Tài liệu An analysis of the use of inversion in jane eyre

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A Thesis AN ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF INVERSION IN “JANE EYRE” PHÂN TÍCH CÁCH DÙNG ĐẢO NGỮ TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT “JANE EYRE” MAI THỊ HỒNG NHUNG Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Ngoc Trung Hanoi - 2021 HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY 1 M.A Thesis AN ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF INVERSION IN “JANE EYRE” PHÂN TÍCH CÁCH DÙNG ĐẢO NGỮ TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT “JANE EYRE” MAI THỊ HỒNG NHUNG Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Ngoc Trung Hanoi - 2021 2 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled AN ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF INVERSION IN “JANE EYRE”. submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2021 MAI THỊ HỒNG NHUNG Approved by SUPERVISOR Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Ngoc Trung Date: …………………… 3 ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I would like to express my appreciation to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Ngoc Trung, who has supported and helped me with his suggestions and insightful comments all these months in this difficult undertaking of writing a Master Thesis. My thanks also are sent to all the teachers of Ha Noi Open University who have taught me with all their heart in unforgettable two years. They have directly or indirectly contributed to the completion of this research. I would also like to give my thanks to friends for their constructive opinions who willingly participated in my study and became part of it. So that I could finish this paper in time. Last but not least, I must thank my family for the support they provided me during this period. Ha Noi, 2021 MAI THỊ HỒNG NHUNG 4 ABSTRACT Inversion is a special grammatical phenomenon which is related to word order in sentences. At the sentence level, inversion is strictly governed by syntactical rules. This study aims to find out the use of inversion structure in the novel "Jane Eyre" by Bro nte basing on the theoretical framework by Halliday and Hasan (1976). Firstly, the study analyzed the use of inversion structure in novel Jane Eyre to be aware of the role of inversion in discourse that the speakers emphasize their ideas in English. Secondly, the thesis pointed out that inversion constructions help to create a fertile environment for textual cohesion, where cohesive devices tend to be used for discourse connection. Moreover, the thesis is a useful resource for businesses, employees, teachers, and students who are interested in writing in the workplace and in communication and overcoming these problems. There are 3 questions in the study. They are: 1. Which forms of inversion are used in “Jane Eyre”? 2. What are the discourse functions of English inversion in the novel? 3. What are some suggestions for studying inversion in English? With the main methods are the descriptive method with quantitative and qualitative approach. Quantitative method can involve collecting quantitative information, involves gathering mass of raw data from different powerful sources. Furthermore, among different types of inversion structure, subject – predicator inversion is accounted in this novel with 111 cases and Subject – verb operator appears 394 times in the total, which shows that the text is highly cohesive. The research findings show that inversion structures are used in a very high rate to express the strong idea and connect the text together as well as textual cohesion and thematic development. In other words, inversion structures are used in the novel helps depict the writing style of literary documents in general and of Jane Eyre in particular. 5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A Adverbial A. N Negative adverbial A only Adverbial beginning with only A place Adverbial of place Be Be as verb C Complement Op Operator Q-element Clause element containing the Q- word Q-word Interrogative word S Subject S1 The subject in the first clause S2 The subject in the second clause E.g For example Square brackets ( ) enclosing a number indicate the number of the example used 6 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 3.1 : 58 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate o originality i Acknowledgements ii Table of contents iii Abstract iv List of abbreviations v List of tables and figures Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 10 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 11 1.3. Research questions 11 1.4. Methods of the study 12 1.5. Scope of the study 13 1.6. Significance of the study 14 1.7. Structure of the study 14 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1. Review of previous studies 15 2.2. Theoretical background 15 2.2.1. The concept of discourse 15 2.2.1.1 What is discourse? 