1.

Analyse the text taking into account (1) text type and genre, (2) main and
secondary communicative functions in the text and (3) figures of speech.

This fragment can be classified, following Werlich (1985) classification of texts, as descriptive.
The descriptive nature of the text lies in the fact that is main aim is to create a mental image
on the reader’s mind about the trailer caravaners; their characteristics, way of life or even
their itinerary.

As for its genre, we should take into account that the notion of genre refers to a set of
culturally-bound notions that help identify the text as pertaining to a given literary category or
classifying it according its social function. In this case, we could classify this fragment as part of
the literary genre, and more specifically, a novel, taking into account that descriptive texts
are usually found as part of a larger narrative.

Focusing now on the main characteristics of the descriptive passage, we could mainly classify it
as a tableau description, that is, a type of description which focuses on describing the setting,
giving an impressionistic view of the scene, the situation. This description goes from specific
information to more general one, that is, we are presented with a trailer caravaner couple
(although we do now know their names) and their children (Buddy and Sis) as a way to
introduce the topic of the caravaner trailers, as in lines 5-11 (“they’d park it on a plot in a
trailer park and put it up on blocks and put some latticework around the bottom to hide the
axles and the wheel-housing and…”).

Then, we continue with this tableau description in the second paragraph, focusing on the scene
of the trailers on the road, describing at the same time the trailers as in lines 16-20 (“such as
thirty, forty, fifty Airstream trailers, the ones that are silver and have rounded corners and ends
and look like silver bullets… hauling down the highway in the late afternoon with the sun at a
low angle and exploding off the silver surfaces of the Airstreams…”).

The third paragraph continues with this impressionistic view of the routes the caravaners may
take, focusing now on the description of places, that is, topography, as in, for example, lines
27-30 (“…but Western Mexico, where the terrain is all skulls and bones and junk frito and hard-
cheese mestizos hunkered down at the crossroads…”).

Paragraphs 4-5 focus on the description of a scene in a trailer camp, as in lines 42-45 (“so
about dusk you might see the veterans sitting outside, pretending to be just chewing the fat at
sunset but in fact nudging one another and…”) followed by the description of the scene where a
caravaner has an accident with the plugs, as in line 49-50 (“he gets a thunderbolt jolt like
Armageddon itself and does an inverted one-and-a-half gainer and lands on his back…”). In
these paragraphs, we also have instances of prosopography, that is, description of physical
appearance, such as the one in lines 45-46 (the rheumy-eyed, gray-haired old Dad).

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In terms of linguistic features, due to the descriptive nature of the text, we are presented
with an abundant use of qualifying adjectives and other noun modifiers as in lines 20-21
(“gigantic and improbable string of jewelry…) or even prepositional phrases (l. 43) “their
trailers in aluminium-and-vinyl folding chairs”, relative clauses (l. 53) “this poor wet rookie
who plugged in wrong…”.

Finally, the presence of figures of speech is also very common in descriptive passages, which
tell us about the subjective nature of some passages. When analysing figures of speech, we
must divide them into three main categories:

- Figures of speech involving sonic devices, involving semantics and finally, involving
structure.

In terms of sonic figures of speech, we find two instances of onomatopoeia; the first one in
line 5 (“uhh”) and the second one in line 49 (“bowwwwwww!”) in an attempt to mirror the
child’s disapproval and the explosion respectively.

Regarding lexical devices, we find an instance of allusion, when making reference to the film
Armageddon in line 50. Moreover, we also find two similes, the one in line 18 (look like silver
bullets) and the one in lines 20-23 (“the whole convoy looks like some gigantic and improbable
string of jewelry…”).

Finally, as for structural devices, we could note the use of polisyndeton, repeating the
coordinating conjunction “and” for example in line 6 (depart and go out and buy…”). Moreover,
we find some instances of repetition, and more specifically, of anaphora, in lines 8-9 (“and
put”). Finally, there is also a parallelism in lines 30-31, repeating the structure (“they would”)
 they would become, they would begin…

However, as texts do not have clear-cut distinctions, we may also analyse instances of
exposition, mainly in paragraph 4 when explaining how the plugs work (l. 37-38) “and in these
camps you’d have to plug a power line from your trailer into the utility poles…”), or a narrative
nuance, in the first paragraph, (they went to their children and gingerly suggested that now
that Dad had retired, he and Mom might move in with one of them…) or the scene of the
accident of the main, as there is a bit of action, can also be recounted as narrative, although
the main aim is to give an impression of the event.

Moving on to the final point to be analysed, functions of language, we will follow Jakobson’s
classification (1960), who establishes 6 types of linguistic functions depending on the element
of the communication process the text focuses on.

In this fragment, the main function of language is the referential, since the focus is on the
context, focusing mostly in the description of the scene, as we have seen in our analysis of the
fragment as a tableau description. However, there are other secondary functions, such as the

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poetic one, focusing on the message, using an aesthetic and careful use of language. Other
minor function of language could be the conative, as in some occasions, the writer addressed
directly the reader through the pronoun “you” as in line 15 (you had a chance to see…), or in
lines 38-41 (your trailer, your car engine, if you didn’t plug…).

4. Analyse in detail the following expressions from the text, both in form and
meaning.

- Psychedelic

Adjective coming from the noun “psyche” meaning “mind” and the Greek term “delic”
meaning “manifest”, thus meaning “mind manifesting”, that is, hallucinatory or extremely
colourful.

- A death-ray look

Death-ray is a compound noun made up by the nouns death + ray and that originally means
a weapon that generates an intense beam of particles or radiation by which it destroys its
target. In this context, death-ray is a compound that is modifying the noun look in
attributive position, which as a whole means something like a killing look.

- Golden Age

Golden Age is a compound noun, consisting of the adjective golden and the noun age, which
together mean “a past time of happiness and prosperity”. The term comes from Greek
mythology.

- Hunkered down

Intransitive phrasal verb composed of the verb “hunker” meaning “to bend” and the
preposition down, meaning together “to lower the body to the ground by bending the legs”.

- Chew the fat

Expression, idiom, meaning “to have a long chat with someone in a friendly way”

- Armaggedon

Noun, meaning the final battle in the Bible or a catastrophic battle or the place where it will
be fought.

- An inverted one-and-a-half gainer

Noun phrase made up of the head gainer, which is a type of dive, and the adjectives
inverted and the compound adjective one-and-a-half pre modifying it.

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