Abstract

The current investigation takes up Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and provides a corpus-based analysis by selecting monologues as data for this study. The focal point of this corpus analysis is to highlight and identify textual features in the construction of the character of Santiago. This study goes for a corpus stylistic analysis of the selected text and unravels textual features which were previously unnoticed. Only monologues are selected as corpus data and AntConc 3.5.8 (Anthony, 2010) is utilized as a tool for corpus analysis. The study displays the significant role of corpus-based approaches for a better understanding of a literary text. It is clear after this analysis, corpus-based approaches in studying Hemingway's monologues highlight linguistic features of monologues and provide new avenues and perspectives, thus enhancing the value of literary corpus stylistics.

Key Words

Corpus Stylistics, Monologues, Pronouns, Character Analysis

Introduction

Stylistic linguistic analysis pertains to the verification of spending patterns in speech and writing. Stylistic analysis is typically carried out in literary criticism in order to report on the quality and significance of a document. Stylistically analyzing a document isn't the same as doing a ' literary ' analysis because it needs to be far more objective and in fact ingrained. It strives to clarify with stylistics how a text's words generate the emotions and reactions that occur while reading. 

There is an increase in the ratio of the study of corpus stylistic analysis over the past few years. These studies tend to investigate the ways of language usage that helps to create effects and meanings through reliance on a corpus in a literary text, i.e., a large collection of electronic texts collected and stored in a computer for research purpose (McEnery and Hardie, 2012). The reason behind this is that basically corpus rhetorical or corpus stylistic analysis makes this possible, it helps to analyze a whole long text which includes novels, and a group of literary works, but also the reason that only with the use of corpus tool the linguistic features and patterns can be brought out in light which cannot be found if a person itself does a manual textual analysis or a careful reading of the text.

Keywords are the main descriptive tools in a novel and with the help of corpus stylistic or corpus linguistic research, these can be analyzed through the help of corpus tool that can lead the path to the exposure of several language forms that points to the hidden connotative meaning. The term “keyword” indicates all the lexical items that have importance in a text which is been analyzed because these lexical items are pointers to the content of the text and the style or due to the comparison of unusual frequency to the appropriate kind of reference corpus kind (Scott and Tribble, 2006). In short, a unit that has a high frequency in the text being analyzed and is often repeated has significance in the meaning of the text and style. Indicating and analyzing the keywords is the basic starting point in the study because it indicates the textual elements that have a higher meaning in the creation, the organization as well as interpretation of the text being analyzed.

The definition of the term "keyword" according to corpus linguistics that is mentioned higher, overlaps with the thought of "style markers" in stylistics, which may be outlined as "linguistic options whose densities in a very text square measure appreciably completely different from those found in its contextually connected norm" (Enkvist, 1973). The references to "frequency" which indicates keywords and "densities" which indicates vogue markers conclude that quantity plays a vital role in identifying the keywords and the vogue markers. At this point, there is an assumption that lexical repetition, perceptual and statistical significance are correlated to each other they have a connection in common.

There are different studies of corpus stylistics approaches that are researched through the finding of keywords in novels, most of the studies give importance to the denotative meaning of keywords and the approach relates to the various aspects of the novel, such as the thematic meanings and fictional world (Mahlberg and McIntyre, 2011) and cohesion (Mastropierro and Mahlberg, 2017). 




Hemingway’s Style

A lot of work has been done on Hemingway’s narrative style by different researchers. Hemingway is believed to be a subjective writer by many critics. Levin (1963) opines that further investigation into Hemingway’s style is needless because it will not add anything new. SamehBenna has conducted research to check this claim using a corpus stylistic approach and proved that we can have significant findings about Hemingway's style with the help of corpus stylistics (Levin, 1963).




Research Objectives

? To investigate lexical diversity in monologues by utilizing a corpus-based approach

? To analyse the technique of interior monologue in constructing the character of Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea.




