Семинар 1 Тема:основные подходы к изучению текста Вопросы к семинару

1. Какие дисциплины дали основу для филологического анализа текста?

2. Какие подходы к анализу текста существуют в современной науке?

ЛИТЕРАТУРА

1. З.Я.Тураева. Лингвистика текста. М., 1987.

2. Е.А.Гончарова, И.И.Шишкина. Интерпретация художественного текста. М. 2005

3. Кузьмина Н.А. Интертекстуальность. М., 2006.

ПРАКТИЧЕСКОЕ ЗАДАНИЕ

INTEGRATION OF TEXTUAL UNITS IN THE TEXT

1.Units of the phonetic level

Analyze the type of associations to be traced in E. Poe’s poem’’The Raven’’. What lexical , kinesthetic and acoustic associations can be connected with the text?

NB: Kinesthetic associations are motivated by the similarity of the articulatory characteristics of certain sounds. Acoustic associations are motivated by the physical characteristics of the sounds and are connected with onomatopoeia, and alliteration.

The Raven

E.Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore –

While I nodded ,nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

‘’Tis some visitor,’’ I muttered, ‘’tapping at my chamber door,

Only this, and nothing more’’.

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor,

Eagerly I wished the morrow, - vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore –

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore –

Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of this silver curtain

Thrilled me – filled me with fantastic terrors never felt

before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood

repeating:

‘’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door –

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door ; -

This it is, and nothing more.’’

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And the Raven never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting,

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of the demon’s that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws its shadows on

the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted – nevermore!

2.Units of the lexical level

a/Define the layers of vocabulary( vulgarisms, vernacular words) in the extract enclosed:

You don’t have rough weather nowadays. You should have seen the weather you had when I was a boy. I remember one of the schooners I had was taking a parcel of labour to Samoa from the New Hebrides and we got caught in a hurricane. I told them savages to pop over the side pretty damn quick, and I put out to sea and for three days I never closed my eyes. Lost our sails, lost our mainmast, lost our boats. Rough weather! Don’t talk to me about rough weather, young fellow.

Give him a lot of rum, George. If he ‘s a sailor-man he don’t want this stinking whisky of yours.

(S.Maugham. The Narrow Corner)

b/Define the status of the following stylistically marked words(defunct, dead enough,, in a sort of general way)in the extract enclosed. What is their stylistic effect based on? How is the humour and the absurdity of the situation created?

G. Why, look here! Who is this picture on the wall? Isn’t it a brother of yours?

A. Oh yes, yes! ..that was a brother of mine. That’s William, - Bill we called him. Poor, old Bill.

G. Why? Is he dead, then?

A. Ah, well, I suppose so. We never could tell. There was a great mystery about it.

G. That is sad, very sad. He disappeared, then?

A. Well, yes, in a sort of general way. We buried him.

G. Buried him! Buried him without knowing whether he was dead or not!

A. O, no! Not that! He was dead enough. You see, we were twins, - defunct and I, - and we got mixed in the bath tub when we were only two weeks old, and one of us was drowned. But we didn’t know which. Some think it was Bill. Some think it was me.

(M.Twain. ‘’An Encounter with an Interviewer’’)

c/Define the elements of dialect and Cockney style in the conversation of Michael Mont, a representative of the upper middle class, and his friend’ servant.How do they help to characterize the personages and their social and educational level?

Sorry,Bickett, Mr.Desert has been in, but it’s no go. – No, sir?

Keep your pecker up, you’ll get something. – I’m afryde not ,sir. Well, thank you very ‘eartily and I thank Mr.Desert.

( J.Galsworthy’’The White Monkey’’)

2.How do units of the morphological level help to realize textual cohesion?

a/ What is the role of the definite and the indefinite article in the following extracts( the second one begins the novel):

A small narrow-built man came in the door and joined the girl, smiling at her with a sweet, spiritual expression.

(M.Spark’’ The Bachelors’’)

The storm broke over the house. Rain fell in dark diagonal across the summer lawn. An abrupt wing bent willow trees, tore sumac, shook elms.

(G.Vidal. ‘’Washington, D.C.’’)

b/How does the use of the article serve to create the anaphoric ( cataphoric) structure of the text ?Define the cases of the limiting , introducing and generalizing functions of the articles in the given texts.

NB Cataphora is connected with the introduction of some new information and supports the progressive (prospective) development of text structure. Anaphora is related to the preliminary knowledge of the text and supports the retrospective (regressive) reference of the text.

The house lay on top of a small hill about one hundred feet higher than the barn and the stables. Like all New Zealand houses, it was wooden, rambling over many squares and of one story only.

(C.McCullough.’’The Thorn Birds’’)

I heard of a distinguished, pure-minded English publisher who adapted John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath so skillfully that it became a charming little family book on grapes and other fruits, with many illustrations.

On the other hand, a continental publisher in London had a French political book, The Popular Front, translated into English. It became an exciting, pornographic book, called The Popular Behind.

(G.Mikes. How to be an Alien)

Some years ago I spent a lot of time with a young lady who was very proud and conscious of being English. Once she asked me – to my great surprise – whether I would marry her. ’’No,’’ I replied, ‘’I will not. My mother would never agree to my marrying a foreigner. ‘’ She looked at me a little surprised and irritated and retorted; ’’I , a foreigner? What a silly thing to say. I am English. You are the foreigner. And your mother, too.’’ I did not give in. ‘’In Budapest, too?’’ I asked her. ’’Everywhere,’’ she declared with determination. ’’Truth does not depend on geography. What is true in England is also true in Hungary and in North Borneo and Venezuela and everywhere.’’

(G.Mikes. ‘’How to Be an Alien’’)

3.The level of a sentence

Analyze the introductory passage of the novel. What is the explicit and the implied message of the text? What kinds of nomination are introduced by different sentences( identifying ,introductory)? How are the anaphoric and cataphoric types of text structure combined here?

NB: Identifying nomination implies reference to the object which is known not only to the author of the message but also to the reader.

The sea is high again today with a thrilling flush of wind. In the midst of winter you can feel the inventions of spring. A sky of hot nude pearl until midday, crickets in sheltered places, and now the wind unpacking the great planes, ransacking the great planes..

(Lawrence Durrel. Justine)

4.Single out the types of semantic repetitions in the text which develop textual cohesion.

Old Hall was a big Victorian house surrounded by woods and park land. Since it had been proved unlettable and unusable as it was, an enterprising speculator had divided it into four flats with a central hot-water system and the use of the "grounds" to be held in' common by the tenants. The experiment had been satisfactory. A rich and eccentric old lady and her maid occupied one flat. The old lady had a passion for birds and entertained a feathered gathering to meals every day. A retired Indian judge and his wife rented a second. A very young couple, recently married, occupied the third, and the fourth 'had been taken only two months ago by two maiden ladies of the name of Skinner. The four sets of tenants were only on the most distant terms with each other, since none of them had anything in common. The landlord had been heard to say that this was an excellent thing. ( A. Christie)

Семинар 2