6.1 Pronoun
Counts Continued
| Figure 7: Bernard's use of First Person
Plural |
Figure 8: Louis' use of First Person Plural |
Figure 9: Neville's use of First Person
Plural |
| Figure 10: Jinny's use of First Person
Plural |
Figure 11: Rhoda's use of First Person
Plural |
Figure 12: Susan's use of First Person
Plural |
| Figure 13: Bernard's use of Second Person
Singular and Plural |
Figure 14: Louis' use of Second Person Singular
and Plural |
Figure 15: Neville's use of Second Person
Singular and Plural |
| Figure 16: Jinny's use of Second Person Singular
and Plural |
Figure 17: Rhoda's use of Second Person Singular
and Plural |
Figure 18: Susan's use of Second Person Singular
and Plural |
On examination of these graphs it will be observed that
within the graph for each pronoun category, the separate
curves for each particular form show a good deal of affinity
with each other. They move in the same direction at the same
time and by about the same relative amount. For instance, if
we examine figure 1, Bernard's use of I, my,
and me, we can see that the three measures rise to
chapter II, drop slightly in chapter IV, rise again to
chapter V, rise slightly to chapter VII, then drop away to
chapter IX. It is true that the use of my drops
against the trend slightly in chapter II, drops between
chapters V and VII, and rises to chapter IX, but this should
be regarded as a fluctuation within the overall pattern.
This pattern of broad agreement within the graphs holds
generally for this group of pronoun measures. It is
conceivable that various outside factors could influence one,
or even all of the variables on any one graph, but it is
highly unlikely that all the variables would be affected to
the same degree. Thus, this striking synchronization of the
lexical elements would seem to indicate an overall pattern of
pronoun usage, rather than just the haphazard use of the
individual words involved. When the sets of words under
scrutiny all have some plausible common factor it is highly
likely that it is the use of this common factor which lies
behind the regular pattern. In this case the common element
would appear to be semantic in origin, and at a deeper level
than the individual meanings of the words involved. Thus, the
factor for the I, my and me set might be
'I-ness' or ego, that for you and your
would be 'you-ness' or other, and for we,
our and us the common denominator might be
'us-ness' or group. The use of this larger, more
semantic, class, as distinct from the individual lexical
elements, can then be used as a quantifiable indicator of the
types of speech or thoughts produced by a character during a
particular section of the novel.
This synchronization of lexical elements also makes it
possible to add the frequencies of usage of the individual
words together and thereby derive three aggregate scores: the
'I'-aggregate (representing the sum of I, my
and me and denoted by I), the 'We'-aggregate
(representing we, our and us and denoted
by We) and the 'You'-aggregate (representing
you and your and denoted by You). The
graphs for these are figures 19 - 24.
Because of this close synchronization, most of the
discussion of the pronoun results will be done in the
following section. However, it should be pointed out that
three of the eighteen graphs, specifically those detailing
the first person singular pronoun for Neville (figure 3),
Jinny (figure 4), and Susan (figure 6), all show some
internal lapses in synchronization. There seems to be no
discernible pattern to these lapses, and so in view of the
overall good synchronization of the rest of the pronoun
graphs, I am inclined to regard these isolated cases as
exceptions to the overall pattern.
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