Style and Structure in Beckett's "Ping": "That Something Itself"

Author(s): Elisabeth Bregman Segrè

Source: Journal of Modern Literature, Vol. 6, No. 1, Samuel Beckett Special Number (Feb.,
1977), pp. 127-147
Published by: Indiana University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3831024
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ELISABETH BREGMAN SEGRE
AUSTIN, TEXAS

Style and Structure in

Beckett's " Ping" : That
Something Itself

BECKETT'S RECENT TEXT Ping (in his First Love and Other Shorts, 1974) is
an intriguing riddle. On a first reading, one comprehends next to noth-
ing; yet on a first listening (Beckett's texts must primarily be heard),1
one feels something intensely, something ineffable and far more musical
than verbal in quality.
The text itself may appear easy to understand. It is only four pages
(seventy sentences) long and is composed of frequently repeated
phrases containing short, familiar words. However, other characteristics
are unusual. The text includes no verbs and few articles or prepositions.
Short phrases are juxtaposed without benefit of punctuation or syntactic
cvnnectives. The very subject of the work seems unclear at the outset;
objects are ill-defined. The text appears discontinuous and even con-
fused.
In sum, our sense of logical, linear progression is thwarted, particu-
iarly by the interminable repetitions. Our habitual mentai processes of
understanding the written word prove to a large extent inoperable. But
as soon as we discard this analytical means, this secondary process of
cognition,2 as soon as we yield to the deeper primary processes of

l Beckett emphasizes the aural quality of his texts when he asserts, /'My work is a matter of fundamental sounds
made as fully as possible, and I accept the responsibility for nothing else.'t Samuel Beckett, in a statement to A
Schneider, on December 29, 1957. The Village Voice, XV (March 1958), 8, 15.

2 The usual thought process, the secondary process, is outward oriented and involves problem-solving,
analyses, ordering The primary process of cognition, on the other hand, is often considered prelogical or
primitive and involves unfocused attention, dedifferentiated, analogical, reverie-like thought. See Colin Martin-
dale, Romantic Progression: The Psychology of Literary History (Halstead Press, 1975).

127

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 ELISABETH BREGMAN SEGRE
128

cognition, to prelogical, dedifferentiated thought, we find the text un-

usually expressive, rhythmic, and resonant. We come to sense, as Alec
Reid says, "that immediacy of something experienced directly as dis-
ti nct from the more remote i m pact of someth i ng descri bed ." 3 The text is
not "about someth i ng; it is that something itself, " 4 as Beckett said with
admiration of Joyce's Work in Progress.
This "something" develops simultaneously on several levels. We find
ourselves helplessly expiring, at once protagonist (a small being in a
small space), witness to this scene, and author of the work. As life ebbs
away, thoughts and perceptions progressively fragment, and words fail
us. Throughout we experience polyrhythmic, polyphonic movements;
we feel an impact similar to that of music. The text seems to reach an
area of expression general Iy held i naccessi ble to verbal language.
How have these effects been achieved? What are Beckett's underly-
ing stylistic principles? What role do the omnipresent repetitions play? Is
Beckett using words as signs of meaning? If not, what is the dominant
function of his language? Such questions compel us to examine closely
the text and, in particular, its most outstanding quality: the repetitions.
Our resulting discoveries are striking, for they reveal not only Beckett's
ingenious stylistic innovations, but also the unsounded potentials of
language.
Verbal repetition, though present in the majority of Beckett's works
(for example, twenty-five percent of the early work, Watt, is composed
of repetition), occurs with the greatest concentration in "Ping," where
ninety-nine percent of the text is repeated phrases. The English "Ping"
contains substantially more repetitions than even the French version,
"Bing" (1966) and thus represents Beckett's mostextensive stylistic
exploration and use of repetition.5
In order to trace the variations and the constants of the repetitions, in
order to discern any possible developments and patterns, it is necessary
to establish which words are consistently juxtaposed. The opening
sentence of "Ping," for example, appears to have several possible com-
binations of words, one of which might be "All known all white bare/

3 This comment was made in reference to the body of Beckett's plays. Alec Reid, All I Can Manage, More Than
I Could (Grove Press, 1971), p. 29.

4 Samuel Beckett, "Dante . . . Bruno. Vico . . Joyce," Our Exagmination round His Factification for Incam
tion of Work in Progress (Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1929), p. 14.

5 All of the drafts of "Bing," unlike those of Beckett's other works, have been published. Since "Ping" contains
more repetitions than "Bing," as well as various other additions, "Ping" is more than a translation; it can be
considered the eleventh and final version of "Bing."

