6.9 Interpersonal writing
In expressing the interpersonal, the writer can use word and group level grammatical forms (including modality) and clause level grammar and so create the desired type of interaction at the text level. Thus the type of relationships between/among the people involved in the situation or activity is conveyed because words and groups of words and clause level grammar (statement, command, question, exclamation) are being used by the writer to express tone, mood, atmosphere, attitudes and feelings.
Let us examine the passage below in the context from which it is drawn:
Preamble:
The passage below is taken from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s book, The Secret Garden. The main character, Mary Lennox, a ten year old girl who has lost both her parents in India, has been sent to live in her uncle’s large house on the Yorkshire Downs. She is very isolated in the strange house but one night late, she takes her candle and a warm wrap and decides to investigate the cry of a young person she has heard coming from one of the rooms. Although she has asked about the crying previously, she has always been told that the sound she hears is just the howling of the wind. The two children are strangers to each other and are surprised and frightened (tenor). Each is trying to identify the other (field). It is an awkward conversation (mode) between two lonely children. The context of culture is seen in the English way the question/statement exchange is conducted, the way of establishing identification and, moreover, done in a polite, restrained manner, typical of English middle-class children.
Passage pp. 109-110.
Mary stood 1near the door with
her candle in her hand, holding her breath. Then
she crept across the room, and as she drew
nearer the light attracted the boy’s
attention and he turned his head on his pillow and stared at her, his grey
eyes opening so wide that they seemed immense.
‘Who are you?’ he said at last 1in a half-frightened whisper. ‘Are you a ghost?’
‘No, I am not,’ Mary answered, her own whisper sounding
half-frightened. ‘Are
you one?’
He stared and stared and stared. Mary could not help noticing what
strange eyes he had. They were agate-grey and they looked too
big for his face because they had black lashes all round them.
‘No,’ he replied, after waiting a moment or so. ‘I am Colin.’
‘Who is Colin?’ she faltered.
‘I am Colin Craven. Who are you?’
‘I am Mary Lennox. Mr Craven is my uncle.’
‘He is my father,’ said the boy.
‘Your father!’ gasped Mary. ‘No one ever told me he had a boy! Why
didn’t they?’
‘Come here,’ he said, still keeping his strange eyes fixed on her 1with
an anxious expression.
She came close to the bed and he put out his hand and touched her.
‘You are real, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘I have such real dreams very often. You
might be one of them.’
Mary had slipped on a woollen wrapper before she left her room and she put
a piece of it between his fingers.
‘Rub that and see how thick and warm it is,’ she said. ‘I will pinch you a
little if you like, to show you how real I am. For a minute I thought
you might be a dream, too.’
‘Where do you come from?’ he asked.
‘From my own room. The wind wuthered so I couldn’t go to sleep and I
heard someone crying and wanted to find out who it was. What were you
crying for?’
‘Because I couldn’t go to sleep either, and my head ached. Tell me your
name again.’
‘Mary Lennox. Did no one ever tell you I had come to live here?’
He was still fingering the fold of her wrapper, but he began to look a little
more as if he believed in her reality.
‘No,’ he answered. ‘They daren’t.’
‘Why?’ asked Mary.
‘Because I should have been afraid you would see me. I won’t let people
see me and talk me over.’
‘Why?’ Mary asked again, feeling more mystified1every
moment.
‘Because I am like this always, ill and having to lie down. My father
won’t let people talk me over, either. The servants are not allowed to
speak about me. If I live, I may be a hunchback, but I shan’t live. My
father hates to think I may be like him.’
‘Oh, what a queer house this is!’ Mary said. ‘What a queer house! Everything
is a kind of secret. Rooms are locked up and gardens are locked up –
and you! Have you been locked up?’
‘No, I stay in this room because I don’t want to be moved out of it. It
tires me too much.’
‘Does your father come and see you?’ Mary ventured.
‘Sometimes. Generally when I am asleep. He doesn’t want to see
me.’
‘Why? Mary could not help asking again.
A sort of angry shadow passed over the
boy’s face.
‘My mother died when I was born and it makes him wretched to look at me. He
thinks I don’t know, but I’ve heard people talking. He almost hates me.’
