CREATING IMAGERY: CONTEXT Exercise 1. P. Simpson wrote about three types of extralinguistic context .1 How does each of them influence the word’s meaning in the description fictional world? However, one principle that is common to many models of discourse analysis is the understanding that all naturally occurring language takes place in a context of use. We can divide up the notion of context into three basic categories: Physical context: This is the actual setting in which interaction takes place. Physical context may be constituted by the workplace, the home environment or by a public area. In face-to-face conversation, speaker and hearer share the same physical context, although in some forms of spoken interaction, such as broadcast or telephone talk, speaker and hearer are physically separated. Personal context: This refers to the social and personal relationships of the interactants to one another. Personal context also encompasses social networks and group membership, the social and institutional roles of speakers and hearers, and the relative status and social distance that pertains between participants. Cognitive context: This refers to the shared and background knowledge held by participants in interaction. Cognitive context, which is susceptible to change as interaction progresses, also extends to a speaker’s world-view, cultural knowledge and past experiences. Exercise 2. Why does the author choose to explain or not to explain the meaning of foreign words? Which means does he/she use to do it? What do we learn about the characters or the fictional world thanks to the text definitions or their absence? 1. ‘It’s my version of a Russian koulibiak,’ she said. ‘See? Filo pastry umpteen layers deep, and all buttered to within an inch of their lives, filled with a layer of poached salmon fillet on a bed of wild rice with olives and chopped mushrooms and a wickedly rich Hollandaise sauce all wrapped up and ready to bake for twenty minutes. It’s no wonder my dress doesn’t fit properly any more.’ (C.N., p.193) 2. Noe they were almost pathetically eager to pour out their grievances to him, like petitioners at a tribal indaba where cases were heard and judgement handed down by the elders of the tribe. (W.S. p.49) 3. When I got back I called Jude but she started telling me about a marvelous new oriental idea in this month’s Cosmopolitan called Feng Shui, which helps you get everything you want in life. All you have to do, apparently, is clean out all the cupboards in your flat to unblock yourself, then divide the flat up into nine sections (which is called mapping the ba-gua), each of which represents a different area of your life: career, family, relationships, wealth, or offspring, for example. (H.F. p.254) 1 Simpson P. Stylistics. A resource book for students – L, NY, 2004 4. “To you all – I love you dearly, and thank you! I want you to know that I shall never forget what happened today, and your comfort and understanding. But you should also know that now I am over it. In a way, I suppose, it was a cleansing process, a – what’s that word?” “Catharsis,” Bruce said. “Actually it’s Greek and means purification. Aristotle used it to …” (A.H. p.320) 5. Craig found a second-hand Land-Rover in Jock Daniels’ used car lot. He closed his ears to Jock’s impassioned sales spiel and listen instead to the motor. The timing was off, but there was no knocking or slapping. (W.S. p.101) 6. You have to stay in the village, the stanitsa. An urban Cossack’s a contradiction. (C.Th. 136) 7. In the eleven months I’d been letting myself in and out of her apartment, I’d yet to catch her doing anything that even resembled work, including such pedestrian tasks as answering the phone, removing a jacket from a closet, or pouring a glass of water. It was as if her every day was Shabbat and she was once again the observant Jew, and I was, of course, her Shabbes goy. (L.W. 330) 8. In Singapore – amid enormous wealth – the humble hawker food stalls, a gourmet’s paradise, with nasi beryani served at Glutton’s Corner, aptly named …” (A.H. p.312) 9. I don’t remember everything she said, and I don’t intend to try. Anyhow it was a mélange of facts which your men can easily connect elsewhere. The only thing I can furnish that might help you is the conclusion I formed. (R.S. p.23) 10. Several times during our ride from Calais, where her husband was captain of the embattled English garrison, we had been forced to draw swords and engage with desperate gangs of bandits called ecorcheurs who haunted the northern forests, preying on unwary travelers, and far from cowering behind her escort the countess had unsheathed a useful poniard concealed in her riding boot and wielded it in earnest. (J.H.) 11. He sensed something big was about to happen. Along with his own FSB unit, there were troops from all parts of the Russian army: conscripts – kontraktniki, the enlisted men – police units and Interior Ministry troops, the OMON. (M.S.) 12.George, from her position at the very edge of the melee, saw that one man was bleeding heavily from a wound on his arm; she thought she saw it pumping and all her medical instincts shoved her onto action. (C.R.) Exercise 3. Why does the author explain the meaning of neutral words? Which means does he/she use to do it? What do we learn about the characters or the fictional world thanks to the text definitions? 1. Smiling as he remembered, Martin thought of the laboratory maze. It was a miniature of the mazes in which humans for centuries had amused themselves by entering, attempting to get out, then becoming lost or blocked by dead ends before the exit was attained. Probably the world’s most famous maze, created in the seventeenth century, supposedly for Britain’s King William III, was at Hampton Court Place, west of London. (A.H. p.297) 2. The peculiar characteristics of the disturbance led the computer to categorize it as an ”anomalous event”, a fairly common designation for seismic events in that part of the world, where three tectonic plates met in a strange overlapping patterns. (M.C. 557) 3. The greatest stress was working in the ER. The emergency room was constantly overcrowded with people suffering every form of trauma imaginable. (S.Sh. 83) 4. He was smiling his fierce smile – the smile of a shark about to take a bite out of some plump swimmer’s ass. (St.K. 182) 5. Brewster is a very recent arrival who was permitted to come at the last minute because the terms of his research grant were unusually generous in their allowance for overhead – meaning the station would get some much-neede money for operations. (M.C. 201) 6. As a squire I had spent months with the marcher scouts, a troop of hard-bitten, border-reared fighting men recruited for their intimate knowledge of the wild lands between Scotland and England and their ability to move secretly through them on their dale-trotter ponies. (J.H. 90) 7. I couldn’t help a quick conceptualization of forty grand: two full years’ college tuition, a downpayment on a new home, an average yearly salary for a typical American family or four. Or, at the very least, one hell of a lot of Prada bags. But one dress? (L.W.) 8. The whole street had obviously been gentrified to the utmost. The little workingmen’s cottages that had been built a hundred or more years ago had been emptied of their original tenants, tricked up with heavy oak front doors, brass knockers and carriage lamps and a great deal of pastel paint on the old window frames, and resold, probably at absurdly inflated prices. The windows themselves were filled with glowing white net curtains and expensive cars were parked outside many of the houses; she spotted three BMWs within forty yards as well as a couple of Mercedes. (C.R.) Exercise 4. In the examples below, there are vocabulary units whose contextual meaning cannot be understood unless the reader enjoys both cultural and linguistic awareness. What are the units? What extralinguistic information does the reader need? 1. I didn’t explain that wearing Nine West instead of Manolos or jeans they sold in Macy’s junior department but not anywhere on Barney’s eighth floor of courture denim heaven had been my own attempt to show everyone that I wasn’t seduced by all things Runway. (L.W.) 2. But Daniel was now twenty-three, a college grad, hanging around with the likes of Ms Bulimia over there, and it was time for him to sink or swim on his own. (J.G.) 3. She was engaged in the quixotic task of removing potentially rusty metal staples from precious pages, replacing them with plastic clips. (L.D.) 4. He said, “There were a few public hearings. Lots of press conferences.“ “But nothing judicial or congressional.” He smirked. “You mean, like the Warren Commission? Shit, I still don’t know who killed JFK.” (N.D.) 5. Jesse took some Kleenex out of the glove compartment and put them on the dashboard in front of her. (R.B.P.) 6. Dynasty and Dallas were getting long in the tooth. (M.H.C.) 7. Kenner had a revolver in his hands. He had opened the round barrel-thing and was checking it. Sanjong was over by his own car, checking an evil-looking rifle, matte black stock with a telescopic sight. His manner was quick, practiced. A soldier. Uneasily, Evans thought: What is this, the O.K. Corral? (M.C. 320) 8. It was easy enough to be civil to Danny for a few minutes out here in the park, but if he stayed overnight Kingo and his lotus-eating friends would soon get fed up with Donny’s coarse clothes and working-class concerns, then they would snub him and he would be hurt. (K.F.) 9. Mrs. Mason screamed like a banshee and ran from the house shouting about lunatics. (J.K.R.) 10.I knew it wasn’t going to be a trendy New York crowd, but I was expecting them to look like something out of Dallas; instead, they looked like a dressier version of the cast from Deliverance. (L.W.) 11.<...> he approached one of the mediaevalists who had befriended him - who had once simply talked with him and shared him some Spam - and promised to show him something in return for his kindness. (M.O.) 12.“Who’s a bad influence on whom?” he protested. “Some of those jokes of hers turned the Stilton a richer shade of the blue”. (W.S.) 13.He now looked like Mount Vesuvius about to erupt. (D.Br.) 14.The town’s population was seasonal. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, it was close to fifteen thousand. The rest of the year it was just a tad over or under two <…>. (St. K.) 15.“What about the trojans?” Kenner said. “How are they timed?” In computer slang, a trojan was an innocent-looking program installed in the system. It was designed to wake up at a later time and carry out some action. It derived its name from the way the Greeks won the Trojan war – by making a huge horse and presenting it to the Trojans as a gift. Once the horse was within the walls of Troy, the Greek soldiers who had been hiding inside it came out and attacked the city. (M. C. 242) 16.He’s looking not for a Molotov cocktail thrown through a window. (N.D.)