Language and imagery. Individual style of writing

The characters have distinct personalities, histories, values and motivations.

Language in use for analysis

Telling (speaking) name

the ability to describe complicated minds

weak, unsatisfactory character descriptions

an efficient means of characterisation

priggish notions of one’s class

standard trivialities of mediocre mind

anti-hero

to stress repeatedly

to contrast the personality of… with…

to put characters into unusual situations

to deepen the characters with symbolism

to use generalsations

to draw an obvious parallel between

to paint a moving portrait of

to present believable, engaging characters

to reveal deep personal significance in an everyday occurrence

Characters: realistic / complex / unromantic / ordinary / conceited / stilted / typical / true-to-life / plausible / transparent / opaque / non-psychological construction without inner depth / trans-psycholoical characters with superior insight / protagonist / antagonist / evil twin / stock character (stereotype) / reader surrogate / author surrogate / chosen one (Christ-figure)

The dialogue is convincing and natural.

The language is appropriate to the characters.

The characters are larger than life.

The writer is one of the greatest exponents of the short-story form, with exceptional talent for portraying character sensitively and economically.

The author demonstrates a talent for illuminating secluded facets of the soul.

The characters have some room for moral choice.

We find a wide variety of social types.

There is something grotesque about each character.

This book presents a cast of fascinating characters and a mind-bending puzzle.

The writer is an observer of the mind rather than a recorder of the times.

Demerits are ruthlessly exposed.

No interpretation can be a simple paraphrase of a text; understanding texts means understanding the way they affect us. Author’s style refers to how authors write, and to the choices they make about what language they use and how they use it. Most writers developed styles that are as distinct and recognizable as their signatures.

The elements of style are diction, sentence structure, handling information, imagery:

· Diction (or word choice). The concept of semantic fields is a useful one when analysing style and intent in a piece of writing. When a number of words have related meanings, they are said to be in the same semantic field. If several words or phrases in the same semantic field are used in a piece of writing, they can have an accumulative effect on the meaning, rather than just their separate individual meanings. To use M. Riffaterre’s words, language expresses and style stresses. Emotive language is one in which the lexis is chosen to play on the audience’s emotions.Emotiveness is the expression of feelings or emotions, it’s a part of expressiveness (expressiveness is the realization of the author’s intentions to express emotions or logical emphasis).

The following varieties of language are distinguished:

1) Standard English is the language that is acceptable in any writing or speaking situation. It falls into two categories – formal and informal. Formal English is suitable for serious lectures and speeches, scholarly journals, business reports, legal documents, and textbooks. It has a serious tone and is devoid of contractions and slang.

The language we use about war is inappropriate, and its inappropriateness is designed to conceal a reality so odious that we do not wish to know it. The language we use about politics is also inappropriate; but here our mistake has a different purpose.

Aldous Huxley, The Language of War (1930)

Informal English is the language that is used in casual, everyday circumstances. Also known as colloquial English, it is the language of conversation and informal writing and is characterized by a relaxed tone, generally non-technical, simple words, and use of contractions and sentence fragments.

2) Non-standard English is the language that does not conform to the conventional rules of grammar and usage.

Writers may use a wide range of language varieties in accordance with their purposes. While speaking about diction we can pay attention if the author uses idioms, slang, jargon, dialectisms, euphemisms, clichés, etc.

Idiom is a group of words which intended meaning differs from the literal meaning of the individual words: in the same boat, Achilles’ heel, etc.

Euphemisms are the expressions that sound less offensive than the words they replace: sanitation engineer is a euphemism for garbage collector.

Clichés are the expressions that have lost their descriptive power through overuse: sad but true, as pretty as a picture, as cold as ice.

Slang is informal, vivid language created by a particular group within a culture, becomes popular within that group, and then either passes out of use or becomes part of the standard vocabulary. Expressions such as groovy, dig, and cool cat were popular in the middle of the XX century but have mostly fallen out of use. However, although the word rap (meaning “talk”), for example, is of the same vintage as the words groovy and dig, it has been accepted into general use. Slang is inappropriate in formal writing, but it is often used in the dialogue of fiction and drama.

Jargon is the specialized, technical vocabularies of particular professions or activities. For example, medical professionals use the word carrier (a person who transmits a disease but does not get it), people of art use the boards (the stage), beat (a regular unit of rhythm). Computer operators use words like mainframe, access, printout. Such words provide a shortcut to meaning for those within the profession.