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STYLE AN D STRUCTURE IN "PING" 129

white body fixed/one yard legs joined like sewn." But this division
proves incorrect, for these groups of words do not appear together
repeatedly. Rather/ "bare" and "one yard" recur throughout the text
only with "white body fixed one yard":

1 bare white body fixed one yard

4 bare white body fixed
7 bare white body fixed fixed elsewhere
9 bare white body fixed white on white
17 bare white body fixed one yard fixed elsewhere
22 bare white body fixed one yard white on white
25 bare white body fixed fixed elsewhere
40 bare white body fixed one yard fixed elsewhere white on white
45 bare white body fixed one yard
59 bare white one yard fixed . . . fixed elsewhere
65 one yard bare white

A concordance of all such word-groups in 8'Ping," listing consistent

combinations, would be ideal. However, since this study is based en-
tirely on such a concordance,6 its presence here is not essential. The
word-groups range in length from a single word ("ping," for example) to
as many as sixteen words (the "eyes" word-group). Within each word-
group series, such as the above, there are variations: words are added or
deleted, and word order is changed. Each of these alternations has
immediate as well as long-range significance, for important parallel
patterns emerge.
The following study is divided into four parts. FirstJ individual words
and their semantic values are examined. Second, words in limited con-
texts (semantic doubles and contrasts) and their connotative poles are
studied. The third area of concentration is the still larger unit, the
word-group: its syntactic, formal, and semantic variants within each
word-group series. Finally, the sound patterns, which are an integral
part of the above units, are examined

i. The Play on the Semantic Value of Individual Words

Just as the text of "Ping" is unusual, so too are the semantic values of
individual words. Early on we find that the vocabulary does not carry its

6 Elisabeth B. Segre, "Style in Beckett's Prose: Repetition and the Transformation of the Functions of Lan-
guage," Dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1975.

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130 ELISABETH BREGMAN SEGRE

traditional referential7 weight. Words appear rootless and isolated from

one another because of the pervasive paratactic constructions. We may
expect specific denotations and clear contexts (for the meaning of a
word is the sum of its contexts), but the contexts evoked are frustratingly
elusive. The readerts role becomes crucial, for the work depends on the
reader's personal associations; the work grows, like a sponge, according
to what it absorbs. Because the contexts here are open, "Ping" can
absorb many differing interpretations simultaneously. The reader must
then look into himseif, rather than out from the text, for correspond-
ences. As he infuses his own associations, the work itself becomes his
personal experience.
Specific denotations are markedly absent in the case of the
onomatopoeic title word @'ping." Though its verbai connections within
the text are varied, and even contradictory, the implications of "ping"
are paradoxically quite suggestive. On ten of its thirty-four appearances,
/'ping" is followed by a "perhaps" word-group: "perhaps not alone"
"perhaps a way out," "perhaps a nature," "perhaps a meaning." Each
of these suggests some form of longing. Six other "ping's" are followed
by a "murmur" word-group, a possible indication of life. These word-
groups seem to carry faint positive associations, for these traces of phys-
ical and mental animation are in strong contrast to the otherwise bleak
and static scene. Forthese reasons the reader might betempted to
associate 8'ping" with some form of hope. Yet this inclination is coun-
teracted with another word linked with 'Xping," @silence" (five occur-
rences), for these are additional references to the dismal scene.
The word /'ping" is also frequently associated with a very different
group of words ("fixed elsewhere") and, through them, assumes a still
different role. On these twelve occasions it replaces the word "hop" of
the French text,8 but retains its contextt that of sudden movement or
change.

7 The '>REFERENTIAL" function, oriented "toward the CONTEXT," is the "'denotative, ' 'cognitive' func-
tion . . . the leading task of numerous messages." Other functions of language are the "emotive," "conative,"
'8phatic," "metalingual," and "poetic" functions. The "poetic" function is focused on the 8'MESSAGE for its own
sake,'t and is the "dominant, determining function . . . of verbal art." Roman Jakobson, "Closing Statements:
Linguistics and Poetics," Style in Language (M.l.T. Press, 1968), pp. 35W377. In "Ping," Beckett markedly
reduces the context of the message. The body in question, for example, rnay have limbs which are recognizably
humant but he has neither identity nor personality. He has a problem, but even this problem has no contextual
supports; the reader is presented with a cessatiorbut he is not sure of what.

8 For this reason "ping" appears much more often than its French counterpart, "bing" (thirty-four times in the
English version, twenty times in the French version).

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 STYLE AND STRUCTURE IN "PING" 131

Because of these separate and conflicting associations, it can be de-

duced that "ping" is not necessarily related to any of these word-
groups. "Ping" is then most likeiy only a sound emitted from some
outside, unrecognized source (as in Happy Days), which may or may
not trigger a response.9 The reader is thus faced with an open field of
associations, and none of these associations can be definitively substan-
tiated.
This play on the semantic value of words continues throughout the
text. Even the pronoun "all," forexample, though seemingly more ref-
erential in function than the onomatopoeic @'ping," proves to have no
identifiable application. As can be seen from its variations, this word-
group presents only the most nebulous of associations:

all known all white (four occurrences)

all known without within (two occurrences)
all white all over all of old (one occurrence)

The specific noun associated with @'all" is never mentioned. Towards

the end of the work the reader may have more of an idea about what it is
that is all white, but he is uninformed as to the extent of this "all." The
word is deliberately stripped of its objective context. Because of this
unknown, and because "all" is the sole representative of what is
being evoked, the word attracts attention to itself as a "signifier"-and
not so much as a "signified." It acts in much the same way that a color
or shape in an abstract painting draws the viewer's attention in the
absence of an objective form.
Beckett achieves similar results through his use of the changing
meanings (not only applications, described above) of words. The
homonyms "light blue,t' "light heat," and "light time" change meaning
from phrase to phrase, as do "perhaps a way out" and '#perhaps way out
there." With other vocabulary, meanings are simultaneous, not simply
sequential. The sense of the word "last," for example, becomes
enigmatic in the closing sentences of the work ("last colour," "ping
fixed last elsewhere," "last murmur") where it may mean former, or, far
more devastatingly, final. In context, this ambiguity has great dramatic
strength, as we shall see.

