Title
Marked Forms and Indeterminate Implicatures in Ernest Hemingway’s Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises
Document Type
Essay
Annotation
Examines a short extract from The Sun Also Rises to illustrate how linguistic micro-analysis underpins broader textual and contextual meanings in the novel as a whole. Discusses critical reception of the novel in relation to the possible meanings or lack thereof within its pages. Other critical points include Hemingway’s spare, compressed language and the importance of the prostitute Georgette, whose cameo appearance in Chapter 3 of The Sun Also Rises is the source of the brief section of dialogue under analysis here. Explains the variability and often surprising intentional effect of linguistic “foregrounding” and “markedness,” which signifies to a reader the possibility of an implicit meaning. Shifting use of languages in dialogue throughout the novel (e.g. French, Spanish) present further examples of linguistic indeterminacy and instability. Concluding sections put the author’s analysis in the context of linguistic theories, thus of interest mainly to specialists.
Published in
Pragmatics and Literature
Date
2019
Pages
21-43
Citation
Chapman, Siobhan. “Marked Forms and Indeterminate Implicatures in Ernest Hemingway’s Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises.” In Pragmatics and Literature, edited by Siobhan Chapman and Billy Clark, 21-43. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing, 2019.