Playing with Phrases
Task B - Titles of poems, books, and films
Below are some titles of poems, books, and films.
Work out what kind of phrase has been used and how arresting and memorable
you think it is. Then click on the title to see our comments.
The French Lieutenant's Woman
Going
Unforgiven
Here
Under Milk Wood
The Family Man
Unbreakable
Our Comments:
The French Lieutenant's Woman
A noun phrase (NP).
It is the title of a novel by John Fowles and of the film of the book.
A NP is used because Fowles wants to refer to the main character of the
novel through her relationship with another character. A NP is best for
this complex sort of reference.
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Going
A one-word VP.
The verb concerned is a present participle and is concerned with movement,
which is appropriate in relationship to the content of the poem by Philip
Larkin. In 'Going', the speaker appears to be in the evening, watching
the day fade away. But the way in which he describes the day 'going' seems
at the same time to suggest that he is watching his own life 'going',
his incipient death. The enigmatic one-word title is thus appropriate
both for the poem's ostensible topic and the one which is more indirectly
suggested.
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Unforgiven
A one-word AdjP.
The adjective is itself derived from the verb 'forgive'. This is the
title of a Clint Eastwood cowboy film where no-one is forgiven for past
reprehensible actions. The negative form of the adjective is pretty unusual,
and the fact that the title is the adjective alone allows for the possibility,
seen as appropriate once you have seen the film, that the adjective can
apply to anyone.
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Here
A one-word AdvP.
The title comes from a poem by Philip Larkin which enacts a train journey.
The person on the train passes through countryside and towns and finally
ends up at the coast. As the train moves swiftly along, all the places
referred to are 'here', as this adverb is a deictic which indicates a
location close to the speaker (cf. its opposite, 'there', which indicates
a location remote from the speaker).
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Under Milk Wood
A PP.
It is the title of a famous radio play by Dylan Thomas. It specifies
a place which seems odd, because the light connotations of the word 'milk'
conflict with the darker connotations of the noun 'wood' which it modifies.
The play is about a Welsh village with some very strange characters and
goings-on. Thus the preposition 'under' cannot be interpreted literally
either. So this title is likely to be memorable for a number of reasons.
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The Family Man
A NP.
This noun phrase refers ironically by role to the main character in the
work it is the title to. It is a film starring Nicholas Cage. The main
character wakes up one morning and finds that his identity has completely
changed: He is now a happily married man living in the suburbs with his
wife and two children. It could happen to you . . . (?!)
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Unbreakable
A one-word AdjP.
Like 'Unforgiven' this negative version of the adjective brings to mind
its positive counterpart, and so produces an implicit comparison between
the main character (who turns out to be unbreakable) and the rest of us.
It is a film starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. A suspense thriller
about a man who mysteriously survives a train crash unscathed and who
then meets a man who believes comic book heroes are real . . .
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