Stylistic Analysis of Katherine Mansfield's A Cup of Tea
Written by ASUMAN BİRDAL
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS : “A CUP OF TEA” by K.Mansfield The common view that a literary text is likely to be comprehended better if it is studied in parallel with stylistic analysis which emphasizes the crucial role of the linguistic features of the text contributes much to the development of literary criticism. M.A.K.Halliday is one of the text linguists who sees ‘grammar’ as a network of systems of relationships which account for all the semantically relevant choices in language, which is the standpoint of the stylistic analysis as well. In the light of M.A.K.Halliday’s discipline, I will try to analyse a piece of literary text written by Katherina Mansfield in the format of a short story titled “A CUP OF TEA” and try to criticise the text objectively in relation to its grammatical (functional) features . Before this , I’d like to give a brief information about the content of the story. A.INFORMATION ABOUT THE STORY Scanning the story first, we come across with a rich couple named Rosemary and Philip leading an untroubled, desirable life and they seem to love each other since- we have no implication whether they love each other for money or not – and everything goes well in their lives.Rosemary spends money without getting into trouble and giving no reason or excuse to her husband in doing this. Everyone in a society admires Rosemary not maybe for her beauty but for her remarkable features such as being interested in current movements from every aspects, seeming as an intelligent young woman, reading the modern books.Philip is not as bright as Rosemary but he makes himself realize as soon as he enters the story towards the end. Apart from the couple, there is a girl who meets Rosemary in a street by asking for money to have a cup of tea then is picked up by her to have a cup of tea at her home and begins to be directed by her. We infer this from the fact that whenever
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS : “A CUP OF TEA” by K.Mansfield The common view that a literary text is likely to be comprehended better if it is studied in parallel with stylistic analysis which emphasizes the crucial role of the linguistic features of the text contributes much to the development of literary criticism. M.A.K.Halliday is one of the text linguists who sees ‘grammar’ as a network of systems of relationships which account for all the semantically relevant choices in language, which is the standpoint of the stylistic analysis as well. In the light of M.A.K.Halliday’s discipline, I will try to analyse a piece of literary text written by Katherina Mansfield in the format of a short story titled “A CUP OF TEA” and try to criticise the text objectively in relation to its grammatical (functional) features . Before this , I’d like to give a brief information about the content of the story. A.INFORMATION ABOUT THE STORY Scanning the story first, we come across with a rich couple named Rosemary and Philip leading an untroubled, desirable life and they seem to love each other since- we have no implication whether they love each other for money or not – and everything goes well in their lives.Rosemary spends money without getting into trouble and giving no reason or excuse to her husband in doing this. Everyone in a society admires Rosemary not maybe for her beauty but for her remarkable features such as being interested in current movements from every aspects, seeming as an intelligent young woman, reading the modern books.Philip is not as bright as Rosemary but he makes himself realize as soon as he enters the story towards the end. Apart from the couple, there is a girl who meets Rosemary in a street by asking for money to have a cup of tea then is picked up by her to have a cup of tea at her home and begins to be directed by her. We infer this from the fact that whenever