Stylistics routledge English Language Introductions

Activity

---

E, B, C. How did your own ranking compare with this sequence? We will return to
these rankings later.
The analysis of speech and thought presentation
The next stage of the programme involves an analysis of speech and thought presen-
tation in the passage using the criteria outlined in units A8 and B8. You should
refamiliarise yourself with the broad categories introduced in these units before
progressing any further. As there are many types of speech and thought modes in
evidence, a good idea is to mark up on the text the modes you spot. Try to see how
many modes you can identify and how they are used to signal and accommodate
different aspects of the story. (A full analysis of the passage in terms of its patterns
of speech and thought presentation is provided in the web material which accom-
panies this book.)
The bigger picture: seeing transitions between speech
and thought
Now that you have identified in the passage the many and varied modes of speech
and thought presentation, and the patterns of oscillation between these modes, it
might be worth trying to see if we can develop a visual representation for the styl-
istic fabric of the text. Figure C8.1 works as a template for charting the two main
directions of narrative organisation in the passage. The horizontal axis on the figure
represents the simple forward development of the passage, moving from line 
1 through to line 42. The vertical axis marks the transitions between one strand 
11
111
11
111
A W O R K S H O P O N S P E E C H A N D T H O U G H T P R E S E N T A T I O N
133
FDS
DS
NRA
FIT
DT
FDT
1–10
11
11–14 15–16 17–20
21
21–2 23–24 25–26 27–8
29
30
31–33 34–37
38
39–40 40–2
Figure C8.1
Template for charting narrative organisation in 
Old Man and the Sea
extract