Research Questions

 The present study addresses the following research questions:

1. How does the corpus-based approach identify lexical diversity in monologues?

2. How does the monologue construct the character of Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea?

Literature Review

Corpus linguistics is a computer-based language study today, it is the age of the digital world so it is important to shift the language data to computers. The two most important elements of corpus linguistics are the use of corpora and the study of linguistic-language issues. Corpus linguistics provides tools for evidence that are acceptable and commonly used in research writings. Two things are needed to conduct any research in corpus linguistics. One is corpora and the other one is corpus software. Corpora is made up of texts that are in machine-readable form. The researcher has to convert any data to machine-readable form in order to conduct any research.

Corpus linguistics is the study of language done through computer-based programs and used as a certificate and resident example of language use (Sinclair).  The study of language by corpus is different from cross-literature methodologies of language analysis. The first dictionary compiled by using the corpus was The American Heritage Dictionary. The advancement of resulted in the merging of descriptive grammar (how it is used) and prescriptive grammar (how the language should be used). 

Biber (1993) suggests that "Quantitative methods are fundamental for corpus-based investigations. For instance, if one needs to think about the language use designs for the words enormous and huge, one would have to know how frequently each word happens in the corpus and the number of various words co-happen with every one of these descriptors (the collocations) these are quantitative estimations. An essential piece of the corpus-based approach is going past the quantitative examples to propose useful translations making sense of why the examples exist. Therefore, a lot of exertion in corpus-based examinations is committed to making sense of and embodying quantitative examples"

In the corpus-based investigation, there is a mixture of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Kartal (2018) conducted a study entitled: A Corpus-Based Analysis of the most frequent adjectives in Academic Texts. In the study he has the objectives to determine the most frequently used adjectives in academic text and to examine that may these adjectives differ in with respect to frequency and function in social sciences, technology and medical sciences. In his research, he used 839 adjectives as corpora. The researcher found that there is only one adjective which is used more frequently in medical sciences and technology as compared to social sciences. He also found that the frequently used terms in the learning and writing of foreign languages strongly affect the learner's ability. The study also provides details about the proper use of language knowledge and how to use adjectives in other disciplines. Jabbar (2014) clarifies that there is reasonable logic in utilizing corpus-based investigation. It helps to manage big data saved in computers within no time. Moreover, it ensures the objectivity that research is meant for. It can uncover vital highlights that can be missed in the qualitative study. Carter (2010) states that doing corpus-based work is profoundly quantitative in nature, yet this obvious certainty does not imply that qualitative examination should be ignored. Despite what might be expected, if both are utilized they help in providing a better understanding of meaning in literary works.

An amazing illustration of this style Hemingway is discovered in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place." There is no melodramatic sentimentality in this narrative; the plot is easy to define, but still very complicated and difficult. Hemingway says as little as necessary, in order to focus on an old man and two waiters. He allows the characters to speak, and the reader discovers from them two of the men's internal solitude and the other's heartless prejudices. Readers and critics commented, "This is how these characters would really speak." However, a careful examination of his discourse demonstrates that this is seldom the way people communicate. Even some of the best of Hemingway's far-celebrated use of dialogue occurs in "Hills Like White Elephants." Two characters, a male and a female, sit at a table when the story begins. Eventually, it is discovered that the girl's middle name is "Jig." Ultimately it is also discovered that they're in Spain's train station cafe. However, Hemingway doesn't tell anything to the readers or listeners about them and not even their past or their present situation. Their ages are not described. Readers know about them absolutely nothing. The only information they have about them is what a listener or reader learns from their dialogue, so it is needed to read this story much more closely. Hemingway’s spare, carefully sharpened and refined style of writing is by no means simultaneous. He discovered to report facts elegantly and accurately when working as a journalist. He is also an obsessive rightist. 

