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5th OPOctober 9, 2010TEJIDO, Rocio Marie M.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE WORD’ PINCH’ IN SHAKESPEARE’S THE TEMPEST

The Tempest, one of Shakespeare’s later plays, was produced in 1611. It is one of his

last compositions, and many critics believe it differs significantly from many of his other works.

This play incorporates themes of the newly discovered Americas and the difficulties inherent in

colonization. This paper however, will not be discussing more on the historical background of

the play but it will be giving emphasis on the word ‘pinch’ that was used throughout the play.

The paper aims to give a clearer understanding of Shakespeare’s use of the said term in its

grammatical function and underlying context.

The word, ‘pinch’ appeared in the play for seven times in different acts of the play and

from different characters. The first and second appearance is in ACT1 Scene II by the main

character Propero:

PROSPERO For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps,Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchinsShall, for that vast of night that they may work,All exercise on thee; thou shalt be pinch'dAs thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stingingThan bees that made 'em.

The first word is ‘pinch’d’ This word functions as verb in the sentence (thou shalt be pinch’d). At

the same time, pinch’d also functions as a simile to the intensity of pain that is (As think as

honeycomb). The other one, on the other hand, functions as a noun as it is the one that would

sting more than bees. Just like the first one it is compared to another element in the line (bees

sting). This associates the intense pain that is more than the pain of an ordinary bee sting.

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The thrid appearance is in ACT 2 Scene 2, Caliban’s line:

Cal. All the infections that the sun sucks up

From bogs, fins, flats, on Prosper fall,

And make him be inch-meal a disease

His spirit hear me, and yet I needs must

curse. But they’ll nor pinch, Fright me with

urchin –shows … (p11)”

This line by Caliban is strats Scene 2 of Act 2. Here, pinch functions as a verb in the statement

and is, in context, synonymous to ‘Fright.’ Thus they will not pinch (frighthen) him with urchin-

shows etc.

The fourth and fifth appears in Act 4, Scene 1. The first is a line by Prospero and the

other is a line by Caliban. In the line of Prospero, he mentioned ‘pinch-spotted.’ This compound

word functions as an adjective describing the goblins.

PROSPERO Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark! hark!

CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, are driven out

Go charge my goblins that they grind their jointsWith dry convulsions, shorten up their sinewsWith aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make themThan pard or cat o' mountain.

The next line from Caliban shows ‘pinches’ functioning as a noun that’ll appear in their skin

when (he) wakes up. This, as described, will make them look like strange stuff.

Cal. The dropsy drown this fool I what do you mean

To dote thus such luggage? Let’s along

And do the murder first: if he awake,

From toe to crown he’ll fill our skins with

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Pinches, Makes us strange stuff.

The sixth form of the word appears as ‘pinch’d’ in (thou art pinch’d…) This functions as a

verb in the statement. In context, the line means that he (Sebastian) is safe for the mean time.

Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.

Thou art pinch'd fort now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood,

You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,

Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,

Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,

Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee,

Unnatural though thou art.

The seventh form appears in the same line as ‘pinches.’ Pinches, here, appears as a noun that

is most strong. In a deeper perspective, pinches could be the strength that he possesses that

could possibly kill his king.

The different use of pinch in form and in function altered the meaning of the word in

context. By analyzing the function a word has in a statement (sentence) and its apparent use

contextually in the same statement helps in understanding dialogues or discourse especially in

writing or speaking.

References:

The Library SHAKESPEARE illustrated Edition. Trident Press International. 2001

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6th OPOctober 9, 2010TEJIDO, Rocio Marie M.

TRANSITIVITY

The concept of transitivity in Halliday’s grammatical system is a very powerful tool in the

analysis of meanings expressed in sentences and clauses. In a more concise explanation,

transitivity involves the verb’s relationship to dependent elements of structure. Transitive verbs

would take a direct object while the intransitive verb would not. This shows a greater relation of

the action to an entity (ACTOR) in a transitive clause but not in the intransitive clause.

