Coupling

Coupling is another technique that helps in decoding the message implied in a literary work. While convergence and defeated expectancy both focus the reader's attention on the particularly significant parts of the text coupling deals with the arrangement of textual elements (hat provide trie unity and cohesion of the whole structure. The notion of coupling was introduced by S. Levin in his work «Linguistic Structures in Poetry» in 1962 (40).

Coupling is more than many other devices connected with the level of the text. This method of text analysis helps us to decode ideas, their interaction, inner semantic and structural links and ensures compositional integrity.

Coupling is based on the affinity of elements that occupy similar po­sitions throughout the text. Coupling provides cohesion, consistency and unity of the text form and content.

Like defeated expectancy it can be found on any level of the ianguage, so the affinity may be different in nature; it may be phonetic, structural or semantic. Particularly prominent types of affinity are provided by the phonetic expressive means. They are

Chapter 5. Decoding Stylistics and Its Fundamental Notions

obviously cases of alliteration, assonance, paranomasia, as well as such prosodic features as rhyme, rhythm and meter.

Syntactical affinity is achieved by all kinds of parallelism and syntac­tical repetition—anadiplosis, anaphora, framing, chiasmus, epiphora to name but a few.

Semantic coupling is demonstrated by the use of synonyms and antonyms, both direct and contextual, root repetition, paraphrase, sustained metaphor, semantic fields, recurrence of images, connota­tions or symbols.

The latter can be easily detected in the works of some poets who create their own system of recurrent esthetic symbols for certain ideas, notions and beliefs.

Some of the well-known symbols are seasons (cf. the symbolic meaning of winter in Robert Frost's poetry), trees (the symbolic meaning of a birch tree, a maple in Sergei Yesenin's poetic work, the meaning of a moutain-ash tree for Marina Tsvetaeva), animals (the leopard, hyena, bulls, fish in Ernest Hemingway's works) and so on. These symbols do not only recur in a separate work by these authors but also generally represent the typical imagery of the author's poetic vision.

An illustration of the coupling technique is given below in the passage from John O'Hara's novel Ten North Frederick. The main organizing principle here is contrast.

Lloyd Williams lived in Collieryville, a mining town three or four miles from 10 North Frederick, but separated from the Chapins' home and their life by the accepted differences of money and prestige; the miners' poolroom, and the Gibbsville Club; sickening poverty, and four live-in

5.2. Essential concepts of decoding stylistic analysis

servants for a family of four; The Second Thursdays, and the chicken-and-waffle suppers of the English Lutheran Church. Joe Chapin and Lloyd Williams were courthouse-corridor friends and fellow Republicans, but Joe was a Company man and Lloyd Williams was a Union man who was a Republican because to be anything else in Lantenengo County was futile and foolish. (O'Hara)

The central idea of the passage is to underline the difference between two men who actually represent the class differences between the rich upper class and the lower working class. So the social contrast shown through the details of personal life of the two characters is the message with a generalizing power. This passage shows how coupling can be an effective tool to decode this message.

There is a pronounced affinity of the syntactical structure in both sentences. The first contains a chain of parallel detached clauses connected by and (which is an adversative conjunction here). They contain a number of antitheses. The contrast is enhanced by the use of contextual antonyms that occupy identical positions in the clauses: the miners' poolroom and the Gibbseville Club; sickening poverty and four servants for a family of four. The Second Thursdays and the Church sup­pers. The same device is used in the second sentence: Joe was a Compa­ny man and Lloyd Williams was a Union man. There are a few instances of phonetic affinity, alliteration: four servants for a family of four, courthouse-corridor, friends and fellow Republicans; futile and foolish.

The passage presents an interesting case of semantic coupling through symbols. The details of personal and class difference chosen by the author are all charged with symbolic value. There is a definite connection between them all however diverse they may appear at first sight. They are all grouped so that they symbolize either money and prestige or poverty and social deprivation.

Chapter 5. Decoding Styllstics and Its Fundamental Notions

The first group creates the semantic field of wealth and power: money, social prestige, the Gibbsville Club (symbol of wealth, high social stand­ing, belonging to the select society), four live-in servants for a family of four (that only rich people can afford), The Second Thursdays (tra­ditional reception days for people of a certain circle, formal dinner parties for people of high standing), a Company man (a member of a financially and socially influential group, political elite). The second semantic field comprises words denoting and symbolizing poverty and social inferiority: miners' poolroom (a working class kind of leisure), sickening poverty, chicken -and-waffle suppers of, the English Lutheran Church (implying informal gatherings where people cook together and share food), a Union man (a representative of the working class).

The similarity of these elements' positions in this text makes the contrast all the more striking.

A minor case of coupling in the passage above is the use of zeugma in the first sentence when the word separated is simultaneously linked to two different objects home and life in two different meanings—direct and figurative.

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