2.5.1. the Metalinguistic Function of the Language in Literary Texts

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2.5.1. The Metalinguistic Function of the Language in Literary TextsLiterary texts provide numerous examples of the uses of this function of the language. The difference between these examples and those from non-fictional typesof discourses is that whenever a term s explanation is put into a character s mouth,

the authorial intention is never absent. The meaning so highlighted usually contributes to the narrative as a way of illustrating real-life socio-linguistic habits. Some other times, however, the metalinguistic function of the language becomes a narrative technique itself.

In the example below the denotative meaning of a colloquial phrase is explained to those of a higher social status who are not familiar with the character s informal small talk. This is an illustration of the most direct way in whichpeople ask for the clarification of unknown terms:

1). Liza: [ ] and what I say is, them as pinched it done her in.Mrs. Eynsford Hill: What does doing her in mean?Higgins [hastily]: [ ] To do a person in means to kill them.

In the next fragment, G. B. Shaw points out the difficulty felt by some people to explain lexical items which are commonsensical to them, yet unusual to others,

and provides as an alternative to definition another procedure which is largelyused: a near definition or exemplification of the type X is a sort / kind of Y,in which Y is similar to X, only it is more common, thus easier to understand:

2). The Bystander [explaining to the note taker]: She thought you was a copper s nark, sir.The Note Taker [with quick interest]: Whats (sic!) a copper s nark?The Bystander [inapt at definition]: It s a well, it s a copper s nark, as you might say. What else would you call it? A sort of informer.

The following examples are taken from George Orwell s novel 1984. In the Appendixto this novel, under the heading The Principles of Newspeak, the author (i.e. the locutor) explains to the reader (i.e. the recipient of the message) all the unknown terms used throughout the book. This Appendix can be considered a treatise

of a new wooden language, a treatise elaborated in conformity with the rules ofa scientific grammar study:

3). Newspeak was the official language of Oceania and had been devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism.

4). The B words were a sort of verbal shorthand, often packing whole ranges of ideas into a few syllables, and at the same time more accurate and forcible than ordinary language.

Illustration with examples is a way of avoiding a definition difficult to formulate or a way of getting more specific about a definition. Thus, for theB words Orwell provides a sentence made up of such lexemes in order to make hisexplanations clearer to the reader by means of illustration:

5). Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc which Orwell translates into Oldspeak (i.e. con

temporary standard English) as Those whose ideas were formed before the revolution cannot have a full emotional understanding of the principles of English Socialism.

The new grammar of Newspeak is based entirely on linguistic material familiar tothe reader. The B words are compounds of contemporary English words; sometimes

they preserve parts of these lexemes, other times a whole idea is concentrated into a short lexeme which becomes very expressive in this way. Here is a succinct

explanation of the way in which these compounds were formed:


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before the revolution ? oldThose whose ideas were formed ? thinkerscannot ? unfull understanding ? believe + fully ?bellyemotional ? feelEnglish ? Ingsocialism ? soc

Sometimes, the linguistic devices employed by people when they mentally activate or resort to the metalinguistic function of the language are used by writers as narrative techniques. This happens when they intend to achieve certain effects on

the readers.In the following examples, Peter Ackroyd explains the meaning of some words in an ironically mocking manner by resorting to what common people do more or less subconsciously when they come across a word they are not familiar with, namely, making semantic associations with what they already know. The following definitions are provided by the main character, Plato, who is, in this book, the great orator of the City of London, living around the year of 3700 A. D. His main preoccupation is to give public lectures on the life in the past ages. In this book, the period from c. A.D. 1500 to c. A.D. 2300 is known as the Age of Mouldwarp. By

collecting the very few and discontinuous historical documents which have survived the passing of the time, Plato attempts to explain to his contemporaries their ancestors view of the world, the concepts they used, the cultural and ideological background of the books they wrote, etc. . The metaphorical associations in

some of the following examples follow a rather simple syllogistic pattern, which used in the mental articulation of the linguistic process known as folk etymology:

Major premise (stated): A associates with BMinor premise (unstated): A accesses CandMinor premise (unstated): B accesses DConclusion: Therefore, (A associated with B) means the same as (C associated with D)

Logico - mathematically formulated, this syllogism can be represented as:

If (A ? C) and (B ? D), Then (A + B) ? (C + D)But the mental associations do not stop here. Once a new pair of signs is found(C + D) it automatically forms a unit that is interpreted in the light of the locutor s experience of life, i.e. (C + D) ? E. From this it follows logically that(A + B) ? E, as well.Although the two minor premises of the syllogism are not stated (i.e. A=C, and B=D), the identity relationship between their two terms is highly humorous to the

reader due to the fact that in everyday speech people do not associate these familiar terms in the same way, although the commonsensicality of the associationis undeniable. In other words, the fact that (A + B) ? E is highly humorous.