9 It is most appropriate that sound is an important element, as well as the title, of this text on dying. Sound is of
- great significance to a dying person, for the sense of hearing is often the last of the senses to go; sound is therefore
one's last contact with living.

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132 ELI SAB ETH B REGMAN SEG RE

Polysemy (where more than one sense is connected with the same
name) is simiiarly involved in the use of another phrase: "one second."
In most of its fifteen occurrences it immediately follows a noun or short
phrase and, thus, appears to espouse its meaning; in these cases "one
second" may mean a second nature, a second person, a second way
out, a second image. But these uses do not explain the meaning of "one
second" in the remaining cases. On close examination, more subtle, yet
more consistent, word arrangements strongly suggest the unexpectedl°
interpretation of '@one second" as a moment of time, an instant. For
every one of these "one second's" appears shortly after a sound, either
"ping" or "murmur." On four occasions "one second" is followed by
"same time a little less." "One second" thus easily corresponds to a
stage direction indicating a pause, and recalls Beckett's meticulous
concern with timing in his plays.
The play on the semantic value of words is continued through the use
of an opposite process: synonymy. I n a text which has a limited
vocabulary and an outstanding amount of verbal repetition, the use of
several different words for a single subject seems to be an
uncharacteristic luxury. "Walls," for example, is doubled by "planest';
"traces" is doubled by "blurs" and "signs." Are these slight differences
of meaning (recognizable things as opposed to mere shapes) significant?
Again, the reader is bewildered.
This effect is even more pronounced when conventional and unusual
registers are juxtaposed. For example, in

Eyes alone unover given blue light blue almost white

"unover" is striking as a contrived word in a rather ordinary lexical

context. Similarly, "given" is unusual (normally a past participle, it is
used here as a noun) and thus stands out. Reversed word-order in
"Ping" is also arresting; the simple phrase "not known" becomes the
puzzling "known not." Focus is thus on the signifiers, and only
subsequently on the signified. Syntactic ambivalence similarly (and
frequently) emphasizes individual words. For example, "light" in the
above quotation might be interpreted both as a noun meaning
"illumination," or as an adjective meaning "pale."
Through the play on the semantic value of words, and the syntactic
arrangements which accentuate this play, Beckett achieves several

'° This interpretation is unexpected because it implies an additional point of view (that of the author), a point of
view which jars with the other points of view, those of subject and onlooker.

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STY LE AN D STR UCTU RE I N " Pl N G" 133

effects. He disrupts the traditional referential, or exo-linguistic,ll content

of words; this is emphasized by the isolation imposed on them by the
absence of syntactic relations. His words thus become problematic;
they stand out and attract attention to themselves, individually.
Unlikewords in more conventional texts, words which have moreor
less stable and specific denotations, these words in Ping have, at best,
ambivalent, often fragile, associations. Through vagueness, homonymy,
polysemy, synonymy, juxtaposition of registers, and syntactic
ambivalence, Beckett presents cryptic meanings, enigmas, fluid
connotations. Meanings are present and yet absent simultaneously. This
suggestive quality both disconcerts and attracts. Yet this very flexibility
of words becomes their strength; the limited denotative value of words
proves lesser than their connotative powers.
Beckett's words do more than function as vehicles for ideas; they are
not transparent, but opaque; they represent themselves, their own po-
tential. They reveal the flexibility as well as the fragility of language, its
mystery and beauty. In drawing attention to this poetic function of
words, to the "MESSAGE for its own sake," in "promoting the palpabil-
ity of signs,''l2 Beckett enables us to participate with him in the experi-
ence of language. And this experience of language parallels in many
ways, as we shall see, the experience of life which Beckett presents in
"Ping."

11. The Rhythm of Opposites

As we have seen, certain words, individually, have tenuous semantic

values. But these same words, as well as others, are undermined once
again, through their wider thematic contexts, for negations and oppo-
sitions pervade the text.
The processes involved are refined extensions of Beckett's favorite
earlier method of undercutting language. Molloy, for example, begins
with "it is raining," and ends with "It was not raining." Such statements,

1I The content of a phrase issues from both the exo-linguistic and endo-linguistic associations. The exo-
linguistic content of words is based on associations exterior to language, to those objects and actions to which
words refer. The endo-linguistic content of words is based on associations interior to language, on its syntactic,
rhythmic, and phonetic relations. The content of music is then endo-linguistic, for it does not necessarily refer t
extra-musical phenomena. William Bright, "Points de contact entre langage et musique," Musique en jeu, No. 5
(1 971 ), p. 71

'2Jakobson, pp. 35>377.

