Tajibayeva Aizada

Academical Innovation University, Kazakhstan

Title as an upperconcept of the literary text

In the given article I analyze the title’s capability to incorporate the main conceptual focus of the whole literary text.

There are various types of correlation between the title and the content of the text. In some works the title just names the problem, the solution of which is given in the text. In others the title is a kind of thesis of the corpus of text. In other works it is so deeply encoded that its decoding is possible only after reading the entire work. Sometimes the title could be given literally: clear examples are fables, where the upperconcept would be the moral of the text. However, in most cases the title of the text concentrates and summarizes the basic content of the artwork and so can be considered as an upperconcept. The title may constitute more than one upperconcept in itself (‘The Forsyte Saga’, ‘War and Peace’). Clearly a complete understanding of the content of the literary text comes only after reading the entire text, but ‘the main author's formulation of the concept is placed in the title’ (Merlyn 1990). In the absence of a formal title, the reader’s attention is not manipulated in this way, although the cognitive abilities of the reader will allow him to accumulate all the macro- and micro- concepts and create his own upperconcept(s) of the text.

The title can be regarded as a key to conceptual understanding of the text. From this perspective, the function of the title is twofold: to individualize the text (distinguishing it from others), and to categorize it (determining its place in the literature). In terms of linguistics, it is the primary means of reference in semiotic terms: the first sign of the text. It establishes a connection with other texts and programs the chain of associations in the reader. Finally, the title makes reference to a strategy of perception of the text. It is one of the most important elements of the semantic organization of a literary text, anticipating the nature of the content and focusing the perception on that mode of reality that is recreated in the text.

The title has a deep structure, which is formed by the interaction of cognitive mechanisms with the principles of discursive motivation. This is due to the fact that the allusive title has a number of cognitive functions, namely: 1) categorizing the text, by carrying the activation frame structure of background knowledge, 2) conceptualizing the text, organizing a network of associative intertextual connections with other texts, events and situations, and 3) participating in processes connected with the distribution of information on the semantic space of the text.

With the aim of examining how cognitive processes determine the influence of the title on the text and vice versa, I analyze O. Henry’s story ‘The Gift of the Magi’. This title refers to the biblical story of the Magi, in which wise men from the East came to Bethlehem to worship the newly born Jesus and brought him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh:

“… and they came into the house and saw the child with Mary, His mother; and they fell down and worship Him; and opening their treasures they presented to him gifts of gold, and frankincense and myrrh”. (Matthew 2:1, 11)

O. Henry’s story is about a young married couple, Jim and Della Young. Della wants to give her husband a perfect Christmas gift, but she does not have enough money. The couple’s only valuable possessions are Della’s hair and Jim’s gold watch. So Della sells her hair to buy a chain for Jim’s watch, not knowing that Jim already sold his watch to buy her tortoiseshell combs for her hair.

The role of the allusive metaphorical title is to orient the addressee to the relevant encyclopedic knowledge. By activating the mechanisms of memory, it sends his consciousness to the Biblical legend of the Magi and thus furnishes some predictability of text, which is the first step in its interpretation. Categorization of the text is then regulated by the prototypical principle, the semantic prototype of the title being the Bible story. Conceptualization of this text occurs through intertextual associations connected with that text.

In the text the author draws a parallel between the young husband and wife and the Biblical wise men. The basic concept of the story is hidden in the title of the text of ‘The Gift of the Magi’. The title triggers associations that promote the formation or transformation of the basic semantic focus – the upperconcept of the author's text. This upperconcept is formed on the basis of the allusive metaphorical title, in which true love is equated to the wisdom of the Magi. The author confirms this explicitly: “The magi, as you know, were wise men -wonderfully wise men - who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger…Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.” (p.36). The repetition of ‘wise’ emphasizes the status of the upperconcept of the work.

The influence of the allusive title on the basic meaning of work is enormous, but we can go further and consider the conceptual content of the title ‘The Gift of the Magi’ symbolically, examining the deep structures of knowledge embodied in this title. This will contribute to a fuller understanding of the relationship between the title and the text.

The gifts of the Magi in the Bible story were gold, frankincense and myrrh, which in theological terms are argued to symbolize the notions of kingship, divinity and mortality, respectively. From this perspective, we can consider that the title invokes such structures as ‘gift of gold’, etc.