Research Methodology

Data Analysis

Speech is the reflection of one's thoughts. The only way to know, what's going on in a person's mind, is the careful analysis of his speech. Through speech, we may come to possible conclusions as to what kind of stuff is there in a person's head. Suppose somehow we are able to read the mind of a person we would be happy for getting first-hand information about the thoughts of the very person. So, here we wish to make a point that, sharing the thoughts of a person in any literary work would be more effective in the form of monologues, soliloquies and the stream of consciousness than presenting the character through dialogues or the art of narration. The advantage of monologue (as in prose writing) over soliloquies (for instance in plays) is that it reveals the emotion of the character and makes the reader get into the mind of the character without having a burst into the speech. A burst speech is a typical characteristic of soliloquy. The analysis of the corpus shows that Hemingway has deliberately chosen the technique of interior monologue to reveal the character of Santiago through it. As Santiago was all alone on the sea to fight with the marlin and the sharks there was the least scope for the techniques like soliloquy and stream of consciousness with a zero probability of dialogues. The purpose to build a text-reader relationship would not be possibly attained by just commenting on the character by the writer. So Hemingway has effectively used direct and indirect discourse to represent the thoughts of the old man. He talks to the fish in a friendly and direct manner as if he is talking to his brother. The data analysis of the text chunks of monologues shows that Santiago has frequently used the second person pronoun, you (for the fish) and first person plural, we (for himself and the fish). 

Figure 1

Word Frequency List of the Monologues in the Old Man and the Sea.

This word list has been produced by using the corpus software AntConc (3.5.8). Table (1.1) shows the word frequency list of the novel The Old Man and the Sea. By frequency, we mean how many times a word occurred in a text. In a word frequency list, all the words are ranked according to their frequency. The word with the highest frequency in the text is said to be occupying the highest rank. Here in this extract the pronoun, you, has been ranked 24 with a frequency of 193. It is no doubt a matter of wonder for the analyst, that the person who is alone on the sea has used the pronoun you 193 times though there was nobody to talk to. The arrowhead is manually drawn towards the pronoun, you, which shows the rank and frequency of the second person pronoun. By this analysis, we can make further assumptions using that the use of this pronoun plays an important role in arresting and keeping the attention of the reader. To pave the logical ground to the assumption that the second person pronoun (you) used by Santiago serves the purpose of realism in the monologue, we need more examples where we can judge in which context it has been used. The following table has been added to give more explanation of the use of the pronoun(you) in the text chunks(monologues) of the novel The Old Man and the Sea.

Figure 2

An Extract of Concordance of the Pronoun you from the Text Chunks of The Old Man and the Sea.



In screenshot 1.2, you can see the concordance lines, we have taken by using AntConc (3.5.8) to have the Key word in-context (KWIC) analysis of the pronoun you. The illustration of the following examples would help us to make our argument as to why it was important for the old man to indulge in self-talk or monologues.

The manual scanning of the concordance hits from 7- 13 helps us to identify that the old man has used the second-person pronoun you for himself. On a small boat, in the middle of the sea, there was nobody to help and advise the old man. So it was inevitable for an old man to indulge in self-talk to avoid boredom and loneliness. 

7. You are a fisherman

8. You are already a man

The above phrases from the screenshot suggest that the old man is taking pride in being himself and he is happy and contented with whatever he has. He is reminding himself that whatever he has done, it was his duty as a fisherman to kill the fish. So he has not done anything wrong. Then in the line, you are already a man he wants himself to believe that he is a man of strength and he does not feel any need to prove this point to other people.

12. Think of what you are doing, you must do nothing stupid

13. Now you are getting confused in the head

In the concordance hit 12 and 13, the old man is trying to make himself believe that he must not get confused so that he may not lose the faith he has in himself.

The concordance lines from 14 to 20(with the exception of 16) suggest that the old man is addressing directly to the fish. So here he has used the pronoun you for the fish.

14. Fish, you are going to have to die anyway

18. You are killing me

The use of the pronoun you used for fish gives the impression to the reader that the old man is talking to someone who is listening and understanding him and hence making the situation interesting for the readers. 

Figure 3

Concordance Lines of the Noun ‘wish’ from the Text Chunks of the Old Man and the Sea.



The figure shows the concordance of the noun wishes with the first-person pronoun I. As we know that interior monologue is the technique in which the character imitates as much as possible to present his inner thoughts directly to the readers or the audience. The imitation of the old man to have the boy, Manolin, with him, reflects his love for the boy and suggests how much he needed the boy when he was fighting alone with the fish.

10. I wish I had the boy

11. I wish I had the boy

12. I wish I had the boy

19. I wish the boy was here

20. I wish the boy were here

The imitation of the same idea in the above-given phrases suggests that the greatest wish of the old man was to have the boy with him. Through this repetition in the monologues, we can assume that the old man was feeling lonely and weak and he wanted the boy to help and encourage him.

