Appunti completi degli argomenti trattati in aula, completi di esercitazioni., Sbobinature di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Appunti completi degli argomenti trattati in aula, completi di esercitazioni. e più Sbobinature in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! LINGUA INGLESE I The study of style in the XXI century “Who is Stylistics?” → Mick Short, Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose (1996) Stylistics is a person? What is Stylistics? It’s an approach to the analysis of (literary and non-literary) texts using a linguistic description. It reminds students that texts are made up of words. We can use stylistics analysis to help to decide: - which of various interpretation are most likely - to suggest interpretations Stylisticians try to discover not just what a text means, but also HOW the text takes on that meaning. For example →the stream of consciousness or the epiphany are just made up of words, so language; Stylisticians try to understand how we can recognize them and how they are made and organized. LINGUISTICS It’s the academic subject that is concerned with the analysis, description and explanation of human language. CORE COMPONENTS OF LINGUISTICS are: - Phonology → phonetics; It’s concerned with the sound of words. (It deals with spoken language) - Morphology → the way in which words are constructed - Syntax → (grammar is a part of syntax → rules to combine words in sentences) – The way words combine with others to form phrases and sentences (phrases are little parts of a sentence) - Semantics → the meaning of words and sentences - Lexicology → the words we use; the vocabulary of a language. Lexical analysis is the application of Lexicology. - Pragmatics → the way words and sentences are used in everyday situations; the meaning of language in context. How things change according to the context. COMMUNICATION means to understand and to be understood. there’s no communication if the addresser and the addressee can’t understand each other. ROMAN JAKOBSON Roman Osipovich Jakobson (1896 – 18 July 1982) was a Russian linguist and literary theorist. A pioneer of structural linguistics, Jakobson was one of the most celebrated and influential linguists of the twentieth century. He developed revolutionary new techniques for the analysis of linguistic sound systems, in effect founding the modern discipline of phonology. Jakobson went on to extend similar principles and techniques to the study of other aspects of language such as syntax, morphology and semantics. 1958 → Conference on Style held at Indiana University in the spring of 1958, then developed into an essay in Stanford, California, in 1959. "Linguistics and Poetics”. He said that language is made in order to communicate. For the first time Language was linked to the idea of communicating (Jakobson shows it in a theoretical point of view). The focus for Jakobson was literature and literary language. In that time, literature wasn’t studied with a linguistic perspective, but from an historical point of view, He was asked to explain the connection between Linguistics and Poetics LINGUISTICS AND POETICS ROMAN JAKOBSON - INTRODUCTION “I have been asked for summary remarks about poetics in its relation to linguistics. Poetics deals primarily with the question, "What makes a verbal message a work of art?" Because the main subject of poetics is the differentia specifica of verbal art in relation to other arts and in relation to other kinds of verbal behavior, poetics is entitled to the leading place in literary studies.” Language must be investigated in all the variety of its functions. Before discussing the poetic function we must define its place among the other functions of language. An outline of these functions demands a concise survey of the constitutive factors in any act of verbal communication. The ADDRESSER sends a MESSAGE to the ADDRESSEE. To be operative the message requires a CONTEXT referred to comprehensible by the addressee, and either verbal or capable of being verbalized; a CODE fully, or at least partially, common to the addresser and addressee; and, finally, a CONTACT, a physical channel and psychological connection between the addresser and the addressee, enabling both of them to enter and stay in communication. (The conative function is that which tends to persuade, to influence, to convince the recipient. It is generally characterized by the imperative ex→ orders, requests, prohibitions, laws, regulations, public speeches, advertising…) —-------------------------------------------------------- There are messages primarily serving to establish, to prolong, or to discontinue communication, to check whether the channel works ("Hello, do you hear me?"), to attract the attention of the interlocutor or to confirm his continued attention ("Are you listening?" or in Shakespearean diction, "Lend me your ears!" — and on the other end of the wire "Um-hum!"). (Um-hum is also an emotive function) This set for CONTACT, or in Malinowski's terms PHATIC function, may be displayed by a profuse exchange of ritualized formulas, by entire dialogues with the mere purport of prolonging communication. - EXAMPLE→ Dorothy Parker caught eloquent examples: "'Well!' the young man said. 'Well!' she said. 'Well, here we are' he said. 'Here we are' she said, 'Aren't we?' 'I should say we were' he said, 'Eeyop! Here we are.' 'Well!' she said. 'Well!' he said, 'well.' " The endeavor to start and sustain communication is typical of talking birds; thus the phatic function of language is the only one they share with human beings. It is also the first verbal function acquired by infants; they are prone to communicate before being able to send or receive informative communication. —-------------------------------------------------------- A distinction has been made in modern logic between two levels of language: "object language" speaking of objects and "metalanguage" speaking of language. But metalanguage is not only a necessary scientific tool utilized by logicians and linguists; It also plays an important role in our everyday language. We practice metalanguage without realizing the metalingual character of our operations. Whenever the addresser and/or the addressee need to check up whether they use the same code, speech is focused on the CODE: it performs aMETALINGUAL (i.e., glossing) function. - EXAMPLE→ "I don't follow you — what do you mean?" asks the addressee, or in Shakespearean diction, "What is't thou say'st?" And the addresser in anticipation of such recapturing question inquires: "Do you know what I mean?" Imagine such an exasperating dialogue: "The sophomore was plucked " "But what is plucked?" "Plucked means the same as flunked." "And flunked?" "To be flunked is to fail an exam." "And what is sophomore?" persists the interrogator innocent of school vocabulary. "A sophomore is (or means) a second-year student." All these equational sentences convey information merely about the lexical code of English; their function is strictly metalingual. Any process of language learning, in particular child acquisition of the mother tongue, makes wide use of such metalingual operations; and aphasia may often be defined as a loss of ability for metalingual operations. I have brought up all the six factors involved in verbal communication except the message itself. DEFINITION→ The set toward the message as such, focus on theMESSAGE for its own sake, is the POETIC function of language. The scrutiny of language requires a thorough consideration of its poetic function. Any attempt to reduce the sphere of the poetic function to poetry or to confine poetry to the poetic function would be a delusive oversimplification. The poetic function is not the sole function of verbal art but only its determining function, whereas in all other verbal activities it acts as an accessory constituent. This function deepens the fundamental dichotomy of signs and objects. Hence, when dealing with the poetic function, linguistics cannot limit itself to the field of poetry. - EXAMPLE→ 'Why do you always say Joan and Margery yet never Margery and Joan? Do you prefer Joan to her twin sister?" "Not at all, it just sounds smoother." In a sequence of two coordinate names, so far as no problems of rank interfere, the precedence of the shorter name suits the speaker, unaccountably for him, as a well-ordered shape for the message. A girl used to talk about "the horrible Harry." "Why horrible?" "Because I hate him." "But why not dreadfuI, terrible, frightful, disgusting?" "I don't know why, but horrible fits him better." Without realizing it, she clung to the poetic device of paronomasia. The political slogan "I like Ike" /ay layk ayk/, succinctly structured, consists of three monosyllables and counts three diphthongs /ay/, each of them symmetrically followed by one consonantal phoneme, / .. l .. k .. k /. - The makeup of the three words presents a variation: no consonantal phonemes in the first word, two around the diphthong in the second, and one final consonant in the third. CONTEXT REFERENTIAL ADDRESSER EMOTIVE MESSAGE POETIC ADDRESSEE CONATIVE CONTACT PHATIC CODE METALINGUAL FUNZIONI DEL LINGUAGGIO Funzione Elementi Scopo Esempi della della comunicazione comunicazione a) espressivao mittente esprimerela soggettività “Oh come sono ERO dell'emittente felice!” ian — | desnno convincere,persuadere il destinatario | “Fatesileazio!”* 0) referenziale o cenotativa, | contesto dareinformaziori sull'oggetto della | «1125 dicembreè informativa, cognitiva SOAVE Natale” d) fatica Ae instaurare 0 tenere vivo il contatto “Mi sentibene?” (al telefono) , spiegare elementi che riguardano il a” è articolo e) metalinguistica codice O ae femminile, singolare> a di l dal “M'illumino lare evidenza al messaggio ed a 7 “a Î) poetica messaggio 7 d’immenso” (G. modo in cui questo è stato costruito Ungaretti. Mattina) 1. They describe technical aspects of the language of a text, such as grammatical structures, and then they use this data in interpretation. 