Example: The tiger ate the deer(ACTOR) (PROCESS) (GOAL)

The Tiger pounced(ACTOR) (PROCESS)

On the sample sentence, the action “eat” extends to “the deer” while nothing to the second

sentence. In this view, Halliday proposed, that the system of transitivity consists of various types

od processes together with the structures that realize these processes. This paper aims to use

these types of processes in a sample paragraph of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Masque of the Red

Death.’ In addition, the paper seeks to use transitivity to peak into world of Poe through the use

of his short story.

The Masque of the Red Death

(1)When the eyes of the Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which, with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its role, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage.

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(2)"Who dares,"--he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him--"who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? (3) Seize him and unmask him--that we may know whom we have to hang, at sunrise, from the battlements!"

(4) It was in the eastern or blue chamber in which stood the Prince Prospero as he uttered these words. (5)They rang throughout the seven rooms loudly and clearly, for the prince was a bold and robust man, and the music had become hushed at the waving of his hand.

(6) It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale courtiers by his side. (7) At first, as he spoke, there was a slight rushing movement of this group in the direction of the intruder, who at the moment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate and stately step, made closer approach to the speaker. (8) But from a certain nameless awe with which the mad assumptions of the mummer had inspired the whole party, there were found none who put forth hand to seize him; so that, unimpeded, he passed within a yard of the prince's person; and, while the vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank from the centres of the rooms to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with the same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him from the first, through the blue chamber to the purple--through the purple to the green--through the green to the orange--through this again to the white--and even thence to the violet, ere a decided movement had been made to arrest him. It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all. (9) He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. (10) There was a sharp cry--and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. (11) Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave cerements and corpse-like mask, which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.

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Given this skeleton analysis, we can abstract out the actors in each process and spell out

the lexical realization of each process associated with them.

Sentence no. Actor Process1 a Prince Prospero fell b he was seen to be convulsed

2 a he demanded b who dares insult 3 a courtiers (you) seize b courtiers (you) unmasked c we may know d we have to hang

4 a he uttered

5 a they rang b prince was 6 n/a

7 a he spoke b intruder (who) was c intruder (who) step

8 a none (who) put forth b he passed c he made d Prince Prospero rushed e none followed

9 a he bore b he had approached c he turned d he confronted

10 a Prince Prospero fell 11 a revellers threw b whose (tall figure) stood c revellers gasped d revellers finding e they handled

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The chart above summarizes the role the characters played in the story. Most of the

characters are males since there was no indication of having a female character to begin with.

The chart below would show the types of processes involved.

Sentence no. Actor Process Type Action1 a Prince Prospero fell material supervention b he was seen to material intention

be convulsed

2 a he demanded mental internal b who dares insult us mental external 3 a courtiers (you) seize material intention b courtiers (you) unmasked material intention c we may know mental external d we have to hang mental external

4 a he uttered these words material intention

5 a they rang material intention b prince was material intention 6 n/a

7 a he spoke material intention b intruder (who) was mental internal c intruder (who) step material intention

8 a none (who) put forth material intention b he passed material intention c he made material intention d Prince Prospero rushed material intention e none followed material intention

9 a he bore material intention b he had approached material intention c he turned material intention d he confronted material intention

10 a Prince Prospero fell material supervention 11 a revellers threw material intention b whose (tall figure) stood material intention c revellers gasped material intention d revellers finding material intention e they handled material intention

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Material Mental

Intention Supervention Internal Externalcharacters 22 2 2 3

The facts revealed on the table above show the dominance of material-action-intention

type wherein the characters are performing an action they voluntarily chose to do. With a small

difference between “internal” and “external” in the mental aspect, the data shows that it is still

possible to have the actors/ characters perform an action out of their own will.

In sum, using Halliday’s transitivity as a tool for analyzing discourse is really helpful. In

doing so, we can acquire a deeper meaning and understanding of the literary context presented

to us for this is one of the reasons for literary appreciation.

