The importance of grammatical cohesion in Conrad Aiken's Silent snow, secret snow

• Main Author: Piton, Salvador
• Other Authors: Universidade Federal do Paraná. Setor de Ciencias Humanas, Letras e Artes. Programa de Pós-Graduaçao em Letras
• Format: Others
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Gramatica; Língua inglesa
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1884/24069

Abstract: The components of this paper are essentially based on grammatical cohesion which comprises reference (nominal and demonstrative), substitution and ellipsis (both nominal, verbal and clausal) and were selected from "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" by Conrad Aiken. Considering the language used by the author and by virtue of the cohesive peculiarity of the short story, we proposed a division of the text into two distinct parts, presenting, there fore, a new perspective in terms of structure, without any intention of altering the structural originality of the text,which is based on the sequence of the events presented in a chronological-, order.' This division into two parts may be justified by the relevance of the cataphoric items found in the first part and the anaphoric ones in the second, related to the same character(subject) and subject matter. In other words, the cataphoric elements in the first part (up to paragraph 20) become anaphoric in the second part (from paragraph 20 on), from the moment in which the name "Paul Hasleman" and "the snow" become explicit. With regard to the tables, the structure presented refers especially, to the first and the third ones. The other tables contribute to a more comprehensive study of the grammatical cohesion in the text. We may say that: Table One : : contains • cataphoric data up to paragraph 20 of the text; Table Two: registers anaphoric data up to paragraph 20 as well; Table Three: comprises anaphoric data - which were cataphoric from paragraph 20 up to the end of the short story; Table Four: contains substitution data (nominal, verbal ' and clausal) throughout the text; Table Five: registers data concerning ellipsis (also nominal, verbal and clausal) throughout the short story as well. All data analysed were selected having in : mind the cohesive relation between at least two sentences. Through out the data, the cataphoric items seem to contribute more effectively to preserve the essentially foggy atmosphere of the first paragraphs of the short story. But the same effect is not produced by anaphora (reference, substitution and ellipsis) which, while considering i its practical aspect/ taking the reader back to occurrences already mentioned and events previously refered to, promotes a more satisfactory interaction between the reader and the text in terms of comprehension. The attempt made in order to establish a parallel between grammatical cohesion and the atmosphere of the: text, considering the first as a "linguistic metaphor" of the second, enabled us to perceive vagueness as a result , not only of other elements of literary creation, but also as the result of the linguistic structures used by the author. The exophoric data and the comparative reference which also belong to the study of the grammatical - cohesive relations, were not considered for they do not present the cohesive relations proposed above. As the cohesive relations are not limited to those analysed in this paper, the lexical and the conjunctive items, were presented as proposed topic for further research completing thus the study of the cohesive relations found in the text.