(Лингвистическое задание)

1. Define the theme of the extract. Formulate it in one sentence.

2. Define the style of the story. Point out some of the characteristic features of it.

3. Comment on the composition of the story. Point out the introduction, the climax, the anti­climax if there are any. Motivate your choice.

4. Name the characters of the extract. What methods of characterization are used in the portrayal of each? Do a thorough analysis of all the portrait-sketches illustrating what you say with quotations from the text.

5. Define the dominant atmosphere of the narrative. By what stylistic devices is it created? Give examples.

6. Comment on the manner of the writer. Is his style lucid or obscure? Say what tropes (stylistic devices) he uses in the text. What is the effect achieved by this?

7. Point out composition devices and comment on them. Say if each of them serves its purpose.

8. Analyze the language of the extract in a few well-motivated sentences.

9. Summarize the contents of the text (10-12 sentences).

10. Formulate the central problem of the text. Point out the arguments the author uses to support it. Give your own opinion on the problem in focus.

11. Find in the text the leading ideas and present them in the form of clear-cut statements.

12. Find in the text statements with which you agree; with which you disagree. Explain your attitude.

The plan of analysis

1. A short outline of the author’s work in reference to a certain literary trend and the place of the piece under analysis, in the author’s creativity.

2. The general characteristics of the text under analysis:

• the content-factual information (CFI) – a short summary of the text under analysis;

• the content-conceptual information (CCI) – the main idea of the piece and the general attitudes of the author;

• the content-implicational information (CII)-implications driven from the passage under analysis, the problems or contradictions the writer inevitably faces.

• 3. The title: its type, role in the text and connection with the text.

Types of titles:

MEANING a). prospective- the content of the piece to follow (tells who is the text devoted to) b). retrospective c).framework sign- bridges the beginning and the end of the piece

STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION a). title topic b). title theme c). title character d). title event e). title allusion (ex. “For Whom the Bell Tolls ”) f). topical chains – connection with the text (ex. “Passionate Year”)

4. The structural-semantic organization of the text. Formal organization of the text or graphical segmentation. The inner structure of the text is represented by: introduction; development of the plot; climax; anticlimax.

Description of various means of cohesion:

Grammar cohesion – sentence and paragraph hooks/links;

Lexical cohesion - topical chains;

Figurative cohesion - sustained metaphors;

Associative cohesion - associative images.

5. Language means and stylistic devices such as: allusion, comparison/contrast, euphemism, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonymy, sarcasm, satire, paradox, parallelism, personification, etc.

-Characteristics of the compositional speech forms (narration, description, discourse);

-Characteristics of the language means and their realization;

-Characteristics of the typology of the author’s narration. It can be:

a). third-person narration ( or auctorial narration);

b). character-narration (one of the heroes says “I”);

с). the author is an on-looker (narrator isn’t involved in events, but says “I”);

d). author-narration (the author and the main character coincide).

6. The general evaluation of the text analyzed: (whether the language means are adequate to the main aim of the author, the correlation of the author’s and the characters’ speech or speech portrayal-direct, reported, inner speech; sticking to or violations of the literary norm etc).