Basic framework for CAPS based analysis (although application does not happen within clean boxes):

Context
 Impact on text of contextual experience of the author (historical, social, cultural, personal) on
representations/meaning
 impact of reader’s contextual experience on reception of author’s intended meaning/positioning
 time and place (setting) of the text
 conditions of publication of text, including impact of textual medium on how meaning is communciated
 
Audience imperative (target audience and intended impact)
Purpose
 According to functions of text type, e.g. narrative (engagement and didacticism), news report (informational)
 Intended authorial impact/agenda
 
Stylistic choices (used to construct targeted meaning)
Consider textual medium and subsequent communication modes (visual, aural, written linguistic, spoken linguistic, spatial,
gestural) available to make choices within, e.g. stylistic choices for prose are limited to written linguistic mode (structural,
diction, techniques).
How does the text type*…influence the message of the text (relevant primarily to context
and stylistic choices). Responses relevant to formative test and extract from Adichie’s
Nigerian short story, Checking out…
Note: Remember the difference between text type and textual medium.
Text type (identified according to function, e.g. narrative, expository, persuasive, procedure, informational).
Textual medium/form, e.g. narrative text type can take the textual medium or form of film, novel, short story, poem.

Text type: Narrative (twofold purpose is to engage heart and mind/capture the imagination and implicitly
convey a didactic* message)
Didacticism* describes a type of literature that is written to inform or instruct the reader, especially in moral
or political lessons. While they are also meant to entertain the audience, the aesthetics in a didactic work of
literature are subordinate to the message it imparts.
Textual medium: Short story/prose.
Communication mode/s: written linguistic, spoken linguistic, aural, visual, spatial, gestural.
Macro elements: plot, character, setting, tone/atmosphere > theme (concept becomes theme when stylistic
choices are used to intentionally position readers)
Micro elements used to construct macro elements and associated meaning and positioning within the
written linguistic mode include: figurative and descriptive language > sensory imagery; dialogue;
symbolism>motif; irony etc. etc.
What happens when we change the text type and textual medium in terms the influence of the text’s
message? (relevant primarily to context and stylistic choices)

The didactic purpose of Adichie’s 2004, Nigerian novel, Purple Hibiscus is to demonstrate the impact of
colonial patriarchy on Nigerian society (primarily focused upon the marginalisation and
disempowerment experienced by women in this context, however, the detriment is not limited to
women as shown through the construction of Jaja’s characterisation). Adichie uses an array of stylistic
choices specific to structure/diction/techniques to construct the macro elements of her text to
implicitly achieve her didactic purpose.

How is this same message achieved through alternate text type/textual medium?

Explicit communication of values and idea.

Text type (identified according to function, e.g. narrative, expository, persuasive, procedure):?
Textual medium: letter
Communication mode/s: written linguistic
Context of publication: Feminist manifesto (to society) in the guise of a response friend
 Structure: Preface/Salutation/body/valediction
Language features:
Stylistic choice Evidence Effect in terms of achievement of purpose
First person “… I understand what you mean…”  
Second person “ What is your premise?”  
Language register is a combination of formal “ internalize the idea of gender roles”  
(characterised by metalanguage associated with “sometimes life just does its thing”
the topic) and conversational/colloquial (first
person voice) style
Rhetorical question answered by a series of What is your premise? Your feminist premise  
truncated sentences (structural) should be: I matter. I matter equally. Not ‘if
only’. Not ‘as long as’. I matter equally.
Quoting culturally relevant sayings (also called ‘men will be men’  
a proverb, maxim, or adage) ‘Because you are a girl’
High modality expression through unusual verb “Teach her that the idea of ‘gender roles’ is  
syntax. absolute nonsense.”
“Tell her that it is important to be able…”
“Buy her toys like blocks and trains…”
Personal anecdote “I remember being told as a child to…”  
Plural pronoun “We also need to question the idea…”  
Explicit imagery created through metaphor. “The knowledge of cooking does not come pre-  
installed in a vagina.”
Stylistic choice Evidence Effect in terms of achievement of purpose
 
Logic (created through syllogism*?) “We also need to question the idea of marriage as a  
  prize to women, because that is the basis of these
Syllogism: logical argument that applies deductive absurd debates. If we stop conditioning women to
reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two or see marriage as a prize, then we would have fewer
more propositions that are asserted or assumed to debates about a wife needing to cook in order to
be true.  earn that prize.”
   
Major premise:
All men are mortal.
Minor premise:
Socrates is a man.
Conclusion:
Therefore Socrates is moral.
 
 
Contrast created through parallel grammatical “In the girls’ section were pale creations in washed-  
structures within subsequent sentences and out shades of pink. I disliked them. The boys’ section
descriptive language. had outfits in vibrant shades of blue.
Emotive language “adorable against her brown skin… She looked  
horrified.”  
Dialogue “‘Blue for a girl?’”  
 
Metaphor creating tactile imagery (technique). “…they chafe against our true desires, our needs, our  
Anaphora (structure) of plural pronoun within the happiness.”
principle of three.