Linguistics: Structure and Meaning in Literary Discourse - Essay Example

Linguistics - Structure and Meaning in Literary Dis Thesis ment: The narrative strategies of complicating action and resolution, which "together form the main structural spine of the narrative as they recount a series of events occurring linearly through time", provide scope for an analysis of their linguistic forms in the celebrated novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. (Klapproth, 96) Four Linguistic and Literary Issues Issue 1: Complicating action and resolution, known as 'narrative clauses', are significant in a narrative as their order recapitulates the order of events in the narrative.

Issue 2: The linguistic form of complicating action is "temporally ordered narrative clauses with a verb in the simple past or present" where as that of resolution is "expressed as the last of the narrative clauses that began the complicating action." (A Sociolinguistic Model of Narrative) Issue 3: A narrative's structural organisation is directed mainly by the laws of chronological sequence. Issue 4: The novel A Tale of the Two Cities by Charles Dickens is one of the best illustrations for the structural organisation of the narrative through the principles of temporal sequence.

The Major Linguistic and Literary Issues: Discussion Complicating action and resolution, recognized as 'narrative clauses' by the Labov, are simple past main clauses and their order sums up the order of events in the narrative. The temporal sequence of the original semantic interpretation will be the ultimate result of an alteration in the order of complicating action and resolution. In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, the 'narrative clauses' of complicating action and resolution in the form of simple past main clauses whose order sums up the order of events are at work from the very opening of the narrative.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishnessit was the season of Light, it was the season of Darknesswe had everything before us, we had nothing before us" (Dickens, 3) The order of the various events in the narrative is the result of the order of the 'narrative clauses'. To comprehend these narrative strategies closely, complicating action is concerned with the narrative question 'Then what happened' and resolution with 'What finally happened' Similarly, the narrative function of the former has been that it is the main narrative category which provides the 'what happened' element of the story and the latter summarises the final focal episode of a story.

More significantly, the linguistic form of complicating action is "temporally ordered narrative clauses with a verb in the simple past or present" where as that of resolution is "expressed as the last of the narrative clauses that began the complicating action." (A Sociolinguistic Model of Narrative) The linguistic forms of complicating action as well as resolution in the novel are evidently reflected in the sentence constructions of the narrative. According to Labov, the narrative embodies several events which are temporarily and rationally previous to the narrative itself.

Therefore, Labov realised the significance of sequence which denotes the chronological ordering in narrative discourse. To relate the literary issues with the linguistic aspects, "the structural organisation of the narrative is governed primarily by principles of chronological sequence." (Klapproth, 96) In the narrative strategy of the novel by Dickens, this structural organisation of the narrative assisted by the principles of chronological sequence is apparent. In the novel A Tale of the Two Cities one finds the best illustration of this structural organisation of the narrative through the principles of temporal sequence.

The novel, arranged in three books, illustrates the impact of the principles of temporal sequence on the structural organisation of the narrative. The arrangement of the major events in the novel in three main sections indicates the significance of temporal sequence. It is through the most effectively guided temporal sequence that the novel acquires structural organisation. According to Glancy, the various clusters of the novel "provide an interconnectedness that is special as well as temporal.

Foreshadowing is worked out as in a dream sequence where the meaning of the images is conveyed through their combination rather than just through narrative." (Glancy, 74-75) An evaluation of the complicating action of the novel A Tale of the Two Cities ultimately suggests what happened in the story where as the assessment of the evaluation of the novel sums up the most significant events of the narrative. Work Cited Klapproth, Daniele M. Narrative as Social Practice: Anglo-Western and Australian Aboriginal Oral Traditions.

Walter de Gruyter. 2004. P 96. A Sociolinguistic Model of Narrative. C5. 26 Sept. 2008. . Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Planet PDF. P 3. 26 Sept. 2008. . Glancy, Ruth F. Charles Dickens's A Tale Of Two Cities: A Sourcebook. London: Routledge. 2006. P 74-75.