We can define the associative field of ‘gold’ as including such features as ‘valuable’, ‘excellent’, ‘successful’, etc. Then we observe that the author describes the gift that Della wants to buy using many terms from this field:

"Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling - something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim ".

"... It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation ... It was even worthy of the Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value - the description applied to both ". (P.34)

This allows us to establish an implicit connection between the gifts of the Magi and Della’s gift: Jim is dear to her and she wishes to treat him like a king. Our analysis can be depicted schematically as follows:

The Magi’s gift:

gold -golden

yellow happy successful of great value excellent important palmy

rare unique precious sterling gild-edged irreplaceable worth its weight in gold

nice rare sterling platinum quietness value simple chaste to be worthy of

Della’s gift:

Turning to the gift of frankincense, we may consider this fragrant resin as a sign of reverence or sacrifice (Khan and Moskalev 1995). Its semantic field includes such semes as ‘resin’, ‘scent’ and ‘incense’, which themselves are amenable to further semantic fragmentation, as shown below.

The Magi’s gift:

Frankincense

scent

perfume aromatic gum incense spicery myrrh balm

enrage oblation flattery

Thus we locate the meaning ‘sacrifice’ in the conceptual field of the Magi’s gifts, which the author also relates to wisdom in his story:

“And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house” (p. 36).

We can further analyze the semantic content of ‘sacrifice’. Its semantic field includes such items as ‘offering’, ‘dedication’, ‘devotion’ and ‘tribute’. We can identify these as the characteristics associated with the main character of the story, Della. Consider how the author explains the nature of her sacrifice (the sale of her hair):

“When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love ” (p.36).

The semantic field of the lexeme ‘generous’ (= ‘generosity’) includes such items as: ‘plenteous’, ‘giving’, ‘liberal’, ‘noble’, ‘benevolent’, ‘selfless’, ‘rewarding’; the semantic field of ‘love’ includes such items as ‘liking’, ‘adoring’, ‘selfless’. On this analysis, a common feature uniting these two notions is that of ‘selflessness’. The semantic field of ‘selflessness’ in turn includes ‘sacrifice’, ‘benevolence’, ‘devotion’ and ‘dedication’, which in turn give rise to associative meanings such as ‘oblation’, ‘offering’, ‘innocence’, ‘love’, ‘kindness’, ‘friendliness’, ‘resolution’, ‘fixity of purpose’, ‘desperation’, ‘loyalty’, ‘homage’. Thus, the semantic content of this lexeme incorporates all the qualities typical of the main character in the story. The following diagram illustrates the set of associations between the lexeme ‘frankincense’ (conveyed by the title) and the lexemes ‘generous’ and ‘love’ from the text.

Della - Jim :

Generous Love

plenteous giving liberal noble benevolent liking lover pet darling

selflessness

sacrifice

oblation offering

dedication

resolution fixity of purpose

desperation

devotion

loyalty homage

benevolence

innocence love

friendliness kindness

dedication piety devotion victim sacrifice immolation offertory

offering rite tribute

oblation

frankincense

The Magi’s gift:

The interconnectedness of this network shows the strength of the implicit conceptual relationship between the title and the text, thus accounting for the title’s strength as a source of enrichment to the text.

This analysis allowed us to determine the frames laid down in this allusive metaphorical title, the apex of which is a concept - wisdom (wise). The study of associative fields, as well as definitional, componential, contextual and intertextual analysis, discloses the relation between the title and the analyzed text. This makes possible to represent fully the semantic content of the work’s upperconcept.

Thus, the combined use of traditional methods of analysis with the methods of cognitive analysis can reveal deep relations of conceptual significance between the title and the text.

References:

1. Фоменко И. В. Заглавие литературно- художественного текста как филологическая проблема // Лексические единицы и организация структуры литературного текста. Калинин. 1983. – С.84-99.

2. O’Henry. The Gift of the Magi// Selected stories. –M.: Progress Publishers, 1977.

3. Инайят Хан, Москалев С.Э. Ладан // Наука и Религия. – 1995.

4. Roget’s Thesaures of English Words and Phrases. – E.: Penguin Books, 1975.