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134

rare and striking in Molloy, are converted, in "Ping," into frequently

repeated, unassuming oppositions. Semantically opposed words are in-
sinuated throughout the text. Subtly, they spread to many of the main
subjects, where, because of their structural role, they provide the very
pulse of the work. Ultimately, the opposing elements signal the trans-
formation of each of these main subjects.
Often opposite poles are manifest, but their subject and cause are
unclear. One pair of opposites, "over" and "unover," for example,
seems to be of considerable importance, particularly since "over" is the
last word of "Ping." Yet, though the reader is told that it is over, he is not
quite certain what it is. The six "unover's" refer to eyes and traces; the
seven "over's" refer to eyes, nails, hair, mouth, and "all." But these
subjects are so numerous and varied that it is the attributes and their
polarity, not the subjects, which dominate those parts of the discourse.
The arrangement of these words in the text is i nteresti ng and charac-
teristic. The "unover's" do not simply (and logically) precede the
"over's"; rather, these opposite poles alternate and thus present an
unsettling oscillation, particularly toward the end of the text (see
Graph 1).
The tensions created by other semantic opposites are more agitated,
due to higher frequencies of alternation. "All known," for example, is
subtly and repeatedly negated by "known not," as well as by the coun-
terlogical "never seen." True, each of these phrases modifies a separate
group of subjects, but instead of providing clear distinctions between
what is known and what is not known, these assorted subjects with theiro
modifying phrases complicate matters, and spread contradictions to
many levels. What then, does "all known" mean, since it is repeatedly
contradicted? Is its meager referential value as significant as the uncer-
tainty which it exposes, the frenetic wavering from one absolute state-
ment to its opposite?
The oscillation between another pair of opposites, sound and silence,
is still more agitated. Sound, represented by "ping," is repeatedly jux-
taposed with "silence" and "no sound" as well as by attenuated mur-
murs.
These various frequencies of opposition are compared on the follow-
ing graph (Graph 1). Understated and diffuse, these contrasts derive their
strength from their pervasiveness and diversity. This synchronized
build-up, this intensification generated by a variety of voices, has the
impact which a single pair of opposites would be incapable of produc-
ing.

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 sentence number

0 1 0 20 30 40 50 60 70

unover

_over W\ 4

all known

_known not \X \ /\

murmur \/\t
silence-
no sound

Graph 1: Frequencies of opposition

Still other contrasts reveal not only the minute reverberations, but also
the overall structure of the work. The thematic opposition of whiteness
and color, for example, represents, through its development, the trans-
figuration which many of the main subjects undergo.
This whiteness dominates the novel, for besides being evoked at least
eighty times, the majority of subjects is described repeatedly as being
exclusively white. These include the "bare body," walls, planes, ceil-
ing, floor, feet, hair, nose, ears, and mouth.
Colors appear also, but they are immediately qualified as being only
faint colors. The eyes are blue ("given blue") in four instances, but the
majority of the time they are "light blue almost white." Toward the end
of the work, this blue disappears altogether, leaving the eyes an eerie
white.
The color rose also emerges, but it is very attenuated, for it is always
accompanied by the phrase "only just." At one point it is only a vesti-
gial rose, so effaced that it is a kind of white: "White scars invisible
same white as flesh torn of old given rose only just." In the next and last
reference to this shade, "Given rose only just one yard invisible," "in-
visible" describes "rose"; thus this faint touch of color, as well, has
vanished.

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136 ELISABETH BREGMAN SEGRE

Black also contrasts with white. It appears twice, in the descriptions of

the traces. On both occasions it is immediately qualified and changes
from "given black grey blurs" to "light grey almost white." Ultimately
this black, like the blue and the rose, disappears completely; the traces
are mentioned only in the context of being absent.
Thus, though colors emerge, these blues, pinks, and even blacks do
not show more than an ephemeral existence. Like the barely audible
murmurs caught between strident sounds and silence, these quiet tones
betray the subtle yet omnipresent tensions of some sort of life straining
to be. Each ghost of a color, each fragile sign, embodies the brink of
existence, the verge of non-existence.
As the gradual, somber effacement of colors takes place in "Ping," it is
echoed by still other subjects undergoing similar modifications and
dissolutions. Light, for example, is mentioned frequently throughout the
text and is described as having varying degrees of brilliance at different
moments. There is a highpoint when suddenly, in sentence 63, two
flashes are seen. Afterwards, this luminousness fades into the
background as attention focuses only on a single wall, and finally to t
single eye, which is now uniustrous.
Similarly, memory, tenuous as it was ("that much memory almost
never"), had been frequently invoked, and now it too disintegrates:
"that much memory henceforth never."
This disintegration and disappearance of coior, lines, light, and mem-
ory takes place at about the same time. Beginning with sentence 63
those inalterable modifications, suggested all along by the alternation of
presence and near-absence, do take place. Thus, assorted feeble signs of
life murmurs (see Graph 1), memory, perception of traces, colors, and
light-are repeatedly menaced and ultimately undone by indications of
nothingness and possible death silence, lack of memory, inability to
perceive (or nonexistence of) traces, whiteness, and faded light.
Thus if one traces the variations within each word-group, two sepa-
rate movements are evident. On the one hand there are the oscillations
between opposite poles, in their various forms of negations, contradic-
tions, and gradations. On the other hand, there are the long-term trans-
formations and dissolutions. These gradual, and finally more devastat-
ing, changes affect the various subjects almost simultaneously. They
mark the various stages of development of the work. This general struc-
ture, examined here on the semantic level, is seconded, as will be
demonstrated below (section 3), by a parallel movement on the syntac-
tic level.

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STYLE AN D STRUCTURE IN " PlNG" 1 37

The semantic basis of "Ping," with its polarity of emergence and

fading away of life, presents, almost inevitably, strong emotive rhythms.
Positive and negative associations emerge: hope for the perseverence of
life, despair at its extinction. These associations are most fully expressed
in the "perhaps" word-group. The majority of its variants follow, and
are thus possibly stimulated by '8ping," the sound of unknown source.
These phrases invoke the existence of "a way out," "a meaning," a
second being, a nature. Yet each supplication is in vain, for none is
answered; it meets only silence. The more hope is invoked (and unfulfil-
led), the more the reader is sure that this is a futile wish; its sheer
repetition numbs and defeats it. Hope, as implicit as it may be, is raised
and then obliterated soon afterward throughoutthe text; it accompanies
each reference to the appearance and fading away of color, lines,
sound, light, memory, and knowledge. This painful process repeats itself
interminably, making the tension and struggles increasingly poignant
and immediate.
As in music, the listener expects a certain amount of repetition. But an
exaggerated amount of repetition

arouses a strong expectation of change because continlJation is inhibited....

In a situation where repetition is not normal and understandable, the
longer a pattern or process persists, the stronger the expectation of
change.l3

The many short-term expectations expressed on the semantic level are

thus complimented by the long-term expectation of change aroused in
the reader by this saturation of repetitions. in this way tensions are
heightened once again. Simultaneously, the link of expectation and
disappointment, or frustration, on both levels, intensifies the sense of
precariousness and despair.
The reader thus becomes increasingly frustrated. The saturation of
repetitions overwhelms him just as it overwhelms the narrator(s) of
"Ping." Together they participate in the same experience.
This drama created by the extended rhythm of opposing poles
contributes to that extraordinary quality Alec Reid finds in Beckett's
texts: "the immediacy of something experienced directly." Beckett
creates this sensation through his presentation of brute experience,

13 Leonard B. Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (University of Chicago Press, 1968), pp. t35-136.

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 ELISABETH BREGMAN SEGRE
138

experience still in its original bewildering state, experience expressed

by this very welter of opposing poles. He is in effect recreating the kind
of disorder he admired in Proust's work:

By his [Proust's] impressionism I mean his non-logical statement of

phenomena in the order and exactitude of their perception, before they
have been distorted into intelligibility in order to be forced into a chain of
cause and effect . . . his explanations [of characters] are experimental and
not demonstrative. He explains them in order that they may appear as they
are inexplicable.l4

In " Ping," Beckett goes much further than Proust, but the principl
the same. For example, sentence 63 ("Afar flash of time all white all
over all of old ping flash white walls shining white no trace eyes holes
light blue almost white last colour ping white over.") includes no
glossing commentary of the body's condition. Instead, this stage is
presented in its brute state, contradictions and erratic allusions intact.
Throughout the text, these elements and opposing poles surface,
disappear, and resurface without the slightest appraisal or synthesis.
These characteristics are quite similar to qualities Beckett admired in the
painting of the Van Velde brothers: "d' irraisonne, d'ingenu, de non
combine, de mal leche.''15 To simplify the situation in "Bing" would be
to distort it.
The reader may be tempted to ask, for example, if the being in the
above sentence 63 is about to die, but no clarifying commentary is
offered. Explicitness would considerably lessen the dramatic impact of
the situation for "An emotion ceases to be an emotion the moment we
form a clear idea of it.''16 The content of these oppositions is primarily
endo- I i ngu i stic ( rather than exo-l i ngu istic, or referential), for it is
through the complex structural opposition that they produce the
mounting tension- and imminent disintegration vital to the drama of
"Ping." The readerof"Ping" is in intimatecontact, and in intimatecontact
only, with the seemingly disordered, wildly fluctuating elements. This
evocation of original unsorted states, this "primary order'17 which
confronts the reader, differs substantially from the presentations in more

14 Samuel Beckett, Proust (Grove Press, 1931), pp. 6S67.

15 Samuel Beckettr "La Peinture des Van Velde," Cahiers d'art, Nos. 20-21 (1945V, p. 352.

16 Spinoza, Ethics, V, quoted by Bruce F. Kawin, Telling It Again and Again (Cornell University Press, 1972), pp.
29-30.

17 Gilles Deleuze, Logique du sens (Paris: Editions de MinvJit, 1969), p. 122.

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STYLE AND STRUCTURE IN "PING" 139

conventional texts, where a "secondary organization''18 and a single

focus aid and direct him. The reader is drawn into the unexplained, the
unfiltered, in both content and form.
Thus content and form coincide, as Beckett intends: this "form . . .
admits the chaos . . . [it] accommodates the mess,''19 and it is through
this form that "Ping" derives its power as an experience.

