Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the present extract from Anthony Burgess´ “A Clockwork Orange” is its language. Alex, the writer of the book, uses a great number of unusual words that seem to be freely invented by the author. By having a closer look at them, it can be noted that many of them have their origin in the Russian language. In this essay I will survey these unusual words and try to expose if they are phonetically, morphologically, syntactically or semantically different from “real” English words or if they could be called Anglicism according to one of the above topics. Therefore I am going to try to give a phonetic transcription of some of the new words and their corresponding Russian expressions and compare them. Then I am going to have a closer look at the word order of the present extract and try to put the new words into their corresponding syntactical categories. I will as well show how the sentences are connected and what lexical or grammatical properties make the extract coherent. In addition I am going to specify some of the Anglicism in the text and intend to explain how they are built .I also will try to make clear the thematic roles of one example sentence to facilitate its interpretation. Finally I am going to present what in my opinion could be said about the author’s background and education, according to the text.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- I. Introduction
- II. Phonetics
- III. Syntax
- IV. Coherence
- V. Morphology
- VI. Semantics
- VII. About the Narrator
- VIII. Conclusion
- IX. Bibliography
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This essay examines the unique vocabulary used by Alex, the narrator of Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange." The goal is to analyze whether these invented words are phonetically, morphologically, syntactically, or semantically distinct from "real" English words. Additionally, the essay explores the potential influence of Russian on these words and how they are integrated into English syntax.
- Phonetic analysis of new vocabulary
- Morphological analysis of new vocabulary
- Syntactical analysis of new vocabulary
- Semantic analysis of new vocabulary
- Influence of Russian language on the new vocabulary
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
The essay begins by introducing the unique vocabulary of Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" and outlining the objectives of the analysis. It then delves into the phonetic analysis, comparing the pronunciation of invented words with their Russian counterparts. The analysis covers words like "horrorshow," "malenky," and "itty," examining the differences in their phonetic structure and the potential reasons behind these changes.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The key topics of the essay include the linguistic analysis of new vocabulary, the influence of Russian language on English, phonetic transcription, morphological structure, syntactic categories, and semantic interpretation. These key terms provide a framework for understanding the unique linguistic landscape created by Anthony Burgess in "A Clockwork Orange."
- Quote paper
- Sandra Beyer (Author), 2000, Linguistic analysis of the new vocabulary in Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/22384