Ling 131, Topic 3 (session A)

We need to look in more detail at the major linguistic mechanisms for indicating foregrounding in language, but before we do that let's have a look at the interpretation of Brueghel's famous painting 'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus' as given by the poet W. H. Auden

in his famous poem, 'Musée de Beaux Arts', named after the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels, in which he saw the painting.

Below are links (a) to a site which contains Auden's poem and a small version of Brueghel's painting and (b) to another site which has a bigger version of the painting, making it easier to see on the screen. Look at the poem and the painting and explore how the foreground/background structure of Brueghel's painting leads Auden to the interpretation he puts forward in the second stanza of the poem. Auden points out that for the other people in the painting the fall of Icarus (an important event in Greek mythology and European cultural 'history') was not very important at all.

To help you consider this matter, you might find it helpful to consider the following things:

1. What is the headword of the title of the painting?
2. What is represented as being in the foreground of the painting?
3. Where is Icarus?

After you have visited the site, type your thoughts below and then compare what we say with what you said.

Our comments

Although the painting depicts the fall of Icarus and its title refers to that event as well, in both cases Icarus's demise is backgrounded. In the painting the man ploughing is in the foreground (and also takes up the largest amount of canvas and is the brightest object in the painting). So it looks visually as if the painting is mainly about him and his ploughing. The ship is also more or less in the foreground, but smaller (and hence we assume further away). All we can see of Icarus is a small pair of legs, as he disappears into the sea near the ship. So it is clear that although in cultural terms the fall of Icarus is the most important thing, it is being portrayed in the painting, via Breughel's manipulation of foreground and background, as if it is less important than the man ploughing and the ship.

It is this structuring in the painting that prompts Auden's interpretation, one with which it would be difficult to disagree. Moreover, the fact that the ploughman is more in the foreground than the ship appears to determine the sequence in which Auden refers to them in the poem. Notice, also, that if we look at salience in the title to the painting, 'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus', the noun phrase 'the fall of Icarus' is embedded inside a prepositional phrase which in turn only acts as a modifier to the head noun 'Landscape'. So the title also puts the fall of Icarus in a more backgrounded position.

Linguistic foregrounding in texts has to do with how particular parts of texts are made perceptually prominent. As with paintings, every part of the text contributes to the whole, but some parts are more important interpretatively than others. The main ways in which parts of texts are made prominent linguistically is through linguistic deviation or linguistic parallelism.

Foregrounding

Task B - 'Musée de Beaux Arts'

Our comments

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