The Problem – Solution Pattern In Hemingway’s Cat in the Rain

Abstract

The ‘problem – Solution’ model of discourse structure, developed by Winter (1969, 1976, 1977) and extended by Hoey (1979, 1982, 1983) is one of the few models which combine surface linguistic study and local levels of text analysis with the overall structure of text. This model has been used in the analysis of non-narrative texts.

            It is hypothesized that:

1. The problem -Solution pattern is used in narrative texts.
2. The lexical items can signal the rhetorical pattern in the text. 

            The study aims at investigating the validity of the above hypotheses by using Hoey’s model of analysis on Hemingway’s Cat in the Rain.

            The analysis of the short story proved the validity of the proposed hypotheses and revealed the following:

• The writer followed a conventional order in presenting the information i.e. situation, problem, solution and evaluation.
• He communicated the rhetorical pattern to the reader through his clever use of the lexical items.
• The solution is always preceded by a pre-solution.

The positive solution signals the end of the discourse and the negative solution signals another problem which confirms the reader’s expectations