LING131 Coursework Janey Chan

Table of Contents

Initial Impressions....................................................................................................................1
Thought and Speech Presentation..........................................................................................4
Deictic sub-worlds.................................................................................................................5
Viewpoint Effects......................................................................................................................1
Deviation and Foregrounding.................................................................................................1
Semantic Deviation...............................................................................................................5
Graphalogical Deviation......................................................................................................6
Parallelism and Grammatical Deviation............................................................................6
Lexis...........................................................................................................................................1
Elegant Variation..................................................................................................................6
Context and Tone.....................................................................................................................1
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................1

Initial Impressions

This opening passage begins with Mr Winser being confronted with an automatic
pistol being aimed at him, and we immediately see the events portrayed through Mr Winser’s
point of view, despite the majority of the passage being written in 3rd person. This effect is
achieved through the use of thought presentation, such as direct thought, for example in the
opening sentence “this gun is not a gun” (which is foregrounded throughout the passage).
There are also other devices used throughout the passage to help the reader see the scene
from Mr Winser’s perspective such as deixis, the use of the definite article, possessives and
adjectives. There is grammatical, semantic, and graphological deviation throughout the text,
which helps us understand Mr Winser’s thought patterns and rationalisation to add to the pace
of the novel, appropriate for this genre. The tone of the passage, despite the severity of the
situation is tense, but not too serious, and is almost quirky and slightly eccentric due to
slightly unusual characteristics in the characters and their context.

Thought and Speech Presentation

The author starts off the passage using direct thought (DT). The majority of thought
presentation uses DT (there are 13 sentences using DT throughout the passage). DT is used in its
most unfiltered form; no quotation marks and no reporting clause “he thought”. The absence of
narrator filtering achieves the effect of Mr Winser’s thoughts and feelings being closer and more
immediate to the reader, thus putting the reader in the mind of our protagonist.
At the beginning of the passage, declarative sentences are used in all the examples of DT, e.g.
“This gun does not exist. (3) It is inadmissible evidence. (4) It is no evidence at all. (5) It is a non-
LING131 Coursework Janey Chan

gun. (6) my briefcase, my pen, my passport, my air tickets and travellers’ cheques. (12) My credit
cards, my legality. (13)” but as the text progresses to Mr Winser’s “flight down memory lane”,
towards the end of the passage, four contrasting interrogatives can be seen: “Why did I do it? (25)
Why do I have to marry people in order to discover I don’t like them? (26) Why can’t I make up my
mind ahead of the fact instead of after it? (27) What is legal training for, if not to protect us from
ourselves? (28)” The use of interrogatives represents a similar structure to that of a soliloquy, which
emphasise Mr Winser’s desolation and regret, increasing our sympathy towards him.
During the second half of the passage, at first glance, direct speech (DS) seems to be used to
represent the words of Mr Winser’s law tutor and also his wife, for example, ‘It may look like an
apple, feel like an apple – innuendo – but does it rattle like an apple?’ – shakes it – ‘cut like an
apple?’ This example represents the exact speech used by Mr Winser’s law tutor, and it is quoted in
quotation marks. The italics represent stress on certain words such as “look”, “feel”, “rattle”, “cut”,
which indicates that these words were stressed in comparison to the others. The DS used is in an
unfiltered form, without the reporting clause. Bunny’s speech is more unfiltered due to there being no
reporting clause and no quotation marks. This makes the flashback feel very real and close to the
reader.
Deictic sub-worlds
The DS being used is speech inside a deictic sub-world, as there is a shift in time and location
during the flashbacks, so DS is not being used in the same timeframe as the current “text world”
(Stockwell, 2002:140). What is interesting is the way the narrator interjects with words such as
“innuendo”, “shakes it” and “pressing the shopping basket on him”, crossing the boundary of the
sub-world, and making the reader actively involved in the actions and events within the flashback.

