This paper is intended to demonstrate that the recurrent use of the marked syntactic structure called a cleft sentence in the novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) has certain communicative implications because it is a structure appropriate to express feelings and to highlight information in climactic situations within this novel. The analysis of cleft sentences in context will point out that they allow the writer to be conscious that he is assuring or denying something in a firm way and that they are also important structures for the textual organization of discourse. The linguistic framework of this paper is Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), a linguistic school that establishes a clear link between lexico-grammatical choices in the text and the relevant contextual factors surrounding it. Systemic linguistics explores how linguistic choices are related to the meanings that are being expressed.
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70
The Buckingham Journal of Language and Linguistics 2011 Volume 4 pp 70 -83
AN ANALYSIS OF ALAN PATON'S CRY, THE
BELOVED COUNTRY AS A DISCOURSE OF HOPE
THROUGH CLEFT SENTENCES
María Martínez Lirola
ABSTRACT
This paper is intended to demonstrate that the recurrent use of the marked
syntactic structure called a cleft sentence in the novel Cry, the Beloved
Country (1948) has certain communicative implications because it is a
structure appropriate to express feelings and to highlight information in
climactic situations within this novel.
The analysis of cleft sentences in context will point out that they allow the
writer to be conscious that he is assuring or denying something in a firm way
and that they are also important structures for the textual organization of
discourse.
The linguistic framework of this paper is Systemic Functional Linguistics
(SFL), a linguistic school that establishes a clear link between lexico-
grammatical choices in the text and the relevant contextual factors
surrounding it. Systemic linguistics explores how linguistic choices are related
to the meanings that are being expressed.
Key words: predicated themes, cleft sentences, discourse analysis, Systemic
Functional Linguistics, Alan Paton, context.
1. INTRODUCTION
The intention of this paper is to demonstrate that the use of cleft sentences
in the novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) written by the South African
writer Alan Paton (founder of the anti-apartheid Liberal Party) is a resource
used by the author to highlight certain climactic moments and to represent the
context in which the novel is placed: the apartheid period in South Africa.
Systemic Functional Grammar will be the theoretical framework used to
understand the main reasons for choosing between certain linguistic forms or
Professor, Universidad De Alicante, Departamento De Filología Inglesa, Campus
De San Vicente Del Raspeig, Ap.99-O30080 Alicante (Spain). E-Mail:
Maria.Lirola@Ua.Es.
THE BUCKINGHAM JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
VOLUME 4
others, depending on the function that those linguistic forms carry out in
society.
This paper will analyse the different ways in which cleft sentences
contribute to the analysis of the novel as a discourse of hope since this
structure conveys certain communicative implications that allow the author to
use it to talk about feelings such as love, fear, loyalty to God and to the
country and to establish a contrast between the two main racial groups in
South Africa: the white and black populations (Martínez Lirola, 2009).
The analysis will prove that the use of cleft sentences in the novel is a
resource used by the author to highlight climatic moments and to build the
context in which the novel is placed: the apartheid period in South Africa
(Martínez Lirola and Smith, 2009). The study of grammatical patterns such as
cleft sentences in the verbal art is essential to understand the meanings
expressed in the novel under analysis. As Butt (2003: 35) states, grammar
"allows you to get closer to the cultural phenomenon, first of all by being able
to get closer to the textural and textual organisation."
This research will emphasize a very important use of cleft sentences: the
fact that the cleft sentence is used by the protagonists in some of the most
central moments of the novels makes clear that we are confronted by a
structure very often used to emphasize, to highlight a certain part of the
information or to point out feelings or emotions (Martínez Lirola, 2002a,
2007a). The cleft sentence contrasts with something previously said or
highlights a certain fact that is important for the narrative.
The main hypothesis of this paper is that the recurrent use of cleft
sentences has certain communicative implications that will be the object of
this study. Our corpus of examples from Cry, The Beloved Country (1948),
contains 56 examples of this marked syntactic structure.
