An analysis of lexical opposition: Le Guin's “the ones who walk away from Omelas”

Summary

The creation of contrasting worlds within a given text is a common literary technique in fictional prose. While such contrasts are invoked by some sort of “textual” parallelism, the term “parallelism” in literary stylistics is usually reserved for the specific study of text units, namely sentences in prose and lines in poetry. Furthermore, studies in fictional prose have approached textual parallelism with focus on narrative style or organisation of text, and not the stylistic effects at the lexical level. To examine such parallelism in terms of lexis, one needs to visit semantic theories, where the terminology to describe lexical opposites exists; it does so, however, apart from literary studies, and subsequently, requires expansion. Thus, this paper examines lexical opposition in fictional prose by offering a taxonomy based primarily on D.A. Cruse (1988) and applying it to the parallelism found in Ursula Le Guin's short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”. Specifically, following a discussion of the general features of language found in the Le Guin text, this study focuses on the use of adjectives as lexemes of semantic opposition.

Die skepping van kontrasterende wêrelde binne ‘n gegewe teks is ‘n algemene literêre tegniek in fiksionele prosa. Hoewel sulke kontraste deur een of ander soort “tekstuele” parallelisme opgeroep word, word die term “parallelisme” gewoonlikin literêre stilistiek gereserveer vir die spesifieke studie van tekseenhede, naamlik sinne in prosa en versreëls in poësie. Daarbenewens het studies in fiksionele prosa tekstuele parallelisme benader vanuit ‘n fokus op narratiewe styl of teksorganisasie en nie vanuit die stilistieke effekte op die leksikale vlak nie. Om sulke parallelisme op grond van leksis te ondersoek, is dit nodig om semantiese teorieë in aanmerking te neem, waar die terminologie bestaan om leksikale opposisie te beskryf; hierdie beskrywing sluit egter literêre studies uit en gevolglik benodig dit uitbreiding. Hierdie artikel ondersoek dus leksikale opposisie in fiksionele prosa deur ‘n taksonomie aan te bied wat hoofsaaklik gebaseer is op D.A. Cruse (1988) en dit toe te pas op die parallelisme in Ursla Le Guin se kortverhaal “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”. Na ‘n bespreking van die algemene kenmerke van die taal in die Le Guin‐teks, fokus hierdie studie spesifiek op die gebruik van adjektiewe as lekseme van semantiese opposisie.

Keywords:

• lexical semantics
• literary stylistics
• opposition
• parallelism
• adjectives
• D.A. Cruse
• U. Le Guin