2. The purpose of doing this is sometimes simply to provide objective linguistic data to support existing readings or intuitions about a literary work. 3. At other times the purpose is to establish a new reading, which may be based only, or mainly, on this linguistic data, and may challenge or counter existing readings. COMMENT ON THE PROCEDURE ● these technical accounts of how meanings are made in literature are part of an overall project which involves showing that literature has non inafferable, mystical core which is beyond analysis; rather, it is part of a common ‘universe of discourse’ and uses the same techniques and resources as other kind of language use. ● To this end, stylistics doesn’t confine itself to the analysis of literature and often juxtaposes literary and other kinds of discourse, for instance, comparing the linguistic devices used in poetry with those of advertising WHAT THE STYLISTICS DEALS WITH ● Stylistics moves beyond ‘sentence grammar’ to ‘text grammar’, considering how the text works as a whole and examining the linguistic features which contribute to this end. Stylistics doesn’t focus on the grammar of each individual sentence, but it chooses some relevant points of the text, Stylistics is the study of style. WHAT’S STYLE? - Etymology: STILUS (latin) It was an instrument for writing, a kind of pen, metonymically “a manner of writing” Definition: a perceived distinctive manner of expression in writing or speaking. ex: she writes in a comic style - Idiolect, plain style→ the individual style of a person, how that person expresses himself HISTORICAL NOTES In XX century Stylistics replaced and expanded on the earlier study of ELOCUTIO IN RHETORIC ● CHARLES BALLY (1909) → he divided the idea of what Stylistics and Rhetoric do and he is considered as the father of Stylistics ● LEO SPITZER (28-48) ● CESARE SEGRE; GIANFRANCO CONTINI; VINCENZO MENGALDO. BEFORE XX CENTURY - Stylistics originally took shape as the art of devising an argument and using tropes to the end of achieving an intended purpose in communication by means of effective and appropriately elaborate discourse, whether spoken or written. - Stylistics incorporates features of What Novalis designated by the German term “Stylistik”, or art of composition. - The later use of Stylistique by Bally, for a line of linguistic enquiry he initiated on an independent basis from classical rhetoric in the early XX century. - In the XX century A turn occurred in the domain of Linguistics, around the ‘50s and ‘60s: in Britain, Stylistics was recognized as an independent field of studies in the late 60s, reaching Europe and Australia over the subsequent decades. - A major change occurred in the understanding of the notion of style: for some time, Stylisticians continued to regard exclusively linguistic factors as their objects of enquiry, privileging phonology, meter, morphology, and in general the minimal units appearing at sentence level. - The trend in Italy has been for Stylisticians to investigate chiefly the author-language relationship; In their studies, scholars such Devoto, Terracini, Contini, Segre combined stylistics analysis with studies in grammar, or the history of the language, or semiology, and in practice relegated stylistics to an epistemological limbo where it had no independent status. STYLISTICS IN THE WORLD TODAY JEAN JACQUE LECLERC said that: nobody has ever really known what the term ‘stylistics’ means, and in any case, hardly anyone seems to care. Stylistics is ‘ailing’; it is ‘on the wane’; and its heyday, alongside that of structuralism, has faded to but a distant memory. More alarming again, few university Students are ‘eager to declare an intention to do research in stylistics’. By this account, the death knell of stylistics had been sounded and it looked as though the end of the twentieth century would be accompanied by the inevitable passing of that faltering,moribund discipline. And no one, it seemed, would lament its demise. Stylistics in the early twenty-first century is very much alive and well. It is taught and researched in university departments of language, literature and linguistics the world over. Far from moribund, modern stylistics is positively flourishing, witnessed in a proliferation of sub-disciplines where stylistic methods are enriched and enabled by theories of discourse, culture and society. - significant research has been produced in Great Britain and Northern Europe, contributing to constant innovation within the discipline and a progressive redefinition of its profile and demain. - Stylistics is also strong in such english-speaking countries as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. - Stylistics research is less important at universities in the mediterranean countries. - In the USA it’s difficult to find a course with this name, since this subject is called in other ways. They use a different approach since they reject the idea that Stylistics comes from French critique. TOWARDS CONTEMPORARY STYLISTICS (XXI century) -approaches similar to Stylistics but slightly different- ● TEXT LINGUISTICS - Text linguistics, by its main championWolfgang Dressler and Robert Alain de Beaugrand (both Austrian), inaugurated an approach which shifted towards the global text, and not the sentence, as the fundamental unit of meanings. → The fact that they focused on the global text, is something similar to Stylistics Definition: - Text linguistics aimed to investigate the significance of textual components in a communicative perspective (over and beyond the level of grammatical categories), and is regarded by some as a form of Discourse Analysis. → So, in the aim, text linguistics is very close to Stylistics. - While claiming to address the international and communicative dimension of the text, however, what distinguishes text linguistics from stylistics is its chief concern with such text or discourse internal features of cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality and the intertextuality (everything and nothing). - Lastly, close reading practices concerned themselves with the literary text exclusively, upholding the distinction between the literary and other uses of language and prizing the exquisitely aesthetic features of literature; Stylistics, instead addressed the affinities and interconnections among text types, highlighting the mechanism and purposes that potentially underlie all communication. WHAT IS IT IN COMMON WITH STYLISTICS DIFFERENCES WITH STYLISTICS TEXT LINGUISTICS Dressel and De Beaugrand inaugurated an approach which shifted towards the global text, and not the sentence, as the fundamental unit of meanings. The fact that they focused on the global text, is something similar to Stylistics Text linguistics aimed to investigate the significance of textual components in a communicative perspective. So, in the aim, text linguistics is very close to Stylistics. In the analysis of the Text Linguistics are taken into account only the internal elements of the text; The context of which Jakobson speaks is not taken into account between Dressel and De Beaugrand. The 7 components they talk about are all internal to the text. Text Linguistics is focused on the internal analysis, but it doesn’t get to the interpretation of the text. In Stylistics we either move from an interpretation and try to serif the linguistics aspect confirm or not that interpretation or vice versa, get tp the interpretation RUSSIAN FORMALISM They foregrounded the importance of investigating the text in terms of its Recurrent structure of a genre, and therefore affinity with the stylistic in structural aspects and dependence on the language system. terms of rigor, method, structure. Literary language was studied as a different language CLOSE READING ANALYSIS Close reading analysis is a practice, it isn’t a method. It can be formalized, thought and replicated. analysis of a text that observes it as a whole stylistic analysis not methodologically rigorous, glossary undifferentiated with respect to the area of study and only literary text. STYLISTICS IN THE XXI CENTURY - Several paradigm shifts occurred in language studies in the closing decades of the 20th century. - In the early years of the XXI century, and especially over the past decade, new directions were explored: Sociolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Pragmatics, and Discourse Analysis took hold, shifting the boundaries of Stylistics and Linguistics alike. - Stylistics adopted the tools of its neighboring disciplines. The shared premises are: - a disciplined approach to the text. - the examination of data by means of variable and replicable procedures. - Addressing the construction of meaning as the principle task of textual interpretation Addressing the construction of meaning→ the interpretation of the text. Stylistics is an impure discipline that has no self-generated characteristics, but takes them from other disciplines. It is therefore an interdisciplinary discipline, which takes its characteristics from other disciplines. But there are criteria: a common point between the various disciplines. - Contemporary Stylistics came to its decisive turning point when language came to be examined in its socio-cultural dimension and as a code for variables of gender, class and social role. From theoretical linguistics to sociolinguistics which is a variant of linguistics. Language must be understood in a social context. - The analysis of discourse as “language in use” extended the bounds of Linguistics Analysis quite beyond the domains of Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, and semantics. - Notions of text came to be understood in terms of discourse. - Similar concerns are at the center of the Discourse Analysis (theoretical discipline) and Critical Discourse Analysis (practical discipline), methodologies developed, among others, by Norman Fairdough (1989 ;1995), Ruth Wodak (1997), and Paul Chilton (2004) of the University of Lancaster. Discourse in Linguistics means “language in use”, and it contains the sociological aspect. It refers to the language used in a specific socio-cultural dimension. Critical Discourse Analysis is almost never used for literary texts. This is a great difference between CDA and the Russian formalism. It focused on other texts: journals, political speeches etc… - Both approaches regard language as a form of representation of social and power relations within a given social context and as the engine behind social interactions and practices. Similar to Stylistics→ idea of “language in use". We have a method of approach which is used both by CDA and Stylistics, focused on “language in use”. - CDA typically addresses issues of power, discrimination, or inequality, and examines the way in which such issues emerge from discursive and social practices. It’s thus out of a concern with the ideologies behind given instances of linguistic practice that CDA proposes a critical examination of political, governmental, or media discourse, so as to raise the level of critical awareness. CDA is a different discipline. Contemporary Stylistics borrows approaches, methods, interests from CDA. Stylistics is based on interdisciplinarity and it borrows different aspects in different subjects. - Stylistics draws on a vast array of methodologies and investigates language and its functions in the most diverse contexts. - Stylistics assimilates techniques derived from other text-grounded disciplines (particularly over the past decades) BUT - “When will Stylistics grow up?” Is Stylistics an independent discipline? - While Stylistics feeds upon both linguistics and literary studies, the converse does not hold. - One of the results of the examination of texts and corpora by means of socially designed software has been to create new interest for concerns that seemed all but abandoned, such as the analysis of authorial style and “Stylometric” attributions of authorship. Stylometry: Corpus Linguistics + Digital Humanities. ● COGNITIVE STYLISTICS - In the application of cognitive science to investigation of reading processes (of a literary text) (What happens to our brain when we read), cognitive poetics operates on the principles that language is “incarnate” and that mind and body are to be viewed as a unit. - the testing ground for this notion is to be sought in the perceptions of the reader, whole individual experience and social context are accorded at least as much valence to the effects of textual interpretation as textual features: the reader is thus an active agent in the construction of the meaning of the text, and reading is understood as an active process. Cognitive science investigates how the brain works, how the brain produces language. How a reader interprets the text depends on the social context in which he grew up, on his individual experience etc. Maybe the aim of these researchers is to find out the differences in interpretation and if these differences depend only on where the readers are situated. It’s a psycho-sociological analysis of how a text is interpreted. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS on the main features of Contemporary Stylistics. Contemporary Stylistics, 2 definitions : from “bridge discipline” to “interdiscipline”. - 1. The centrality of the text comes first and foremost in all varieties of the discipline. we need a text. - 2. In Stylistics, the operational standards conform to scientific criteria: whether in reading a piece of drama with the tools of pragmatics or in a politicians speech in terms of Discourse Analysis, empirical text data will be rigorously collected, the procedures will be replicable, and the outcomes always open to falsification. - The strict interpretation between analysis and interpretation is to be viewed as the 2 sides of the same enterprise. As opposed to being the antecedent of interpretation, analysis is part of the interpretative process. - While Leech regards Stylistics as a “bridge discipline” connecting Linguistics with literary studies, the practices of the past decades better qualify Stylistics as a model “interdiscipline” : - < three points that confirm why stylistics should be considered as an “interdiscipline” > 1. It keeps an independent disciplinary identity; 2. It incorporates the perspectives and methods of several other disciplines. 3. It has emancipated from its supposed subjection to literary studies, and has branched out to examine the most diverse instances of text production and adapted to its own ends a vast range of theoretical models and procedures. < three points that confirm why stylistics should be considered as an “interdiscipline” > For Jakobson Linguistics is connected to literary texts, as well as Stylistics = Leech ● COMMUNICATIVE PROCESS AND LITERARY TEXTS - When we communicate, either in the spoken or in the written medium, the communication process implies 3 elements: 1. ADDRESSER → MESSAGE → ADDRESSEE the person who the speech or any the person who receives speaks or writes written message the message Literature, which is a more complex form of communication, involves at least two levels of relationship. 2. WRITER → BOOK → READER addresser message addressee - WITHIN THE TEXT NARRATOR → STORY → NARRATEE it’s not the writer destinatario interno del racconto - AND FINALLY AUTHOR → NARRATOR → TEXT → NARRATEE → READER - within a semiotic model of communication Seymour Chatman adds to the real author/reader the implied author/reader ● NARRATIVITY “The set of properties that characterize narrators and enable them to be distinguished from non-narrations” G. Prince, 2005 “Narrativity is the principal way in which our species organizes its understanding of time” Porter Abbott, 2002 “According to scholars, through narration we give meaning to time, we try to shape time” “Narrative fiction is the narration of the succession of fictional events” Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, Narrative Fiction (p.2) - When I narrate, I have to use words. Narrativity: use of the words in a special way succession: we must have a succession of events. - Narration is a verbal art. NARRATIVE GENRE 1. He was wet and muddy and hungry and cold and he was fifty thousand lightyears from home. A strange blue sun gave light, and gravity, twice what he was used to, made every movement difficult. 2. But in tens of thousands of years this part of war hadn’t changed. 3. The flyboys were fine with their sleek spaceships and their fancy weapons. When the chips are down, though, it was still the foot soldier, the infantry, that had to take the ground and hold it, foot by bloody foot. 4. Like this damned planet of a star he’s never heard of until they’d landed him there. 5. And now it was sacred ground because the aliens were there too. 6. The aliens, the only other intelligent race in the Galaxy…cruel, hideous and repulsive monsters. 7. Contact had been made with them near the centre of the Galaxy, 8. after the slow, difficult colonization of a dozen thousand planets; 9. and it had been war at sight; they’d shot without even trying to negotiate, or to make peace. 10. Now, planet by bitter planet, it was being fought out. Chronological order→ from past events to present events (from the farthest to the nearest event) There are no events→ 6, 2, 4(?), 3 2, 3, 8, 7, 9, 10, 4, 5, 6, 1 - The NARRATIVE has a different sequence, that is not chronological. In the Narrative the chronological order is disassembled and the events are narrated in another order, that is used in order to make the story more interesting, to obtain a certain effect. - The rest of the story is in a chronological order - END→awareness of the presence of stereotypes The end means that we don’t see things: life and people maybe are totally different, but we are stuck with stereotypes - During the story we empathize with the sentry, with the main character, imagining that he is a human being. The strategy starts distracting the reader. There’s a strategy used to obtain a precise effect. Aspects of time are divided and represented in a different way ● NARRATIVE TIME Narrative is a doubly temporal sequence. There is the time of the thing told and the time of the narrative. This duality not only renders possible all the temporal distortions that are commonplace in narrative (3 years of the hero’s life summed up in 2 sentences of a novel…). More basically, it invites us to consider that one of the functions of narrative is to invent one time scheme in terms of another time scheme. Christian Metz, Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema - Chi scrive una storia usa la gestione del tempo degli eventi in modo strategico per ottenere degli effetti. Uno dei modi di usare il tempo di una storia è quello di proporre percorsi temporali invece dell’ordine cronologico. - la distribuzione del tempo va vista in due sensi: la distribuzione degli eventi e la distribuzione del tempo all’interno del testo che sto leggendo. - Un conto è il tempo dentro alla storia, un conto è il tempo della narrazione. I piani temporali sono molteplici Translation: The writer of a story uses time management of events in a strategic way to achieve effects. One way to use the time of a story is to propose time paths instead of chronological order. The distribution of time must be seen in two ways: the distribution of events and the distribution of time within the text I am reading. One thing is the time inside the story, one thing is the time of the narrative. The time plans are multiple - The handling of time is one of the main components of the plot. Not only may events be arranged in such a way as to disrupt the chronological sequence, but some events may be given prominence, while others are just briefly mentioned or summarized or omitted. It will depend on the writer’s purpose. Dentro alla narrazione di eventi scomposti, io posso raccontare un evento più a lungo, e uno meno. Questo tempo lo decide chi scrive per creare un certo effetto Three times - die erzählte Zeit, time of the story →tempo raccontato - die Erzählzeit, time of the plot → tempo della narrazione, quanto ci mette l’autore a raccontare un dato evento - In fiction we usually trace two sequences of time, that is: TIME OF THE PLOT TIME OF THE STORY fictional time chronological time Tempo delle parole usate per raccontare un evento. Posso usare più parole per un evento e meno per un altro. Come gli eventi vengono narrati dall’autore. sempre cronologico; Sequenza degli eventi nella realtà Ordine cronologico degli eventi ● Connection between time of the plot (TP) and time of the story (TS) → 3 DIMENSIONS: - ORDER→ studies the temporal connections between the succession of the events in the story and the fictional order of their arrangement in the narrative. - DURATION→ studies the variable connections between the events or story sections and the fictional duration (i.e. length of text) of their telling in the narrative (connections of “speed”) - FREQUENCY→ studies the relations between the repetition of an event in the narration and in the story. - The two most common forms of discordance between the two temporal orders of story and narrative are called ANACHRONIES. - An Anachrony→ a discordance between the time of the story and the time of the plot, so a discordance between the chronological order and the order of the plot. ● Types of Anachronies ANALEPSIS (FLASHBACKS) AND PROLEPSIS (FLASHFORWARD) - Analepsis→ corresponds to any evocation, after the fact, of an event that took place earlier than the point in the story where we are at any given moment. - Prolepsis→ consists in narrating or evoking in advance an event that will take place later. ● WITHIN AN ANACHRONY: Reach (portata) Extent (ampiezza) - “An anachrony (analepsis and prolepsis) can reach into the past or the future, either more or less far from the present moment ,that is, from the moment in the story, when the narrative was interrupted to make room for the anachrony’s REACH” - how long is the jump into the past or into the future Narrator typology: classification 1 e We have said that narrators can be variously classified according to a number of criteria. * The first classification is of a grammatical type. ® Which person does the speaker use? Does he use the pronouns //We or He/She/They? ls he talking about himself or someone else? The issue is not purely grammatical. It involves different degrees of participation to and involvement into the story. chi narra storia? un He? un I? una She? Consider the following sample texts: * Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part ofthe world. Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851), Chapter I, Bantam Classic, 1981, p. 11. * laman invisible man. No, | am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am | one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. | am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1947), Chapter I, Vintage Books, New York, 1989, p, 3. entrambi voce narrante 1 persona singolare, diversi tra loro * One evening of late summer, before the present century had reached its thirtieth year, a young man and woman, the latter carrying a child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors on foot. Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Chapter |, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1997, p. 3 * Laruelle began very slowly to fold up the letter again, smoothing the creases carefully between finger and thumb, then almost without thinking he had crumpled it up. He sat holding the crumpled paper in one fist on the table staring, deeply abstracted, around him. Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano (1947), London, Penguin, 1993, Chapter I, p.40. due narratori di 3 persona, diversi tra loro Functions and Effects of First-person Narrator autobiographical novels, epistolary novels, diaries usually adopt first person narrators the reader has access to the narrator's mind. it makes the novel true to life it can make the events more convincing through the adoption of an autobiographical tone. Ta a I AR St Toh narrator's judgements. (<> * the point of view is restricted because the fictional world is seen through the eyes of the narrator and no other. Examples: Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Il Nome Della Rosa First-person Narrator Major or Minor character ® The first person narrator is a character in the story,. ® A further distinction in the quality of the information will depend on whether the person saying is a) the main protagonist of the events narrated, b) a minor character or c) simply an observer. * Ifthe narrator is a major character, he or she will be directly involved in what is happening in the story, and his or her view will be affected by that involvement. Writers often choose a major character as their narrator so that readers can identify more closely with his or her thoughts, feelings and experiences. Good examples of this kind of narrative are biographical novels. I * Ifthe narrator is a minor character, he or she will not be directly involved in what is happening in the story. The reason why some writers may choose a minor character as the focalizer of the narrative is to offer a wider perspective on the story's events, to give a more neutral description of the protagonist’s personality, and to collect other people's accounts of things. Ex. John Watson does in Sherlock Holmes's stories. Functions and Effects of Third-person Narrator * it may be omniscient, that is, he/she knows everything of the fictional world he is presenting (ex./ Promessi Sposi, Tom Jones), or limited Obtrusive or Non-Obtrusive Third-person (omniscient) Narrator * anobtrusive narrator may 1.anticipate future developments in the story; 2.summarise past events; 3. make comments on what has happened; 4.offer moral generalizations; 5.address the reader on the subject of novel writng; 6.keep in touch with the reader; 7.digress on topics which have little or nothing to do with the main plot of the novel. * anunobtrusive narrator guides the reader 's interpretation through 1. the use of words which convey his opinion of characters and incidents; 2. moralgeneralizations Narrative stylistics ● MOOD DISTANCE AND PERSPECTIVE - A narrative may provide the reader with more or less detail, in a more or less direct way, or may choose a different perspective as in a viewing a painting. - Distance and Perspective are the two essential modes of the regulation of narrative information. the information comes in a given time, from one voice or another. Focalization deals with orientation, the perspective from which information comes, which is not necessarily the voice. Who speaks may coincide with who sees, but it is not always true. Location changes the information delivery. ● POINT OF VIEW/ ORIENTATION/ PERSPECTIVE - point of view= focalization - Focalization→ is the position from which the narrator sees and understands what is happening. a. Focalization Whenever events are presented, they are always presented from within a certain “vision”. The vision is always subjective and the narrator is unreliable. A point of view is chosen, a certain way of seeing things, a certain angle, whether real historical facts are concerned or fictitious events. It is possible to try and give an “objective” picture of the facts. But what does that involve? An attempt to present only what is seen or is perceived in some other way. All comments are shunned and implicit interpretation is also avoided. Perception, however, is a psychological process, strongly dependent on the position of the perceiving body; a small child sees things in a totally different way from an adult [...] The degree to which one is familiar with what one sees also influences perception. EXAMPLE→When the Central American Indians first saw horsemen, they did not see the same things we do when we see people riding. They say gigantic monsters, with human heads and four legs. These had to be gods. Perception depends on so many factors that striving for objectivity is pointless. Mieke Bal, Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1985, p.100 We must distinguish the voice that tells and the eye that sees→ ● NARRATOR VS FOCALIZER - Who speaks? VS Who sees? Is the voice talking about her own perspective or is it talking about others' perspective? Even the omniscient narrator can express the perspective of others. Narrator’s first-person→ character’s point of view . - Ethic perspective/ descriptive perspective Ethics→ moral values of the character Descriptive→spatial - Narrative viewpoints, like the camera angles of a film director, make us see (and interpret) the events as the focalized character does. narrator’s voice -different from the- focalized character ● NARRATOR, FOCALIZATIONS and FOCALIZERS 1. Narrator > Character: (omniscient narrator knows more about a character than other characters)= zero focalization 2. Narrator = Character: ( a character is the focalizer, the narrator says only what a given character knows)= internal focalization (fixed, variable or multiple). The narrator seems to disappear. 3. Narrator < Character: “objective” narration/ external focalization (the narrator says less than a character knows) When there are a lot of dialogues. During the novel there can be variations. ● PLANES OF POINT OF VIEW IN NARRATIVE FICTION (“Fowler-Uspenskj model”) - Point of view on the IDEOLOGICAL plane - Point of view on the TEMPORAL plane - Point of view on the SPATIAL plane - Point of view on the PSYCHOLOGICAL plane ● MOOD DISTANCE - along with FOCALIZATION, DISTANCE is one of two major factors regulating narrative information (Genette). - How narrative information is given. Distance between NARRATING VOICE and ACTION and THE CHARACTER. - MIMESIS or SHOWING, for example, is taken to institute less distance than DIEGESIS or TELLING. - Speech and thought presentation - Grammar point ● REPORTED SPEECH or INDIRECT SPEECH. If the reporting verb is in the simple present, present perfect or the future (i.e. says) the tense is retained, so there’s no change in the indirect sentence. - he says the test is difficult - She has said that she watches TV every day - Jack will say that he comes to school every day. If the reporting verb (i.e. said) is in the past, the reported clause will be in a past form. This form is usually one step back into the past from the original. - He said the test was difficult - She said she watched TV every day. - Jack said he came to school every day ● CHANGING PRONOUNS When changing from direct speech to indirect speech, it is often necessary to change the pronouns to match the subject of the sentence •She said, “I want to bring my children”. BECOMES “She said she wanted to bring her children” •Jack said, “My wife went with me to the show” BECOMES “Jack said his wife went with him to the show.” ● CHANGING TIME SIGNIFIERS It is also important to change time words (signifiers) when referring to present, past or future time to match the moment of speaking. •She said, “I want to bring my children tomorrow” BECOMES “She said she wanted to bring her children the next day” •Jack said, “My wife went with me to the show yesterday.” BECOMES “Jack said his wife had gone with him to the show the day before.” ● INDIRECT QUESTIONS When reporting questions, it is especially important to pay attention to sentence order. When reporting yes/no questions, you connect the reported question using ‘if’. When reporting questions using question words (why, where..), you use the question word. - she asked “do you want to come with me?” She asked me if I wanted to go with her. - Dave asked “where did you go last weekend?” BECOMES Dave asked me where I had gone the previous weekend. ● TEMPO →Zeit or Tempus? Time or Tense? - segni ostinati= segni ricorrenti= segni permanenti - Dominanza di tempi ● Harald Weinrich, Tempus - Atteggiamento del tempo del verbo: si sviluppa sull’asse linguistico parlante-ascoltatore, indaga i rapporti tra tempo testuale e tempo reale ( di qui la distinzione tra tempo commentativo e tempo narrativo) - L’atteggiamento regola in che modo e maniera il parlante e l’ascoltatore si dispongono all’informazione - tempi commentativi: presente, passato prossimo e futuro - tempi narrativi: imperfetto, passato remoto, trapassato prossimo e remoto, condizionale presente e passato La distinzione tra tempi commentativi e tempi narrativi regola in che modo il parlante e l’ascoltatore si dispongono all’informazione. Quando analizziamo un testo se ci sono tempi commentativi o se ci sono tempi narrativi vuol dire che cambia il modo in cui il parlante e l’ascoltatore si dispongono all’informazione. ● TEMPI COMMENTATIVI Il mondo commentato è rappresentato del presente, tempo non riferibile soltanto all’oggi ma che indica complessivamente un certo atteggiamento comunicativo: indica una abitudine, fatti senza tempo, può indicare cose passate e future (presente storico) Così il presente di un riassunto non enuncia il tempo presente: l’abbozzo di un romanzo, o un copione cinematografico, i titoli di un giornale sono al presente ma non i contenuti che vengono poi sviluppati. Il presente ha una funzione commentativa. la funzione del commento si serve dunque del tempo “a-temporale” ● TEMPI NARRATIVI Il mondo narrato è composto da tempi come l’imperfetto o il passato remoto che sono in opposizione ai tempi del primo gruppo e che indicano un mondo che non è lo stesso di quello del parlante e dell’ascoltatore. Viene segnalata così la presenza di una narrazione, non necessariamente di un passato, poiché narrato e passato non coincidono: si pensi a quanti racconti o romanzi iniziano con un tempo passato che indica il presente del personaggio. ● EXAMPLE It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin muzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gitty dust from entering along with him (Orwell, 1964, p.5) - uso del passato - ma si parla del presente del personaggio. One bright day in April 1984 Winston Smith takes time off from his job at the Ministry of Truth to go home and begin a secret journal. He has a lovely old notebook bought at Mr.Charington’s junk shop a few days before, a dangerous act in 1984, when secret thoughts and relics from the past are forbidden (Lass, 1966, p.343) - Osservare come un testo procede con tempi narrativi e un altro con tempi commentativi, ci serve per stabilire la distanza tra chi parla e chi ascolta. - Tempi narrativi o commentativi sono dunque elementi che fanno parte dell’analisi stilistica ● DEIXIS = INDICATION Deictics category of expressions that link uses to language to the context in which they occur. Ex.1 I am pleased to see YOU Ex.2 William met Martha YESTERDAY Ex.3 When William met Martha she was standing right THERE. In order to understand exactly what is being communicated, we need to fill in some information from the context of utterance - subindices or indexical symbols - shifters (empty signs), they refer to a world in action, they simply point to other contextual elements. - POLONIUS→ “Take THIS from THESE if THIS be otherwise” ● DEICTICS - Personal pronouns - Adverbs referred to the time and place of the action - Demonstrative adjectives which point to the present - Simple Present Tense ● TYPES OF DEIXIS - person deixis - space deixis - time deixis - social deixis - discourse/ textual deixis Practice on Point of view in fiction and deixis Analysis and Interpretation ● Ian Banks, The Crow Road Kenneth McHoan, one of the novel’s central characters, has just returned from university to his home town of Gallanach, and this episode details his arrival in the rural village station. He rested his arms on the top of the wall and looked down the fifty feet or so to the tumbling white