Dialect is any systematic variation of the English language based on region or social group. Dialects differ from standard English in grammar, lexis, idioms. Dialect grammar can differ from standard grammar in several ways, especially in:

- use of pronouns. A Bristolian, or someone of Afro-Caribbean descent, might say, “ Give I the money. ” A Somerset person might say, “ Er’s not coming,” (instead of “She’s not coming.”). Jamaican Bob Marley sang, “ Them belly full but hungry. ”

- word order (syntax). This is most likely to vary in a dialect influenced by a language other than English. For example, you might hear in Wales, “ Tired it is that he’ll be tonight. ”

- subject-verb agreements, for example “ So I goes …” (West country), “ She were angry …” (Yorkshire).

Dialectal lexis is the easiest part of dialect to grasp, but it is also a part that is falling away as local speech is influenced by the Standard English of the media. It refers to words or short phrases that exist only in a particular dialect, or which are used differently from the way in which they are used in standard English (Cornish: emmet – tourist; Nottingham: mash – make or brew (the tea)). Idioms are the characteristic expressions of a language or dialect. Often their origins have been lost, although their current meanings are clear and colourful (Yorkshire: Where there’s muck there’s brass – Where there’s dirt there’s money). Examples of dialects include the Hispanic dialect of English spoken in American cities such as Miami, the Midland dialect spoken in the American Midwest. Writers such as William Faulkner used dialect very effectively to evoke the setting of a story and to create vivid, memorable characters.Faulkner used intentional misspelling (marster for master) to render South speech traditions (e.g. to pronounce words like more, four without the /r/ – mo, fo). In As I Lay Dying (1930) the character called Cash offers a statement: “I ain’t so sho that ere a man has the right to say what is crazy and what ain’t”.

Gobbledygook is inflated, pretentious, and often intentionally confusing language.

· Sentence structure (variety in sentence length and structural type). Using variety in sentence length can create powerful writing. Notice how Ernest Hemingway varied the length of his sentences in the following paragraph. Notice how the mix of long and short sentences mimics the rhythm of the hiker’s physical activity.

He walked along the road feeling the ache from the pull of the heavy pack. The road climbed steadily. It was hard work walking uphill. His muscles ached and the day was hot, but Nick felt happy. He felt he had left everything behind, the need for thinking, the need to write, other needs.

Ernest Hemingway, Big Two-Headed River (1925)

Sometimes writers deliberately use a series of short sentences, a device that can be especially effective in building suspense or emphasising action.

· Handling of information

· Imagery. A work of writing is most effective when it vividly creates a concrete experience or picture in your readers’ minds. Imagery refers to any sort of image, and there are two basic kinds. One is the images of the physical setting. An image is a representation in words of a sensory experience – a sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell. Collectively, the images used by a writer are called imagery. The way to enable readers to feel an emotion is to present them with images that evoke that feeling. One way to create a powerful experience for a reader is to use sensory language, or imagery. The other kind is images as figures of speech (see Appendix). These figures of speech extend the imaginative range, the complexity and comprehensibility of the subject. They can be very brief, a word or two, a glistening fragment of insight, a chance connection sparked into a blaze (warming or destroying) of understanding; or they can be extended analogies, such as Donne's 'conceits' or Milton's epic similes. Figurative language evokes associations that are beyond the literal meaning of the words. Some specific types of figurative language are simile, metaphor, personification, symbolism, hyperbole, understatement, synesthesia, etc.

Questions: How would you sum up the semantic fields in the extract? What words, phrases, images, or figures of speech are to be repeated? Do any objects or events have symbolic value? What kind of language is used? Is the language abstract or concrete, of emotions or of reason, of control or of openness? How much the language is connotative? What are the connotations of the language? What areas of experience, feeling, and meaning are evoked? How forceful is the language (see also imagery and sentence structure)? What aspects of feeling are supported or created by the sound of the language, by the vowel and consonant sounds (soft, hard long or short), by how the words go together (smoothly, eliding or separated)? What sort of metaphors, similes and analogies does the writer use, and what does that tell you about their outlook and sensibility? Are there recurring images? What ideas or feelings are aroused by them; what people or events are brought to mind by them? What devices help the author keep the reader in the state of expectation? How is emotional appeal achieved? Indicate the stylistic devices used to depict the character and the purposes of their use.

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