6). biographer: from bio-graphy, the reading of a life by means of lines.A fortune teller or palmist.

A+B: (bio) + (-graphy)If A (bio) = C (life)andB (-graphy) = D (line)Then (A + B) bio-graphy = (C + D) life + lines

But (C + D) life + lines ? E (fortune-telling).Therefore (A + B) bio-graphy ? E (fortune-telling), and the persons involved ineach of the two practices do the same thing: biographer = fortune-teller / palmist.


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7). brainstorm: on certain occasions the amount of anger or anxiety in the brainwas believed to cause a violent change in the weather.

Here, the syllogism is differently articulated, but the final result isas hilarious as that in the previous example. The word storm automatically associates with weather, a word in the same semantic area, and, by means of contingency, it makes the word brain to associate with anger or anxiety, and this leads to the association of anxiety or anger with weather. More schematically:

A (brain) + B (storm)A (brain) ? B (storm as negative change, both in A and D) ? D (weather)Which means [A (brain) + B (storm)] [B (storm) + D (weather)],

where [A + B] translates anger and anxiety, and [B + D] translates negative change in the weather, between the two there existing a relationship of similarity.However, the cause-effect relationship between [A + B] and [B + D] is added to this logical argument by the locutor to increase the comical effect of this process of mental gliding from one meaning to another; it is not suggested by any relationships between the terms in it.

8). CD: an abbreviation of cold dirge , a form of music designed to calm or deaden human faculties.

Here, the reader s mental play guided by the writer translates as follows: CD is the abbreviation for Compact Disc. But the term cold dirge is brought on stage asit is a familiar term to the lexicographer Plato, who does not know of compact di

scs. Both disc and dirge are associated with music. As dirge has death-related connotations, the CD, meaning compact disc, is made to carry these connotations to the reader, too. If the association between the adjectives cold and calm and the extreme dead is made, as they share a common [- Action] seme, the final definition follows naturally. However, it is humorous to the reader both because he is guided to make these associations and because they sound unexpectedly commonsensical.Other examples of such interesting mental gliding are illustrated below:

9). daylight saving: a technique by which light was stored in great containers an

d then taken through underground pipes to the residences of Mouldwarp. 10). ideology: the process of making ideas. The work was generally performed in silence and solitude, since great care was needed in their manufacture. Certain artisans were chosen for this occupation at an early age and were trained in mental workhouses or asylums. They were known as idealists, and were expected to provide a fixed number of ideas to be exhibited or dramatised for the benefit of the public.

11). language laboratory: a sterile area where language was created under strictexperimental conditions. New complex words or phrases were bred from existing phonetic and semantic systems before being tested upon a group of volunteers. There was of course always a danger of contamination or leakage; we believe that the

re were occasions when rogue words were accidentally released into the community, sometimes causing hysteria or fever.

12). literature: a word of unknown provenance, generally attributed to litter or waste.

13). logic: a wooden object, as in log table.

14). psychotic: a person in communion with his psyche or spirit, who sometimes spoke as if by inspiration.


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15). sleeping car: an example of the belief that inanimate objects, when not being employed or exploited, reverted to a dormant state. See sleeping bag and sleeping

tablet .

16). transcendence or trans-end-dance: the ability to move beyond the end, otherwise called the dance of death. The fear of death, in the Mouldwarp period, was part of a great fear of life.

17). wisdom teeth: it was believed that the source of human characteristics of behaviour could be found in various organs of the body. Courage was identified with the heart, for example, and memory with the brain. It would seem, then, that wisdom was located in the teeth.

18). words-worth: the patronymic of writers who had earned their high position. In a similar context we have Chatter-ton. Many Mouldwarp writers were compared to

inorganic substances, such as Ore-well, Cole-ridge and Gold-smith. Some writerswere considered sacred, as in Pope and Priestley. Some were feared as Wilde or

Savage while others were celebrated for their mournful or querulous style, amongthem Graves, Bellow and Frost. Unfortunately, no specimens of their work have s

urvived.

