Analysis of foregrounding in the story "The Last Leaf" by O'Henry.

1. FOREGROUNDING
IN “THE LAST LEAF” BY O’HENRY

2. CONTENT
Introduction
Foregrounding
Main part
Arnold’s classification of foregrounding
Convergence
Coupling
Strong position of the text
Defeated expectancy

3. FOREGROUNDING
The notion of foregrounding was first described in the works
by Russian Formal School and Prague linguistic circle as a
special device of constructing poetic texts. Now this notion
is widely used in Cognitive Linguistics and Text Linguistics. It
attracts attention to certain parts of the text and activates
certain frame, so that searching for information becomes
easier. From psychological point of view foregrounding is
associated with unexpectedness, surprise and heightened
attention. Foregrounding segmentates the text into more or
less important parts.

4. Arnold’s four types of FOREGROUNDING
Convergence Coupling
Strong
position
Defeated
expectancy

5. FOREGROUNDING
• accumulation of stylistic devices and
expressive means within one fragment of
the text
Convergence
of SDs
• Repetition of sounds, syllables, words,
synonyms, phrases, lines, stanzas, symbol
alliteration, parallelism, periphrasis
Coupling
• Title, epigraph, end
Strong positions
of the text
Defeated
expectancy
• Lexical means (homonyms, rare words,
occasionalisms, archaisms), stylistic means
(zeugma, pun, ellipsis, irony), phraselogical
means (various transformations of Ph.U.)

6. CONVERGENCE
 Accumulation of many stylistic devices and expressive means of
the language within one fragment of the text..
 Mr. Pneumonia was not what you would call a chivalric old
gentleman. A mite of a little woman with blood thinned by
California zephyrs was hardly fair game for the red-fisted, short-
breathed old duffer. But Johnsy he smote; and she lay, scarcely
moving, on her painted iron bedstead, looking through the small
Dutch window-panes at the blank side of the next brick house.
inversion
 Mr. Pneumonia – antonomasia.
 red-fisted, short-breathed old duffer -personafiaction

7. CONVERGENCE
 Sue looked solicitously out the window. What was there to count?
There was only a bare, dreary yard to be seen, and the blank
side of the brick house twenty feet away. An old, old ivy vine,
gnarled and decayed at the roots, climbed half way up the brick
wall. The cold breath of autumn had stricken its leaves from the
vine until its skeleton branches clung, almost bare, to the
crumbling bricks.
 Old, old – repetition
 Bare, dreary yard; cold breath of autumn; skeleton branches -
personafication

8. COUPLING
 Recurrence of the same elements in the same positions. It is
created by all types of repetition, parallel structures,
synonyms, antonyms, words belonging to one and the same
semantic field.
 In the story “the last leaf” key words: “last leaf – last one fall –
last one – lone ivy leaf – ivy leaf – last leaf” are used more than
12 times and it is a real example of coupling as these words
repeat and emphasize the title.

9. STRONG POSITION OF THE TEXT
One word is used in
the title and at the end
Ending
closed
open
short
long
“Co - authorship”
2-3 sentences, personage’s remarks
Conclusion, author’s viewpoint

10. STRONG POSITION OF THE TEXT
 “I have something to tell you, white mouse,” she said. “Mr. Behrman died of
pneumonia today in the hospital. He was ill only two days. The janitor found him on
the morning of the first day in his room downstairs helpless with pain. His shoes and
clothing were wet through and icy cold. They couldn’t imagine where he had
been on such a dreadful night. And then they found a lantern, still lighted, and a
ladder that had been dragged from its place, and some scattered brushes, and a
palette with green and yellow colors mixed on it, and – look out the window, dear,
at the last ivy leaf on the wall. Didn’t you wonder why it never fluttered or moved
when the wind blew? Ah, darling, it’s Behrman’s masterpiece – he painted it there
the night that the last leaf fell.”
 Strong position of the text is expressed by using “the last leaf” in the title and at the
end. The ending has got personage’s remark and it’s not semantically
independent. It assumes “co-authorship”

11. DEFEATED EXPECTANCY
 Low predictability of the elements encoded in a verbal chain.
Unpredictable element violates usual stereotypes and norms
creating some difficulties of perception. It is expressed by:
 Lexical means: rare words, archaisms, borrowings,
occasionalisms, words in an unusual syntactical function.
 Stylistic means: zeugma, oxymoron, irony, periphrasis,
enumeration, pun, parody, paradox.
 Phraseological means: various transformations and changes of
both lexical constituents and compositional structures.

12. DEFEATED EXPECTANCY
 “For the rest he was a fierce little old man, who scoffed terribly
at the softness in any one, and who regarded himself as
especial mastiff-in-waiting to protect the two young artists in the
studio above.”
 In this extract “mastiff’ has got meanings as Protective, Good-
natured, Calm, Courageous and using it with words as “fierce”,
“scoff” in the same line seams illogical and unexpected.
“Mastiff-in-waiting to protect” is foregrounded.
 At first, Johnsy was ill seriously and it seemed that she is going to
die, but at the end Mr. Behrman died from pneumonia instead
of Johnsy. It has ironical twist and this is a good example of
defeated expectancy.

13. THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION!