Pragmastylistic aspects of foregrounded units in literary texts

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Pragmastylistic aspects of foregrounded units in literary texts

Sarkisyan Mariana Samvelovna, Ph. D. in Philology Yerevan State University, Republic of Armenia, mariana_sargsyan@yahoo.com

It is argued that the multiperspective approach to the study of the text units accounts for a wider outlook toward disclosing the authentic message of the text. By highlighting the foregrounded features of the text an attempt is made to study the key units of the text in the close lexical environment, which enables to follow the semantic extension of the key units. The pragmastylistic value of one of the key units in J. Joyces's Dubliners was demonstrated in the context of interactions between text micro- and macrostructures.

Key words and phrases: pragmastylistics; key lexical unit; foregrounded elements; lexical environment; text micro- and macrostructure.

Прагмастилистический аспект выдвинутых на первый план элементов художественного текста. Саркисян Мариана Самвеловна

В статье полагается, что многоаспектный анализ языковых единиц более эффективен при их рассмотрении в лингвистическом окружении, что может привести к более точному пониманию авторского послания. Для этой цели, были рассмотрены выдвинутые на первый план элементы текста, выявлены ключевые единицы, обеспечивающие смысловые сферы текста. Показан механизм расширения смыслового поля рассмотренных ключевых единиц, в результате определены их прагматические и стилистические аспекты в контексте интеракции микро- и макроструктурах текста.

Ключевые слова и фразы: прагмастилистика; ключевая лексическая единица; элементы первого плана; лексическое окружение; микро- и макроструктура текста.

Introduction. The recent decades have been marked by an extensive research in the field of text studies with the increasing attention to the revelation of the propositional and communicative-intentional aspects of the text which put into doubt the relevance and the actuality of the traditionally established systematic-structural approach to the study of literary texts. It is now unarguable that the boundaries of the systematic-structural approach are doomed to limited results as far as the authentic understanding of the text message is concerned. No longer can textual relations be presented as syntagmatic or linear ones, instead the latter should be regarded as hierarchically structured semantic-ideological relations defined by the communicative intention. Thus the semantic-ideological structure of the text is reduced to the hierarchy of motives and intentions and correspondingly to the linguistic means of their realization. From the research perspectives, in the semantic-ideological unity of text two structures or levels are differentiated: namely micro- and macrostructures; the microstructure presenting the set of relations within the text, whereas the macrostructure of the text supposes the investigation of relations, in other words, the predication, among various ideological units, by which the main idea of the text is conveyed. In this respect, the elements of a higher communicativepragmatic-stylistic relevance come to the foreground. pragmastylistic literary text

Presently, from the point of the linguistic pragmatics the text is considered as a result of a complex speech creative activity which is defined by its objective nomination and functioning in the speech communication. Moreover, text is considered as a unit marked by the completeness of its content on the one hand and syntactic-ideological cohesiveness of its components, on the other. By and large, the text can be defined as a complex macrostructure with the communicative property at the top. By communicative property of texts the linguistic characteristics of the text with the account of the interrelations between the triad of “author-text-reader” are meant.

The interrelation between the aforementioned components is the milestone for linguistic pragmatics. It is the communicative approach to the study of the language that enhanced the interest of linguists toward the language identity of the addressee and the addressor. It is in fact through the communicative efforts of the latter that the formation and, later, the understanding of the linguistic structures take place. The language means employed in the text should be treated from the communicative, pragmatic and stylistic perspectives as far as their pragmatic relevance is created only in certain speech situations with the account of the fact that the interpretation of the language means is context-based to a certain degree.

Intertwining Pragmatic and Stylistics Aspects. If we try to put the above mentioned into the cognitive base [3, p. 69], the role of which should not be underestimated in the least in the study of the verbal art, the understanding of the language and the text is deeply rooted into the process of constructing the pragmatic or, as we should add on our part, the pragmastylistic conclusion. Thus, we may assume that the complex analysis of the text with the involvement of the cognitive, pragmatic and stylistic aspects of analysis will yield in more comprehensive and complete results [1, p. 177; 4, p. 579].

Pragmastylistic features of texts combine the whole set of the author's intention expressed with the help of various language means at all the levels of the text. From the pragmastylistic perspective adequate understanding of texts can be achieved by observing how the text message is materialized at various text levels and by underlining those means which contribute to establishing dialogic relations between the text and the reader to a great extent. It is reasonable to argue that in the formation of the pragmastylistic information and estimation of the predictable pragmatic effect on the reader the crucial role should be ascribed to the frequently repeated key units, the pragmastylistic, functional and communicative features of which can be fully exposed in a complex study.

Pragmastylistic Features of Foregrounding. To demonstrate the case, we will make an attempt to study the pragmastylistic peculiarities of a key lexical unit with the close account of the linguistic environment, which will bring our research close to the corpus approach. In this respect we proceeded from the assumption that the corpus approach can assist to better highlight the linguistic surrounding of the key elements revealing both the quantitative as well the qualitative aspects of the latter [2].