I intend to consider the role of cleft sentences in the novel under analysis
taking into consideration their function in creating meaning in the novel. In
this sense, attention will be concentrated on meaning beyond the clause, as
Martin and Rose (2007: 1) state: "[…] we want to focus on the social as it is
constructed through texts, on the constitutive role of meanings in social life."
The following study will point out how lexico-grammar gives language
the potential to create different meanings. I concur with Eggins (2004: 139) in
that the grammatical description presented in this article will allow us to
"make statements about the appropriacy of certain linguistic choices given the
context of their use."
Paton was committed to resolving the socio-political situation of his
country and his intention in this novel was to create a social consciousness, to
oppose the dominant ideology in South Africa in his historical situation. His
use of language appears clearly connected with a marked social reality
(Martínez Lirola, 2002b, 2007b, 2008a). As Fairclough (1995: 55) states:
"Language use-any text- is always simultaneously constitutive of (1) social
identities, (2) social relations and (3) systems of knowledge and belief."
AN ANALYSIS OF ALAN PATON‟S CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY AS A DISCOURSE
OF HOPE THROUGH CLEFT SENTENCES
This study will focus on the analysis of cleft sentences, in order to
understand better the meanings expressed in the novel. As Halliday declares
in his Introduction to Functional Grammar, one of the purposes for which
linguistics is useful is "to understand literary and poetic texts, and the nature
of verbal art" (Halliday 1994: xxx).
The recurrent use of a certain grammatical pattern such as the cleft
sentence is always significant from the semantic and the grammatical point of
view because there is no doubt that grammar is the means by which we make
meanings (Carter et al., 2008; van Leeuwen, 2008; Blackledge, 2009). In this
sense, I agree with Butt (2003: 11) in the following statement:
"But grammar is significant because (and only because) we know it is
the organization of meaning-of semantics. And crucially, it is this tie-
up between the semantics and the grammar that we are always
focusing on when we are talking about grammar- we are talking about
it in relation to the higher levels in the linguist‟s model, the
semantics1 and the context: how do the grammatical selections
construct a particular kind of meaning, and how does that particular
kind of meaning have a place in, contribute to, shape, direct, provide
the basis for, the unfolding of a social event? These are questions that
put grammar to work."
The theoretical framework of this paper is Systemic Functional
Linguistics (hereafter SFL) because within this theoretical framework it is
claimed that the way texts are constructed is determined by the functions that
those texts have in society and because for this linguistic school there is no
dissociation between grammar and semantics (Butt, 2008; Kress, 2010).
Paton, together with other authors who were opposed to apartheid,
reinforced the charge that the freedom and dignity of the black populace were
suffering. These authors defended the interests of the latter and through their
novels attempted to persuade the white population to reconsider the meaning
of freedom, justice, truth and love.
The exploration of cleft sentences in context will show how this structure
functions in a literary text because in literature, the exploration of any
grammatical aspect has a purpose that is different to other forms of writing.
Literature is a practice that is socially conditioned. Consequently the
author evidences certain ideological convictions and certain interests since he
is affected by the community‟s characteristics (Teubert, 2010: 8). Therefore,
literature is a link between the situation that the community is living, the
history that surrounds it and the rest of the world since it attempts to transmit
a message, to let the reader know what the socio-political situation was like.
1 Bold type in this word and the following one appears in the original text.
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2. ANALYSIS OF THE VARIABLES OF THE CONTEXT OF
SITUATION IN THE NOVELS: FIELD, TENOR AND MODE
As regards the context of situation, when approaching Cry, The Beloved
Country (1948), we read the narrative of a white and a black family, of black
and white social groups and the discriminatory society in which they coexist.
This novel, the story of Stephen Kumalo and the search for his son in
Johannesburg, can be considered a product of his time because it illustrates
the resulting social tensions and thereafter the search for brotherhood.
Due to the fact that the corpus of examples belongs to a novel, there is a
very clear context in the situation created by the author, which can be
described as paying attention to the characteristics of its three components:
When analysing the notion of field, the place and the moment in which
Alan Paton places the action of his novel are essential: in South Africa,
concretely during the early apartheid era. The plot in Cry, The Beloved
Country (1948) indicates how the terrible conditions in which black people
live take Absalom Kumalo into an extreme situation, in which he kills a white
man.
