By Christine Lambrianidis
A language used to discuss language conventions and use; for example, the terms and definitions used in the various grammars to describe the functions of words in sentences and the terms used to describe and categorise structural features of different kinds of texts.
(p.34, VCE English Study Design)
Language conventions
Functions of words
Metaphor Symbol Tone
Structural features
Genre Form Style
Discuss – How? Effects? Purposes?
Describe – What is it?
Categorise – Where does it come from? Identifying form/structure.
Metalanguage analysis is not about comprehension. It is about describing and discussing language in terms of its words and symbols as well as its structure. It is a process that investigates how both micro words and macro structures communicate a variety of meanings.
However, in order to discuss metalanguage and its use, it is vital that students firstly comprehend the literal meaning of text, such as identifying and describing plot and character. They need to see the top layer, before they delve deeper into layers upon layers of meanings. For example,
Amy was a rose in my eyes.
Literal meaning: The narrator finds Amy beautiful.
Effects? How? Why? Literary convention? Readings/Perspectives?
Figurative meaning: The use of this cliché rose metaphor promotes a stereotypical image of the
‘Pandora woman’ where the perfect female beauty conceals a dangerous ulterior motive.
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The Conduit Metaphor
Michael Reddy (1979) conduit metaphor
"(1) language functions like a conduit, transferring thoughts bodily from one person to another; (2) in writing and speaking, people insert their thoughts and feelings in the words; (3) words accomplish the transfer by containing the thoughts or feelings and conveying them to others; and (4) in listening or reading, people extract the thoughts and feelings once again from the words." (Reddy, p.290)
This defines language in terms of the following process:
IDEAS AS OBJECTS LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS AS CONTAINERS COMMUNICATING AS SENDING
Structuralism & Poststructuralism/Deconstructuralism
Even though the whole concept of metalanguage analysis is structuralist (how structures define meaning), the process itself is about deconstructing language; delving into the figurative realm of metaphors and symbols and questioning the authorial purpose. All structures are in line with a system of values. By revealing this link, textual interpretations then become complex, as they begin to consider the text in terms of different reader interpretations, instead of merely identifying the authorial purpose.
Historical Political
Language
Cultural
Structure, words
Economical
Feminist
Author’s views and values
Marxist
Reader’s interpretations
Social Psychoanalytical
Overall, I define metalanguage in the terms of Margaret Atwood who describes writing as speaking for the dead and thus our students are translating the words of the dead. For me, the only way to truly capture reality is through symbols and metaphors and of course, this should encourage endless interpretations because overall, there is no one meaning for anything that exists and it is this process that we are teaching our students. It is not that Winston in Nineteen Eighty-Four is a heroic character. It is analysing how Orwell uses language (language that has been defined by a social structure) to construct Winston as a heroic character. It is a holistic approach that considers how artists frame thinking through language and it considers the following questions:
What type of language/structure is being used?
How is it being used?
Why is it being used this way?
How do readers interpret this language?
Why are they interpreting it in this way?
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The Metalanguage Glossary
Understanding these metalanguage concepts is only the first step; the effects and purposes of these techniques are actually more important as it there where the core meanings of text exist. This is not metalanguage for the sake of metalanguage; it is not just about defining or identifying metalanguage, but it is about where language use takes you, the reader – that is the destination!
Metaphor
Definitions:
‘In a metaphor, a word or expression that in literal usage denotes one kind of thing is applied to a distinctly different kind of thing, without asserting a comparison.’ (Abrams, p.97)
‘A figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another.’ (Cuddon, p.507)
Aristotelian similarity – ‘a departure from the literal.’ (Abrams, p.155)
Identifying two things; analysing the figurative link/connection between these things. They can be objects, characters or even actions.
One thing usually takes a physical or literal form that is clearly described in the text and this is associated to an abstract, metaphysical concept. Consider the following example:
I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked.
One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they
plopped to the ground at my feet. (Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, Chapter 7)
Physical Objects, Characters and/or actions:
Now, analyse their metaphysical meaning:
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Symbolism
Definition: ‘In the broadest sense a symbol is anything which signifies something; in this sense all words are symbols.’ (p.311, Abrams)
Interpreting symbols, in any art forms, is almost a cultural enquiry into both the artist (i.e. writer, director etc) and its audience (i.e. viewers, readers etc). An artist will use symbols to convey an emotion, idea or even just to refer to another object or character. How the artist constructs the symbol and how audiences interpret the symbol are the types of deeper questions that consider the implicit views and values of both artist and audience. These views are influenced by particular social and cultural frameworks.
Archetypal Symbols
Eye
Fire
Snake
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Imagery
Definition: C. Day Lewis defines imagery as ‘a picture made out of words.’ (Abrams, p.121)
The Sense and Level of Perception
 Allusions –The description of a haunted house and the reader ‘sees’ the protagonist’s unconscious.
 Descriptions – The description of a haunted house and the reader ‘sees’ a haunted house.
 Vehicles – The description of a haunted house through similes and metaphors
1.
Choose 1 image.
2.
Describe it using allusions, descriptions or vehicles (at least 4 sentences).
