David Lodge Therapy Analysis

Emphasis through Reinforcement

Grammatical Presentation based on the book “Therapy” by David Lodge

- Introduction:

“Therapy” is written as a dramatic monologue. Its language is very lively, often informal, spoken British English. That 's why it contains interesting features of spoken language, some of which I had not come across before. It also presents various ways for emphasis like fronting, cleft sentences, emphatic words and expressions, all of which were familiar to me.

The one which I found new was reinforcement. It is a device for emphasis used mainly in informal spoken English (especially British). I checked for it in several grammar books (among which Collins Cobuild) and only in two of them (given below) did I find it as a separate

431, 432):

Reinforcement is a feature of colloquial style whereby some item is repeated for purposes of emphasis, focus or thematic arrangement. It is achieved in the following ways:

1. Merely repetition of a word or phrase:

It 's far, far too expensive.

I agree with every word you 've said – every single word.

This is a long hard day for everyone, especially for Hal. He 's totally in command, totally responsible. (p.75)

2. In loose and informal speech, a reinforcing or recapitulatory pronoun is sometimes inserted within a clause where it stands referring to an initial or final noun phrase:

a. The emphasized noun phrase is fronted:

This man I was telling you about – well, he used to live next door to me.

The book I lent you – have you read it yet?

These two examples show a complete noun phrase being disjoined from the sentence and its role (subject in first sentence, object in the second) is performed by a subsequent pronoun.

Thus the main theme of the utterance is given first.

These young people who beg and sleep rough on the streets of London, they bother me. (p. 53)

b. The emphasized phrase is informally added after the completion of a clause structure which contains a coreferential