111. The Varying Lengths of Word-Groups

As we have seen, semantic contrasts and their frequencies of opposi-

tion form a significant part of the structure of "Ping." But the most
important aspect of this structure is dependent on the varying lengths of
word-groups within word-group series. Once again, but in a more for-
mal sense, words cannot be understood individually; they can be
grasped only if they are taken as part of a series. As I propose to demon-
strate here, these word-groups graduaily grow in length as the work
progresses, becoming more detailed and elaborate; then, toward the last
lines, they suddenly fragment. These stylistic changes have serious re-
percusslons.

The "eyes" word-groupt for example, clearly demonstrates this de-

velopment. The sixteen variations range in length from the five words of
the first appearance, "only the eyes only just') (sentence 4), to the
sixteen words of sentence 38: @'Eyes holes light blue alone unover given
blue light blue almost white only colour fixed front." The word-group
continues to be composed of fifteen words (always in a consistent pat-
tern) in sentences 41 and 55 and then shortens dramatically to four
words by sentence 70.
The general development of growth and subsequent decrease in
length is significant because it is accompanied by a similar movement in
some of the other word-group series. Using numbers of words, a graph
of these progressions would look like Graph 11.
With this sampling of frequently recurring word-groups, certain con-
stants can be discerned. Between sentences 38 and 56 each word-group

'8 Deieuze, p. 1 Z2.

'9 Beckett quoted by Tom F. Driver, "Beckett by the Madeleine," Columbia University Forum, IV (# 3 1961),
23.

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 140 ELISABETH
10
5 t//\
Z \\ BREGMAN SEGRE

series displays its lengthiest versions. Following this growth, starting

with sentence 58, there is in most instances a shortening of word-group
lengths.
These coinciding phases have far-reaching importancef for they paral-
lel and thus emphasize other movements in the text. Those changes
described earlier, the permutation of signs of life to signs of lifelessness,
occur at almost the same time-- that is, in the same group of sentences,
as the shortening of word-groups. With the increasing number of allu-
sions to color and lines, for example, come the more rounded and
extended descriptions. Then, as descriptive phrases shrink in length, it

sentence number

0 1 0 20 30 40 50 60 70

eyes 15 , ,

lo < 9<

5 \ ,

traces 15 /\

number 5 \
of words
within a 0
word-group

murmurs 1 5

5 \< /\
o

body 1 5

Graph 11: Changing Length of Several Word-Groups

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STYLE AND STRUCTURE IN "PING" 141

appears that color, linest light, and memory also fade. Thus, those oc-
currences described on the semantic level are seconded by develop-
ments on the syntactic level. The intricacies of these syntactic changes
(the sorts of words added and those subsequently deleted) are also
significant since they further emphasize the developments mentioned
above.
The section between sentences 38 and 57 contains vocabulary and
word-groups present in this section alone, or in greater density than in
the remainder of the work. Thematically this passage contains a high
frequency of subjects carrying vague positive associations: soundt
color, images, and hope (suggested by the "perhaps" word-groups). As
opposed to other parts of the novel, there is a greater attention to detail
(nose, ears, hair, scars, nails, toes). One sentence in this section contains
the only two connectives of the entire text: "as" and "of" in "White
scars invisible same white as flesh torn of old given rose only just"
(sentence 52).
Thus, with the lengthening of sentences and the lengthening of
word-groups, comes qualified hope, attention to detail, and more cohe-
sive formulations of thought. All of these characteristics are quite dis-
tinct from the scarcity of allusions to hope, the more general observa-
tions, and the discontinuity of expression, the dystaxy, present in the
remainder of the work.
With sentence 57, this rounded, organic structure suddenly crumbles.
Sentences continue to lengthen, but this is not due to any unity of
subject or thought. On the contrary, sentences once again juxtapose
distantly related subjects and lose connectives. More important still,
subjects now lose their essential parts and are negated, crippled,
weakened in some way, or these very subjects are omitted from their
word-groups.
In the group of sentences 38 to 55, generally a single word-group,
sometimes two, would fi l l an entire sentence; here, however, several
word-groups are packed into single sentences. Sentence 64 contains
seven:

Ping / fixed last elsewhere / legs joined like sewn I heels together right angle
I hands hanging palms front / head haught / eyes white invisible fixed front
over.

Word-groups now lose their very subjects. "Bare white body,"

repeated in this form nine times, is suddenly referred to as "bare whit

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 142 ELISABETH BREGMAN SEGRE

