Foreign words in E. Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea: semantics, functions, frequency

Introduction

The paper is devoted to Ernest Hemingway’s story The Old Man and the Sea. It discusses vital problems of the characters as well as foreign words in the novella.

It consists of the introduction, 3 chapters, the conclusion, and the list of literature used.

The first chapter is devoted to Ernest Hemingway and his last life-time publication The Old Man and the Sea which brought him the Nobel Prize. The second chapter focuses on borrowings in English and the historical process of their entering the language. Chapter 3 touches the foreign words in the novella The Old Man and the Sea and their division into semantic groups.

The list of works used in the preparation of this paper consists of 16 entries. Theoretical sources constitute 1, reference sources – 6, the researched text – 114 pages.

1. Earnest Hemingway and his novella "The old man and the sea"

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Many of his stories reflect his rich life experiences as a war correspondent, outdoor sportsman, and bullfight enthusiast. His writing style is simple yet vivid, and his characters embody the idea of «grace under pressure.» His works are regarded as classics in the canon of American literature as essayist Joan Didion, Poet Derek Walcott, Poet Russell Banks say. [16]. Some have even been made into motion pictures.

Hemingway was born in the quiet town of Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, on July 21, 1899. His father was a physician, and Ernest was the second of six children born to Dr. and Mrs. Clarence E. Hemingway. His mother, a devout, religious woman with considerable music talent, hoped that her son would develop an interest in music. Instead, Ernest acquired his father’s enthusiasm for guns and for fishing trips in the north woods of Michigan.

Earnest was educated at Oak Park High School. After graduating in 1917, he became a reporter for the Kansas City Star, but he left his job within a few months to serve as a volunteer ambulance driver in Italy during World War I. He later transferred to the Italian infantry and was severely wounded.

After the war he served as a correspondent for the Toronto Star and then settled in Paris. While there, he was encouraged in creative work by the American expatriate writers Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. After 1927 Hemingway spent long periods of time in Key West, Florida, and in Spain and Africa. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), he returned to Spain as a newspaper correspondent. In World War II (1939–1945) he again was a correspondent and later was a reporter for the United States First Army. Although he was not a soldier, he participated in several battles. After the war Hemingway settled near Havana, Cuba, and in 1958 he moved to Ketchum, Idaho.

Hemingway drew heavily on his experiences as an avid fisherman, hunter, and bullfight enthusiast in his writing. His adventurous life brought him close to death several times: in the Spanish Civil War when shells burst inside his hotel room; in World War II when he was struck by a taxi during a blackout, and in 1954 when his airplane crashed in Africa. He led a turbulent social life and was married four times [16].

The Old Man and the Sea led to numerous accolades for Hemingway, including the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He also earned the Award of Merit Medal for the Novel from the American Academy of Letters that same year. Most prestigiously, the Nobel Prize in Literature came in 1954, «for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.» He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. In 1961, at age 61, he committed suicide, as his father did before him [10].

While Hemingway was living in Cuba, beginning in 1940 with his third wife Martha Gellhorn, one of his favorite pastimes was to sail and fish in his boat, named The Pilar. General biographical consensus holds that the model for Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea was, at least in part, the Cuban fisherman Gregorio Fuentes [8]. Hemingway hired him to look after his boat. During Hemingway's Cuban years a strong friendship formed between Hemingway and Fuentes. For almost thirty years, Fuentes served as the captain of The Pilar. Fuentes died in 2002 when he was 104 years old. Prior to his death, he donated Hemingway's Pilar to the Cuban government. He never read The Old Man and the Sea.

A great deal has been written about Ernest Hemingway’s distinctive style as Journalist Jim Wolf, Journalist Steve Paul, Writer James Nigel, Novelist Annie Proulx say [7]. From almost the beginning of his writing career in the 1920’s, he has been the subject of lavish praise and sometimes savage criticism. Critic Harry Levin pointed out the weakness of syntax and diction in Hemingway’s writing, but was quick to praise his ability to convey action [9].

To explain Hemingway’s style in a few paragraphs in such a manner as to satisfy those who have read his articles and books is almost impossible. It is a simple style, straightforward, modest and somewhat plain. Hemingway does not give way to lengthy geographical and psychological description. His style has been said to lack substance because he avoids direct statements and descriptions of emotion [3]. He developed a forceful prose style characterized by simple sentences and few adverbs or adjectives. He wrote concise, vivid dialogue and exact description of places and things. ............