Language

Style of language

The language of the short story “A Good Night’s Sleep” by Brian McCabe is generally easy to follow and understand. The author uses the standard dialect of the English language as spoken and written in the United Kingdom.

The choice of words indicates an informal style of writing. Certain informal expressions, such as “ ‘What’s it to you’ ” (p. 150, l. 27) or “ wring its neck” (p. 149, l. 3), are used. Contractions such as “he’d”, “I’ll”, “couldn’t”, etc. are present throughout the text. They are mainly used in the dialogue, giving it authenticity and conveying a feeling of informality between the characters.

Certain words and phrases are written in italics to show emphasis: “ ‘I was trying to sleep!’ ‘Out here?’ ” (p. 149, ll. 20-21) Italics are also used to convey the thoughts of a character or to show a character remembering something that was said to them: “She was definitely going to die out there and she didn’t care – And don’t start telling me you do because you fucking well don’t. Nobody does! – and Lockhart wondered if he’d maybe been too impatient with her” (p. 153, ll. 7-11).

Descriptive language

Descriptive language is present throughout the text and is usually used in connection with the characters and the setting. The author makes use of vivid and descriptive language which ...