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Word class problems
Accessible / text version of answers to task
Daylong
Prototypically 'daylong' is an adjective (as in 'a daylong examination').
But here it must be an adverb functionally (with the meaning 'all day
long'). This combination of adjectival and adverbial meanings produces
an interesting and appropriate ambiguity at the beginning of the poem.
The cat is fast asleep and it is ambiguous as to whether the extreme length
of his inactivity is a condition relating to the stative verb 'lies' or
an inherent property of the unmoving tomcat, who sleeps all day because
he is awake and extremely active all night.
stretched flat
There are two words together here, and which word classes you relate
each word to depends upon how you relate them to each other and 'parse'
them in relation to the rest of the lines. 'Flat' is normally an adjective,
of course, and 'stretched' might be an adjective or a verb, depending
upon its grammatical context (cf. 'That is a stretched guitar string.'
vs. 'He slowly stretched.'). If we assume 'flat' is part of a comparative
construction 'flat as an old rough mat' then it is a normal adjective
and 'stretched' is ambiguous between its verbal and adjectival meanings.
But there is another possibility, which is made more easily construable
because the first line of the poem ends with 'flat', causing a possible
disjuncture between 'flat' and 'as an old rough mat':
Daylong this tomcat lies/ stretched flat/
As an old rough mat
In this case, 'as' might mean 'like' and 'stretched flat' could act functionally
as a reduced adverbial clause of manner, equivalent in meaning to 'stretched
flatly', in which case 'stretched' would be a verb and 'flat' would be
an adverb, functionally, derived from the adjective. The upshot of all
this is that, as with 'daylong', there are ambiguities in relation to
whether the aspects referred to are properties of the way in which the
tomcat sleeps or properties of the cat himself.
wide red,
As with 'stretched flat' we have put the two words together because a
consideration of their word-class assignment depends upon their inter-relation.
Standardly, 'wide' and 'red' are both adjectives. But functionally the
phrase 'wide red' appears to be an adverbial phrase in the clause 'he
yawns wide red'. If so, then 'red' would appear to be an adverb with roughly
the same meaning as 'redly', and 'wide' would also have to be an adverb,
as normally only adverbs sub-modify other adverbs (cf. 'incredibly quickly').
The overall result here is a combination of the two meanings for each
of the words. So, when the cat yawns we can imagine him with a wide mouth,
showing an expanse of red inside, and this result of the yawn can also
be related to the manner (a typically adverbial meaning) of the cat's
yawning - he yawns very widely (and very redly). So, as with the other
word-class ambiguities at the beginning of the poem, what is described
seems to be both an aspect of the manner of the activity (or, rather lack
of it!) described and a property of the tomcat himself. This cat is truly
what he does (or, at the beginning of the poem) doesn't.
Clawing
In this clause, 'clawing' must be a noun functionally, because it is
co-ordinated by 'and' to another noun, 'bite' and is modified by the possessive
pronoun 'its', which normally modifies head nouns in English noun phrases.
But the '-ing' ending is prototypically a verbal ending, indicating the
continuousness, or 'stretched out' property of the activity which the
verb 'refers' to. Hence the noun will be felt to have dynamic, verbal
qualities. This is one of the ways in which Hughes builds the tomcat's
dynamic character in spite of the fact that the first two stanzas of the
poem describe the cat as asleep and motionless.
Grallochs
You may well think that Hughes has invented this word. We did too until
we went to look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary! Let's assume for
a moment that he has made it up and see how we can infer its word class
and approximate meaning from context. 'Grallochs' is clearly a verb. Functionally
it has 'The tomcat' as its subject and 'odd dogs' as its object, and formally
it has the '-s' ending we normally find on third-person, present-tense
verbs. It would also appear that whatever the cat is doing, it is very
dynamic and unpleasant for the dogs concerned. This is (a) partly because
it is paralleled by a similarly unpleasant activity in relation to the
'simple pullet' in the next clause, (b) partly because we know schematically
that dogs usually attack cats, and so the cat is probably doing, rather
unusually, something which would overpower the dogs, and (c) partly because
of the word's phonetic constitution. The initial consonant cluster /gr/
comes at the beginning of a number of highly dynamic verbs in English
(cf. 'grab', 'grip' 'grind'), and if we don't know the meaning of 'gralloch'
in advance we are likely to notice these phonetic connections as we try
to infer a meaning for it. The stop consonant /k/ the end of the word
is likely, in this context, to be felt to have an appropriately 'hard'
quality too.
In fact 'grallochs' does already exist in English and has a rather specialised
meaning. It is what hunters do when they disembowel what they have just
killed. Hence a hunter could gralloch a deer.
So whether you infer a meaning or look it up in a dictionary, 'grallochs'
is a highly dynamic and unpleasant activity for its recipient. This all
adds to the build up of the macho, combative nature of the tomcat which
seemed so inactive when pictured asleep at the beginning of the poem.
Unkillable
Functionally, 'unkillable' must be an adjective, because it is the one-word
phrase acting as the complement to the verb 'is' and because '-able' is
an ending that derives adjectives from verbs (cf. 'drinkable', 'eatable').
The fact that the adjective is derived from a dynamic verb means that
although adjectives normally indicate stable properties, here that stable
property turns out to be pretty dynamic and strong, particularly when
we notice the added effect of the negative marker at the beginning of
the word. Derivationally, we have:
kill > killable > unkillable
So the 'un-' negates a meaning where something else acts dynamically
and destructively on the tomcat, thus indicating the cat's super-feline
strength and reinforcing what we have seen with many of the other unusual
words in this poem.
Owlish
'Owlish' is clearly an adjective derived from the noun 'owl' by the addition
of the '-ish' adjectival ending. It is an unusual word, of course, and
we need to infer its meaning in relation to the word 'moons' which it
modifies. How can a moon be 'owlish'? Well, first of all the adjective
emphasises the night-time. Although they can sometimes be seen in the
daylight, both owls and moons are prototypically associated with the night.
In addition, an owl's face is round, and so the moons referred to are
almost certainly full moons, which are prototypically associated with
abnormal, crazy or even magical activity.
Bekittenings
The derivation of this word would seem to be:
Kitten (noun) > bekitten (the noun turned into a dynamic verb meaning
to produce a kitten) > bekittening (dynamic verb made into a continuous
activity) > bekittenings (continuous activity made iterative, or habitually
repeated). Hence the final meaning is something like 'the iterative and
drawn-out activity of engendering kittens'. More evidence of the tomcat's
macho character.
Outcry
'Outcry' must be a noun here. It is co-ordinated to a prototypical noun
'eyes' and is in any case a perfectly normal noun in English, as the dictionary
will tell you. But it is clearly derived from a verbal form 'cry out',
and given the highly dynamic character of the tomcat seen in the other
derived words in this poem, the reader will be sensitised to looking for
this sort of derivation in what is the last word of the poem.
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