On Motivated Prominence in Old Man and Sea

Abstract：In functional stylistics，the foregrounding is motivated prominence which gives unusual prominence to its text，adding a distinctive property to the original text.This study analysis the motivated prominence in the example of Old Man and Sea.And with lexical level of prominence to a text level of prominence，it is essentially to use unnoticed prominence to make the work shining.

Key words： motivated prominence；Old Man and Sea

1 Introduction

Literally，prominence shows a state of being important.The motivated prominence to the text that the writer want to express impels the writer to intentionally make some prominence.However，not all prominence makes a success，just like not all the people can become Shakespeare.Appropriateness is a feature that a writer should obey when he or she tries to highlight something.From my perspective，prominence is kind of highlighted part to the whole text，no matter which level it may lie.The motivated prominence is the core of the prominence.

2 Analysis

Just like “l(fā)anguage is a big metaphor”，we could not always get the meanings of metaphor until we know more about stylistics.This reminds me of the Iceberg theory of Ernest Hemingway： The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.This gives the readers more space to imagine and much room for thought.The expressions in the Old Man and Sea are one of the representation of this kind of works.Its stylistic expressions are plain and understandable.The Old Man and Sea only describe the 3 days on the sea fighting with the albacore.It conveys the Hemingway type of individualism，contending with the force，although he knows it is futile to battle with.Ernest Hemingway didnt use big words or obscure symbols to make his work prominent.On the contrary，the plain words help us to dig up the meanings behind.Thanks to the simplicity of the word expressions，it is much easier to understand the meanings of this novel，in which prominence is not quite obvious.However，the least obvious is the part that we often ignore.Once we get it，we can be suddenly enlightened.

On analyzing the first chapter of the Old Man and Sea written by Ernest Hemingway，the prominence of this kind are not “prominent” at all.The novel starts with： He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.” There is no difficulty in understanding the meaning of this clause.Because of this，a vivid fisherman come to our minds.However，the whole storyline begins and gradually is surrounded by the lexical words，such as “alone”，“eight-four days”，“without taking a fish”.From these words，it can be inferred that the life of the old man is not very well，especially for he makes a living on the sea.Just like other fishermen，the old man does the same routine works.But there is one thing that differs him from others，that is perseverance.Although he is old，he overcame the albacore after three-day struggle，and fought against the sharks that want to get that albacore.In this novel，all the spirits that the old man owns are been told in a simple and straightforward way.For example： “Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same colors as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated”，“They were strange shoulders，still powerful although very old...” In these two sentences，the descriptions of the old mans eyes and shoulders are direct.Old as he is，he is destined to be different.In the first chapter of the Old Man and Sea，we can still see an old man with great enthusiasm and vigor.From this repetition of “old”，and direct words to describe the old man，expressing a feeling of that he is old in age，but young in mind.The lexical prominence shows that an ordinary person，the old man，with his diligence and perseverance，can inspires people to fight for themselves

3 Conclusion

Actually，in my opinion，motivated prominence can be understood as the writers subjective opinion based on objective texts.And this subjective opinion has been captured by readers，creating the original effect of the writer desired.The motivated prominence is called a success foregrounding.And this prominence make the writers become unique on its narrative.

作者簡(jiǎn)介

周佳睿（1994.04—），女，漢族，四川成都人，碩士研究生，研究方向：商務(wù)英語(yǔ)。