![]() It is through this repetition that much of the argument is played out. Perhaps the most obvious means of foregrounding in "Hills Like White Elephants" is the repetition of sentences and lexical sets. As the story's complex stylistic pattern raises the stakes of the couple's conflict, it also tracks the subtle ruthlessness at work in the man's language. An analysis of these instances of motivated prominence will help us to develop an understanding of how the story's ambiguity does not obfuscate a coherent reading, but actually enables one of a deeper profundity. Both kinds of linguistic pattern are put to productive use in "Hills Like White Elephants." Furthermore, the story's limitation of agentive actions, and its effusion and precise use of cognitive verbs and pronominal substitutions, construct a textual pattern that greatly expands the stakes of the story's dispute. It is also generated by patterns of question and answer (106-107). Halliday observes that motivated prominence is frequently generated by the repetition of words, clauses, and groups of related words or "lexical sets" (112-114). ![]() It engages in statistical analysis of a text's language and uses that analysis to supplement interpretation, calling the making of meaning through these linguistic patterns "motivated prominence." A stylistic analysis of "Hills Like White Elephants" will enable us to see how, at the textual level, the story is able to manufacture such a rich interpretative web from ostensibly gossamer materials. ![]() London School Stylistics tries to combine quantitative linguistic analysis with traditional literary interpretation, partly in order to add to the former's relevance and the latter's substance. Thus, it is worthwhile to examine how the story creates points of emphasis and importance through precise patterns in its grammatical structure. Yet a particular reading of this or any story is a phenomenon of processing linguistic data within an interpretative framework. The story is, after all, a textual artifact, one that historically has been subjected to intensely close reading. A useful approach to such an enigmatic text is to examine the very language of which it is made. These linguistic patterns underscore the emotional violence, broaden the significance, and complicate the closure of that argument.ĮRNEST HEMINGWAY'S "HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS" is, if taken literally, a story in which little actually "happens": a couple has drinks at a train station in Spain and argues about something rather vague. The story's careful deployment of pronouns and use of repetition bridge its disparate themes, In addition, the ambiguous, repetitious language deepens the significance and raises the stakes of the couple's argument. ![]() The essay performs a statistical analysis of the grammatical patterns in "Hills Like White Elephants" as a means of opening new avenues for its interpretation. APA style: Staking everything on it: a stylistic analysis of linguistic patterns in 'Hills Like White Elephants'.Staking everything on it: a stylistic analysis of linguistic patterns in 'Hills Like White Elephants'." Retrieved from MLA style: "Staking everything on it: a stylistic analysis of linguistic patterns in 'Hills Like White Elephants'." The Free Library. ![]()
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