Poynton (1985) points out that there are three dimensions inside the
notion of tenor, to which I shall refer briefly:
The power dimension observes whether the relations between the
participants are equal or not. In the case of this novel, the author, Alan Paton,
exercises some power over the readers and attempts to make them aware of
the facts that he is narrating.
The contact dimension makes reference to the existence, or not, of a
contact relation between the participants. In this case, there is no contact.
When readers read the novel, they establish a relationship with the author and
are conscious of his thoughts and his ideology but they are not in contact with
him. The author establishes a relationship with the reader throughout the
characters, their psychology and thoughts and the context in which they are
framed.
The affective involvement dimension refers to the extent to which the
participants are emotionally involved or committed in a situation. It is evident
that the author is committed and that the means to express his commitment is
by writing this novel or any others of his books. Alan Paton attempts to have
his readers share this commitment by affectively involving them.
The concept of mode makes reference to the role that language plays in
the text. In the novel under analysis, language is not limited to presenting a
series of actions but offers a detailed description of the facts that took place.
The author transmits the concrete cultural situation of his time together
with the characteristics and social values of that situation through the main
topics of the novel and through the use of language. He wishes to draw
attention to the negative side of that society and suggests ways to improve it.
As Thiong‟o (1995: 290) declares:
AN ANALYSIS OF ALAN PATON‟S CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY AS A DISCOURSE
OF HOPE THROUGH CLEFT SENTENCES
"Communication creates culture: culture is a means of
communication. Language carries culture, and culture carries,
particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by
which we come to perceive ourselves and our place in the world".
3. DEFINITION AND ANALYSIS OF THE STRUCTURE
This construction is known as a cleft sentence since it stems from the
division of a simple sentence into two different parts (that constitute different
sentences). It normally starts with the pronoun it which does not convey
meaning, followed by the verb be. As Gómez González and Gonzálvez García
(2005: 156) point out:
"Broadly, clefting identifies a discourse strategy whereby information
is packaged or "cleft" into two units in order to fullfil a two-fold
discourse effect, despite the differences entailed in variations of this
pattern across languages: (1) to set up a relationship of identity of the
"X is Y" specifying type between two units (e.g. a character
defect=that makes them go into politics; mi hijo „my son‟= el que se
viene a la yema de los dedos „that pops up my head‟) and (2) to give
discourse prominence to generally (part of) one of the two units, the
EIF (e.g. a character defect and mi hijo „my son‟).
In Systemic Functional Grammar, the term used by Halliday and
Matthiessen (2004: 95) is "predicated theme", because the elements found at
the beginning of the sentence are introduced with the predicative formula "it
+be". After that, there is a nominal or adverbial group that receives emphasis.
Halliday and Matthiessen (2004: 97) propose a double thematic analysis
of cleft sentences. An example that illustrates both analyses is the following:
-It was he who fired the shot. (Paton, 1948:
84).
a)Theme Rheme Theme Rheme
b) Theme Rheme
Version (a) exemplifies the local congruent thematic structure of the two
sentences in the construction; both themes are non marked ( it and that are
both subjects). Version (b), on the contrary, indicates the thematic structure of
the whole sentence as predicative theme.
No matter what analysis is chosen, in analysis (a) and (b), the theme is the
part of the message exhibiting less communicative dynamism because it
hardly adds any information, as may be observed in it and who, whereas the
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rheme is the expression that contains a higher level of communicative
dynamism because that part of the message is essential to understand the
message, as is evident in the highlighted element he and in the relative clause
who fired the shot. Collins (1991: 170) refers to version (b) as "metaphorical
analysis in which the superordinate clause is all thematic."2
4. USE OF THE STRUCTURE IN CLIMATIC MOMENTS
It is very important to remind oneself that this structure is used to express
feelings in climactic moments of the novel.
When the person in charge of the reformatory informs Kumalo that it was
his son who had fired, he uses a cleft sentence:
- It was he who fired the shot. (Paton, 1948: 84).