15 2.2.1.2. Discourse versus text 16 2.2.1.3. Spoken and written discourse 17 +. Spoken discourse +. Written discourse 2.2.1.4. Discourse and the sentence 19 2.2.1.5. The role of grammar in discourse 19 2.2.2. The concept of cohesion 20 2.2.2.1. What is cohesion? 2.2.2.2. Cohesion and coherence 20 2.2.2.3. Grammatical cohesion 21 8 2.2.2.4. Lexical cohesion 22 + repetition + synonymy + contextual synonymy + meronymy + collocation + general words 2.2.3. The concept of inversion 23 2.2.3.1. What is inversion? 23 2.2.3.2. Operator 24 2.2.3.3. Inversion & Theme - Rheme structure 25 2.2.4. The role of inversion in discourse structure 27 2.2.5. Inversion as a source of cohesion in discourse 28 2.2.6. Stylistic features of inversion 28 2.3. Classification of Inversion 29 2.3.1 Subject – Verb Inversion 29 2.3.1.1 Inversion with the initial here 29 2.3.1.2. Inversion with the initial there 30 2.3.1.3. Inversion in reported speech 32 2.3.1.4. Inversion in formulae 33 2.3.1.5. Inversion with initial adverbials (of place) 33 2.3.2. Subject – operator inversion 34 2.3.2.1. Inversion in questions 34 2.3.2.2. Inversion in command with question tags 38 2.3.2.3. Inversion in exclamations 39 2.3.2.4. Inversion in statements 39 + Inversion in sentence with ―if‖ + Inversion after ―as‖ + Inversion after ―neither, nor‖ + Inversion after ―so‖ + Inversion after adverbials with initial ―only‖ 2.3.2.5 Inversion in negative adverbials 42 9 + Inversion after ―Seldom, Rarely, Never‖ + Inversion after adverbials containing the word ―No‖ 2.4. Summary 44 Chapter 3: THE USE OF INVERSION IN “JANE EYRE” 3.1. Forms of inversion used in “Jane Eyre” 46 3.1.1. Subject – predicator inversion 46 3.1.2. Subject – operator inversion 48 3.1.2.1 In questions 48 3.1.2.2 In statements 52 3.2. The discourse functions of English inversion in the novel. 59 3.2.1. Creating anaphoric grammatical cohesion 59 3.2.2. Creating cataphoric grammatical cohesion. 60 3.2.3. Creating lexical cohesion 61 3.2.4. The dual function of the initial element. 64 3.2.5. The role of inversion in thematic development. 64 3.3. Implication of the study for the effective learning of inversion in English 66 3.4. Summary 67 Chapter 4: CONCLUSION 69 4.1. Recapitulation 69 4.2. Concluding remarks 70 4.3. Limitation of the research 71 4.4. Recommendations/Suggestions for further research 72 REFERENCES 73 10 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. RATIONALE Literature always plays an essential role in most people‟s spirit life. Though the explosion of information and the revolution of high technology, especially the internet, for a few recent decades, have given us various kinds of entertainments, literature still one of the oldest and most favorite ways of entertaining, learning and experiencing life. Besides, every literary works reflects authors‟ talents, one of that is the way they use the language to express their ideas and to impress the readers. There are many ways the writers have been using to make the language become such a valuable and flexible means of transferring ideas. Sometimes, a simple way of forming a sentence or a bit strange order of words can make the ideas become so impressive and unforgettable. Inversion is one of those ways which creates great effects for literary works. Inversio n, as it may seem, is simply a reversal of what is considered the normal or usual order of the constituent parts. In fact, to English learners, it is not easy to understand and use inversion correctly. Inversion is used a lot in English as well as Vietname se literature, especially in literature works. Many writers prefer to use it as both a grammatical structure and literary device because it is able to make readers come to the same idea with new ways of approaching, so that things will seem to be new and more impressive. Moreover, in order to use inversion in their works, the authors must take into account the skill of using the language, how to organize and develop their writing. They must choose the right sentences and ideas to apply this stylistic device that it will promote the best effect, otherwise the sentences will be so tangled and difficult for the readers to understand what the authors want to reveal. One strong motivation for my choice is the fact that the use of inversion in literature has a great appeal to most of readers. Right when readers look at a phrase or sentence in which there is a strange order of words (or a group of words), they will think that there must be something special about this point that the author wants them to notice. Therefore, inversion somehow immediately draws readers‟ attention to the exact point that the writer emphasizes. Another interesting thing about inversion is that there are grammatical rules for reversing words for phrases, but many writers also create their own ways which often give stronger effect for being unexpected. For this reason, I would like to carry out my research on the topic “AN 11 ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF INVERSION IN JANE EYRE”. This thesis is conducted with the hope that the research result will provide certain linguistically useful practical knowledge for teachers and learners of English