Outlander
Why have we chosen this book for lingustic analysis?
About the novel
Outlander is the first in a series of eight historical multi-genre novels by Diana Gabaldon. Published in 1991, it focuses on the Second World War-era nurse Claire Randall, who travels through time to 18th century Scotland and finds adventure and romance with the dashing Jamie Fraser. A mix of several genres, the Outlander series has elements of historical fiction, romance, adventure and science fiction/fantasy. Outlander won the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award for Best Romance of 1991. A television adaptation of the Outlander series premiered on Starz in the US on August 9, 2014.
Plot Summary
In 1946, after working apart during the Second World War, British Army nurse Claire Randall and her husband Frank, a history professor, go on a second honeymoon to Inverness, Scotland. Frank conducts research into his family history and Claire goes plant-gathering near standing stones on the hill of Craigh na Dun. She faints when investigating a buzzing noise near the stones; upon waking, she encounters Frank's ancestor, Captain Jack Randall. Before Captain Randall can take her into custody, he is knocked unconscious by a Scottish Gael who takes Claire to his clansmen. The men identify themselves as members of Clan MacKenzie, and Claire eventually concludes that she has traveled into the past.
Why have we chosen this book for lingustic analysis?
Traveling to a different country is always a source of culture shock. Customs and traditions are different, language can be different, the basic way of life can be the total opposite of what you're used to. Now imagine traveling into a different country in a different time.
In Outlander, Claire is used to the customs of Scotland in the 20th century, so it's not too difficult for her to adjust to going two hundred years into the past. However, the Gaels of 1743 see her as a "Gall" (foreigner), "Sassenach," or 'Outlander', ignorant of Gaelic culture. If you're a non-Scottish reader, though, you might be in for a double dose of culture shock. Not only are the accents different, but the way they conduct business, the way they punish criminals, the way they party and celebrate. They have their own cultural traditions, history, a diverse ethnic composition of the population, certain features of temper.
It is known that any literary text immerses the reader in the atmosphere of the cultural realities of the period in which it was written: what people used to wear, to do and to eat, how they used to speak. In this case the text reproduces the speech of people that represent the whole nation. An important role is played by language units with a cultural component of semantics. Realias with no equivalents, connotative vocabulary, phraseological units, aphorisms serve as carriers and sources of national and cultural information, and are correlated with the regional geography of the literary text.
Apart from English this novel is also full of Scots and Gaelic — two of Scotland's three indigenous languages (the other being English, of course). The novel is of great interest from the point of view of national and cultural identity represented in it. Our aim is to reveal the ways D. Gabaldon depicted Scottish mentality. Together with the reader Claire has to adapt and get used to a new way of living, to learn some Scottish words and get acquainted with cultural realias.
The author uses several distinctive phonetic and lexical features of the language of the Scots in order to represent Scottish national identity. This book takes a historical approach — it's an eighteenth-century story, after all — but most of these words are still current and used today.
In Outlander, Claire is used to the customs of Scotland in the 20th century, so it's not too difficult for her to adjust to going two hundred years into the past. However, the Gaels of 1743 see her as a "Gall" (foreigner), "Sassenach," or 'Outlander', ignorant of Gaelic culture. If you're a non-Scottish reader, though, you might be in for a double dose of culture shock. Not only are the accents different, but the way they conduct business, the way they punish criminals, the way they party and celebrate. They have their own cultural traditions, history, a diverse ethnic composition of the population, certain features of temper.
It is known that any literary text immerses the reader in the atmosphere of the cultural realities of the period in which it was written: what people used to wear, to do and to eat, how they used to speak. In this case the text reproduces the speech of people that represent the whole nation. An important role is played by language units with a cultural component of semantics. Realias with no equivalents, connotative vocabulary, phraseological units, aphorisms serve as carriers and sources of national and cultural information, and are correlated with the regional geography of the literary text.
Apart from English this novel is also full of Scots and Gaelic — two of Scotland's three indigenous languages (the other being English, of course). The novel is of great interest from the point of view of national and cultural identity represented in it. Our aim is to reveal the ways D. Gabaldon depicted Scottish mentality. Together with the reader Claire has to adapt and get used to a new way of living, to learn some Scottish words and get acquainted with cultural realias.
The author uses several distinctive phonetic and lexical features of the language of the Scots in order to represent Scottish national identity. This book takes a historical approach — it's an eighteenth-century story, after all — but most of these words are still current and used today.
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