For the purpose of the present research our choice has stopped on one of the eminent works of the Modernist literature, namely J. Joyce's Dubliners, which has already been studied by us from different linguistic-stylistic perspectives, the latter providing a background toward achieving the goals set in the present paper.

From the outset, it should be mentioned that the Modernist Literature is marked by а pronounced ideology and intrinsic specific interrelations between text micro- and macrostructures. The complexities of the interactions at two levels continue to provide unlimited opportunities for research in search of new meanings.

Thus, in Joyce's Dubliners we can underline three domains which control the development of the plot in the stories - people (the characters, the image of Dubliners), house (the inner space, the image of the house) and the city (the outer space, the image of Dublin).

As a starting point, let us embark on the examination of the foregrounded units of the text and provide analysis and interpretation which may link these parts together. “Foregrounded features are the parts of the text which the author consciously or unconsciously, is signaling as crucial to our understanding of what he has written…” [7, p. 36]. As Leech points out “foregrounding is a means to achieve a goal; it is the creation of an effect, a special effect, hence a special meaning” [6, p. 58-61]. In terms of foregrounding in Dubliners the three domains controlling the plot of the story intersect by the adjective dark together with its derivatives (darkened, darkness) which as shown hereunder supports, what Leech calls, “the cohesion of foregrounding” [6]. The latter accounts for the close interaction between the micro- and macrostructures.

Thus, hereunder we will bring the corpus with the involvement of the key words with respect to the mentioned domains:

The image of the house. In the dark of my room I imagined that I saw again the heavy grey face of the paralytic. / Had he not been dead I would have gone into the little dark room behind the shop. / And what do you think but there he was, sitting up by himself in the dark in his confession-box. / The career of our play brought us … to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables… / I looked over at the dark house where she lived. / Nearly all the stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness. / The upper part of the hall was now completely dark. / She remembered the last night of her mother's illness; she was again in the close dark room at the other side of the hall. / The dark discreet room, their isolation, the music that still vibrated in their ears united them. / …had left the house in Stoney Batter and taken Mary Jane, their only niece, to live with them in the dark, gaunt house on Usher's Island… / Kate and Julia came toddling down the dark stairs at once. / He was in a dark part of the hall gazing up the staircase (James Joyce. Dubliners) [5].

Paying a close attention to the above presented corpus we can observe the frequent repetition of the prepositions referring to the spatial relation in, into and to (in the dark room, in the dark part of the hall, in the dark of…, to the dark gardens, etc.), which bring forward the images of closed spaces implying the idea of hopelessness. This idea is intensified under the influence of the linguistic environment of adjectives comprising grey, little, dripping, gaunt, discreet.

The Image of the City

The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes… / It was a dark rainy evening and there was no sound in the house… / It was a serene summer night; the harbour lay like a darkened mirror at their feet. / In his imagination he beheld the pair of lovers walking along some dark road. / He chose the darkest and narrowest streets and,… / The dark damp night was coming and he longed to spend it in the bars… / They had been sitting thus since the short day had grown dark. / The morning was still dark. A dull, yellow light brooded over the houses and the river; and the sky seemed to be descending… / It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. / It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. / They had been sitting thus since the short day had grown dark… (James Joyce. Dubliners) [Ibidem].

In the image of the city the ideas of hopelessness and doom are intensified at the expense of the linguistic environment containing muddy lanes, rainy evening, damp night, no sound, narrowest street, dull yellow, mutinous waves, etc., which support creating a complete image of a darkened city.

The Image of Dubliners

And when, after a little time, she answered his gaze he admired still more her large dark brown eyes. / Gabriel's brows were dark but he raised them quickly and answered… / …Mahony, who was dark-complexioned, wore the silver badge of a cricket club in his cap. / Those dark oriental eyes, he thought, hoe full they are of passion, of voluptuous longing!... / He had a hanging face, dark wine-colored, with fair eyebrows and moustache: his eyes bulged forward slightly and the whites of them were dirty. / Farrington's dark wine-colored face flushed darker still with anger and humiliation at having been defeated by such a stripling. / The eyes were very dark blue and steady (James Joyce. Dubliners) [Ibidem].

What strikes as thought-provoking in the appearance of heroes in the above corpus is the dark brown eyes, dark brows and the dark complexion, which contradicts to the overall traits of appearance of the Irish as fair-skinned (or often sallow), fair-haired and blue-eyed. Supposedly, the introduction of the attribute dark in describing the appearance of Dubliners can be justified if considered in the complexity of interactions among the three domains completing the ideology embedded in the story. The overall pragmastylistic potential of the above built corpus is achieved 154 Издательство «Грамота» www.gramota.net as a result of the interaction between the elements of the microstructure and the historic - cultural context underlying the text. The corpus provides an insight into how J. Joyce perceived the reality and constructed the latter around the three images - the house, the city, the Dubliners.