especially students majoring in English as well as those who are interested in this field. Theoretically, this can help the language researchers and learners understand more the use of inversion in literary works written by some writers from the 19th century to contemporary time. The result of the study could partly contribute to study and translate inversion structures in a correct way. Practically, the result of the study could be used in the teaching and learning English inversion at schools and universities. As for teachers, this study will be a good reference of the use of inversion. As for students, they will have better understanding of those inversion employed in the analyzed works and will be able to capture the implications of the works. As for translators, they will be more aware of similarities and differences in translating the inverted structures. 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1.2.1. Aims This research is basically aimed at analyzing the use of inversion and its discourse function in the novel “Jane Eyre” to help the Vietnamese learners of English better understand the use of inversion at the discourse level. 1.2.2. Objectives With the above-mentioned purposes, the objectives of this study are: - Investigating cases of inversion used in “Jane Eyre”; - Exploring the discourse functions of inversion used in the novel; - Putting forward some recommendations for studying inversion in English. 1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. Which forms of inversion are used in “Jane Eyre”? 2. What are the discourse functions of English inversion in the novel? 3. What are some suggestions for studying inversion in English? 1.4. METHODS OF THE STUDY The research is conducted with references from the diverse reliable sources such as books, MA thesis in which related to inversion in English. 12 Beside that, I also used novel “Jane Eyre” which helps me find out how inversion structure used in English in general and in this novel in particular. Totally, there are two main kinds of inversion in English, Subject- Verb inversion and Subject – operator inversion. - Research method The main aim of the study is pointing out how often inversion structure appears in the novel. In addition, some implications for studying English inversion correctly is given here. Therefore, to achieve the aims stated, quantitative and qualitative methods were applied in the study, which mainly use qualitative methods. Using qualitative methods to analyze the use of inversion in “Jane Eyre”. • Research approaches: quantitative and qualitative approaches Descriptive analysis is carried out throughout the study. All the considerations and conclusion are largely based on the analysis of the collected data and references. The descriptive method is used in the first stage to make details about inversion structures in English based on the examples collected from many different sources such as books, MA thesis, internet, dictionaries, etc. • Data sources In this thesis, data sources to be analyzed are collected from novel “Jane Eyre”. The secondary sources cited from M.A thesis, books and journals from the Internet which concerning with inversion structure are collected and read for searching useful and needed information. The primary source is novel Jane Eyre which is collected from internet. There were totally 2 types of inversion that consists of more than 20 kinds of inversion in English analyzed in this study. All these kinds of inversion are used in “Jane Eyre” are also shown in my thesis. • Data-related issues: need to focus on data types like reference books, textbook, M.A thesis; source of data, and data analysis techniques. - Data collection techniques: selecting materials by the corpus software. - Data analysis techniques: collecting and selecting inversion structures and examples from books, novel Jane Eyre then analyzing and pointing out some syntactic features and exploring some pragmatic features of inversion in “JANE EYER” in order to have a good insight into inversion structures. Research approach Describing and analyzing the forms of inversion in English. Describing and analyzing the inversion in English and Jane Eyre, exploring the way to emphasize a speech, and finding out the common way made by English people when 13 writing or speaking to English native speakers. In order to gain the achievements, some methods are used as followed: The main method employed in this study is the descriptive method with quantitative and qualitative approach. Quantitative method can involve collecting quantitative information, involves gathering mass of raw data from different powerful sources. Quantitative method is used to count how often the inversion structures are appeared in the speech. Analytical methods assist to the major method in this study. Analytical method will be used to analyze statistics that are available after carrying out the descriptive research. To achieve the aims and objectives of the study with high reality, selected materials is the main technique to be used. In addition, some examples from M.A thesis were selected to help me find out the textual meaning of a sentence determines what information contributes to the message how it helps maintain cohesion and coherence. 