(sentences 59 and 65); only attributes remain. And just as this main
subject is omitted, the usual word pattern of the group is disrupted, thus
further indicating confused, fractured thought. Similar transformations
take place in other word-group series, such as the "murmur" group.
Where vaguely coherent word-groups stood, only scattered traits,
attributes without subject, mere words without substance or identity,
remain. In still another wayt then, the existence of a statement is
precariously close to its non-existence.
Just at the same time as subjects, objects, and verb-forms break down,
plurals (such as "traces," "murmurs," and "planes") are crystallized as
singulars. Yet none of these slight changes have the dramatic impact of
the sudden switch, in the final sentences, of the consistently plural and
pale blue i'eyes" to the strange, surreal, singular black and white "eye't
(sentences 62 and 70). This eye must then not belong to the lone
protagonist, but to an unexpected, separate, second being. The content,
like the syntax of "Ping," thus becomes increasingly discontinuous,
leavi ng the reader on i ncreasi ngly trou bled grou nd .
After the jolting fiashes of sentence 63 there is a precipitated loss of
words, increasingly abrupt juxtapositions, and a frenetic accumulation
of previously repeated phrases. Among these shortened and garbled
phrases appear the ominous and final "old," "of old,'t "invisible,"
"over," "henceforth never." As the picture dissolves, the pace suddenly
slows painfully with the long word-group, the haunting detail, "eye
uniustrous black and white half closed long lashes imploring." Quickly,
all is definitively cut short by four wordst four abbreviated word-groups:
"ping silence ping over."
The intricate structuring and variations of recurring phrases in "Ping"
are thus of primary importance. For it is in following the rhythms that we
sense first a relative calm and the ensuing highly accelerated tensions of
the text. The pervasive breaking down of word-groups and the growing
disjunction of language together reveal the precipitation of incoherent
thoughts. We sense pending disintegration through these rhythmic
endo-l inguistic structures rather than through the referential, or
exo-linguistic, functions of language. Our experience is direct and
immediate for it is sensory rather than mental.

IV. The Phonetic Patterning

The phonetic patterning in J'Ping" (like the rhythmic arrangements)

plays a strong structural role. It may be expected that in translation the

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STYLE AND STRUCTURE IN "PING" 143

text would lose some of its phonetic texture and impact. But again, we
see Beckett's remarkable talent and sensitivity to the substance of
language, for it appears that the work actually gains in translation.
The many small changes (mostly additions) in "Ping" were probably
made in the interest of sound. "Tete boule bien haute," for example,
becomes "head haught," with translations of "boule" and "bien"
omitted for the sake of harmony. While the sound echoes in English are
sharper and simpler (juxtaposed initial "h's" and final dental occlusives
"t" and "d"), the French version characteristically displays complex
patterning ("the initial and final "t's" frame two words with initial
"b's"). Though repeated sounds pervade the French text, their effects
are subtle, due to delicate modulations. "S's," for example, often recur
in "signes sans sens," "souffle sans son," "sans sens," "sans son," "cils
suppliant," "silence," and in many other words and phrases. Sounds in
the English version, in comparison, are simple and almost harsh to
their advantage.
The word "white" is repeated more often than any other word in the
text. Its French equivalent"blanc" has a rather muted phonetic quality,
while the English word has the sharp and strident "i" and "t." Signifi-
cantly, Beckett added several "white's" to his text, perhaps to em-
phasize through sound the relevant harshness and poignancy of this
(lack of) color. These particular sounds are echoed throughout the work
in other frequently repeated words: "light," "right" (angle), "eyes,"
"signs," "heat," "feet," "fixed front," "not," "haught," to mention only
a few. Frequently words with similar sounds are juxtaposed in various
combinations, but the arrangements are never as complicated as in the
French version;20 the strength of sounds in the English text lies in their
harshness rather than in their subtlety.
The quality of sounds in "Ping" is nevertheless not as interesting as
what Beckett actually does with them and how he plays them off against
one another. Once more the impact in English is more forceful than in
French, and again Beckett heightens his effects by adding words.
The opening twenty-two sentences undergo few changes. As in the
French, sentences are short, words are generally monosyllabic. The
rhythm is even, similar syllables occur at regular intervals (identical
words are repeated a maximum of three times per sentence). But
sentences 23 and 24 (which include several word-order changes and

20 Segre, pp. 241-273

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 144 ELISABETH BREGMAN SEGRE

additions) show a marked increase in phonetic repetition, which in turn

creates a singularly insistent, jarring rhythm:

All white all known murmurs only just almost never a/ways the same al/
known. Light heat hands hanging palms front white on white invisiblev

The following sentences display in general either less repetition or

smoother, more subtle, unifying repetition (similar sounds are not
stressed rhythmically, because of syntax, as in the above sentence 23).
But certain unusual sound patterns stand out. Ominously, the phrase
l'almost never" occurs twice per sentence in three neighboring
sentences (30, 33, 39). Certain words, such as "overtt' 'Xnever,'/ and
"not" are stressed, for they appear repeatedly at the ends of sentences.

By sentence 56 words and syllables are again frequently and

prominently repeatedt thus recalling the earlier tension, but phrases are
sti 11 com piete and coherent. Yet th i s rel ative ca l m i s shattered i n
sentence 59 (below), not only by the truncated word-groups, but,
concomittantlyt by the ensuing uneven and rapid juxtaposition of
diverging sounds:

Bare white one yard fixed ping fixed elsewhere no sound legs joined like
sewn heels together right angle hands hanging palms front.

The iollowing two sentences are short and quick (together, they
composed a single sentence in the French version) and thus put in relief
the next long, painfully decelerated pace of sentence 62. The
word-groups are longer, and in iidim eye black and white half closed
longlashes imploring" the uncharacteristic "I's" and "o's" dramatically
lengthen the sentence. Simultaneously, the tempo slows, for these
phonetically simiiar words have increasing numbers of syllables,
moving from one syllable each to the three of "imploring.'/ Phonetically
and rhythmically, the text appears to be drawing to a close.