The humorous effect achieved by Peter Ackroyd in the examples above is also a result of a combination of a scientific method and a scientific linguistic style u

sed in the formulation of these dictionary-like definitions with the underlyingmessage that Plato s way of distorting the truth by drawing absurd assumptions onthe margin of truncated historical and cultural documents may be similar to what

some of our contemporary historians do when interpreting documents of our pastages. What is more humorous is that behind these definitions there is a seed ofbitter truth about the state of affairs in our contemporary mercantile society.Some of these definitions can be considered extended metaphors [e.g.-s (6), (8),

(10), (12), (13), (16) and (18)].The main characteristic of the definitions or explanations in the examples abov

e is that the meaning of compounds is interpreted as a sum of the meanings of the component parts; the meaning of simple lexical items and of derivatives, suchas literature, logic, psychotic, ideology, is a merely impressionistic etymological interpretation of their morphological root. That is why they can be considered

examples of folk etymology.Below there is another illustration of the humorous effect achieved by Peter Ackroyd in The Plato Papers based on the same means of using the metalinguistic function of the language as a narrative technique along with the stylistic device of playing upon words:

19). But the most hilarious examples of Freudian repartee took place when his partner, Oedipus, appeared on the stage. This fall guy or straight man may have been some relic of the old pantomimic tradition, since he wore loose white robes and displayed that glum expression characteristic of the pantaloon. He also adopted apeculiarly rapid and sliding walk known to devotees as the Freudian slip .

What makes it possible for such a definition to be given to the semantic unit Fr

eudian slip is mainly the polysemantism of the noun slip, a noun among whose meanings are that of an act of sliding a short distance or of falling by sliding and that of a small mistake. To this there is added the method of separating the two elements of this unit and trying to recover the meaning of the unit from thesum of the meanings of the two terms. Using an unexpected meaning for a word and

creating a whole context in which this meaning gets motivated, thus sensible, is part of the creative talent of a writer.In the examples analysed hitherto, the metalinguistic function of the language has been illustrated by focusing only on the meaning of a lexical item in each case. However, in everyday conversations there are far more numerous situations in


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which some meanings have to be defined more precisely lest the linguistic communication between people fail. Explanations are provided about the referential meaning of a certain phrase or sentence, or about the speaker s intentions, feelings

or attitudes when uttering it. In these cases the metalinguistic function of the language overlaps with the referential function, with the conative one, or with both.The next example is an illustration of such an overlap:

20). [about a glass paperweight]What is it, do you think? , said Julia.

I don t think it s anything I mean, I don t think it was ever put to any use , said Winston.

Here the sentence I don t think it s anything is ambiguous. Although it refers clearly to the object in front of the speakers, it may have some other meanings as well: It s not valuable, What it is is irrelevant to me, besides the meaning

selected by Winston: It is something completely useless. In order to avoid Julia s confusion about what he meant, Winston feels that he has to be more specific.This is the conative function of his explanation. Moreover, being a rephrasing of the initial formulation, his explanation is partly metalinguistic in function.

A similar situation is exemplified below:

21). [Julia speaks to Winston.]It s all off , she murmured as soon as she judged it safe to speak. Tomorrow,

mean. What?Tomorrow afternoon. I can t come.

Some time before this conversation, Julia and Winston decided to see each other someday, a day which at the moment of this conversation happens to be tomorrow. Her remark It s all off shows Julia s expectations that Winston would understand the referent of it, which is the important event upon which they have mutually agreed to take place tomorrow. Realising that this remark might be too vague, she gives him a hint about its meaning. The repeated failure in her attempt to

make herself understood without being too specific (as they are afraid of beingoverheard) makes her give Winston a full explanation.

The linguistic exchange above unfolds three functions: the referential (informin

g Winston about something), the conative (Julia s intention to get her message through to Winston), and the metalinguistic (It s all off means I can t come tomorrowafternoon.).In this situation, as in the majority of cases in everyday speech, the meaning of an utterance is totally dependent on the larger linguistic context. The same sentence may be used in various situations with various meanings. This is mainlydue to word polysemantism but also to the number of functions that a sentence as

a whole may develop.

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2.5.1. the Metalinguistic Function of the Language in Literary Texts