Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens – 1835-1910)

Types of phonetic transcription.

Phonemic (or broad) and phonetic transcription. The term phonemic or broad transcription (or phonological) is used to designate a transcription that uses a simple set of phonemes representing one of the phonemes of the language without any of the details of the pronunciation that are predictable by phonological rule thus giving a limited amount of phonetic information. In phonemic transcription we use the slant brackets to indicate phonemic symbols / /. A phonetic transcription (or allophonic, or narrow) presents the full range of phonetic symbols if these are required; which carry a lot of details about the precise phonetic quality of sounds. The use of diacritics, small marks that can be added to a symbol to modify its value, is a means of increasing precision, e.g. a small circle [_o] placed under a symbol represents a voiceless sound like /l/ in the word play [plßeI]; diacritic mark [ Ï] beneath a consonant stands for its dental allophone as in eight [eItÏT]. The square brackets [ ] indicate phonetic (allophonic) symbols. A transcription that shows all the rule-governed alternation of the sounds is called a completely systematic phonetic transcription.

Charles Dickens once describe the Mississippi River as a “horrible ditch” while for Mark Twain it became “all existence” and an important symbol of “the human journey”. Born in Missouri, at the age of twelve he moved to a small town Hannibal on the Mississippi River, where he grew up. He was influenced by the tales of black slaves and Indians legends, by the river itself. For four years he worked as a river pilot on one of big steamboats. The pseudonym was also taken from river piloting. “Mark Twain” was naturally a cry to refer to the river’s depth. During the Civil War he served in the Confederate army for a short time, then even tried a miner’s job. Later he become a newspaper editor, for which he wrote humourous essays. With his marriage in 1870 he settled into a comfortable lifestyle in Connecticut and spent his time writing. By the end of his life, though, when his wife and two daughters died, he had some bad business, went bankrupt and tried to recover giving lectures around the world.

Works: The Celebrated Jumping Frog (1865) – a humorous short story that made him famous first. A typical Western “hoax” story about ordinary people, who made tricks on the strangers. His Huck Finn is a master at this. In “The Celebrated Jumping Frog” an innocent stranger cheats and beats a famous frog racer by fitting his frog’s stomach with tiny metal balls so that it can not jump.

“The Innocents Abroad” (1869) was published on his visit to Europe and the Holy Land. The character plays a ”hoax” on a museum guide in Europe by asking him silly questions. Twain is critical of Europeans and American tourists who admire the paintings only because they are told to, just to show they have manners.

“Laughing It” (1872) – a book about his travels in the Far West. This book, as the previous one, began with the series of newspaper articles. In it he gives a true description of typically American characters: cowboys, the stagecoach drivers, the criminals and the “lawmen”. It also features many hoaxes done by animals.

“The Gilded Age” – a war-period novel about a group of young people, morally destroyed by the dream to become rich.

Adventures of Tom Soyer (1876) – a story about “bad boys”, a popular American theme. They are bad because they fight against the stupidity of the adult world. Tom, a very romantic hero, has a home where to return. Soon he grows up and becomes a part of the adult world. Huckleberry Finn remains a real outsider, with hard life and no home to return. In this one and the next greatest novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1884) he studies psychology of his characters very carefully.

This novel is about Fluck Finn and an escaped slave, Jim, floating down the Mississippi River on a raft. During their trip they stay at different towns and villages and Huck learns more about the evil of the world. Huck is also deciding a moral problem: whether or not return Jim to his master. Thanks to his natural goodness Huck decides to break the law. Even Hemingway once said about the wisdom of the novel:”All modern American literature comes from Huck Finn”.

In his later novels, Twain seems less hopeful about democracy.

“A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” (1889) a 19-century inventor is transferred into the 16^th century and begins to modernize this world, becoming a kind of dictator.

“The Mysterious Stranger” (1904) published after his death.

Themes: money is evil, destroying people’s happiness; nostalgia for his childhood; social equality; democracy.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11