On the whole we come across the foregrounded element “dark” with its derivatives sixty-four times in the text. A vivid picture of a paralyzed society, impressive depiction of the isolated city and its doomed dwellers, and, finally, the atmosphere of human estrangement are palpable between the lines throughout the above built corpus. The close analysis of the corpus makes it possible to showcase the extension of the semantic field of the adjective dark, associating the latter with such concepts as paralysis, isolation, dullness, dampness, illness, alienation, mutinousness. In this respect it is worth mentioning that the pragmatic model of the meaning of the language means consists in the study of the latter in relation to a context, i.e. “pragmatics centers of the meaning of the utterance”, which supposes the concrete realization of the meaning in the context of use [8, p. 13]. As can be concluded from the close study of the corpus, all the associations and the nuances of meanings accompanying the foregrounded elements in the story are encoded in the context and developed in the network of lexical and contextual meanings of words.

Further Extension of the Semantic Field. If we proceed to considering the above presented corpus in terms of the conceptual information and the dominant idea embedded in Dubliners as a whole we can come to the conclusion that the adjective dark is a dominant unit in terms of concentrating the main ideology of the text. The final formation of its semantics takes place due to the author's intention to bring it to the fore.

By and large, in Dubliners the development of the semantic field of dark is not limited to the associations discussed above. In the excerpts from A Painful Case to be discussed later semantic extension of dark and its derivatives occurs and as a result new shades of meanings spring up:

1. Many times she allowed the dark to fall upon them, refraining from lighting the lamp. The dark discreet room, their isolation, the music still vibrated in their ears united them. This union exalted him, wore away the rough edges of his character, emotionalized his mental life… he heard the strange impersonal voice which he recognized as his own, insisting on the soul's incurable loneliness… The end of these discourses was that one night during which she had shown every sign of unusual excitement, Mrs. Sinico caught up his hand passionately and pressed it to her cheek (James Joyce. Dubliners. A Painful Case) [5].

2. The night was cold and gloomy. He entered the Park by the first gate and walked along under the gaunt trees. He walked through the bleak alleys where they had walked four years before. She seemed to be near him in the darkness. At moments he seemed to feel her voice touch his ear, her hand touch his. He stood still to listen. Why had we withheld life from her? Why had he sentenced her to death? He felt his moral nature falling to pieces (James Joyce. Dubliners. A Painful Case) [Ibidem].

As can be observed, the linguistic environment helps enrich the pragmatic message of the context with emotive, expressive and evaluative overtones. Here, dark vs. light antithesis (Many times she allowed the dark to fall upon them, refraining from lighting the lamp). While the whole city and houses are in darkness and inertia together with the feeling of confinement is accompanying the Dubliners in all their actions, at the background of devastation, in the excerpted passage darkness comes to be associated with serenity, which in the sweet moments of isolation serves a veil to hide people from the reality. It is in darkness and serenity that Dubliners may get the right for exalted feelings. Nevertheless, if we compare the first excerpt with the finalizing part of the story (2), we witness how the illusion of serenity breaks into pieces implying the dominance of the idea of paralysis.

A peculiar phenomenon that was revealed within the corpus and which comes to play a crucial role in the creation of text pragmastylistics is the case of the contextual synonyms enabling a further insight into the text message. In the last story, The Dead, in which Joyce piercingly explores the theme of intersection of life and death, we can underline two major key words or image-symbols - the snow and the dark city which come to top up the main ideology of the text.

It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard… His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead (James Joyce. Dubliners. The Dead) [Ibidem].

The word snow in Dubliners is repeated twenty-two times, a fact allowing us to underline another foregrounded element concentrating the ideological message to be shared with the reader. By and large, the last part of the story, due to the whole arsenal of stylistic devices (parallel constructions, repetition, exaggeration, etc.) visualizes the truthful picture of Dublin and Dubliners. The obliquely and faintly falling snow upon Ireland touches both the living and the dead uniting them in frozen paralysis.

Conclusion. As may be concluded the involvement of both the pragmatic and stylistic aspects of research of key units become more efficient toward adequate understanding of the authentic message of the text. To reach a complete understanding of text pragmastylistic peculiarity, we concentrated on highlighting the foregrounded units, which, as shown, may support the ideological unity of the text and provide cohesion of ideological domains. Further, we found it rational to study the key unit in its close lexical environment, which allowed us to follow how the latter contributes to the extension of the word semantics and formation of its pragmatic and stylistic value. Thus, the close interaction between text micro- and macrostructures was shown, which allows us to conclude that semantic and ideological unity of text is supported by the author's conscious or unconscious intention of imposing additional meanings and functions on some of the elements of micro-structure.

References

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