Grouping Task

My first grouping of text is of A+D as these texts share similarity's in their use of pragmatics in graphology. Both texts focus on children pragmatically, obviously texts to warn are designed to catch ones eye so the presence of bright colours is of paramount importance, in text A this graphological aspect has been manipulated to replicate a child's felt tips. The use of red signifies danger, analytically speaking one could even argue it also carries symbolical imagery to the child's blood, an eye opening aspect of graphology for the reader and parents specifically. This is reinforced with the felt tip being smudged in every red coloured word of the scruffy basic handwriting of the child, one can only imagine this has been done to further symbolise the child's fatal injuries as a result of ignorance on the parents part. A also carries a conditional sentence "If" gives a huge sense of uncertainty, maybe your child will die maybe they'll survive? "If" also has connotations to luck, no parent will gamble their child's life so therefore this lexical choice is completely in tone with the warning atmosphere of the text, accompanying this is the presence of the pronoun "you" this makes the text personal, as the text (unlike D) can be aggressive as children wont be necessarily reading it, it means the parents being almost interrogated.
D carries manipulation of graphology in a slightly different way, in this text the use of graphology is designed to entertain the audience (which happens to be children) now bright colours are also used to capture the attention, however in this text its to spark imagination instead of to spark shock, this is executed by whimsical characters, in this instance friendly looking pirates, this makes it easier for the child to transfer text into an image in their mind enhancing the experience instead of creating a interrogative atmosphere. Enhancing the imagery further is the manipulation of phonology, shown in the presence of the onomatopoeia "whine", a whine is not just a cry its an exasperating excruciating wail,  so to portray such a sound lexically a long vowel is perfect, as this elongates the sound and further elongates the word to symbolise such a long cry. An onomatopoeia allows the reader to not only picture but hear what is going on in the text, this allows a more vivid experience for the reader.

My second grouping is of texts  B&C as these texts both use interrogative sentences to cause effect. The texts differ substantially in some aspects, one being a comical script and the other a persuasive advert despite this they share this specific similarity. In text B, a script of Blackadder Goes Forth, comedy is made by the constant use of questions, in this banter between Baldrick and Blackadder a stream of basic questions is presented to phonologically build the audience up for the winning line "And the chances of there being two bullets with my name on them are very small indeed". The short snappy questions keep the audience interested and constantly amused at the frequently ridiculous answers. Interrogative sentences when spoken create a fluctuating pitch, obviously risen at the end of every sentence, this means the audience remain on their toes and involved, with the audience anticipating the answers to the questions with there prior knowledge to these comical witty characters. Text B also creates imagery, although not through graphology, like text C, as its a script its typically formatted so there's an intro informing of the surroundings. "there is a general atmosphere of mud" this is peculiar lexically as an atmosphere is generally thought of as the surrounding mood/air, now to say the atmosphere is mud gives semantics of an incredible mess and dirtiness, this exaggeration gives the imagery of an accurate picture of what the trenches were like in WW1, complete devastation.
    Now text C manipulates interrogative sentences for a different purpose, to persuade but also carries a pun. The semantic field to this text is clearly wood flooring, made present lexically and graphologically, so "Pining for a shiny new floor" amuses the reader with the manipulation of "pining" a word to describe an intense longing for something and "pine" the wood. This question almost works like a rhetorical question, giving you a sense of curiosity and the answer in one. Would you want wood flooring? Because we have it! This is the literal message for the reader. Text C also has vast amounts of imperatives commonly seen in persuasive texts, "sit" "lay down" "Roll over"  strangely, are commonly used as instructions to dogs, now this is peculiar because Ikea are referring to their customers as dogs, on one hand you could take this as an offence however you could look deeper and argue that what Ikea are really saying is that their service is so simple even a dog could do it! Accompanying this message is the one/two syllable imperatives giving the process of their wood flooring service a huge sense of simplicity, something all customers want.

Sound Symbolism Poetry

Wilfred Owen: Exposure extract
1 Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us ...
2 Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent ...
3 Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient ...
4 Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,
5 But nothing happens

Owen manipulates the use of his vowel lengths to explore the forever changing conditions soldiers faced during World War 1. Line one contains short sharp sounding vowels, "iced" for example creates a blunt atmosphere surrounding the readers imagination whilst picturing the conditions dictated in this poem. Not only does the short vowel create a cold air about the poem, it also symbolises the brutality involved and what Owen himself endured.

When read, this line also has clever control of sibilance. The use of the consonants constant "s" sound in "merciless iced east" creates dangerous imagery as a representation of the exact same conditions in WW1. The "s" is a trademark alarming sound as a result of its presence in words like snake, an animal feared by many. For the reader making such sounds means a fast high energy pace, symbolising a busy and dangerous environment.

Completely contrasting is line 3's "drooping" the long vowel changes the mood of the poem from high sharp energy to a deep dark symbolism of night. The long vowel makes the readers rhythm slow considerably, instead of the sharp blunt sounding short vowels the long vowel stretches, which calms the atmosphere and therefore the energy of the poem, making an effective way of symbolising the night, specifically symbolising silence.

Wilfred Owen: Anthem For Doomed Youth extract
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

This extract is riddled with onomatopoeia creating vast amounts of sound symbolism as a result. Firstly, Owen uses "rattle" to describe vividly the sound the speaker is experiencing at this moment in the poem, which happens to be the disturbing noise of riffles firing. The harsh tones created by the sound imagery helps the reader understand the symbolism of the WW1 poem considerably more and understand how disturbing/mind altering it must have been for those involved. Accompanying the onomatopoeia is once again the presence of a short vowel, the sound produced by a rifle is quick and sharp so to perfectly replicate this noise in writing the same sound should be made lexically, therefore a short vowel which speeds the pace and creates a choppy rhythm is perfect in "rattle" making it ever so easy for the reader to create the sound when spoken and therefore the imagery the poem entails.

Another example of sound imagery is "wailing". Owen gives the noun human characteristics to create a terrifying air, a wail is an awful cry heard typically when someone is in great pain, it is arguable that the presence of such a word in a traumatic poem should  not be taken literally, it is possible that as a result of shell shock, the speaker is hearing the cry of dying men and has mentally designated this to the constant intensity of bombardment and fighting produced in war, either way the trauma this would create has been channelled through to the onomatopoeia which creates the same sound imagery. The long vowel sound created by "ai" adds to the ordeal as this drags the word out considerably. A wail is not a short cry, it's an exhausting lengthy howl of pain, so to replicate the same needs to be said lexically. To draw out the vowel in tern elongates the word when spoken, this makes the reader feel the enduring suffering felt by the soldiers, symbolising perfectly the ordeal of such agony.