EMPHASIS: THE INHERENT ELEMENT OF MEANING AND COMPREHENSION IN LANGUAGE USE IN SKVORECKY JOSEF’S THE ENGINEER OF HUMAN SOULS

Abstract

This work studies emphasis as an inherent element of meaning and comprehension in language use by using the novel: The Engineer of Human Souls. Language is the primary medium through which humans communicate ideas, emotions, and intensions. Therefore, effective communication requires strategic placement of the main points or ideas in a sentence which is the epicenter of intelligent writing or speaking. Emphasis, which is one of the methods of shaping meaning and enhancing understanding, refers to a conceptual technique for arranging words, sentences, paragraphs on their gradation, whereby important elements are placed on strategic location so that the desired meaning may be accentuated to the audience as originally intended by the author or writer. The problem is that second language learners find it difficult to appropriately employ emphatic devices in their writings for clarity and comprehension. The aim is to find out the extent for which the author used emphatic devices in his narrative to achieve his intended message. The theory is derived from Halliday’s systemic functional grammar (SFG), with emphasis on emphatic structures. The source data, The Engineer of Human souls was diligently and painstakingly read by researcher and critically analyzed. The analysis shows that the writer of the novel sustained a good use of emphatic structures to achieve a readable and interesting prose. Some of the results of the analysis include appropriate use of periodic sentence, use of climax, use of opening a sentence with coordinate conjunction and the use of figures of rhetoric, and so on.