1.5. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The use of inversion in novel “Jane Eyre” is so diversified that it is really difficult to cover all of them. In addition to analyzing the use of inversion, the researcher also explains the meaning and implication of the works, making it take more time to analyze each task. Due to the scope of a master thesis, as well as the limitations of the researcher‟s knowledge, the study is conducted in the following scope: • Only the discourse functions of English inversion in creating textual cohesion and thematic are studied. • Only novel “Jane Eyre” is studied. • Only some typical kinds of inversion mentioned in Jane Eyre are chosen to be analyzed. 1.6. SIGNIFICIANCE OF THE STUDY It can be said that this is the first thesis in Vietnam to research the discourse functions of English inversion in the novel Jane Eyre. The thesis has the following new points. Firstly, the thesis pointed out that inversion constructions help to create a ferti le environment for textual cohesion, where cohesive devices tend to be used for discourse connection. Secondly, the study analyzed the use of inversion structure in novel Jane Eyre to be aware of the role of inversion in discourse that the speakers emphasize their ideas in English. Moreover, the thesis is a useful resource for businesses, employees, teachers, and students who are interested in writing in the workplace and in 14 communication and overcoming these problems. In addition, the thesis can also be a reference for the researches on studying inversion structures as well. We hope that the research results of the topic will contribute to raising awareness about the use of inversion in English in general and in making speech in particular. 1.7. STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY The thesis consists of 4 chapters as follow: Chapter 1 is the Introduction of the study which shows the reasons why the topic is chosen, what the research aims at as well as the scope, the significance and the structural organization of the study. Chapter 2 is the Literature review and Theoretical background of the study. This chapter will give the brief review of related literature and theoretical background of every matter mentioned in the study. Chapter 3 is the Findings and Discussions. It presents and analyzes the collec ted data from questionnaires as well as gives the use of inversion structure in English and in novel Jane Eyre. Besides that, the study offers some ways for Vietnamese lear ners of English or translators to learn about inversion structures in English. Chapter 4 is the Conclusion of the study which presents the recapitulation of the study, the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further study. 15 Chapter 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Review of previous studies Inversion, a syntactical stylistic device, has a great expressive value. It has so far been an interesting topic for study all over the world. In fact, inversion has been dealt with by many famous linguists in both English and Vietnamese such as: Galperin (Galperin , I. R. English stylistics/ Ed.by L.R. Todd. M Librocom 2018), Peter Cullicover and Levine (Peter Cullicover and Levine (1991) Topicalization, inversion, and complementizers) in English, etc. These authors have made great contributions to the background theory of this research. Also, inversion has drawn the attention of some Vietnamese researchers. Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa (2004), for example, did a research on functions of English inversion structures. However, in this thesis she only studied the functions of inversion structures not the stylistic features and not in English and Vietnamese literature. Vu Thi Mai Que (2007) did a study on inversion in English discourse and its pedagogical implication and a case study at the faculty of English, HaNoi Open University. Tran Thi Hong Hanh (2010) did a research on English inversion and difficulties encountered by English majors of Hai Phong Private University. Ho Ngoc Trung (2017) did an investigation into the roles of inversion in English discourse. Generally speaking, most of the studies in both English and Vietnamese are only investigations into the functions of inversion structures. It has not been explored and studied in depth in terms of textual cohesion and thematic development. Up to now, not much research has been conducted on the discourse function of English inversion and its roles in creating textual cohesive and thematic development, especially in novel Jane Eyre, which leaves room for me to do this research. 