Absalom Kumalo employs this construction when he confesses to his
father that it was he who fired and declares this in front of the judge:
They came with me, but it was I who shot the white man. (Paton, 1948:
88).
- I said no, I did not know, but it was not Johannes who had killed the
white man, it was I myself. But it was Johannes who had struck down
the servant of the house. (Paton, 1948: 143).
When Stephen Kumalo advises his son that he say the truth in front of the
judge, he uses the cleft sentence:
- It is only the truth you must tell him. (Paton, 1948: 109).
This is also the structure employed by Stephen Kumalo to notify Arthur
Jarvis‟s father that it was Kumalo‟s son who had killed Jarvis‟ son:
It was my son that killed your son. (Paton, 1948: 155).
The following sentence appears in the speech pronounced by John
Kumalo; he emotionally exclaims that the mines, one of the main sources of
the wealth of the country, are profitable thanks to the poverty of people
working there:
2 In my opinion, the cleft sentence is grammatical metaphor no matter if we apply
analysis (a) or (b).
AN ANALYSIS OF ALAN PATON‟S CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY AS A DISCOURSE
OF HOPE THROUGH CLEFT SENTENCES
They say that higher wages will cause the mines to close down. Then
what is it worth, this mining industry? And why should it be kept alive,
if it is only our poverty that keeps it alive? (Paton, 1948: 159).
In the same way, this is the structure chosen by the narrator to express the
hope that Stephen Kumalo had placed in James Jarvis:
[...] he found himself thinking that it was Jarvis and Jarvis alone that
could perform the great miracle. (Paton, 1948: 211).
Finally, the narrator chooses this structure to express the moment in which
Absalom Kumalo will be executed at the end of the novel:
The sun would rise soon after five, and it was then it was done, they
said. (Paton, 1948: 234).
5. CLEFT SENTENCES AS A MEANS TO TALK ABOUT FEELINGS
Cleft sentences clearly break the typical word order of English: Subject
Verb Object (SVO). This contrast strongly emphasizes that this structure is an
effective method to express feelings. In this sense, cleft sentences contribute
to the vividness of the novels. As the following examples point out, the cleft
sentence is a structure often used in the novel to talk about feelings such as
sadness, hatred or love:
The feeling that we find in most examples of our corpus is fear:
It is not only the Europeans who are afraid. (Paton, 1948: 22).
This example states that predominant in the place where the action of the
novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) takes place is the fear that its
inhabitants feel:
- But they are not enough, he said. They are afraid, that is the truth. It
is fear that rules this land. (Paton, 1948: 25).
It was the suspense, the not-knowing, that made him fear this one
thing, [ ...] (1948: 79).
- It was at Alexandra that I first grew afraid, but it was in your House,
when we heard the murder, that my fear grew into something too
great to be borne. (Paton, 1948: 94).
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VOLUME 4
It was only the fear of the chief that made anything come out of these
meetings. (Paton, 1948: 226).
These feelings reflect what black people felt during the apartheid period:
the fear of exploitation, of marginalization and of racial segregation; their
hatred of the white person for being responsible for creating such a precarious
situation and their love for the country above all.
This structure also conveys their anxiety about the negative social
situation in that moment and in that place:
It is not only in your place that there is destruction. (Paton, 1948: 22).
For it is only because they see neither purpose nor goal that they turn
to drink and crime and prostitution. (Paton, 1948. 68).
The narrator expresses strong emotion when the rain arrives, showing in
this way that people hoped for this; in this example the demonstrative
reference is cataphoric:
But it was this for which all men were waiting, the rain at last. (Paton,
1948: 207).
6. USE OF THE STRUCTURE TO EMPHASIZE AND TO CONTRAST
Cleft sentences allow the speaker or hearer to state something in a
categorical way, generally in contrast with something already said. This
structure is also appropriate to highlight information that we consider essential
in a text because it is important for the textual organization of discourse.
Moreover, cleft sentences are very useful in the written language because they
help the reader to identify where the focus of the sentence falls, without the
necessity of graphic help such as underlining, italics or capital letters
(Martínez Lirola, 2008b).