References:

Transitivity (grammar). Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_%28grammatical_category%29. October 9, 2010

Transitivity. Randall K. Tan. OpenText.org. http://www.opentext.org/resources/articles/a6.htmlOctober 9, 2010

4th OP

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October 9, 2010TEJIDO, Rocio Marie M.

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF EUGENE IONESCO’S ‘THE CHAIRS’

Utterances whether written or spoken has meanings that can be perceived by reading

the lines itself (surface meaning) or going deeper. This kind of analysis with utterances shows a

deeper view of words through context. This paper will analyze utterances using a drama made

by Eugene Ionesco, ‘The Chairs.’ This paper aims to give a deeper view in the lines presented

by the two main characters of the play.

John L. Austin introduced the three different speech acts and classified them as: (1)

Illocutionary acts; (2) locutionary acts; and (3) perlocutionary acts. A locutionary act is the

performance of an utterance: the actual utterance and its apparent meaning, comprising

phonetic, phatic and rhetic acts corresponding to the verbal, syntactic and semantic aspects of

any meaningful utterance. Illocutionary acts, on the other hand, it the real intended meaning

while perlocutionary acts is the actual effect such as persuading, convincing, scaring or

otherwise to get someone to do or realize something whether intended or not (Austin 1962).

Many scholars define ‘speech acts’ with illocutionary acts rather than the last two. Generally, the

extension of speech acts is commonly taken to include such acts as promising, ordering,

greeting, warning, inviting someone and congratulating. Thus, in the play, ‘The Chairs’ by

Ionesco we can interpret the characters lines with the concepts presented above.

Scene 1:(1) OLD WOMAN: Come my darling, close the window. There’s a bad smell from that

stagnant water, and besides the mosquitoes are coming in.(2) OLD MAN: Leave me alone!(3) OLD WOMAN: Come. Come, my darling, come sit down. You shouldn’t lean out, you

might fall into the water. You know what happened to Francois I. You must be careful.(4) OLD MAN: Still more examples from history! Sweetheart, I’m tired of French history. I

want to see – the boats on the water making blots in the sunlight.(5) OLD WOMAN: You can’t see them. There’s no sunlight, it’s nighttime, my darling.(6) OLD MAN: There are still shadows. [He leans out very far.]

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(7) OLD WOMAN [pulling him in with all her strength]: Oh! ... you’re frightening me, my darling… come sit down, you won’t be able to see them come, anyway. There’s no use trying. It’s dark…

[The Old Man reluctantly lets himself be pulled in.](8) OLD MAN: I wanted to see – you know how much I love to see the water.(9) OLD WOMAN: How can you, my darling?... It makes me dizzy. Ah! This house, this

island, I can’t get used to it. Water all around us… water under the windows, stretching as far as the horizon.

The first line from the Old Woman, ”Come my darling, close the window. There’s a bad smell

from that stagnant water, and besides the mosquitoes are coming in.” show an illocutionary act

that counts as a command also known as a directive. The old woman commands her husband

to take a sit instead of starring outside the window as she said,’…close the window’ because of

the bad smell of the stagnant water and the mosquitoes. Her husband, the Old Man, in his line,

‘Leave me alone!’ is a kind of illocutionary act known as expressive wherein. The speaker’s

shows his attitude and emotions against the proposition of his wife. The old woman then replied

that can be counted as a combination of the three speech acts.

‘Come. Come, my darling, come sit down. You shouldn’t lean out, you might fall into the water. You know what happened to Francois I. You must be careful.’

The line can be a combination of first, a locutionary act (warning) as ‘… You shouldn’t lean out,

you might fall into the water.’ This line implies an impending event if so her husband continues

to lean on the window; second, an illocutionary act (directive), the command as ‘Come, come,

my darling come sit down.’ This line reinforces the command she said in an early line that she

doesn’t want her husband to be near the window for safety reasons. This also implies her care

for her husband. And third, a perlocutionary act as ‘You know what happened to Francois I.

