character (Strickland) can be found. The author expresses his opinion, pushes the
addressee on a particular estimate:
He was independent of the opinion of his fellows. And it was just that which had
most disconcerted me in my dealings with him. When people say they do not care what
others think of them, for the most part they deceive themselves. Generally they mean
only that they will do as they choose, in the confidence that no one will know their
vagaries; and at the utmost only that they are willing to act contrary to the opinion of
the majority because they are supported by the approval of their neighbours. It is not
difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is
but the convention of your set. It affords you then an inordinate amount of self – esteem
[18].
The selected text fragment is the author`s digression-philosophical reasoning. In
the author`s digression there is the updated author's position on the subject of
significance for each person's opinion. The intention of the author judgments,
conclusions was the behavior and life principles of the main character (He was
independent of the opinion of his fellows). By its content, the author`s digression from
this or the other side reveals the traits of the main character, i.e., describes the subject
of the speech. The consistency of this digression with the text is defined firstly with
the presence of a commented element (Strickland behavior) and the presence of a
certain semantic and logical sequence of the described events.
The intention to create the next author`s digression is the communicative intention
of the author, he also determines its content, i.e. the addresser defines the personal
interpretation of the problem, as in the example of the author`s digression from the
novel by Kipling “The Light That Failed”:
Sometimes the hull is out of order, and we consult a surgeon; sometimes the
rigging; sometimes the engines, and we go to brain specialist; sometimes the look-out
on the bridge is tired, and then we see an oculist... A little patching and repairing from
time to time is all we want. An oculist, by all means [30].
The selected fragment of the text is a divergent author`s digression. The sentence
(We all want a little patching and repairing from time to time) is auto-semantic, but it
is the motivation for the next two sentences, namely for the author`s digression. The
theme of this sentence becomes the subject of the author`s digression and it is
developed inside. Thus, a chain link of the first sentence is developing with the
following, which is revealed in the words repetition (little patching and repairing). The
unity of this author`s digression with the text is provided by the unity of the theme,
which is specified in the first sentence.
The relation of the author`s digression with the text in some cases is carried out
by the associative cohesion. Association as a mental phenomenon is an imagination
relation made by the previous experience, because of which one imagination arising in
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