waters. Just upstream, the river Lorean piled down from the forest in a compactly furious cataract. The spray was a taste. Beneath, the river surged round the piers of the viaduct that carried the railway on towards Lochgilpead and Gallanach. A gray shape flitted silently across the view, from falls to bridge, then zoomed, turned in the air and swept into the cutting on the far bank of the river, as though it was a soft fragment of the train’s steam that had momentarily lost its way and was not hurrying to catch up. He waited a moment, and the owl hooted once, from inside the dark constituency of the forest. He smiled, took a deep breath that tasted of steam and the sweet sharpness of pine resin, and then turned away, and went back to pick up his bags. (Banks 1933, 33) Appoggiò le braccia sulla sommità della parete e guardò giù per una cinquantina di metri verso le acque bianche e tumultuose. Poco più a monte, il fiume Loran scendeva dalla foresta in una cataratta compatta e furiosa. Gli spruzzi erano un assaggio. Al di sotto, il fiume si muoveva intorno ai piloni del viadotto che portava la ferrovia verso Lochgilphead e Gallanach. Una sagoma grigia attraversò silenziosamente il panorama, dalle cascate al ponte, poi sfrecciò, ruotò in aria e si infilò nel taglio sulla sponda opposta del fiume, come se fosse un tenue frammento del vapore del treno che aveva momentaneamente verso la strada e non si affrettava a raggiungerlo. Aspettò un attimo, e la civetta emise un solo fischio, dall'interno dell'oscura circoscrizione della foresta. Sorrise, fece un respiro profondo che sapeva di vapore e della dolce asprezza della resina di Pino, poi si allontanano E tornò a prendere le sue valigie. ● Who tells the story? Who sees the story? The story is told by a third-person narrator, who is an extra-heterodiegetic narrator. It’s Kenneth McHoan who sees the story. So the description is told by the narrator who expresses what Kenneth sees. ● Convert the passage into an extra-homodiegetic narration. I saw him as he was resting his arms on the top of the wall, looking down the fifty feet or so to the tumbling white waters. Just upstream, the river Loran piled down from the forest in a compactly furious cataract. The spray was a taste. Beneath, the river surged round the piers of the viaduct that carried the railway on towards Lochgilphead and Gallanach. He saw a gray shape that flitted silently across the view, from falls to bridge, then zoomed, turned in the air and swept into the cutting on the far bank of the river, as though it was a soft fragment of the train’s steam that had momentarily lost its way and was not hurrying to catch up. I looked at him again, he waited a moment, and the owl hooted once, from inside the dark constituency of the forest. I saw him smiling, taking a deep breath and then turning away, and going back to pick up his bags. ● Which differences can you observe? With the extra-homodiegetic narration, the narrator is an observer of the scene, therefore he isn't omniscient, since he doesn't know what the protagonist is feeling. He just describes what he sees. However, with an extra-heterodiegetic narration, there’s a narrator who tells a story in which he does not take part in. In this case, the narrator has no direct involvement in the action, so he is able to maintain a greater objective or critical distance. ● How is deixis used in this extract? Deixis are not used in this extract. We know where the character is thanks to the precise description done by the third - discorso diretto (tagged): Agamennone disse: “Che sua figlia, prima di essergli rilasciata, sarebbe invecchiata in Argo con lui. - discorso diretto: “Tua figlia, prima di essere rilasciata, invecchierà in Argo con me. - effetto di fondere le voci del narratore con quelle del personaggio, si ottengono degli effetti diversi tra discorso diretto e indiretto. ● DS→direct speech ● IR / RS→indirect speech / reported speech ● FDS→ free direct speech ● FIS→ free indirect speech ● N→ narrator ● Paul Simpson page 33 Practice The practical work suggested in unit C8 of this thread is very detailed, requiring some fine distinctions to be drawn between various modes of speech and thought presentation, so this is a good place to begin firming up your knowledge of how the basic speech and thought categories work. Admittedly a departure from the overall format of this introductory section, the remainder of this unit therefore develops a short transposition exercise which is designed to test the categories introduced thus far. Examples a–e listed below are all written in the Direct mode of speech or thought presentation. Working from these base forms, try to convert the five examples into their equivalent Free Direct, Indirect and Free Indirect modes. Some suggestions on how to proceed are offered below the examples: a. ‘I know this trick of yours!’ she said. [said to a male addressee] Tagged direct speech. Free direct speech→‘I know this trick of yours!’ Indirect speech→ she said she knew that trick of his Free indirect speech→ She knew that trick of his b. ‘Can you get here next week?’ he asked. [said to a female addressee] Tagged direct speech Free direct speech→ ‘Can you get here next week?’ Indirect speech→ She asked if she could get there the following week. Free indirect speech→ Could she get there the following week? c. ‘Why isn’t John here?’ she asked herself. Tagged direct speech Free direct speech→ ‘Why isn’t John here?’ Indirect speech→She asked herself why John was not there. Free indirect speech→Why wasn’t John there? (FIT) d. She said, ‘We must leave tonight.’ Tagged direct speech Free direct speech→ ‘We must leave tonight.’ Indirect speech→she said they had to leave that night. Free indirect speech→they had to leave that night e. ‘Help yourselves,’ he urged them. Tagged direct speech Free direct speech→ ‘Help yourselves’ Indirect speech→ He urged them to help themselves Free indirect speech→ It is probably most straightforward if you convert them into their Free Direct counterparts first of all. Then, going back to the Direct forms, convert these into theirIndirect variants using the five sets of criteria provided in the sub-unit above. It should also be possible to get from the Free Direct variants to their equivalent FreeIndirect forms by following these same criteria. That said, there are certain types of grammatical patterns which block some transpositions and you may come up against some of them here. If so, try to account for any problems you encounter. Can you construct some NRS and NRT forms for a–e also? For solutions and commentary, go to unit D8. Across the remainder of this strand, we will see how speech and thought presentation can be aligned with broader issues to do with narrative communication. In B8, additional refinements are made to the speech and thought model. Further along the strand, unit C8 offers a workshop programme which is designed to develop awareness of the way speech and thought presentation can be used in literary narrative. Unit D8 provides solutions relating to the practice material developed in this unit, which is why there is not the space for a selected reading to accompany this strand. PAGE 195-196 ● V.Woolf, To the Lighthouse Down there among the little boats which floated, some with their sails furled, some slowly, for it was very calm moving away, there was one rather apart from the others. The sail was even now being hoisted. She decided that there in that very distant and entirely silent little boat Mr Ramsay was sitting with Cam and james. Now they had got the sail up; now after a little flagging and silence, she watched the boat take its way with deliberation past the other boats out to sea. The sails flapped over their heads. The water chuckled and slapped the sides of the boat, which drowsed motionless in the sun. Now and then the sails rippled with a little breeze in them, but the ripple ran over them and ceased. The boat made no motion at all. Mr Ramsay sat in the middle of the boat. He would be impatient in a moment, James thought, and Cam thought, looking at her father, who sat in the middle of the boat between them (James steered; Cam sat alone in the bow) with his legs tightly curled (...) In their anger they hoped that the breeze would never rise, that he might be thwarted in every possible way, since he had forced them to come against their wills. Yes, that is their boat, Lily Briscoe decided, standing on the edge of the lawn. It was the boat with grayish-brown sails, which she saw now flatten itself upon the water and shoot off across the bay. There he sits, she thought, and the children are quite silent still. And she could not reach him either. The sympathy she had not given him weighed her down. It made it difficult for her to paint. Laggiù tra le barchette che galleggiavano, alcune con le vele coperte, altre lentamente, perché era molto calmo allontanarsi, ce n'era una piuttosto diversa dalle altre. La vela veniva issata. Decise che lì, in quella piccola barca molto lontana e completamente silenziosa, il signor Ramsay era seduto con Cam e James. Ora avevano alzato la vela; ora, dopo un po' di silenzio e di battute d'arresto, ha visto la barca prendere la sua strada con deliberazione passata le altre barche in mare aperto. Le vele sbattevano sulle loro teste. L'acqua ridacchiava e schiaffeggiava i lati della barca, che dormiva immobile al sole. Di tanto in tanto le vele si increspano con una piccola brezza in loro, ma l'ondulazione ha funzionato sopra loro ed ha cessato. La barca non ha fatto movimento affatto. Il signor Ramsay era seduto in mezzo alla barca. Sarebbe stato impaziente in un momento, pensò James, e Cam pensò, guardando suo padre, che sedeva in mezzo alla barca tra di loro (James guidava; Cam sedeva da solo a prua) con le gambe strettamente arricciate (...) Nella loro collera essi speravano che la brezza non si alzasse mai, che egli potesse essere ostacolato in ogni modo possibile, dal momento che li aveva costretti a venire contro la loro volontà. Sì, quella è la loro barca, decise Lily Briscoe, in piedi sul bordo del prato. Era la barca con le vele grigio-marroni, che ha visto ora si appiattisce sull'acqua e spara attraverso la baia. Lì si siede, pensò, e i bambini sono ancora in silenzio. E nemmeno lei poteva raggiungerlo. La simpatia che non gli aveva dato la appesantisce. Le rendeva difficile dipingere. narratore di terza persona limited, punto di vista del personaggio. scena descrittiva + pensieri (thought presentation) rosso→ tagged indirect speech (da he would be a between them) azzurro→ tagged indirect speech (perché c’è hope) Yes, that is their boat, Lily Briscoe decided → free direct speech There he sits, she thought, and the children are quite silent still→ free direct speech (giocato con un reporting verb) RIPETIZIONE GENERALE con test The method of Stylistics has to be: rigorous, retrievable, replicable. It has to follow a method, to follow steps in order to get to the final solution (rigor). Thanks to rigor you can have a retrievable result (retrievable: you can find this method in other examples, in other forms of analysis) and you can also repeat it (replicable). The purpose of doing stylistic analysis is sometimes simply to: provide objective linguistic data to support existing readings or intuitions about a literary work. Noi sappiamo che lo scopo della Stilistica non è solo per i testi letterari, ma è l’unica scelta