3.
When you finish, swap it with someone else.
4.
They will then identify whether you are using allusion, description or vehicles and analyse the purposes and effects of your piece of writing.
This will highlight the importance of framing and form as well as make students aware of the frames they use when they look at an image; it’s the same frame they use when they read imagery.
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Emotive language
Definition: ‘Language intended to express or arouse emotional reactions towards the subject.’
(Cuddon, p.257)
I.A. Richards defines emotional language as pseudostatements, a “referential language...justified entirely by its effect in releasing or organising our attitudes.” (Abrams, p.95).
“Parents are so afraid their children will be hurt or abducted that they are refusing to let them play outside on their own until they are at least 14, research has revealed. Denied opportunities to meet friends, a generation of cosseted youngsters is becoming lonely and isolated, according to a study by the Children’s Society in Britain.”
‘Overprotected Parents Stifle Growth’, 2007 VCE English Exam
FACTS EMOTIONS
Empathy is based on readers’ values. In other terms, pathos can not be created for things that readers deem are unimportant. It’s a clear indication of a particular society’s moral structure.
The man had a massive, bleeding wound on his old, weather-beaten hand.
 Effect if the man was a football coach?
 Effect if the man was a terrorist?
 Effect if the man was poor?
 Effect if the man was your father?
1 st person
Narration
2 nd person
The omniscient narrator: Objective? Author’s voice?
3 rd person
Who tells the story? Are they reliable or unreliable? Why do they tell it in this way? What are the layers of their thinking?
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Narrator Enquiry
Name:
Gender:
Age:
Family:
Cultural background:
Occupation/Education:
Past experiences:
Past or present tense:
Tone
Definitions:
I.A. Richards defines tone as ‘the literary speaker’s “attitude to his listener.” (Abrams, p.218)
VS
Mikhail Bakhtin defines tone as “oriented in two directions: with respect to the listener as ally or witness and with respect to the object of the utterance as a third, living participant whom the intonation scolds or caresses, denigrates or magnifies.” (Abrams, p.218)
Common words used to describe TONE accusing gentle suspicious sarcastic defensive blunt defensive expressionless hasty enquiring snarling spiteful tender confident complacent contemptuous nostalgic tired languid bored derisive grateful approving listless compassionate sardonic apprehensive dispassionate weary melancholy wary guarded sympathetic calculating jealous sad angry apprehensive remorseful ironic unsure
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Many of you will remember the article in last October’s Parent News which described the problems caused by students bringing mobile phones to school. School
Council discussed the issue again last night. It has been decided that no student will be allowed to bring a mobile phone onto school property . Any mobile phone brought to school will be removed from the student’s possession. Naturally, the student will receive an automatic detention.
‘Message from the Principal’, VCE English Exam, 2004
OVERALL TONE?
TONE – READER (audience)
Other terms to research:
Alliteration
Connotation
Analogy
Irony
Assonance
Personification
TONE – OBJECT (intended audience)
Ambiguity
Simile
Ambivalence
Onomatopoeia
Form, Structure & Genre
When analysing a text in terms of its metalanguage, it is integral that you also consider the overall structure of the text and identify the key conventions of this structure. This is another layer to the metalanguage method that considers the text from an objective, structuralist position and discusses how the artist uses and challenges these structural boundaries to tell their story and express their views.
Examples of Conventions in Forms & Structures
Form: “dynamis” meaning it is in the purpose as a type of “emotional ‘power’”. (Abrams, 102)
Structure: the “shaping principle”. (Abrams, p.102)
Film – scenes, close-ups
Short story – characterisation, plot
Novel – chapter division, sections, intertextual
Poetry – renaissance, modern
Play – asides, soliloquies, monologue
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Tragedy: tragic hero, tragic flaw
Examples of Conventions in Genre
Gothic: undead, mystery
TEXT FORM/STRUCTURE GENRE
Metalanguage analysis is NOT necessarily a mechanical way of analysing – writers choose a technique that captures their reality – the only way we can express ourselves – the only way to create or recreate the world is through metalanguage. It is so imbedded in the way we think and communicate that the hardest task is of course to deconstruct how we think and communicate.
Final questions....
How does language frame thinking?
How does language enhance your understanding of the text?
Exam trends
How does language affect interpretation?
Part A ’08 Exam – 9/40 questions on structures, features and conventions
Part A ’09 Exam – 11/40 questions on structures, features and conventions
Label all Part A exam questions in terms of the following topics (as stipulated in the English VCE exam description): o the ideas, characters and themes constructed by the author/director and presented in the selected text; or o the way the author/director uses structures, features and conventions to construct meaning; or o the ways in which authors/directors express or imply a point of view and values; or o the ways in which readers’ interpretations of text differ and why .
References
Abrams, M.H., The Glossary of Literary Terms, (Harcourt Bruce College: Orlando, 1999)
Cuddon, J.A., The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, (Penguin: London, 1999)
Reddy, M., ‘The Conduit Metaphor - A Case of Frame Conflict in Our Language about Language’, in
Ortony (1979), pp. 284-324.
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SOUNDS LIKE
(TONE)
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