Interpretation of literary

§9. Foregrounding

One of the peculiarities of imaginative literature lies in the fact that any word of the text has a potential ability to acquire additional meaning or additional function and thus to become more conspicuous. In such cases we speak about actualization of the word or its foregrounding.
"Foregrounding is a special usage of language means which attracts more attention by itself and is perceived as unusual, deprived of automatism, deautomatized". '
Automatization of a language unit in this case means its usage in its own contextually predictable meaning, actualization means the acquirement by the language unit of additional connotations. If the predictability in the realization of the word's own meaning dictated by the context is violated, the word is sure to be actualized, it will acquire additional language capacity.
Language units actualize their potential abilities only in conditions
of a specially organized context.
General principles of foregrounding comprise the following items:

1. 
   They establish hierarchy of meaning and elements inside the text, i.e. foreground especially important parts of communication.
   
2. 
   They ensure unity in text structure and its systematic orga-
   

nization, establishing connections between its parts and the whole and interaction between the parts inside the whole.¹ Actualization can be realized at all language levels: phonetic, morphemic, lexical and syntactical. The units of phonetic level arc actualized in alliteration, assonance, rhythm, metro and other phenomena.
For example:
"Soames smiled a sneering smile and said: "I wish you good kick". Alliteration manifested in the repetition of the initial sibilant sound and the rhythmic arrangement of the sentence emphasize Soames' sardonic attitude to June and Bossinney.
At the morphological level actualization is realized through the repetition of affixes, stems, alteration of root-vowels, employment of obsolute inflexions of verbs, reduplicated words, situate word-coinage. For example:
"We left the town refreshed and rehatted" (Father hill). The repetition of prefix and the ending in the occasional neologism coined by the author (rehatted) creates a comic effect.
At the lexical level actualization is realized through lexical stylistic devices: similes, metaphors, metonymy, epithets, zeugmas, oxymorons, periphrases, hyperboles and irony.
As an example we can take a well-known aphorism by Bacon: "Some books arc to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested".
The metaphorical predicates mean that some books should only be skimmed through, while others should be read thoroughly.
At the lexical level foregrounding is also typical of thematic and key words. In the vocabulary of a literary work these words usually belong to the high frequency zone and thanks to their multiple re- currence in different situations within one and the same text they enrich and change their meaning. For instance the word "bridge" in E.Hemingway's novel "For whom the Bell Tolls" in addition to its primary meaning "a construction spanning a river or a gulf" gradually in the course of the development of the plot acquired the following semantic components: "a combat task", "patriotic duty", "a test of courage", "danger".
Let's take an extract from the story "The End of something" by the same author and trace the usage of key words in it:
"Nick looked on at the moon, coming up over the hills. "It isn't fun any more".
"He was afraid to look at Marjorie. Then he looked at her. She sat there with her back toward him. He looked at her back. "It isn't fun any more. Not any of it. She didn't say anything. He went on, "I feel as though everything was gone to hell inside of me. I don't know, Marge. 1 don't know what to say. He looked on at her back.
The analysis of the extract shows that the key words undergo a semantic shift and within the limits of the micro text develop the meaning of "to avoid meeting one's eyes".
At the syntactic level foregrounding is achieved by syntactical stylistic device, such as parallel constructions, chiasmus, antithesis, climax, repetition etc. As an illustration let us consider a case of anticlimax: "In moments of crisis... I size up the situation in a flash, set my teeth, contract my muscles, lake a firm grip on myself and, without a tremor do the wrong thing" (B.Shaw).
The first four homogeneous predicates show the person's strategic
calculation, physical and psychological readiness to give a strong rebuff to danger, but the fifth predicate contrary to expectations shows his failure to rise up to the situation.
The contrast between the growing tension and the unexpected blunder at the culmination of gradation creates a comic effect. This stylistic device is also known as an "effect of deceived expectation".
One of the most powerful means of foregrounding is convergence. It is a concentration of actualized elements in a relatively short text span. It becomes especially conspicuous when it is based on simultaneous actualization of several words at different language levels. For an illustration we shall turn again to "Arrowsmith" by S. Lewis.
"... Fatty was soft, Fatty was superstitious, Falty was an imbecile, yet they had for him the annoyed affection they might have had for a second-hand motor or a muddy dog'.'
The anaphorical usage of antonomasia in a series of parallel constructions accompanied by gradation makes it possible to give a terse and vivid expression of traits pertaining both to man's appearance and character and thus to create the image of a plump and corpulent person, rather weak-minded and ignorant. Yet he is not a repulsive, but a rather attractive young man, inspiring fondness, the reason for which is
conveyed by the dimunitival suffix in his nickname and the epithet "soft" possessing positive emotional evaluation. The oxymoronous combination of words in the next sentence (annoyed affection) concretizes the attitude of his fellow-students to him, in which fondness is mingled with contempt and irritation, as it is further confirmed by the asyndelical attributive clause.
Recent observations of linguistic phenomena in imaginative literature show that not only notional (semantic) words can be foregrounded, but even auxiliary (synsemantic) words can get their actualization. Among the systematic words cases with the definite article, personal and demonstrative pronouns are described as the most usual.
The main function of the definite article is to nominate the phe- nomena which are already known or have been mentioned before. That's why when the definite article takes the initial position opening a chapter, a novel it creates the impression that the author continues the narration, the beginning of which was given before. The reader believes that he is supposed to be acquainted with the preceding facts. Thus the definite article assumes an additional function— it creates the implication of precedence, suggesting sub-current text with some facts and events removed. The initial usage of personal and demonstrative pronouns performs the same function. The pronouns "he" or "that" opening a story or a novel are charged with the implied meaning: "the one, that has been mentioned before",
Besides that, pronouns can also be actualized when they gradually imbibe notional meaning thanks to the recurrent usage in a number of developing situations. In such cases they also require decoding. For instance in the story "Wild Flowers" by Erskine Caldwell the landlord, who turned his tenants out of the house, is never called by his proper name, but he is referred to as "he". This pronoun acquires the undercurrent meaning representing a cruel and indifferent world.