2.2. Theoretical background 2.2.1. The concept of discourse 2.2.1.1. What is discourse? Context-free sentences have always taken an important role in language study and language teaching. However, one cannot use sentence by sentence with the hope of getting successful communication (Cook, 1999:3) because the language in use does not exist in isolation from its users and the context in which it is being used. Obviously, in 16 communication we must “go beyond the formal structure of language as a context-free system of usage and use the language which is context-sensitive” (Bell,1991: 161). Here, the language, the knowledge of which, as Widdowson (1997) describes, cannot be automatically followed from that of sentences, is known as discourse. Besides, in “Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a social- semantic Perspective”, Halliday and Hasan define Discourse in a very simple way by saying that it is language that is functional. It means language that is doing some job in some context of situation as opposed to isolated words or sentences is called a Discourse (Halliday and Hasan,1980:10) What is more, in terms of their semantic perspective on defining Discourse, Halliday and Hasan add: A discourse is best regarded as a semantic unit: a unit not of form but of meaning. Thus it is related to a clause or sentence not by size but by realization. A text does not simply consist of sentences, it is realized by, or encoded in sentences (Halliday and Hasan, 1976:2). Additionally, in their seminar work “Cohesion in English” Halliday and Hasan point out: A discourse is a unit of language in use. It is not a grammatical unit, like a clause or a sentence (Halliday and Hasan, 1976:1). Galperin, in his book “Stylistics” (Galperin, I. R. English stylistics: 2018) defines that: Stylistics is a branch of general linguistics, which deals with the following two interdependent tasks: a) studies the totality of special linguistic means (stylistic devices and expressive means) which secure the desirable effect of the utterance; b) studies certain types of texts "discourse" which due to the choice and arrangement of the language are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of communication (functional styles). In short, from all the above definitions, we can see that discourse is defined as a unit of meaning, and it is functional in the sense that it occurs in a context of situation and has a communicative function. A discourse can be realized by a word, a phrase, a clause, or a sentence, a paragraph, a cluster of paragraphs, a book, or even the whole library. 2.2.1.2. Discourse versus Text Discourse and Text are two popular terms in the field of text linguistics. There have been a series of different opinions around Discourse and Text. Some linguists try to separate Discourse from Text. In the view of sentence, often constituting a coherent unit, such as 17 a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative, whereas Text is a piece of naturally occurring spoken, written, or signed language identified for purpose of analysis. It is often a language unit with a definable communicative function such as a conversation or poster. On the other hand, Cook (1999) maintains that a Discourse is a stretch of language perceived to be meaningful, unified, and purposive but Text is stretch of language interpreted formally, without context. Widdowson (1977) holds the view that a Text is a “collection of formal objects held together by patterns of equivalences of frequencies or by cohesive devices”, whereas Discourse is “a use of sentences to perform acts of communication which cohere into large communicative units”. Likewise, according to Nunan (1993), the term Text refers to “any written record of a communicative event. The event itself involves oral language for example, a sermon, a casual conversation, a shopping transaction or written language (for example, a poem, a newspaper advertisement, a wall poster, a shop list, a novel). The term Discourse refers to the interpretation of the communicative event in context. On the contrary, other linguists do not differentiate Discourse from Text. Halliday and Hasan (1976). For instance, use these two notions interchangeably. They show that “a text is a unit of language in use” and so it is clear that their Text and Widdowson‟s Discourse are entirely similar. This view has also been shared by Brown and Yule (1983) in their argument that Text is the representation of Discourse. In this study I follow the view of Halliday and Hasan and the data is collected in such a way as to contain only the language in communication in Jane Eyre. 2.2.1.3. Spoken and written discourse In terms of linguistic analysis, it is necessary to make a distinction between spoken language and written language since each form seems to possess different features. Spoken discourse According to Mc. Carthy (1989), spoken discourse includes different types of speech in people‟s daily life, for example, telephone calls (business and private), service encounters (shop, ticket office), interviews (job, journalistic, in official setting), classroom speech (seminars, lectures, tutorials), language in action, or casual conversations. In spoken discourse, in terms of the manner of production, the speaker has to control and process the production of communication