From the above examples, it is concluded that Hemingway has used interior monologue for certain reasons, as Santiago is lonely in a small boat in the middle of the sea. In this situation, it was necessary for the writer to indulge the character in monologues to keep the interest of the readers alive.

Figure 4

Concordance of the Pronoun I from Monologues of the Old Man and the Sea



The findings in figure 1.4 suggest that the Pronoun I and its most frequent collocate can is with the almost same number of hits cannot reveal how Santiago was torn by doubt and anxiety.

Let’s take for example the following pairs of concordance lines to make a contrastive analysis of the thoughts of the old man.




Pair 1

14. I can do it

15. I can do nothing.

Pair 2

1. I am crazy

7. I am not crazy




Pair 3

1. I am and I will be so

2. I am. But then he would see his cramped hands.

? In line 14 the old man is positively hoping to cope with the situation while in the concordance hit 15 he doubts himself doing anything.

? In pair 2 concordance line 5 says that the old man thinks himself to be crazy while in line 7 he negates his own saying that he is crazy. We can assume that the old man was not sure about his mental processing. 

? In pair 3 concordance line 1. Suggests the faith the old man has in himself, that he is a strong man and he is not going to lose this strength until he achieves his cause. The next line 2 presents the idea that is opposite to line 1. The use of conjunction in line 2 indicates that his cramped hands were more like a hurdle to reach his goal.

Such overwhelming negative thoughts are obvious for a lonely old man but overcoming these thoughts was his real character, which we aim to analyze here.

Figure 5

Cluster Analysis of the Pronoun I



Figure 1.5 displays the total number of cluster tokens i.e. 167 and 40 types of clusters. This N-gram analysis revealed that out of 167 tokens and 40 types of clusters, the cluster (I will) has the highest frequency of 19, which means that the old man was determined and hopeful even in that desperate time when he was battling alone with a number of sharks.

Then comes the cluster (I must) that is holding the second position in the cluster analysis with the second most frequency of 15. We all know that we use the modal verb to show probability, likelihood and determination. So the frequent use of must with the pronoun suggests that the old man was determined though he was facing a situation that was becoming unbearable for him.

One more noticeable thing in this cluster analysis (thought to be a justified answer to our second research question) is that the frequency of the cluster (I do) is higher than the frequency of (I don). The cluster (I do) is ranked 10 with a frequency hit of 7 while (I don) is ranked lower than it with a frequency of 5. We have already discussed a good deal that it is natural for a lonely old man to suffer from anxiety and doubt. But the particular instance of the cluster analysis shows that the old man was more determined than he doubts in himself. For further explanation, the concordance lines of the cluster I will have been added to have a clearer view of the mental process of the old man.

Figure 6

Concordance of the Lexical Bundle (I will)



6. I will handle him with the right arm

9. I will kill you dead before this day ends.

12. I will not have a failure of strength.

17. I will show him what a man can do

18. I will stay down with him forever.

All the above-quoted examples taken from screenshot1.6 clearly indicate the determination of the old man. In line 6 we have come to know from the contextual information that, when he is all alone while fishing, he makes up his mind to handle the fish with his right hand only. The concordance line 9 shows that the old man is determined to kill the fish before the day ends even when he is not having the physical strength. Concordance lines 12,17 and 18 without a second opinion give the idea of the determination of the old man.

Conclusion

The study concludes and highlights the worth of a corpus-based approach in studying a literary text. This is because computers can process large amounts of content around millions of words in a very short period with accuracy that is reliable and valid. It is beyond the capacity of a human being and it could have taken many days or weeks to the analysis if corpus linguistics methodology were not applied. Taking benefit of the software, it can identify and reveal intricate linguistic patterns. After a thorough corpus-based analysis of selected text and analysis of the language that characterizes monologues, the results showcase that the selected text is replete with certain linguistic features which combine to make monologues more appealing to readers and particularly verbs akin to mental state and pronouns of the first person are very functional in the text. The study displays the significant role of corpus-based approaches for a better understanding of a literary text. It is clear after this analysis, corpus-based approaches in studying Hemingway's monologues highlight linguistic features of monologues and provide new avenues and perspectives, thus enhancing the value of literary corpus stylistics.

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