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Task E - Semantic deviations
Our analysis of Austen Passage
There are more metaphors in this passage than the one by Steinbeck, but,
as with the Steinbeck, they are not very unusual, by and large. We list
the metaphors we have noticed below, highlighting the main metaphorical
word:
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'air of decided fashion' (S2)
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'decided fashion' (S2)
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'Mr Darcy soon drew the attention of the room' (S3)
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'the report, which was in general circulation' (S3)
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a fine figure of a man (S4)
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the tide of his popularity (S4)
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'above his company' (S4)
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'above being pleased'(S4)
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'not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him'
(S4)
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'a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance' (S4)
It is arguable that there are even more metaphors than this, depending
on your knowledge of the historical derivation of words. For example,
'fashion', meaning 'style of dress', for example, must originally derive
metaphorical from 'fashion' in the sense of 'manner of doing something',
and similes (cf. 'gentleman-like) are arguably metaphorical. And there
are also a number of metonymical structures (where a part is representative
of a whole, or vice versa), for example 'the attention of the room', which
means 'the attention of each person in the room'. The fact that there
are so many metaphors and other rhetorical devices helps give the passage
its more complex, rhetorical feel, compared with the Steinbeck passage.
But the metaphors are not really very innovative or striking.
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E
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