Analysis and comment:
First, let us consider the clause level grammar that is being used in this dialogue. If we look closely, we will find from reading the table below that the meeting is an information seeking exercise on the part of both characters but that Mary takes control of the situation, eliciting from her cousin, Colin, no less than twenty-one statements about himself and his father, while she gives only nine statements in return about herself and very little of her background. Her five exclamations are all responses to the information that Colin is supplying about himself and his father. This information is amazing to the little girl who is being introduced to a world she did not dream existed. All the questions, except the initial ones they ask each other, require more than ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for an answer. Although Colin, the invalid, gives three commands and Mary two, the control does not come from these. They simply act as a means of assisting the information exchange that is being conducted. This exchange is sometimes initiated by Colin and other times by Mary. However, in this small, first exchange, the writer does allow Mary to have the upper hand in the dialogue by having her ask more information-seeking questions. Colin tries, however, to be assertive, for example, ‘I won’t let people see me and talk me over’. The writer in this passage uses Colin to inform, not only Mary, but the reader, about certain large questions that loom in Mary’s mind about this strange household which her uncle rarely visits. The writer is gathering sympathy for both children in this passage but leaves the reader with the impression that the stronger of the two characters is Mary, the intrepid explorer with her woollen wrap and candlestick. Colin is to be pitied. The reader is able to guess that Mary will probably take control as the story unfolds.
|
Colin |
Mary |
Questions |
xxxxx |
xxxxxxxxxx |
Statements |
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
xxxxxxxxx |
Commands |
xxx |
xx |
Exclamations |
|
xxxxx |
Now let us turn to the word and group level grammar being used in this passage and how it assists in creating tone and mood and atmosphere.
Reference to Mary |
Reference to Colin |
Near the door; across the room |
In a half-frightened whisper (adverbial phrase
of manner) |
First of all, let us note how the writer creates motion at the beginning of the passage by carefully selecting three action verbs – ‘stood’ which shows Mary taking stock of the scene, then ‘holding (her breath)’ which shows her feeling frightened, and lastly being cautious, seen in the verb crept’. These verbs are linked to directional adverbials, ‘near the door’ and ‘across the room’ and so the reader is able to locate Mary, feel with her and follow her movements across the room. Further, the use of two adjectivals, ‘with her candle in her hand’ and ‘[who was] holding her breath’ paint a picture of Mary herself – alone, inquisitive and frightened.
Then, if we look at Colin’s entry into the scene, we find his introduction is linked to two adverbial phrases of manner: ‘in a half-frightened whisper’ and ‘with an anxious expression’, both linked to the action verb ‘stared’ (repeated three times) and also to the action verbs, ‘turned’ and ‘opening’. The combination here of the action verbs and the adverbial phrases of manner direct the reader to Colin’s fear which is expressed both in his whispered voice and his facial expression. The writer then uses specific noun groups about Colin’s eyes: ‘his grey eyes opening so wide’, ‘what strange eyes’, ‘black lashes all round them’. All of these not only qualify Colin’s eyes but link to the action verbs and the adverbials of manner so that we perceive a very frightened little boy confronting an almost as frightened and amazed little girl.
Then the saying verbs that the writer uses to describe Mary’s conversation: ‘faltered’, ‘gasped’, ‘ventured’, coupled with the noun group, ‘her own whisper sounding half-frightened’ and the adjectival ‘feeling more unsettled’ confirm Mary’s lack of ease while Colin’s uneasiness is continued with further adjectivals describing his eyes: ‘immense’, agate-grey’, ‘too big for his face’ and his action found in the action verb, ‘was fingering’ and relating to the noun group, ‘the fold of her wrapper’ illustrates his need to reassure himself about this ‘apparition’ before him by feeling the wrapper continuously. The two modals Colin uses to describe his situation show a tentativeness he has about his self-image and so the final noun group, ‘a sort of angry shadow’ is no surprise and signals that a turn is about to take place in the conversation.
The specific nouns and noun groups, the different types of adverbials and adjectivals relating either to Mary or Colin, the saying verbs used by Mary and the modals used by Colin create a feeling of sympathy for both children who have been bereft by their adult world. There is an atmosphere of mystery and fear which encourages the reader to continue while, at the same time, the reader would also be sharing the sympathy that the writer feels for his two lonely heroes.