English Text Construction - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2009

In this paper we present the results of a comparison analysis (quantitative and qualitative) of the rates of occurrence of the null article Ø2 against the definite article the referring specifically to the five names of the seasons. Instances of Ø2 in authentic contexts have previously only been minimally described; Chesterman (1991) places Ø2 at a higher level of definiteness than the while Master (1997) describes the choice between Ø2 and the as different degrees of familiarity. A revision of the latter, this paper’s findings — derived from corpus-linguistic analysis using MICASE (spoken) and the Brown corpus (written) — demonstrate that, very generally, when preceding the name of a season, Ø2 indicates a specific point in time or the start of a season while the indicates a period of time. The findings also reaffirm the strength of postmodification in determining the need for the definite article. One implication for English language teaching is discussed.

This study concerns objectivity, subjectivity and intersubjectivity in relation to the English central modal verbs. In order to refine the (inter)subjective status of modals from a synchronic perspective, it focuses on their possible uses within a specific communicative context where the SP/W needs to ‘modulate’ his/her own and/or other people’s point of view. A qualitative and quantitative corpus-based analysis has been carried out on the syntactic pattern Subject + Modal Verb + Mental Verb, to check whether and to what extent (inter)subjectivity occurs in the written medium. By means of a semantic-pragmatic analysis of the central modals within the selected pattern, a wide range of communicative strategies has been observed. Four main aims have been identified that the SP/W may have in mind when choosing to resort to (inter)subjectivity: namely, the expression of the SP/W’s point of view (EPV), the shaping of the AD/R’s line of reasoning (SLR), the imposition of the SP/W’s power on the AD/R (IP), and the communication of information (CI).

The present contribution analyzes the linguistic realization of the Problem-Solution pattern, the Question-Answer pattern and the Claim-Response pattern (Hoey 2001) in a sample of US written newspaper editorials and opinion articles. The objectives pursued are twofold: to explore how these textual patterns interact in the newspaper opinion genre and to unveil the kind of writer-reader relationship this interaction reflects. To achieve these goals, sample texts were analyzed first for the three textual patterns under consideration, and then the patterns themselves were characterized by identifying their most frequent textual components (e.g. Problem, Solution, Evaluation, Question, Answer, Claim, Affirm, etc.). Findings reveal different types of interaction among text patterns, which respond to different persuasive strategies unfolded by writers to achieve their communicative objectives. Results presented here can be of interest to researchers in discourse analysis and written communication.

The nature of most human societies, where the aspirations and desires of people are never completely fulfilled, and where such aspirations always conflict with those of other persons, presupposes a conscious effort by persons to strive for the recognition of and acceptance of their goals. They also crave the freedom to aspire towards the realization of their dreams. Because human relations and communication are conveyed principally by linguistic vehicles, much of the struggle for power is also expressed through language. It is shown in this study how a social miscreant occupying the lowest rung of the social class structure, effects a change in power relations with society’s top notchers through the deployment of the linguistic concept of politeness in dramatic dialogue, from which we draw conclusions that may be reflective of real life.

In Victorian Britain, the consolidation of capitalism and the absence of bureaucracy had a huge and unsettling impact on politics and culture. This paper argues that the Victorian novelist, like the public moralist, provided a solution to this crisis by forming a construction of the individual as a rational and emotional citizen and of a state adequately representing this citizen. The study’s objective is to examine the details of this construction in Phineas Finn (1869), a novel by Anthony Trollope (1815–1882); it identifies, analyzes and interprets the discourses of subject formation, politics, and character. The method used draws on the work of Paul de Man and is inductive, descriptive and rhetorical.

Both Pride and Prejudice and The Wanderer offer a revision of the traditional image of woman as the domestic peacemaker: not only do female characters take part in verbal conflicts, going against the traditional reserve expected from them, but they actively provoke verbal warfare, which becomes a means to achieve some degree of power. Studying the verbal conflicts with the modern tools of conversational patterns in interpersonal conflicts brings to the fore the tendency of those characters to resort to some strategies belonging to what has been defined as a masculine argumentation style. But the temptation to parrot men is discarded, not to come back to a more personal and emotional perspective, but to favour a third approach, a more indirect ironical or playful style which proves to be much more efficient in women’s quest for empowerment.

This article focuses on the first novel by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus (2003). It examines how religious prejudice is encoded in the account of the book’s autodiegetic narrator, a fifteen-year-old girl whose father is a violent, extremist Igbo Catholic. Based on a close reading of the text, the essay argues that an analysis of the novel’s use of speech and thought presentation may contribute to the assessment of the main character’s evolving ideological stance. It is suggested that the resulting appraisal of the narrator’s development provides key insights into the interpretation of the book.

In David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, the presence of Alcoholics Anonymous can be considered as an attempt to come up with a solution for both the addiction and the solipsism of the characters. AA tries to accomplish this by reconnecting the addict with the “Other”. The assimilation of the “Other” by the totalizing tendency of the self is dropped in favor of an earnest connection. This article focuses on the similarities between AA’s methods, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy of the language-game, Emmanuel Levinas’ ethics of the “Other” and Martin Buber’s I and Thou. It illustrates how, in light of this knowledge, a reader might be able to uncover moments of earnestness in Infinite Jest, as well as pick up on the rules necessary to counter contemporary American solitude.

These days authors who use stereotypical characters such as the African woman warrior or the old field slave smoking his pipe and humming blues songs would probably be considered as intellectually biased or mentally colonized. Yet, for some African American writers like Amiri Baraka, Charles Fuller and Lorraine Hansberry, these characters represent a link between Black people and their past or, to use Pierre Nora’s term, they are lieux de mémoire. This is why these authors oppose the more or less general attitude which consists in dismissing these clichéd-figures from the field of representation, for this would amount to erasing an entire segment of African American history. Going against the trend of the time, these playwrights thus give a voice to those silenced by normative history and, to decolonize symbols which after all belong to the past of Black people, Baraka in The Slave (1964), Fuller in A Soldier’s Play (1981) and Hansberry in Les Blancs (1966) also invest these characters with a new significance.