After what has been said in the previous paragraphs, it is evident that the
cleft sentence places a greater semantic burden on the elements which are
more important for the transmission of the message after the introductory
formula it is or it was; in this way, there is what is more important for the
hearer in the first place, following in this way Jespersen‟s principle of
topicality (1909-1949: Vol. VII: 54).
From the previous statements, the cleft sentence is a structure very much
used in the written language since the combination theme/new information is
marked, and normally of the contrastive type. The use of cleft sentences in the
written language allows the reader to be conscious that he is assuring or
denying something in a firm way and it is also an important structure for the
AN ANALYSIS OF ALAN PATON‟S CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY AS A DISCOURSE
OF HOPE THROUGH CLEFT SENTENCES
textual organization of discourse. The previous statement shows that cleft
sentences are mainly used to emphasize in the majority of our examples:
In the following example, when Stephen Kumalo uses the cleft sentence,
what he does is to insist to his son to say the truth in the trial:
Be of courage, my son. Do not forget there is a lawyer. But it is only
the truth you must tell him. (Paton, 1948: 109).
When using the cleft sentence in the previous examples, the emphasis on
the highlighted element in observed to point out that this is very important in
the development of the action.
There are also examples in which the cleft sentence contrasts with
something previously said. The cleft sentence is normally associated with the
following contrastive formula: it was not..., it was..., who/which..., as Halliday
and Matthiessen (2004: 96) point out and is evident in several examples of our
corpus:
[...], it is not we who will get more for our labour. It's the white man's
shares that will rise [...] (Paton, 1948: 34-35).
He knows it is not he, it is these people who have done it. (Paton,
1948: 191).
The first example just cited is especially relevant because it is related to
one of the main topics of this novel: it establishes a clear contrast between the
two main racial groups in South Africa: the whites, enjoying privileged
positions and becoming rich by taking advantage of the other racial group,
and the black population, suffering unjust situations and condemned to work
in subhuman conditions so that the whites profit even more.
In the following examples, a clear contrast is established between
Absalom Kumalo and the other two young men who were accused. The fact
that Absalom had been to a reformatory seems to favour the argument that he
is guilty of Arthur Jarvis‟s murder:
The other two were not reformatory boys. It was he who fired the shot.
(Paton, 1948: 84).
The next example highlights that Absalom himself established a contrast
between him and his colleagues, because, although both were accompanying
him, in the trial Absalom declares that he was the only one who fired:
They came with me, but it was I who shot the white man. (Paton, 1948:
88).
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In a further example (Paton, 1948: 94) there is a clear contrast between
Stephen Kumalo‟s feelings: first, he felt fear that became terror. The contrast
of feelings is linked with the contrast between two different places: at
Alexandra and in your House.
It was at Alexandra that I first grew afraid, but it was in your House,
when we heard of the murder, that my fear grew into something too
great to be borne. (Paton, 1948: 94).
In the following two examples there is a contrast between the role that
corresponds to the judge and the mission that corresponds to people:
The Judge does not make the Law. It is the People that made the Law.
(Paton, 1948: 136).
It is the duty of the Judge to do justice, but it is only the People that
can be just. (Paton, 1948: 136).
In the next example, Absalom Kumalo establishes a contrast
between what he has done and what Johannes did, which is very clear
in the second cleft sentence of the paragraph. This example is
pronounced in a very important moment in the novel under analysis
when Absalom declares in the trial:
[...], but it was not Johannes who had killed the white man, it was I
myself. But it was Johannes who had struck down the servant of the
house. (Paton, 1948: 143).
In the example (Paton, 1948: 188), a woman establishes a contrast
between the teacher ("umfundisi"), who has substituted for Stephen Kumalo
when he has been absent, and Stephen himself:
We do not understand him, she says. It is only our umfundisi that we
understand. (Paton, 1948: 188).
In many of the cleft sentences in the corpus, there are references to the
white man, in such a way that he is emphasized. The following ones have
positive connotations:
It was a white man who brought my father out of darkness. (Paton,
1948: 25).
It was white men who did this work of mercy, [...] (Paton, 1948: 80).
