Set of flashcards Text Analysis (Page 1 of 5)

Flashcards	169
Language	Deutsch
Category	English
Level	University
Created / Updated	02.07.2014 / 17.06.2022
Weblink	https://card2brain.ch/box/text_analysis
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Headline:

Blessed are the geeks, for they shall inherit the earth

(Obama is making good his promise to welcome scientists into his administration)

- intertextuality to a biblical quote: Sermon on the Mount "blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"

- the informal term "geeks" is the reference to the scientists

- not quite homophony "geekS" vs "meek"

Headline:

Qom all ye faithful

(muted dissent in Iran's holiest city)

- intertextuality: the song "Oh, come, all ye faithful" von John Wade

- homophony: "qom" + "come" = a pun based on homophony!

- Qom = propername, Iran's holiest city

- the term "faithful" is the reference to the holy city

Headline:

Kim Jong ill or Kim Jong Well

(North Korea: Fresh speculation about the Dear Leader's health)

- similar sound of his proper name "(Kim Jong) Il" and "ill", the feeling of sickness. Pun based on similar sound!

- the opposing terms "ill" and "sick" are references to his health condition

Headline:

Elizabethan Drama

(America's consumer protection agency is about to open for business. Will the president fight to put Elizabeht Warren at its head?)

- intertextuality: Shakespeare's drama in Elizabethan era

- double meaning of the terms "drama" 1. Shakespeare's play 2. the dramatic situation about who will be head of department and "Elizabethan" 1. Shakespearean era 2. reference to the candidate named Elizabeth. Pun based on double meaning!

Headline:

TB or not TB

(WHO estimates that millions may die of tuberculosis before 2020)

- intertextuality: Shakespaere - Hamlet's siloloquy "to be or not to be, that is the question"

- similar sound of the term "TB" (as an abbreviation of tuberculosis) with "to be". Pun based on similar sound

Headline:

Carmageddon

(Los Angeles: in a car culture, even the brief closure of a freeway can spell chaos)

- reference to the film "Amageddon" wich is based on the biblical meaning, namely the end of all times

- not a pun but blending of "Amageddon" and "Car"

- hyperbole

- neogolism

Headline:

Parting is such Swede sorrow...

(Henning Mankell's fictional character's final appearance as a Swedish detective)

- intertextuality: Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet "Parting is such sweet sorrow"

- the term "parting" used to refer to his retirement

- similar sound of "Swede" and "sweet". Pun based on similar sound.

Headline:

Tooth ferry fills gap in dental services

(National Health Sevice Dentistry is in such short supply on the Isle of With that a local councilor has come up with a novel idea: dental toursim across the Channel)

- similar sound of "ferry" (a ship) and "fairy" (the mystical tooth collecting person). Because the text is about the isle and using the channel this is another term used with ships. First pun based on similar sound.

- double meaning/ lexical ambiguity of the term "to fill a gap", 1. the dentist fills a tooth gap 2. shortage in dentists/ the gap in dentists needs to be filled by new service. Second pun based on double meaning or lexical ambiguity

Headline:

Fat cats prosper on the public kitty

(critical commentary on high salaries for public sector managers)

- two terms of the same label: domestic label: "cats" and "kitty"

- double meaning of the domestic label terms cats/kitty: 1. a little animal 2. the tax payers (concerning money issue). A pun based on double meaning

- the term "fat cat" is an idomatic expression: successfull businessman who is greedy for wealth (meaning: onlay the investment bankers prosper nowadays)

Headline:

Frugal Dutch take the helm as EU heads for choppy waters

(on the Dutch taking over the presidency of the EU)

- (extended) metaphor: the EU as a boat and political times as the rough sea

- lexical field: ship/boat terms: helm (wheel that guides a boat), choppy waters (trouble times ahead for the boat driver)

- referring to the Dutch as the helmsman

Headline:

Stalled in motor city

(Financial emergency in Detroit)

- referring to Detroit as the "motor city" because General Motors is located there

- double meaning of the term "stalled" 1. stopping a car involutarily (because of missing power) 2. referring to the financial power of Detroit. Pun based on double meaning

Headline:

Bo bo black sheep

(power games in China: the dismissal of party chief Bo Xilai)

- intertextuality: nursery rhyhme: "Ba ba black sheep"

- referrring to the party chief as "Bo" and a "black sheep"

- the "black sheep" is the one blamed for everything, "Bo" the "black sheep" will be kicked out of her political party in China

Headline:

Dream, dare, do!

