareholder while in American variant as stockholder. The word shark denotes a large usually grey fish that lives especially in warm seas, has several rows of sharp teeth, and is often dangerous to people. Being used informally it denotes a person clever at getting money from others in dishonest or unpleasant ways, especially by lending money at high rates of interest. The word sophisticated has two meanings in English but no direct equivalent in Russian. Such English syntactic constructions as Complex object or Complex subject are rendered into Russian by subordinate clauses.

The linguistic analysis of the text gives a nice opportunity to develop knowledge which the learners of English acquire through theoretical courses. That is why it can be looked upon as an integrative means of mastering the language.

Being a type of prepared speech it must be logical in its structure, contain examples and explanations as well as commentary on the effect or atmosphere the language means create and produce on the reader.