possibile perché “provide the grammatical and syntactic rules in a text” non è giusta: la Stilistica non si occupa solo di grammatica o sintassi, oppure l’opzione “show that there are no rules in the structure of a text” naturalmente non può essere giusta. Nella tecnica della scelta multipla non c’è sempre la risposta assolutamente vera, ma la più corretta rispetto al panorama che ci viene mostrato. The time of the discourse and the time of the story can vary greatly. Depending on which mode is more predominant, the pace of the narration will change significantly. You have 4 main time rhythms: Description (descriptive pause) TD=n, TS=0; Dialogue (scene) TD=TS; Summary TD<TS; Ellipsis TD=0, TS=0 What kind of speech and thought presentation? J. Joyce, Eveline. She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror. Escape! She must escape! Frank would save her. He would give her life, perhaps love, too. But she wanted to live. Why would she be unhappy? She had a right to happiness. Frank would take her in his arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her. “Escape…her” is an example of free indirect speech. What is the prevailing anisochrony? E. Hemingway, Indian Camp. Scene, Testo tratto da una short story di Hemingway. “See, it’s a boy, Nick” he said […] Scena: siamo in un Indian camp, un campo indiano dei nativi d’America, dove il padre del personaggio che si chiama Nick, che è medico, è stato chiamato per fare il parto, di corsa perché il bambino è podalico, quindi la mamma indiana sta soffrendo. Nick, che è il ragazzino, lo assiste. C’è un narratore di terza persona, ma non siamo in grado di dire se sia onnisciente o no, ma molto probabilmente no siccome c’è un lungo testo dialogato dei personaggi. “…and put something into the basin” il narratore non sa cosa il medico abbia messo nella vaschetta dopo il parto? Il narratore ci dice “something”; il punto di vista è quello di Nick. What kind of narrator? C. Dickens, Hard Times “Into how much of futurity? (…) Here was Mr Gradgrind on the same day, and in the same hour, sitting thoughtful in his own room. How much of futurity did he see? (…) Dear reader! It rests with you and me, whether, in our two fields of action, similar things shall be or not. Let them be! We shall sit with lighter bosoms on the heart, to see the ashes of our fires turn gray and cold.” Narrator: third-person obtrusive. Siamo nel romanzo dell’Ottocento. “You and me” sono il narratore e il lettore. Il lettore e il narratore sono seduti vicino al fuoco e il narratore sta raccontando la storia; staranno lì a guardare la cenere del loro fuoco farsi grigia e fredda. Con il “dear reader” si aveva subito l’indicazione di narratore third-person obtrusive. Il problema dei tre corpi, Ep. 4 (sci-fi story) Little Red Riding Hood - Dialogue between a man and an alien entity, who speaks through a microphone Evan decided to be in charge in order to give information to a certain Lord who will come and help humanity. He’s trying to communicate with this mysterious entity, called Lord. Evan tries to teach how humanity works in order to help the Lord. The entity thought that the man was a liar and he stopped the communication. According to the alien, the story is a lie of a liar. The Lord and the man do not share the same code. The alien doesn’t understand metaphors, he doesn’t understand how one can tell something by telling another fact. The alien doesn’t understand that the story is not true and it’s merely fictional. The alien doesn’t know that the wolf is not real. Human communication distinguishes the plan of intentions and the speech plan. Example→ use of sarcasm, intonation There are social expressions→ where the expression doesn’t mean exactly what it actually says. The difference between the fictional narrative and the lie is in the intention, when telling a lie we WANT to do it. Difference between speech and intentions → we can analyze it through intonation, social code, context, sarcasm. Pragmatic→ deal with the use of a language in a specific context. We can study it with the… ● Conversational Behavior Paul Grice and the cooperative principle Logic and conversation (1975) While there’s a conversation, there must be cooperation. If there isn't, the conversation can’t be held. The speech plan and the plan of intentions must cooperate. ➔ IN ORDER TO OVERCOME THIS GAP ‘Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.’ - spiegazione→ Se vuoi fare conversazione, devi contribuire altrimenti si creano sfasature tra il linguaggio e il significato, tra quello che diciamo e quello che intendiamo. Cooperation as a necessary behavior in order to communicate, as a logical element. No ethical assessment. - non è un piano etico, ma un piano logico ❖ We must cooperate in order to communicate In alcuni testi manca la cooperazione e la logica nella conversazione e c’è sempre unmotivo per questo ● Grice indaga come l’evoluzione della società umana si svolge inconsapevolmente, attraverso delle regole, che si indagano secondo quattro rapporti: ● Grice’s Four Maxims -piano logico- 1. Quality (being true): I) Do not say what you believe to be false; II) Do not say that for which you lack evidence; 2. Quantity ( being brief): I) Make your contribution as informative as is required for the current purposes of the exchange; II) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required; 3. Relation (being relevant): I) Make your contribution relevant; Relevance considering the question. Don’t add anything to the answer that is not asked in the question. 4. Manner (being clear): I) Avoid obscurity; II) Avoid ambiguity; III) Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity); IV) Be orderly; In una conversazione sensata noi dobbiamo seguire le 4 massime, altrimenti deviamo dalla norma. Il piano linguistico così coincide con quello delle intenzioni. ● Le quattro massime di GRICE - della quantità: Mi aspetto che il contributo del mio partner è linguistico sia né più né meno di quanto è richiesto (“ dai un contributo appropriato sotto il profilo della quantità di informazioni”) - della qualità: Mi aspetto che il contributo dell'altro sia autentico (“ Non dire cose che credi false o che non hai ragione di credere vere”) - della relazione:Mi aspetto del contributo del partner sia appropriato alle esigenze immediate in ciascuna fase della transazione (“ dai un contributo pertinente ad ogni stadio della comunicazione”) - della modalità: Mi aspetto che il partner rende esplicito quale contributo mi sta fornendo e che lo esegua con ragionevole sollecitudine (“ esprimiti in modo chiaro, breve, ordinato”). ❖ EXAMPLES of violation. We are talking about the prevalent violated maxim, but there can be more than one at the same time. - Quality “What time is it?” - Quantity “Do you know if the doctor turned up?” NO (he didn't turn up/I don’t know) / YES (He turned up/I know) La risposta non ha esaurito la domanda, c’è una mancanza. “Who is that guy sitting there?” “He's a good-looking and well dressed man.” - Relation “Do you have children?” “No, but my sister’s children are like children to me”. →implicature - Manner “I drove a girl called Paola who lives with me to the hospital.” ● Haddon himself has claimed to have shown only: - “what you might call an interested layperson’s knowledge of autism and Asperger’s” - “If anything it’s a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. It’s as much a novel about us as it is about Christopher. An extract from the novel Maxims violated: Quantity “I am 15 years and 3 months and 2 days” “I think someone killed the dog” → there’s a fork garden on him! There are useless details →Quantity and Relation. Christopher is the narrator, an autodiegetic narrator. Point of view→ Christopher APPUNTI LIBRO (Christopher) The curious incident of the dog in the night-time Christopher doesn’t like chatting, he thinks that conversation should be used only to answer questions. His teacher Soahbian told him to write a novel and he started with the dog’s murder to grab attention and because he can’t imagine things that are not real. He doesn’t like lying since he can’t imagine another reality. He can’t understand metaphors. He loves scientific subjects and he wants to be an astronaut. He doesn’t like touching people. The novel was analyzed also through Christopher’s mind for what concerns the study of autistic minds. People know that there’s a cognitive problem with the protagonist. So, people didn’t talk just about facts and the story itself, when analyzing the novel. - Analyze this novel→ ● Stylistics and linguistic approach to Mark Haddon’s The curious incident of the dog in the night-time. ❖ AGENDA: - Voice and Focalization - Vocabulary - Grammar - Time and Tense - Speech presentation - Conversational behavior (Grice’s maxims) - Functions in communication + Theory of mind, for this special novel. - How style helps the author to reproduce the character’s mind. ● A linguistic approach to Haddon’s novel→ to account for one of the most central aspects of readers’ interpretation of the novel: the perception that the protagonist and first-person narrator has an autistic mind. ● VIDEO YT → Theory of Mind and the Sally Anne Test. Theory of Mind has to do with our understanding of how other people reason. This is an element useful to understand if people have a proper functioning of mind. - It is the ability to reason about what other people know or believe. The understanding that others have different thoughts or preferences. ● Why study language and mind in narrative? One of the attractions of reading (fictional and non-fictional) narratives is that they can give us a convincing and involving impression of what it is like to be somebody else, to feel and think things that are not part of our own personal experience. - This Theory was studied also through narration, not only the fictional one. With narration, the reader can understand what it is like to be somebody else. This is particularly the case when we read about characters/people whose minds work in strikingly distinctive ways, which we may associate with developmental disorders, or mental illnesses. - “Deviant/unorthodox” mind style in Stylistics (Fowler, Leech and Short and Semino) - “Non-standard” cognitive functioning through Narratology. AGENDA ● Christopher as Narrator - first person narrator - Autodiegetic narrator (si capisce dopo la prima pagina) - Genette: extra-homodiegetic - In addition Christopher’s narrative provides a wealth of what Culpeper (2001) calls ‘implicit cues’ to his characterisation, namely, a variety of more indirect sources of inferences about Christopher’s characteristics, and especially about the workings of his mind. These implicit cues primarily involve the ways in which Christopher uses language, both as a narrator and as a character in his own story. ● Focalization - Christopher’s point of view - internal focalization The narrator is very explicit in self-presentation→ He tells a lot about himself ● Self-presentation - Christopher tends to describe himself (pp. 59-60) - Early in the novel Christopher mentions that he has “behavioral problems”, - and lists 18 specific including: - “Not talking to people for a long time”, “Not liking being touched”, “Groaning”, “Not noticing that people are angry with me”, “Not smiling”, and “Getting cross that someone has moved the furniture”. (pp. 59-60) - Christopher explicitly mentions his exceptional abilities in