A Sample of Analysis of This Text

Summary

The text is an essay – «a literary composition in prose and very short» (Concise Oxford Dictionary); «a short piece of literature in which a writer gives his or her thoughts on a particular subject usually in a graceful and pleasing style» (Longman’s Dictionary of English Language and Culture) – evidently on the subject of motherhood (this may be considered the gist) and the paramount importance of it (which may be considered as one of the ideas).

The authoress is a contemporary (judging by the year of publication) American (according to the place of publication), writer, concerned with joys and cares of motherhood. It might be supposed that the essay is – in a way – autobiographical.

The gist and one of the ideas were mentioned above. The facts the reader gets are not many: clothes (fitting or not), two girls that will grow into adulthood in their turn.

The obvious LFs are Clothes, Happiness, Time, Children. The peculiarity of this essay is the presence of an epigraph. Any epigraph directly or by throng associations is connected with the idea of the text (as the author sees it). This epigraph is rather long for its kind and does not need any interpretation. It speaks quite clearly of the honourable profession of a Mother.

The lexical layer of the text – as is expected of an essay – is literary colloquial, at places sounding intimate.

Analysis.

If one does not pay attention to the epigraph, beginning with the strong position of the title, the initial strong position (1^st sentence) and the final strong position of the text (the word «wear» in the last sentence) the text deals with clothes. The number of the LUs belonging to it is overwhelming. The seemingly paradoxical fact is the following: the text is evidently dedicated to the joys of motherhood and Clothes should be a background theme. Everything becomes logical if the title is understood as a metonymy/metaphor: «second skin» = a perfectly filling dress (a metonymy), clothes as indicators of time (a metaphor). The interconnection between the LFs Clothes, Time, Motherhood becomes obvious. LUs Clothes and Time are inseparable («shorts and T-shirt time of life», «times that will wear like scratchy wool sweaters» etc). «Time» as a LF is all embracing: past, present and future. The stylistic connotations of the LUs belonging to all three are similar: most of the Time/Clothes units belong to the colloquial layer of the vocabulary.

The evaluative connotations are slightly different: «fleeting trappings of youth», «tough seams», «snagging zippers» referring to the past are more negative than «something that finally feels right», «two lengths of perfect silk» etc referring to the present which are positive.

The group of LUs referring to the future has rather uncertain evaluative connotations, but the emotive ones allow to feel the narrator’s hope for the better: «we will have woven a complicated tapestry…»

The emotive connotations of the first two groups are different conveying slight irony for the past («my own version of continental drift») and satisfaction with the present («This time fits me. I plan to wear it well»).

The LF of Time/Clothes is foregrounded first of all through a dense convergence: metonymy, metaphors, similes, epithets etc, mostly lexico-grammatical SDs.

The discussion of this LF confirms the fact that the text is an essay – very personal, graceful and pleasing.

Tasks:

1) Find in the texts 3 LUs connected with the theme Motherhood directly;

2) 3-through constant and 3-through casual associations. Speak of the 3 types of connotations of each group.

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