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Bilgewater: Lexis
Task D - our answer
'Old'
An hour later and then the second interview - five of them this time
behind a table - four women, one man, all in old clothes. (18)
But don't think it is a good sign when they're nice to you, said old
Miss Bex. (37)
The instance of 'old' in sentence 18 is a bit negative. It comes immediately
after the description of the unpleasant first interview, and suggests
that the interviewees have not dressed up specially for the occasion.
Stereotypically, the young do not approve of the old ('old' can even be
a term of abuse in expressions like 'old fart', 'old bag'), and contextually
we assume that the candidate is in her late teens if she is applying to
university.
However, the same word in sentence 37 looks much more positive. Miss
Bex is someone who appears to supportive of her (a teacher from her school,
perhaps), and so 'old' here has positive, warmer connotations.
'Cold'
There is a cold white mist swirling about, rising from the river. (63)
But it is damp, old, cold, cold, cold. Cold as home. (68-9)
The occurrence of 'cold' sentence 63 seems relatively neutral. In 68,
on the other hand, because of its collocation with 'damp', it is negative,
and this is hammered home by the threefold repetition (which dramatically
foregrounds it). But the fourth 'cold', at the beginning of sentence 68,
and coming immediately after the trio repetition, has positive connotations
because of its collocation with 'home', which is prototypically positive.
This innovative structuring of the repetition of the word 'cold' is another
clue to the fact that the candidate appears to be changing her initially
negative attitude towards Cambridge.
It is also worth noticing that there is a semantic deviation in 'cold
as home'. 'Home' is stereotypically associated with warmth and comfort,
whereas stereotypically has opposite associations. But in context we can
resolve this foregrounded deviation interpretatively. The candidate comes
from the north, which is colder than areas further south in the UK. But
everyone usually has positive associations for home, wherever it is, and
even in the colder north, it is warm inside people's homes
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