Viewpoint Effects

The passage is written from Mr Winser’s viewpoint. This can be seen through verbs of
perception, the use of place deixis, social deviation, and the use of the definite article, reflexives,
possessives, third party anaphoric and the author’s use of adjectives. These devices all produce
different results on how we perceive the story through Mr Winser’s eyes.
One indicator of Mr Winser’s viewpoint is through the use of “verbs of perception and
cognition” (Short, 1996:268), e.g. “he heard”, “he felt”, “saw”, “remained staring”. Through these
verbs of perception, the reader is able to experience the events that take place through Mr Winser’s
senses.
The use of place/ space deixis also indicates the viewpoint is from Mr Winser. The
demonstrative pronoun “this [gun]” refers to something of close proximity, which the gun is – six
inches from Mr Winser’s nose. Another example of deixis is “these [excursions]”, where the use of
deixis is similar to the above (“these” being the plural of “this”).
The protagonist is frequently referred to by his last name “Winser” or “Mr Winser” (internal
deviation), which creates a feeling remoteness between the character and the reader as “someone to
whom you refer with ‘title + last name’ would be remote socially, and you would normally refer to
those with whom you are close by their first name (Short, 1996:272)”. The use of his last name can be
compared to the use of last names in case titles (Winser v Hoban) in which we take the side of
Winser, which helps us to sympathise and see the events from his point of view. It is deviant that the
main character is referred to by his last name when a less focal character is referred to by her first
name, “Bunny”. It is possible that it is a pet name that Winser calls her by, which makes the reader
feel much closer to her, but almost too close and personal, so the reader experiences her smothering
and fussy nature.
The definite article “the” in “the non-gun” and “the shadow of it” is used to show that the
items which are being referred to are items which Mr Winser is already familiar with, and they are
LING131 Coursework Janey Chan

from his perspective. The use of “the” assumes that there is given information, and not new
information. Also, the use of the reflexive, ”wished himself” possessives “my briefcase”, third party
anaphoric “he”, “she”, “it” show us that the things being referred to are from his perspective
throughout the narrative.
The author uses the effect called “in media res”, whereby the reader is positioned in the
middle of the situation (Short, 1996:267). The demonstrative pronoun “this” in the opening sentence
immediately puts us in the middle of a situation from the main character’s point of view. The other
feature of “in media res” is the chronology of the events – the flashbacks to Mr Winser’s tutor,
greengrocer and wife are events which have happened in his past, which further makes the reader
relate to things from Mr Winser’s point of view.

Deviation and Foregrounding

One theme which is repeated and therefore foregrounded throughout the entire
passage is the idea of the gun’s non-existence: “This gun is not a gun. (1)”, “This gun does
not exist. (3)”, “It is a non-gun. (6)”, “He remained staring mutely at the non-gun. (15)”,
“This gun is not a gun. (16)”, “They fortified him, if only for split seconds, against the
unreality of the gun. (30)”, “This gun still does not exist. (31)”. This repetition has the effect
of emphasising Mr Winser’s feelings of desperateness and wishful thinking, trying to
convince himself that something right in front of him does not exist.

Semantic Deviation
“Mr Winser’s beakish but strictly non-violent nose. (2)”
This sentence is semantically deviant and the adjective “non-violent” is foregrounded,
because noses are by nature, non-violent, therefore with the use of the adjective “non-
violent”, the author is presenting a tautological description of Mr Winser’s nose. By putting
in an adjective which does not present new information, the author highlights the innocent
and helpless nature of Mr Winser and the contrasting aggression that he is presented with,
and the reader is able to sympathise with Mr Winser’s defencelessness state.

Graphological Deviation
The placing of sentences (1) and (31) are graphalogically deviant. These sentences
exist as a paragraph of their own, both 6 words long. These direct thoughts are foregrounded,
and combined with the use of present tense, has the effect of putting the reader immediately
into the urgent situation, the context being filled with conflict and tension. The fact that the
white space around these sentences are maximized draws immediate attention to them.