AN ANALYSIS OF ALAN PATON‟S CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY AS A DISCOURSE
OF HOPE THROUGH CLEFT SENTENCES
It was a white man who taught me. (Paton, 1948: 228).
It was he also who taught me that we do not work for men, that we
work for the land and the people. (Paton, 1948: 229).
In employing the previous examples the author wishes to reinforce the
idea than in South Africa there are good white people who try to be gentle and
contribute to improving the country, as Arthur Jarvis did, a white man known
for being very active at church and for working in favour of African people.
The lawyer who will defend Absalom Kumalo in the trial is also another
white man, Mr. Carmichael, whose commitment consists on defending
Absalom for free, which emphasizes that he is very generous.
Another white man who is important for the development of the novel is
Mr. James Jarvis, Arthur Jarvis‟s father, because instead of desiring to take
revenge after the murder of his son, he chooses to help the population of
Ndotsheni. Stephen trusts him to contribute to the development of the place,
as is evident in the following example:
[...] it was Jarvis and Jarvis alone that could perform the great
miracle. (Paton, 1948: 211).
Apart from these positive references, there are also negative comments
about the white man:
It is the white man's shares that will rise [ ...] (Paton, 1948: 34-35).
Umfundisi, it is the white man who gave us so little land, it was the
white man who took us away from the land to go to work. (Paton,
1948: 228).
These examples reinforce the white man‟s responsibility for the unjust
situation that grips South Africa.
7. CONCLUSIONS
The analysis of this paper points out that semantics accompanies the
grammatical structure under analysis; hence our theoretical framework has
been SFL, because for this linguistic school grammar is connected with
meaning since all the different choices in language are meaning determined.
This paper has concentrated on the analysis of cleft sentences in context
so as to observe the reasons why Alan Paton used this structure in the novel.
In this sense, this paper offers a grammatical perspective because grammar is
considered a tool that allows the study of the organization of any text.
THE BUCKINGHAM JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
VOLUME 4
According to the different examples analysed, from the formal point of
view, the cleft sentence is a marked syntactical structure because it creates a
local thematized structure throughout the predication ( it is / it was), in such a
way that the predicative element becomes the marked focus of the
information, as we can see in: - [ ... ] , but it was not Johannes [ ... ], which
belongs to the cleft sentence- [ ... ] , but it was not Johannes who had killed the
white man, it was I myself (Paton, 1948: 143).
As regards the form and function of the highlighted element, the analysis
shows that it is varied and exhibits a flexible structure, although in a high
percentage of our examples, the highlighted element is a nominal phrase with
the function of subject, while there are also prepositional and adverbial groups
and sentences. This structure marks the division between theme and rheme
since there is a change in the intonation of the highlighted element. The focus
of the sentence falls on the highlighted element. The sequence theme-rheme is
not reversible in cleft sentences.
Cleft sentences are used in discourse as one of the ways in which new
information precedes known information. From the semantic point of view,
cleft sentences are considered identifying because they establish a relationship
of identification between two entities: the identified and the identifier.
The function of the cleft sentence can be understood if we concentrate for
example on the function of the subject as theme. It is well known that the
subject normally coincides with the theme. Therefore it should be unnecessary
to use a special structure to place it in thematic position. An example from the
novel will be offered and it will be rewritten so that there a cleft sentence
occurs:
- [ ... ] , but it was not Johannes who had killed the white man, it was I
myself. (Paton, 1948: 143).
If we avoid the use of the cleft sentence, the example would be as follows:
Johannes had not killed the white man, I myself had killed him.
In this way almost all the contrast between both subjects is lost. In the oral
language, it would be possible to mark that contrast with intonation,
highlighting "Johannes" and "I". The cleft sentence causes the reader to place
emphasis on a specific element of the sentence.
The highlighted element is very important in these sentences because it
and the copulative verb contain a low degree of communicative dynamism.
The highlighted element is followed by the relative clause, which is
introduced by that, functioning as the subject, in the majority of the examples
in our corpus. With Huddleston (1984: 460), we reach the conclusion that
there is a preference for the use of that, although who is also very common
when its reference is personal.