under circumstances which are, probably, 18 more demanding. He has to monitor what he has just said and decides whether it matches his intention and the response he means to make or not. In addition to that, in terms of the representation of discourse, a spoken text is seen as the “verbal record” of a communicative act. Generally, a transcription is considered the best record of a communicative act but the transcriber will surely lose things such as pauses, the speaker‟s voice, sex, intonation, gestures, or the paralinguistic means, etc. As it is not easy to represent all the suprasegmentally features like intonation and rhythm as well as paralinguistic features in written forms. Because intonation and rhythm play an active role in conveying the speaker‟s intention toward listeners, if these features are absent from written transcriptions, the intention of the speaker will be lost. To deal with this trouble, many linguistic analysts introduce the written transcription of the spoken discourse by using the conventions of written language. Written discourse Mc Carthy holds that in written texts, there is absence of some of the problems associated with spoken language. Unlike the speaker, the writer has a lot of time to think what to say and how to say it and the sentences are usually well formed in a way that the utterances of natural, spontaneous talk are not. As Nguyen Hoa (2004:17) mentions, regarding the manner of production, the writer is not under the pressure of monitoring and processing communication simultaneously as he cannot observe the creations from the reader or person he wants to communicate with. As for the representation of discourse, a written text can be represented in various ways, using different type- faces, on different sizes of paper, in one or two columns, to serve different purposes of the writer. It is the fact that discourse analysis deals not only with interviews, conversation, seminars- spoken texts but also with stories, newspapers, articles, letters, and the like – writer texts. For this reason, the data used in this paper are taken out of these two kinds of discourse. 2.2.1.4 Discourse and the sentence Evidently, there are two kinds of language as potential objects for study: Sentence and Discourse. The sentence is just a grammatical unit and it is quite abstract to teach or study how the rules of language work because it has no producers and no receivers (Brown and Yule, 1983). It means that the sentence may exist independently of any 19 speaker of that language. In contrast, discourse has been used to communicate something and is felt to be coherent and cohesive (Guy Cook, 1999). As a result, unlike the sentence, the discourse has to depend on the speaker of a language. Nevertheless, though there appear differences between discourse and sentence, these two approaches are not mutually exclusive. Discourse may be composed of one or more well-formed grammatical sentences and indeed, it often is but it does not have to be since it can be composed of incomplete sentences. That is the case of the language found in notices, signs, notes, advertisements, etc. Discourse treats the rules of grammar as a resource, conforming to them when it needs to but departing from them when it does not. For sentence, the internal construction has always been the central point but in discourse, the sentence takes the role of a construction. That is because discourse is regarded as the largest unit in communication and the sentence is only part of it. Therefore, the grammatical structure of the sentence means a lot of to discourse, especially in the case of word order, cohesion and tense and aspect. Because inversion in this thesis is considered in discourse, the sentence will be seen as a grammatical and orthographic unit which can be made use for illustration. 2.2.1.5 The role of grammar in Discourse It is known that a discourse can be realized by a unit larger than a clause, as the clause is only part of it and contributes its meaning to the total meaning of the whole discourse. Since grammar is an important factor in structuring of the sentence, it plays a vital role in the structuring of discourse, as well. Dealing with this importance, Mc.Carthy (1993) indicates that structuring the individual utterance, clause and the sentence, structuring the large units of discourse and creating textual coherence are extremely inseparable. Because, as he explains, whenever producing an utterance, the speaker often tends to contribute to the development of discourse. Thus, at the sentence level, any choice of grammatical forms by the speaker will indeed reflect his concerns of the overall struc ture of discourse in which the sentence is present. In order to conclude the grammardiscourse relation, Carthy expresses the idea that “a discourse oriented approach to grammar would suggest not only a greater emphasis on contexts larger than the sentence , but also a reassessment of priorities in term of what is taught about such things as word order, substitution, ellipsis, and the like” (Carthy, 1991:62). 20