mathematics and science, and his narrative provides evidence in support of his claim. - Readers are repeatedly exposed to cases where Christopher has difficulties reading other characters’ minds. (Theory of mind problems) ● ‘AND’ - The use of ‘and’ in this extract is more typical of speech than of writing, and is reminiscent of child-like speech. - It has been noted that a high frequency of ‘and’ in fiction is one of the devices that is associated with child-narrators, or with characters/narrators who have child-like minds. ● ‘BECAUSE’ - Because is a relatively basic subordinating conjunction, and its high frequency in the novel reflects Christopher’s concern for cause-effect relationships, and his tendency to spell out in detail explanations for fact and events. - Christopher has always to give reasons to each event. Sintesi di tutto il discorso: ● Simplicity and complexity in grammar - Occasional switches to greater grammatical complexity are less consciously noticed by readers than changes in lexical complexity. - Nonetheless, the greater complexity of these extracts may contribute to the general impressions that Christopher sometimes switches to a different style, and possibly to a more competent self, when he talks about topics he has a special interest and talent in. ● Figurative language - Throughout his narrative, Christopher often consciously reflects on his own difficulties and peculiarities, sometimes via metalinguistic or metanarrative comments. These include his references to the problems he has understanding other people’s use of metaphors. - Ex: “The second main reason (why Christopher finds people confusing) is that people often talk using metaphors. There are examples of metaphors I laughed my socks off. He was the apple of her eye. They had a skeleton in the cupboard. We had a real pig of a day. The dog was stone dead. (...) I think it should be called a lie because a pig is not like a day and people do not have skeletons in their cupboards.” = il problema dei tre corpi, Little Red Riding Hood, the alien entity. ● “Simile” is not a lie →he uses similes in the narration When there’s a like it works and it’s not a lie! Ex: Juliet is the sun→It’s a lie Juliet is like the sun→ It’s not a lie p.8, 96,177-178 - He was asking too many questions and he was asking them too quickly. They were stacking up in my head like loaves in the factory where Uncle Terry works. - The factory is a bakery and he operates the slicing machines. And sometimes the slicer is not working fast enough but the bread keeps coming and there is a blockage. I sometimes think of my mind as a machine, but not always as a bread-slicing machine. It makes it easier to explain to other people what is going on inside it. ● The effect of overuse of ‘I’ and self-focus - Overuse of singular first person pronoun + underuse of both first-person plural pronoun (there’s not the idea of a union between him and others, he’s lonely) and second-person pronouns contribute to create the impression that Christopher is unusually self-focused. - Chistopher tends to be more comfortable in his own company and often chooses to be by himself. - He struggles to understand other people and to feel close to them. - There is a limited sense of companionship and commonality with others. - All of this may lead to inferences about an autism-spectrum disorder. Il lavoro su The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time serve a vedere come in un testo con tutte le valenze di stilistica narrativa con in più la caratteristica della Theory of mind (stilistica cognitiva) viene presentato un personaggio, Christopher che soffre di un disturbo cognitivo, e che viene reso attraverso la descrizione che rappresenta delle caratteristiche. La theory of mind è il cuore della stilistica cognitiva. Il romanzo nel 2003 ha avuto un grande successo e ha suscitato interesse anche a livello medico. Nel romanzo la narrativa di finzione fa capire come funziona la mente di un personaggio di queste caratteristiche. La letteratura esce dunque fuori dal mondo testuale. Why do/did readers of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time think that Christopher, the main character, suers from a kind of cognitive impairment? - Questo è l’obiettivo sostanziale accanto a come è fatto il romanzo con le tecniche generali della stilistica. Stylistics and linguistic approach to Mark Haddon’s The curious incident of the dog in the night-time ● AGENDA: Voice and Focalization Vocabulary Grammar - Time and Tense - Speech presentation - Conversational behavior (Grice’s maxims) - Functions in communication (Jakobson) Massime di Grice si interessano del conversational behavior. - Christopher= Personaggio che narra la sua storia parallelamente alla stesura di un romanzo come strategia terapeutica che gli è stata consigliata. Christopher vuole scrivere un ‘murder mystery novel’. ● Time and tense - Plot and Story→They almost completely coincide - Anachroniques→Some of Christopher’s memories, but they are not relevant for the narration. Christopher’s mind can’t understand descriptive digressions, since his mind is logical and he decides to use a chronological order. - Anisochronies→ scene, dialogue. It gives the idea that events go on linearly, chronologically. - Tenses→Commentative tenses. (+memories→ narrative tenses) ● Speech presentation Mostly tagged direct speech ● What kind of communicative function is Christopher lacking here? “I live at number 36”→ violation of the quantity and relevancemaxims “I see you every day, going to school?”→ small talk, dunque phatic function What kind of communicative function is Christopher lacking here? He’s lacking the ‘phatic function’. ● Christopher’s inability in ‘phatic communication’ - The first utterance Christopher addressed to Mrs Alexander is the question he wants an answer for: he does not begin with a greeting, nor with some preliminary comments about Wellington’s death. - Later in the conversation, he fails to respond to some of her turns, which he describes as “chatting”. - In other words, Christopher is unable to engage in the small talk that is part of social interaction. ● A Linguistic-Stylistics analysis 1. self-description 2. metalinguistic and metanarrative comments on his difficulties with language and communication 3. others’ description 4. linguistic patterns: lexis, grammar, figurative language, deixis. 5. first person narrator and point of view 6. speech and thought presentation 7. anysochronies 8. plot, story, anachronies, tenses 9. conversational behavior (in this case) 10. communicative functions →It can be used for every fictional text THEATER The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time based on the novel by Mark Haddon Adopted by Simon Stephens ● From a novel to a play What changes? Il testo teatrale ha dei funzionamenti propri del genere, tanto che la stilistica prevede una parte di analisi solo per i testi teatrali. Analisi stilistica: mantenere l’attenzione sul testo grammatico scritto oppure pensarlo come theatrical text. ❖ Agenda: - Narrator/s→ in the theater there’s not a narrator La narrazione è adata al dialogo tra i personaggi - Time and Tense: anachronies, anisochronies, tenses - Plot and Story ● The Stylistics of Drama Drama vs Theatre - Drama: those works written to be performed and following particular conventions. (particular conventions→dialogues,directions to the scene, screenplay, characters’ name, scene division, notes etc.) - Theater: dynamic relationships between actors and audience. Dramatic text Theatrical text testo scritto performance teatrale The language of drama ADDRESSER MESSAGE ADDRESSEE = → = → = PLAYWRIGHT PLAY AUDIENCE Dramatic text + Actors Director Designer etc. INFORMATIONAL POLYPHONY (Roland Barthes) Polyphony→ series of sounds that together give the addressee the information. - There’s no a narrator: action→ through dialogues and scenes ● Theater keywords: Audience Theatre Actor (s) Characters Action Here and now → deittici Dialogue → anisochrony of the scene - the theatrical text is made of dialogues (dominant communicative function) The theatrical dialogue gives us information through the events and speeches of the characters. Other questions on the scene: 1. Are the march and the demonstration the same thing? 2. In what historical period might the action take place? What details can help you define it? 3. Who is asking most of the questions? 4. How many questions are really answered? 5. Does this dialogue sound as something exceptional in Harry’s and Sarah’s life? Dive reasons for your choice. 6. What information does the dialogue give about the two characters? (Ex:weak,strong,stubborn,generous,lazy,impatient, etc.) 7. Are there examples of non-standard grammar in the dialogue? 8. What were you unable to infer from the dialogue? Was it essential or not? 1. No: the march of the blackshirts 2. A little before World War II, you can guess from the fact that there are marches of black shirts. 3. Sarah 4. Not all of them, maybe because she knows harry won’t answer 5. No, it seems that this is an everyday situation since Harry seems exhausted by Sarah’s behavior and so seems Sarah. Above all in the final sentence when Harry anticipates Sarah's words. 6. Sarah: strong, impatient, energetic, stubborn Harry: weak, lazy, careless… 7. Yes, this suggests that this is a family context, but also that they belong to a low social class. 8. Their appearance, their kids. Not essential ❖ Introduction to the play: 4 October 1936 Kan family→ Jewish Surname East-end of London → parte povera di Londra The room is warm and lived in, a fire is burning. Description of the house → It’s a basement. At the rear of the stage there are the stairs leading up into the street. Sarah is in the kitchen washing up; she’s small, aged 37, jewish and of european origin. Her movements indicate energy and vitality, she is a very warm person. Harry Kan, her husband, comes from the stairs. He’s 35 and also an european jewish. He’s dark, rather pleasant looking and the antisis of Sarah, he’s weak. From outside there’s a band playing a revolutionary song. ● Narration through dialogue Dialogue builds up plot and characters ● FUNCTIONS OF DIALOGUE In the dramatic text the dialogue has to give the information that the narrator provides in the narrative text. In relation to PLOT, dialogue: 1. Provides information necessary to understand what is happening. 2. Reports on past actions and anticipated future ones. There’s not a summary. 3. Rises expectations as to what will come next. In relation to CHARACTERS, dialogue: 1. Shows relationships among characters. 2. Reveal aspects of the character’s personality through their own words. 3. Shows what a character thinks of another or a situation. ● Deixis and dramatic discourse 1. Deixis is represented by those parts of discourse which are defined as EMPTY→ personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, adverbs of time and place like ‘here’ and ‘now’. (segni vuoti che hanno significato solo se collegati al contesto) 2. INCOMPLETENESS of deixis means it is related to corresponding objects. 3. The role of gestures is often CRUCIAL in this aspect. (serve a disambiguare il deittico) Disambiguation is possible at times only through a kinesic indicator (movimento), pointing to the object. 4. All this results in a discourse marked by PERFORMABILITY, by a potential gestuality: the speaker’s body is directly involved into the speech act. 5. Deixis implies a reference to the speakers themselves AS SPEAKERS. 