Uzbekistan state world languages university d. U. Ashurova m. R. Galieva

defeated expectancy

The most conspicuous feature of O. Henry’s stories is a surprise ending based on the psychological effect of defeated expectancy. Defeated expectancy in its turn is another type of foregrounding based on the phenomenon of predictability. It follows that each subsequent statement or event is to some degree predictable and proceed from the foregoing according the logical rules of succession. It means that the sequence of statements and succession of events described in the text are subordinated to some logical rules and each subsequent sentence is to some degree predictable. The violation of logical links causes much surprise on the part of the reader and produces a great emotional impact on him. By the way of illustration the story “October and June” can be taken. The story tells us about the Captain who was in love with a lady and proposed to her. A surprising ending consists in the fact that the reader up to the end is sure that the Captain is an elderly man. It becomes evident from the following sentences:

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  In the closet near by was stored his faded uniform, stained and worn by weather and service;
  
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  Those old days of war’s alarm;
  
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  Veteran that his was of country’s strenuous times;
  
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  How long ago it seemed now!;
  
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  Yes, there were many years between their ages;
  
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  Truly Fate and Father time had tricked him surely;
  

The author keeps the reader under suspense until the end of the story. But the end appears to be quite unexpected. To the reader’s great surprise the Captain turned out to be very young; he was only nineteen and the girl was much older.

Besides, O. Henry’s stories abound in allusions and mythologemes, the use of which activate knowledge structures necessary for text perception and interpretation:

“Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out of the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy”. (The Gift of the Magi).

The use of allusions Queen Sheba, King Solomon activates religious knowledge structures in the reader’s mind. Both of these biblical characters are famous for their wealth, power and wisdom. In the fragment above, the author uses these allusions to underline how proud the Dillingham’s were of their possessions.

Another conspicuous feature of the author’s world picture is the use of individual symbols. Symbol, as is known, is a trope characterized by 1) recurrence of its usage; 2) accentuation of some linguistic units; 3) representation of knowledge structures; 4) conceptualization of linguistic means (Джусупов. 2006).

There are various types of symbols: universal, nationally specific, individual, the latter plays an essential role in the author’s world picture representation. It is worthy of note that individual symbols make the author’s cognitive style recognizable. Here are some examples:

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  Rain – a symbol of unhappiness, loneliness and suffering in the works be E. Hemingway;
  
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  Sandcastle – a symbol of illusive, love and unreal dreams (A. Murdock);
  
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  White fang – a symbol of courage, wisdom and superiority (J. London);
  
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  White Monkey – a symbol of spiritual bankruptcy (G. Galsworthy).
  

In conclusion it should be once more stressed that the problem of the author’s individual world picture and its linguistic representation is one of the fundamental issues of cultural linguistics since it provides a deep insight into text semantics thus revealing the complex relationship between “language – man – culture”.