(an ad for an MBA programm)

- alliteration: all three terms beginning with "d..."

- asyndeton: the conjunction "and" is missing and producing a hurried rhythem. Normally it would be "dream, dare and do"

- three-part-list: because of the same syntax (namely three imparatives) it is even a tricolon: furthermore the three show a climax (increasing steps)

Headline:

Giving prams the push

(on the disadvantages of modern baby-buggies compared to the old-fashioned ones they have replaced)

- double meaning of the term "push" 1. to push the carriage/pram 2. to push it off the market (giving the push to sth.). A pun based on double meaning

- syllepsis

Headline:

Forget about the tortoise and the hare. The winner is a frog.

(ad for a business school in Paris)

- intertextuality: reference to the fable "the race between a rabbit and a tortoise"

- paradox: the winner is someone not mentioned before, so. unforeseen wins, namely the Frensh school

- frog is linked to the Frensh people, nevertheless it is a tabu word

Headline:

Scents and sensibility

(How the author helped Afghans build a thriving soap and body-oil business - and overcome the incompetence of America's aid establishment)

- intertextuality: referring to Jane Austen's novel "Sense and sensibility"

- homophony: "sense" and "scents". A pun based on homophones

the Titanic sank after it hit a piece of frozen water

- meosis (minimazation): a piece of frozen water = an iceberg

Britain is a giant fact, one of the world's most successful political unions, that has produced everything from an empire to a broadcasting corporation toa particularly nasty type of sherry

- three-part-list

& anticlimax (decreasing importance)

& bathos (drop vom sublime to ridiculous)

Some people probably behaved heroically, some disgracefully

- ellipses (omission of words, not only conjunctions like with the asyndeton):

"Some people probably behaved heroically, some people probably behaved disgracefuly"

There were old men leaping into the cold and the dark, and women abseiling with firehoses, and elderly couples huddling in terror in their cabins

- hendiadys (describing one through two): the cold and the dark

- polysyndeton (deliberate use of many conjunctions): There were old men leaping into the cold and the dark, and women abseiling with firehoses, and elderly couples huddling in terror in their cabins

It was a freeze-frame moment for the best and the worst in our characers and, as with Titanic, there will not doubt be all kinds of myths and misrepresentations

- contrasting pair (2 things contrasted in a concise manner): the best and the worst

- alliteration ("m... and m...") & siamese twins (linked by AND/OR used to convey a single meaning in idiomatic/cliched combinations: myths and misrepresentations

The nature of slomo disaster: they can change very quickly, from being an outlandish theoretical possibility to a predestined inevitablity

- juxtaposed ideas: from being an outlandish theoretical possibility to a predestined inevitablity

I have studied/watched ...

ethos (make the reader trust in you/ show competence)

Around the globe our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned

- three-part-list & also a tricolon (because of same syntax): 1.our friends mistrust us, 2.our word is disputed, 3.our intentions are questioned

& asnydeton (omission of the conjunction "and"): and our intentions are questioned

There is a tide in the affairs of men

- Julius Caesar

- metaphor (one object/idea described in terms of another, without asserting a comparison)

All the world’s a stage

- Shakespeare

- metaphor

(one object/idea described in terms of another, without asserting a comparison)

Or to take arms against a sea of trouble

- Shakespeare: Hamlet's soliloquy

-mixed metaphor

(combines two or more diverse images – if inadvertent it is ludicrous)

the leg of the table

- dead metaphor

(one which we no longer recognize as being a metaphor)

the heart of the matter

-dead metaphor

(one which we no longer recognize as being a metaphor)

on a tight rein

- dead metaphor

(one which we no longer recognize as being a metaphor)

O my luve’s like a red, red rose

- simile (a kind of metaphor, but using as, like, than; an explicit comparison)

as cool as a cucumber

- simile (a kind of metaphor, but using as, like, than; an explicit comparison)

as deaf as a post

- simile (a kind of metaphor, but using as, like, than; an explicit comparison)

as fit as a fiddle

- simile (a kind of metaphor, but using as, like, than; an explicit comparison)

When his pulse failing, passion speechless lies ...

- personification

(a physical object/an idea is presented as if it were a person [best reserved for passages designed to stir the emotions])

- because passion is emtion and it can't have a pulse, neither it can lie

the White House