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“it was
also signed by Scrooge”
and
“Scrooge signed it”.
The two sentences, of course,
must be analysed in connection with the third sentence, inasmuch as we agreed that
both sentences represent a stylistic whole. The first variant which we marked with
an asterisk may be said to form a parallel construction with the preceding sentence.
In that case Scrooge and the people enumerated in the third sentence would occupy
the same structural position. It could, therefore, be assumed that there is no great
difference between them and the main hero of the story.
This concept stems from the presumption that there is always a certain
parallelism between the ideas expressed and the form in which they are wrought.
When, however, the parallelism is reversed in structure it can likewise be assumed
that there is no parallelism in ideas. Scrooge, of course, is made far more important
and significant in whatever capacity he may be taken for comparison, than the
other people enumerated in the preceding sentence. This is proved also by lexical
means, by the idea expressed in simple, neutral means of the language that
Scrooge’s name was reliable.
If we analyse the intonational pattern of the second sentence we see that to the
word Scrooge is given a strong stress. And this is in full accord with the idea that
the author wants to emphasize.
The strongest, the most convincing proof, the undeniable argument is given in
the last sentence of the paragraph which is the peak of the climax. In this sentence
a phraseological unit is used. No matter what we call it –
a phraseological unit
or a
fusion
or an
idiom
or a
saying
– it is something the author regards as the strongest
of all possible proofs. Why? Just because the colloquial phrases that are used in
ordinary speech for the sake of emphasis have been already established in the
language as the strongest means of emphasis. They reverberate the sounds of
human voices and emanate the warmth and intonational patterns of lively
conversation. They are, as it were, the accepted norm for emphasis and are
101
intended to serve as such in the models of emphatic speech. It is well known that
anything already accepted by a language community will always be received more
easily than something that needs gradual decoding. But the effect is made stronger
not because it is momentous and unconditional. It has acquired a definite stylistic
function because it is introduced into the author’s speech which, as has been
already pointed out, is generally devoid of such properties. A colloquial phrase,
and idiom in particular, will always present a contrast to the norms of indirect
speech. The idiom used as a mere emotional intensifier. It is registered as such in
dictionaries of the English language.
Therefore it may be said that the last sentence was intended by the writer to
carry the most convincing proof of Marley’s death.
The arrangement of the sentences in the paragraph is by no means accidental.
It is informative. It gives additional information to the reader about the idea of the
whole story. In further narrative Dickens himself will state his task. But now
leading gradually up to the hidden idea that he is pursuing, the writer makes the
reader feel that there must be a reason for proving such truisms as a person being
dead or being alive. But the very plot of the story, as the reader will see later, is
such that he must throughout fin himself between something that is real and unreal,
something that is quite natural and something that seems to be unnatural, almost
mysterious. Hence the necessity to prove the fact of Marley’s death to the reader.
Hence combination of the idea – elevated, as the idea of death itself – and the
colloquial way of presenting it (
to begin with
).
Summing up the stylistic analysis of the first paragraph we may say that its
idea or rather the intention of the writer is to convince the reader that Marley was
dead, not merely to state that Marley was dead. For this particular purpose the
writer has selected following stylistic devices and expressive means of the
language which, from his point of view, will serve best to achieve the aim set:
climax, chiasmus, combination of different stylistic aspects of words, repetition
(see the first sentence and the last sentence in which the idea of Marley’s death is
repeated as a sort of frame), enumeration, implication, phraseological fusion (
dead
as a door-nail
).
To connect the purely linguistic analysis of the utterance embodied in the first
paragraph with the literary analysis it, perhaps, will not come amiss to say a few
words about the composition of the paragraph from a literary viewpoint.
The aim of the writer is the depiction of Scrooge. The depiction is by no
means objective. This will become apparent from further utterances. But in order
to impose on the reader his attitude towards Scrooge dickens points out the
character’s features which will be considered as non-partial. Therefore Dickens
begins the depiction with seemingly objective statement – Scrooge’s occupation
and his social position. In the first paragraph only one trait of his character is given
reliability as a businessman. The fact that he is a businessman is also given not in
the manner typical of neutral style. There is no direct indication of this fact. It is
understood indirectly, through the mention of the word “
Change
”, a
professionalism used mostly in business circles.
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The stylistic and literary aspects of the analysis of the linguistic texture of the
utterance.
2
The second paragraph of the story strikes one with its direct address to the
reader. Let us first read it attentively and observedly.
1.
Mind!
2.
I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is
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