You must be careful.’ This last line of the old woman implies a more determined warning by

convincing her husband of a previous event in history that shows the same circumstance as of

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her husband in the present. Several examples of locutionary acts in the first scene are as

follows:

1. Line (1): There’s a bad smell from that stagnant water, and besides the mosquitoes

are coming in.

2. Line (4): I want to see – the boats on the water making blots in the sunlight.

3. Line (5): There’s no sunlight, it’s nighttime, my darling.

4. Line (6): There are still shadows. [He leans out very far.]

Line 1 from the Old woman indicates the actual smell and presence of mosquitoes

coming in through the window. All of these are because of the stagnant water below their own

house. Line 4, on the other hand, spoken by the old man shows his longing for boats giving life

and decoration to the river through sunlight. It is a locutionary act because that is exactly what

he wanted to see. Line 5 and 6, the exchange of conversation by the woman and husband

shows a setting of the play. It is already dark (there’s no sunlight) so the boats could not have

been possible to be seen. At the same time, since it is dark shadows do appear. All of these are

locutionary acts since they are as what the playwright intend them to be like.

Another example of illocutionary act aside from the ones provided earlier are:

1. Line (4): Still more examples from history! Sweetheart, I’m tired of French history.

The husband implies that he doesn’t want to be lectured of history once again. This

is an example of expressive wherein the old man makes excuses to not being told of

from staying by the window.

2. Line (5): You can’t see them. There’s no sunlight, it’s nighttime, my darling. This is an

example of an assertive. This type of illocutionary commits the speaker to the truth of

the proposition which here, is the time of the day, evening.

3. Line (7): [pulling him in with all her strength]: Oh! ... you’re frightening me, my

darling… come sit down, you won’t be able to see them come, anyway. There’s no

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use trying. It’s dark… This is another example of an assertive wherein, the old

woman is convincing her husband that it is a fact the he cannot see the boats that he

wished to see.

Finally, other examples of perlocutionary acts are the following:

1. Line (2): Leave me alone! This line from the old man suggests that he indeed wanted

to be left alone.

2. Line (3): You shouldn’t lean out, you might fall into the water. You know what

happened to Francois I. You must be careful. This line from the old woman suggests

persuasion on the part on the wife. The wife tries to persuade the old man for he

might fall. This also show she wanted to scare her husband with the example of

Francois.

3. Line (9): How can you, my darling?... It makes me dizzy. Ah! This house, this island, I

can’t get used to it. Water all around us… water under the windows, stretching as far

as the horizon. In this line, the wife suggests how she hates the place where they are

living at. She somehow tries to enlighten her husband how alone they are: “Water

all around us… water under the windows, stretching as far as the horizon.”

In sum, the different speech acts all gives of a different view and understanding of a

discourse. One line can actually be viewed in three different angles: locutionary, illocutionary,

and perlocutionary. Though the one commonly used is the illocutionary because of its different

dimensions, the other two surely cannot be disregarded.

References:

John Langshaw Austin : How to Do Things With Words. Cambridge (Mass.) 1962

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Re-enter ARIEL before: then ALONSO, with a frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and

ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO they all enter the circle which

PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed; which PROSPERO observing, speaks:

A solemn air and the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains,

Now useless, boil'd within thy skull! There stand,

For you are spell-stopp'd.

Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,

Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine,

Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace,

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And as the morning steals upon the night,

Melting the darkness, so their rising senses

Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle

Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo,

My true preserver, and a loyal sir

To him you follow'st! I will pay thy graces

Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly

Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:

Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.

Thou art pinch'd fort now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood,

You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,

Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,

Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,

Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee,

Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding

Begins to swell, and the approaching tide

Will shortly fill the reasonable shore

That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them

That yet looks on me, or would know me Ariel,

Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell:

I will discase me, and myself present

As I was sometime Milan: quickly, spirit;

Thou shalt ere long be free.

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Bibliography

John Langshaw Austin: How to Do Things With Words. Cambridge (Mass.) 1962 - Paperback: Harvard

University Press, 2nd edition, 2005, ISBN 0-674-41152-8.