AN ANALYSIS OF ALAN PATON‟S CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY AS A DISCOURSE
OF HOPE THROUGH CLEFT SENTENCES
Up to this point, the analysis has demonstrated that there is always a
relationship between texts and society/culture, i.e., texts are sociologically
shaped and also constitute society and culture. In this sense, the novel under
analysis does not have an intrinsic meaning since meaning emerges according
to the way the novels are used in social contexts. While reading the novel that
have been analysed, the following question was kept in mind: why did the
author use cleft sentences and under what circumstances? The fact that the
cleft sentence is used by the protagonists in some of the most important
moments of the novel makes clear that this structure is employed to
emphasize, to highlight a certain part of the information or to point out
feelings or emotions. The cleft sentence contrasts with something previously
said or highlights a certain fact considered important for the narrative.
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![María Martínez Lirola]()
This paper will analyse the main marked syntactic structures of thematization in English in the play Sponono, written by Alan Paton in 1965. The analysis will point out that due to the use of these thematization processes in the play, i.e. cleft sentence, pseudo-cleft sentence, topicalization and passive, the author emphasizes the feelings and thoughts of the main characters in the play. The analysis will also make clear that the examples of the structures under analysis are used in situations of climax and the main reason for the author to use them is to highlight the social situation that surrounds the play: the apartheid period in South Africa. The paper will discuss how Alan Paton creates a social reality throughout the recurrent use of these processes. In the same way, these syntactic processes contribute to the vividness of the play. The social situation of this period in South Africa has very particular characteristics that the author tries to point out and reproduce with the processes of thematization he uses recurrently during the whole play. The analysis of the corpus following the theory of Systemic Functional Grammar will be helpful to understand the relationships between language and culture and language and situation.
- P.C. Collins
First published in 1991, this book examines the communicative properties of 'cleft' and 'pseudo-cleft' constructions in contemporary English. The book argues that these properties cannot be ignored in any attempt to provide an adequate grammatical description of the constructions. Furthermore, they provide a source of explanations for the patterns of stylistic variation displayed by clefts and pseudo-clefts. The book reports findings from a corpus-based study of clefts and pseudo-clefts in modern British English.
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![Theodoor Jacob van Leeuwen]()
Building on Bernstein's concept of recontextualization, Foucault's theory of discourse, Halliday's systemic-functional linguistics and Martin's theory of activity sequences, this book defines discourses as frameworks for the interpretation of reality and presents detailed and explicit methods for reconstructing these frameworks through text analysis. There are methods for analyzing the representation of social action, social actors and the timings and spatial locations of social practices as well as methods for analyzing how the purposes, legitimations and moral evaluations of social practices can be, and are, constructed in discourse. Discourse analytical categories are linked to sociological theories to bring out their relevance for the purpose of critical discourse analysis, and a variety of examples demonstrate how they can be used to this end. The final chapters apply aspects of the book's methodological framework to the analysis of multimodal texts such as visual images and children's toys.
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![María Martínez Lirola]()
- Bradley Smith
In this paper the explore the use of predicated Themes in the novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) by Alan Paton, using the systemic functional framework of analysis. We show how this noncanonical structure helps to build the novel's semantic textual design. The analysis of the structural component of predicated Themes (Theme Rheme and Given-New structures and their interactions) will be essential to an understanding of the functions these structures and other grammatical resources play in the novel. This is complemented by a paradigmatic view on the use of predicated Themes: that is, the view these structures as tire realization of systemic options in the grammar of English, functioning as resources for the creation of text. One proposal for theorizing the novel's semantic organization in particular is explored, that of hyper/macro-Theme/-New, as developed by Martin (1992), based upon work by Fries (1981). By employing these concepts, as features in the semantic systems of "method of development" and "point", we shot, how the use of predicated Themes may be related to the discourse functions they serve and thus, ultimately, to the context of the novel.
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265498731_An_Analysis_of_Alan_Paton%27s_Cry_The_Beloved_Country_as_a_Discourse_of_Hope_through_Cleft_Sentences
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