6. Dramatic discourse is egocentric: the world is explained through the speaker’s place in the dramatic world. A central position is occupied by the I-speaker and the you-hearer: they are the only active roles in the dramatic exchange. 7. Deixis is the necessary condition of a NON-NARRATIVE FORM OF THE WORLD-CREATING DISCOURSE, an actual and dynamic world already in progress. When I use a deixis I don’t tell something that happened to me in the past, but I’m talking about the present. It is possible to jump into the past, but the main feature of dramatic language is the present. Deixis is the necessary condition for a form of narrative discourse. It is linked to the present. ● Dramatic language and Deixis - THE WOMANSERVANT: God bless us! Sorry to wake you miss, I’m sure; but you are a stranger to me. What might you be waiting here for, now? - THE YOUNG LADY: Waiting for somebody to show some signs of knowing that I have been invited here. - THE WOMANSERVANT: Oh, you’re invited, are you? And has nobody come? Dear! dear! G. B. Shaw, Heartbreak House The name of the characters gives us a context, but we do not know where the scene takes place, even if the text is full of indications, which, seen on stage make sense, but without context are not useful to identify the context. ● Deixis and the language of theatre In the theatre (...) meaning is entrusted in primis to the deixis, which regulates the articulation of the speech acts. Even rhetoric, like syntax, grammar, etc. are dependent, in the theatre, on the deixis, which subsumes and unites the meaning borne by the images, by the various genres of language (prose, poetry), by the various linguistic modes of the characters, by intonation, by rhythm, by proxemic relations, by the kinesic of the movements, etc. (A.Serpieri) Ex.1→ Polonius: “Take THIS from THESE if THIS be otherwise” - deissi spaziale + deissi testuale (ultimo THIS→ si capisce se si conosce il testo precedente) Nel teatro (...) il significato è affidato in primis alla deixis, che regola l'articolazione degli atti verbali. Anche la retorica, come la sintassi, la grammatica, ecc. dipende, nel teatro, dalla deissi, che ingloba e unisce il significato generato dalle immagini, dai vari generi del linguaggio (prosa, poesia), dai vari modi linguistici dei personaggi, dall'intonazione, dal ritmo, dalle relazioni prossemiche, dalla cinetica dei movimenti, ecc. (A.Serpieri) - Secondo Serpieri questi piccoli elementi generano il linguaggio teatrale. Ex.2 Arthur Miller, All my Sons JIM: Where’s your tabacco? KELLER: I think I left it on the table. (Jim goes slowly to table on the arbor, finds a pouch, and sits there on the bench, filling his pipe). Gonna rain tonight. JIM: Paper say so? KELLER: Yeah, right here. JIM: Then it can’t rain. (Frank Lubey enters) FRANK: Hya KELLER:Hello, Frank. What’s doin’? FRANK: nothin’. Walking off my breakfast. Looks up at the sky. That beautiful? Not a cloud. KELLER: (looking up) Yeah nice. FRANK: Every Sunday ought to be like this. KELLER: (indicating the sections beside him) Want the paper? FRANK: What’s the difference, it’s all bad news. What’s today’s calamity? La presenza di momenti narrativi all’interno dello scambio dialogico è stato oggetto di analisi stilistica:Modello di narrazione in unmomento di oralità (non in un contesto letterario,ma orale) There are rules to tell a story of the past within a dialogue: ● Narration and orality William Labov’s model (1972) 1. Abstract: signals that a story is about to begin and draws the attention of the listener. Per narrare una storia in un dialogo si inizia sempre dall’ABSTRACT, per preparare l’ascoltatore. 2. Orientation: helps the listener identify the time, place, persons and situation involved. coordinate, orientamento: dove si colloca, la storia, che ore sono, chi sono i personaggi 3. Complicating action: core narrative category= ‘what happened?’ L’intreccio, il racconto 4. Result or resolution: final events of the story Come è finita la storia 5. Evaluation: makes the point of the story clear Non c’è sempre, tiro le fila di quello che è successo 6. Coda: signals that a story has ended Non c’è sempre, esempio: “veramente l’ho scampata bella” L’ordine non è fisso, ma le parti si possono scambiare di posto ❖ ESEMPIO: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman WILLY (desperately): Just let me tell you a story. Howard... HOWARD: ‘Cause you gotta admit, business is business. WILLY (angrily): Business is definitely business, but just listen for a minute. You don’t understand this.When I was a boy —eighteen,nineteen — I was already on the road. And there was a question in my mind as to whether selling had a future for me. Because in those days I had a yearning to go to Alaska. See, there were three gold strikes in one month in Alaska, and I felt like going out. Just for the ride, you might say. HOWARD (barely interested): Don’t say. WILLY: Oh, yeah, my father lived many years in Alaska. He was an adventurous man. We’ve got quite a little streak of self reliance in our family. I thought I’d go out with my older brother and try to locate him, and maybe settle in the North with the old man. And I was almost decided to go, when I met a salesman in the Parker House. His name was Dave Singleman. And he was eighty-four years old, and he’d drummed merchandise in thirty-one states. And old Dave, he’d go up to his room, y’understand, put on his green velvet slippers — I’ll never forget — and pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, he made his living. And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. ‘Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people? Do you know? When he died — and by the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York, New Haven and Hartford, going into Boston — when he died, hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral. Things were sad on a lotta trains for months after that. (He stands up. Howard has not looked at him.) In those days there was personality in it, Howard. There was respect, and comradeship, and gratitude in it. Today, it’s all cut and dried, and there’s no chance for bringing friendship to bear— or personality. You see what I mean? They don’t know me any more. ● Narration within dialogue a. Narration by a minor character (MacBeth, I, 2) Un cavaliere racconta la battaglia di Macbeth, il messaggero è un personaggio minore. b. Narration becomes part of the dramatic action (The Tempest, I, 2) Shakespeare assorbisce la narrazione, Prospero viene interrotto→ narrazione frammentata. c. One character shifts to the narrative register and relates the events that have to be revealed (Death of a Salesman) è unmonologo che segue le regole del racconto nell’oralità. d. One character shifts to the narrative register randomly Il personaggio racconta un pezzetto di storia ogni tanto, senza coinvolgere il destinatario. e. Narration through flashbacks Il personaggio si ferma per fare un salto all’indietro. ● Dramatic and ‘everyday’ discourse c. excuse me I hate to do this but I’m bringing it back ‘cause it’s stale s. Ow well I’ll make you another one c. Ok thanks a lot I kinda feel bad doing that but d. I guess so eh (laughter) well it’s your own fault c. I do s. Is that more to your liking c. yeah ok well I feel rotten bring it back d. Well no OVERLAP s. Well if you’re not satisfied you should why should you eat something you’ve paid for c. I know s. If you c. I know s. don’t want it ‘cause it’s not … fresh ● Dramatic and ‘everyday’ discourse - In its ‘pragmatic’ articulation as a mode of context-bound interaction, dramatic discourse is close to verbal exchange in society, and follows certain constitutive and regulative rules of extra-dramatic conversation. - However, dramatic dialogue presents what i a ‘pure’ model of social intercourse, and the dialogues bears a very limited resemblance to what actually takes place in ‘everyday’ linguistic encounters = - Syntactic orderliness→ Syntactic complete or self-sufficient utterances guarantee followability and repeatability. - Informational intensity→ Phatic signals fill the gaps of information. - Floor-apportionment control→ the determination of turns at talking. ● Dramatic language and Conversation Analysis Conversation analysis, often abbreviated to CA, is an area of social studies taht is particularly concerned with the structures, patterns and regularities of naturally occurring conversation. It was developed during the 1960s and 1970s by various researchers, most prominently by Harvey Sacks. It is a discipline entirely concerned with how language is used in context, how linguistic forms are structured into INTERACTIVE SEQUENCES and how these mechanisms operate as mechanisms of social behaviour. ● Turns, communicative moves, sharing the floor 1. Turn in conversation= unit of analysis→ a stretch of speech produced by a single speaker until speaker change occurs and a different participant in the conversation becomes the speaker. 2. Communicative moves= syntactic units of action Adjacency pairs= two-way exchanges Greeting- greeting Question-answer Comment-comment Offer-acceptance 3. Completion points: points of a conversation when someone’s turn is finished and the floor is offered to another 4. Sharing the floor: overlapping ● Analysis: - voice and focalization - vocabulary - grammar - time and tense - speech presentation - conversational behavior - functions in communication - The narrator is a third person narrator→ extra-homodiegetic (but we can see it from here, we must read the whole novel in order to find it) . In the exam we must know it, the prof will make it clear in the text she chooses. - Omniscient or Limited?→ Limited→ cede la parola e il punto di vista di qualcun altro - Point of view→ narratore che cede la parola ai personaggi (cinesi perché dice che Lily è di una razza diversa + vocabulary) - in alcuni passaggi il punto di vista è di Lily - le impressioni sull’evento sono dei personaggi→ per questo il narratore non può essere onnisciente, in quanto non sa tutto del personaggio. - Anachronies→ scene and dialogue - gli eventi vanno avanti parallelamente con le parole (il tempo della storia coincide con quello del discorso) + Direct speech But also summaries and indirect speech ● This novel becomes a movie ● Differences between the novel and the movie A lot of scenes in the novel are just described, while in the movie these scenes become a dialogue. Use of stage direction→ large use - in the novel the description has a great relevance What has been totally invented? The translation which is not there in the novel. The grandpa is speaking chinese and Mui is traducing→ the Grandpa is talking in English in the movie in order to create a comic effect, whereas in the novel there are no direct speeches of the Grandpa since he is speaking chinese ● Conversational Communication→ Grice →Monica Betrays Rachel - Friends Two levels of communication→ tradimento tra due amiche come se fosse un tradimento amoroso “We only made it once” “I was thinking about you the whole time” “It didn't mean anything to me” - Use the same words in order to mean another thing →Il tradimento è lo Shopping al posto della passion Points for the exam: - Jakonson’s functions - History of Stylistics→ pdf della Montini Stylistics Reloaded - One section of Stylistics→ Literary text: Narrative and Dramatic texts