Text Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Text Analysis - Essay Example The main clause in this is 'iron man stood at the top of the cliff.' This clause is by itself a sentence. This means there is a complete meaning for it even if it is alone with no other phrase. (English grammar 2009). This structure of the sentence makes it ambiguous because since 'taller than a house' precedes 'iron man' and 'cliff', who or what is taller than a house might confuse the students. This affects the semantics of the sentence. This is due to improper phrase structure. It reads better as, 'The Iron Man, taller than a house, stood in the darkness, at the top, on the very brink of the cliff.' Thus, the sentence will be understood better. This creates a language cluster with 'at the top, on the very brink of the cliff.' Speaking about the pragmatics in it, the exact meaning of the sentence will be understood only if the students know who the iron man is or what the story is about. Else, they will be puzzled about how a man can be made of iron. The sentence alone will only give a sense of the real meaning; that the iron man, a very tall person, stood at the edge of the cliff in the darkness. As the students discuss among themselves, they might come up with negotiated meanings for the sent ence like the iron man wanted to jump off the cliff because he was standing at the edge of it. The denoted meaning is that the man was made of iron, that he was very tall, and that he stood at the edge of the cliff in the darkness. But, connotation might arise at the mention of iron and the edge of the cliff. It varies with each student, but it might be something like imagining themselves as the iron man or as standing at edge of a cliff. In this case, the first level of pragmatism is that the tall iron man stood at the edge of the cliff in the darkness. The second level of pragmatism gives the idea that it was night time. The third level of pragmatism will bring in thoughts like he will or will not die if he falls off the cliff because he's made of iron and there is a chance of falling since its dark. This sentence contains almost all the elements of English language, and can be used as a good example for teaching what phrases and clauses are. But considering the limitations of the students, this one is a bit confusing to start with. 2. The wind sang through his iron fingers: The nouns in the sentence are 'wind and 'iron fingers' where again, iron is a descriptive part. 'Sang' is the simple past tense verb in it. 'The' is the article and 'through' is the preposition. 'His' is the pronoun. The sentence is a very simple one with just a single clause. The sentence does not provide any ambiguity in its structure, and is right semantically. The meaning of the sentence is pretty easy for any child. Taking this particular sentence alone, its pragmatism is to be discussed. Since the iron man's name is not mentioned, the reference of 'his' will create a problem. The sense of meaning that this sentence gives is that the iron fingers had gaps in between through which the wind blew singing. The negotiated meaning can be that a giant had iron fingers with so much of gap in between them that even a child can pass through it. The denoted meanin