Paper 2 Essay

What do you think of the assertion that the meaning of a text is fixed and does 
not change over time?

For answering this question is important to consider three factors that are present in every text: the context of production, reception and historical. The first one is the context that surround that writer, in other words, what was happening at the time he wrote the text. The second one refers to the reader and what was happening at the moment he read the text. The third one is about the events that happened in the time that the story takes place. When an author writes a text, he is influenced by the events that are happening in his present (context of production), there is an specific target audience that he wants to reach to transmit a message. But with the passage of time the society faces new troubles, leaving the older ones behind, and their way of thinking changes, so the message that the author wants to deliver won't be equally understood by someone who lived at the time the text was written, to someone who reads it centuries later.
In "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, we have the topics of discrimination and more specifically the racism that the United States had in the early 20th century against afro-american people. This novel was published in 1960, and it is set around the twentieth's. Despite this the context of production and historical are similar, because the discrimination existed in a high level at both decades. The message that "To Kill a Mockingbird" transmit to someone who reads it at the time it was published is very direct because it is something present in his daily life, and the author's intention is to make the reader ponder about it and give a meaning to the text by relating the story with his present. But it would be different the meaning that a reader set in another context of reception gives to the text. Now a days the racial issues in the United States are much better, white and dark skinned people have the same rights, and there for the meaning that a reader, who lives in 2014, gives to Harper Lee's novel won't have the same focus that the one who lived in a time where discrimination was one of the main problems of the nation. The problem of todays are others and the reader is free to relate the story with whatever he considers important.
The novel "Fatelessness" by Imre Kertész, relates the story of a jewish boy who lived in Hungary while the Nazis were in the power. We can see again how the author wanted to express a situation to the readers that he lived. The historical context is II World War and jewish holocaust. The book was published in 1975, so the context of production isn't far from the historical. In the time he wrote it people were just starting to know about the treatment and pain that jewish suffered, and stories like this were meant to inform the people about it. Today is much more the information we have and it is not something that still happening. We are much far away from II World War that when Kertész published his novel. Thats the reason why we relate the meaning of the book with events that are more present for our lives.
In conclusion, I think that the meaning of texts aren't fixed over time, they change. Because at the time the author wrote the text he was influenced by the events that occurred in a time not far from his, and the problems that they had in those times aren't the same that we have now, so we can't apply directly the meaning that the writer meant to give to the readers. Thats how it happened in "To Kill a Mockingbird", where Lee writes about the discrimination in the US at a time were it was heavy. And the same with Fatelessness, the topic of jewish holocaust was fresh and there was a lot to say about it. But both books are focused on issues that today doesn't exist in the same level, so the reader of today doesn't has the same mentality that the one of the II World War, their way of thinking is different, and so is the meaning they give to texts.

Register: statements

How would you describe the register of the following statements?

• “Honoured guests, members of the board, Superintendent Johnson, and most importantly, graduates of the class of 2012, it is an honour to speak to you on this ocassion.” (Formal Register)

• “While I was pleasantly surprised by the menu selections for dinner service, I was disheartened by the lukewarm eggs at breakfast.” (Formal Register)

• “Yeah, right” (Casual Register)

• “I doubt it” (Consultative Register)

• “I’m tired of your rubbish” (Intimate Register)

• “I’m tired” (Consultative Register)

Idioms and Ambiguity

Meaning can often be complicated through the use of metaphors, idioms, or simply through ambiguous relationships between words. What are the actual meanings of the first two idioms below? What are the possible meanings of the next ambiguous sentences? 

Bite your tongue To use your teeth agains your tongue/ To remain quiet

Pull my leg A request for you to pull my leg/ To trick someone

He is my English teacher He teaches me English/ He comes from England

I saw the person with a telescope I used a telescope to see him/ He was with a telescope when I saw him

She doesn’t like short men or women She doesn't like short men and short women/ She doesn't like short men and any kind of women

Truth and Assumptions

The use of  certain verbs can imply the actual or probable status of events in a statement. In the sentence “I know the dog died”, the verb “know” is FACTIVE as it assigns the death of the dog as true. In “I believe the dog died”, the verb “believe” is NON-FACTIVE as the clausal object (the dog died) may not be a true fact.

Are the following statements factive or non-factive?

• I thought that today was your birthday. Non Factive
• I forgot that today was your birthday. Factive
• The teacher scolded me for not studying hard enough. Factive
• The teacher acknowledged that I hadn’t really studied. Factive
• The teacher realized the student had cheated. Factive
• The teacher assumed that the student had cheated. Non Factive