But the next sentence (63) jolts us dramatically with its many
word-groups and repetitions ("all," "white"), its jarring onomatopoeic
interruptions of @'flashes" and noise.

Afar flash of time all white all over all of old ping flash white walls shining
white no trace eyes holes light blue almost white last colour ping white
over.

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STYLE AND STRUCTURE IN "PING" 145

It is this sentence which undergoes the most changes in the English

version (eleven added or changed words, all italicized in the above
quotation). Many of these changes strengthen, quicken, or otherwise
enhance the rhythm of the work (the "eye" word-group is elongated in
order to emphasize the final fragmentation-see Graph 11). The
following sentence/ with its repeated initial "h's't ("head haught . . .
hands hanging") seems to react to the tension by panting in exhaustion.
The tempo rushes on again, sounds clashing, rhythms jarring. Finally,
in the last sentence, this subsides, and once again the pace slows pain-
fully with "eye uniustrous black and white half closed long lashes im-
ploring" and stops, permanently.
As we read the text aloud, the volume diminishes, and we find our-
selves whispering, out of breath, as if we were the protagonist/narrator of
"Ping." Why? Throughout the text the sentences have been growing in
length, gradually moving from one line to more than three. The slower
rhythms of the full word-groups have been compressed and quickened.
The ample sound flow of repetitions has suddenly and strategically been
supplanted by disjunction and discordance. Similarly, increasing
semantic oppositions and omissions cause our sense of tension and
fragmentation. For these reasons we become physically short-winded,
and the final words draw out our closing muted breath- then sharply
cut it off with "ping silence ping over."
We thus experience, through the endo-linguistic structures of sound
and rhythm, the initial accumulation of tensions, the slight relaxation,
the returning frantic rush of tensions, and the last expiring, powerless,
whispers. The sounds and rhythms of the text thus actually embody the
"ping's,t' the "murmurs," and, finally, the "silence."

V. Conclusion

The many repetitions, or, more precisely, near-repetitions, of "Ping"

thus prove to have variations of crucial importance. Each is an objective
correlative of an emotional, perceptual, and physical state of the nar-
rator(s). Each constitutes a separate, vital, and different moment in his
existence, and together they evoke the subtle, irreversible design of his
failing progress.
To this effect, the semantic, syntactic, rhythmic, and phonetic struc-
tures of the text complement one another, as we have seen. Form and

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 ELISABETH BREGMAN SEGRE
146

content become one, just as Beckett intends; "form admits the chaos . . .
it accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.''2l
In the process, Beckett dislodges our use of both language and logic.
The semantic value of the vocabulary is unusual, for words lose much of
their referential function. Words appear to have no identifiable meaning
("ping"), vague meaning, or multiple meanings. Semantic contrasts
(and perceptions) simultaneously oppose one another and fuse: colors
merge with whites, sound with silence, limited space with infinity, and,
with them, hope mingles with despair, living with dying. There are no
facile distinctions here, no clarifying precisions, no single focus, no
logical, rational organization.22 Instead we find fluid, arational, indiffer-
entiabie perceptions: our fundamental "primary process" of cognition.
Beckett is in effect "destructuring"23 both the conventional narrative
and the language which composes it, for he disrupts specific denota-
tions and logical progressions. Simultaneously, he reveals what lies
beyond these conventional limitations imposed on language. In addi-
tion to presenting broad, versatile connotations for words (rather than
specific denotations), Beckett builds suggestive, resonant, endo-
linguistic arrangements. These arrangements are based not on associa-
tions exterior to language; rather, as in music, they are based on the
interior structure of the work on the syntactic, rhythmic, and phonetic
relationships between phrases. The text then follows a musical, rather
than a discursive, progression. It is in these wayst through repetitions,
that Beckett reaches an area of expression generally held to be
nonverbal inaccessible to language.
We sense in "Ping't that we are experiencing existence itself, being
on the brink of non-being, the fluidity and formlessness of our percep-
tions and emotions, in sum, in Beckett's words, our fundamental "impo-
tence, ignorance."24 Because of the repetitions, because of their fusions,

21 Beckett quoted by Driver, p. 23.

22 'XEven poetry cannot abandon logic, but can give the illusion of doing so. One of the richest techniques in the
generation of this illusion is repetition." Kawin, p. 171.

23 Jacques Derrida, "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences," in Richard Macksey
and Eugenio Donato, eds., The Language of Criticism and the Sciences of Man: The Structuralist Controversy,
(Johns Hopkins Press, 1970).

24 ail'm working with impotence, ignorance." Beckett quoted by Israel Shenker, 'XMoody Man of Letters," New
York Times, May 6, 1956, Section 2, p. 3.

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STYLE AND STRUCTURE IN "PING" 147

oscillations, and endo-linguistic structure, the work is not "about some-

thing" that is past and described; rather, it is a music, a nearly ineffable
progression, it is happening as we read it, it is "that something itself."25

25 Beckett, Our Exagmination, p. 14^

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