Parallelism/ Grammatical Deviation

The sentence length of the narration varies greatly to the sentence length of Mr
Winser’s direct thoughts, and this is grammatically deviant. Sentence (2), narrative, has 77
words in total. Sentence (22), also narrative, has 62 words in total. Compare these to the DT
sentences – the average number of words per sentence is 8. The description of the “facts” of
the situation in sentence (2) is extensive, containing 7 conjunctions and 15 adjectives. The
sharp contrast of the long, detailed narration and the short, simple sentences of direct thought
is a technique which creates action and suspense, switching rapidly from third person to first
person, and vice versa.
“…my briefcase, my pen, my passport, my air tickets and travellers’ cheques. (12)
My credit cards, my legality. (13)” Paralleled through this sentence is a structure whereby the
LING131 Coursework Janey Chan

pronoun “my” precedes concrete nouns, but the final noun “legality” is an abstract noun. The
abstract noun “legality” is therefore foregrounded, as the repeated grammatical structure
makes “legality” an equal to “briefcase”, “pen”, “passport”, etc. which are all items which are
valuable and precious to him. This foregrounding effect indicates that his “legality” is also
very dear to him, and we see straight away that Mr Winser holds a lot of pride in his job and
is a lawful citizen who we might sympathetically think to be the innocent participant in the
confrontation.
“The more self-evident a fact might appear to the layman, the more vigorously must
the conscientious lawyer contest it. (9)” In this sentence, we see another example of
parallelism through the repetition of a grammatical structure. The structure definite article +
comparative adjective + adjective begins in both clauses, and is then followed by the verb
and object. This parallelism (unlike the previous example) acts to emphasise the idea of
opposition of “lawyer” and “layman” (which also alliterate word-initially), and this may
reflect Mr Winser’s mentality that, as he is a lawyer, the situation he is in does not
necessarily mean he will die. He is in a last desperate attempt to find his way out of the
situation, even if it means separating himself from “ordinary people” and rather ambitiously
claiming that something in front of him does not exist. The absurdity of this rationalization
almost makes the situation amusing, which lightens the tone of the passage.

Lexis
Elegant Variation
The term “elegant variation” refers to the use of synonyms to avoid using a word too many
times (Fowler, 1906), but more generally, it can applied to thoughts or expressions of ideas. The
thoughts repeated by Mr Winser use slightly different wording, for example “This gun is not a gun.
(1) This gun does not exist. (5) It is a non-gun. (6)”. This highlights Mr Winser’s tone of self-
reassurance in the stressful situation presented to him, and in using elegant variation rather than
repetition, it makes Mr Winser seem as if he has a certain amount of control over his thoughts, as if
attempting to rationalise the situation.

Context and Tone

One would not usually associate law tutors to wear sports coats and sandals whilst lecturing a
class. Law tutors are expected to dress in a presentable and smart way, with a shirt or possibly a tie.
Sports coats have connotations of casualness and the complete opposite to someone in a high
academic position. Sandals are associated with the beach and are also a casual item of clothing.
Therefore deviation in terms of our knowledge and understanding of the context of the situation is
foregrounded throughout the passage. The behaviour exhibited by the law tutor is also deviant,
because the demonstration of the cutting of the apple does not seem appropriate in a law lecture –
“black letter law” was the most common method of teaching, especially during the time the novel was
written. It was also mostly males who went to law school during that time, so to have a “mostly
female audience” is also deviant. It could be a device used to create a mildly entertaining context and
therefore dampen the serious nature of the situation. The fact that Mr Winser is making reference to
his law tutor and trying to use that rationality and applying it to his situation makes us pity Mr
Winser, but in an almost comical way.

Conclusion
My overall analysis appears to co-incide with my initial impression of the extract.
LING131 Coursework Janey Chan

Bibliography

The King’s English, H. W. Fowler, 1906

Cognitive Poetics: An Introduction P. Stockwell 2002