Introdungcing English language part 47: 'In this exciting new textbook, Louise Mullany and Peter Stockwell have provided a fresh and imaginative set of alternatives for teaching and learning a huge amount about the English language. The book allows tor creative and lateral approaches to developing an understanding of important linguistic concepts and, together with the thought-provoking activities, and accessible readings, guarantees there is something to stimulate every learner. | Paul Simpson 262 EXTENSION LINGUISTIC READINGS of this clause would have to specify some sort of agency either explicitly in the form of active or passive non-middle clauses X shattered the rear windows. The rear windows were shattered by X. or implicitly in the form of a passive with the agent deleted The rear windows were shattered. If we consider the three narrative clauses of the original text together there is the impression that the processes expressed by them are simply self-engendered uninduced by any external cause. This is odd given that they depict the violent effects brought about precisely by an external cause. The impact of the bomb explosion is further diminished and for that matter trivialized through the syntactic frame which incorporates these three clauses. For instance each clause is presented in an asyndetic listing fashion without the use of formal connectors. Furthermore the consequences of the explosion - especially the French girl s loss of an eye - are clearly undermined by the following adversative clause but essentially the children escaped scot-free the content of which is manifestly at odds with what has gone before. . O ther descriptions of violence in The Little Drummer Girl exhibit similar transitivity patterns. . What this brief analysis has sought to demonstrate is how a certain type of transitivity pattern especially when developed in conjunction with a positively-shaded modality can function as an ironizing technique. In the le Carré example this convergence of modality and transitivity served to highlight the persona of the speaking voice whilst distancing the purported central event of the narrative. So where the physical horror of certain events is suppressed the opinionated subjectivity of the narrator is foregrounded. The use of the ironic narrative technique has been commented upon by critics of le Carré one of whom remarks specifically of The Little Drummer Girl that SWIN KCrEIB1Qqc8svpQueSEh0w 1282036319 Where .
