STYLE AND LANGUAGE IN THE ACHIEVEMENT OF TONE
Tone does to literature what cinematography does to a movie. Regardless of the kind of literature, tone is important in setting the mood of a literary piece and creating a pseudo atmosphere conducive to the reader of a literary piece. Why is this necessary Literature is considered as an elite art form and literary appreciation requires a certain level of intelligence. Other than this, the only visual input that one would get from literature are the words on the page, or in some cases, the voice of someone on a recorder or a speaker, reciting a poem or telling a tale because of this, the rest is to the audience unlike the visual arts where the visual stimulus is immediate or the performing arts which consist of a conglomeration of many art genres that complement each other resulting in a multi-layered perspective of art.
This quality of literature requires that for the audience to appreciate it better, the right amount of stimulus is given through the words to create a mental atmosphere that will allow the story or the poem to unfold and the imagination to supply the missing details that are not visually available on a page of literature. With words as the basic media in the achievement of tone, literature uses two basic devices to do this, style and language. Style includes such other literary devices as point of view, figurative language, and line cutting to achieve tone, while language includes vocabulary as well as the sentence patterns used. In Alice Walkers Everyday Use, Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour and Langston Hughes Dream Deferred style and language play a very important role in the achievement of tone. To understand how style and language both work to achieve tone in a piece of literature, it is first necessary to go deeper into the conventions of style and language.
Style, as mentioned, includes elements like point of view, figurative language, line cutting, as well as the mode of deliver for some pieces of literature. This serves to achieve tone by creating consistency in the piece. For instance, if a story is awash with figurative language instead of direct statements a reader would perceive the story to be more meditative instead of aggressive. IN the same manner, in poetry, line enjambment also achieves a contemplative tone in the poem instead of the formalistic and almost structured feel of a poem written in bound and uniform lines. As for point of view, Edgar Allan Poe was the master of achieving tone using the point of view. In most cases, the point of view is often overlooked, but what most people do not know is that the point of view actually does many things to a piece of literature. In fiction, for example, a first person point of view situates the reader as a participant spectator to the events that unfold participant to the narrator of the story who is also a character in the story. This gives the story a more distant tone, quite like knowing what happens in a movie when someone tells you all about it. As a result, the audience does not have control over what happens in the story, and so the one builds an imaginary wall between the reader and the story, somewhat isolating the audience.
This is effective in achieving a tone where the reader does not have to agree with the protagonist-narrator, and the reader only needs to appreciate the story as it is written, devoid of the intrusion of hisher personal opinion. Such stories also aim to win the sympathy of the reader to the narrator or other characters in the story in relation to the events that unfold or the circumstances that surround the narrator or any other character which may be considered in literature as the significant human experience (SHE). A third person point of view on the other hand allows the audience to access the internal workings of the characters and so gives the story an almost psychological feel to it. The third person point of view is often termed as the god point of view because the teller of the tale has access even to the thoughts of the characters in the story. This gives the story a broader tone and allows more participation from the reader not that the reader can influence how the story will unfold, but at least it gives the reader this kind of illusion of control. In poetry, the point of view is often tied together with the I of the voice in the poem.
The reader sees things from the point of view of the voice that should not be automatically equated with the poet as most poets create a separate persona in their pieces to give their poems more flesh and so achieve what poetry is often attributed with achieving, concreteness of abstract emotions or ideals. Therefore, in poetry, the point of view is a main element that determines the tone of the poem the take of the voice of the issue at hand is very important in setting the tone and how the voice handles the subject becomes the basis for the tone of the poem. Finally, the mode of delivery, if it is epistolary or confessional, or straight narrative, also affects the tone of the piece. In many stories and poems the mode of delivery often allows the audience to easily associate the piece with something in real life and so contributes to the general experience of literature.
In terms of language and how this affects tone, each piece of literature uses a distinct kind of language to give it a unique feel. For instance, in the Pulitzer Prize winning novel of Alice Walker, The Colour Purple, which is an epistolary novel, she uses Creole language to give the novel an authentic African-American tone. In the same way, the kind of language used creates a cultural platform for the tone of literature. If the writer uses language associated with young people, then the piece will achieve a more juvenile tone, while using formalistic language will give the piece a period or archaic tone. These are the ways by which language and style affect the tone of a piece of literature.
In the three pieces concerned, the two stories both by Alice Walker and Kate Chopin, and the poem by Langman Hughes all illustrate how style and language are used to achieve certain tones in each of the pieces. Initially, upon reading the three pieces, what is immediately noticeable is the fact that Walkers story is heavy with figurative language, while the story by Chopin is more direct in approach. The interesting thing is when language is taken into light. In Walkers story she combines heavy figurative language with the stark language of the blacks and achieve a contemplative but at the same time, aggressive and urgent tone. This is not true with Chopins story which consistently uses direct language giving the piece a more indifferent tone. Hughes poem, as the third piece, like Walkers piece, is suffused with figurative language but also presented in the stark language of the blacks, achieving a contemplative and somewhat playful tone, despite the seriousness of the subject being tackled. Considering the themes of the pieces, the reason for the style and language employed becomes clearer.
Walkers story is generally about the preservation of heritage but makes references to the difficulties of African-Americans during contemporary times and how this time is different from the past Chopins story is about liberation on a more personal level, as well as death and Hughes piece is about ambition and not being able to achieve ones goals verily, one can conclude that the reason for the employed style of Walker is her piece is to direct the audience to the greater issue of heritage and history, hence, the use of symbolism and figurative language which gives the story a hidden tone which is the typical tone of most of the African slaves art genres during the transatlantic slave trade. Chopins piece, on the other hand, because of the abstract matter tackled, has to be indifferent in ton to allow the audience of the reader to make hisher own conclusions. Finally, Hughes poem is reminiscent of the work songs and shouts of the African slaves of the past, songs that were not actually for entertainment but for communication, hence, the hidden and figuratively presented messages.
Walkers story is about a mother who has two daughters, Maggie and Dee. Dee ran off to marry a well-off lad while Maggie remained with her mother in a decrepit house in a farm because she was the less intelligent of the two, as is suggested in the story. Soon, Dee returns to visit her mother and tries to impose black liberal contemporary beliefs on her mother and her sister but the mother reminds her that they should not forget what their ancestors had gone through. Dee then attempts to take the quilts made by her ancestors from her mother saying that she would preserve these and hang them up, but the mother refuses because according to her these quilts were reserved for Maggie. Dee insists on having the quilts saying that Maggie would just use these until they were old useless rags. Then, the story takes an unexpected twist when Maggie, hearing the argument between her mother and her sister, agrees to give the quilts to Dee. The mother still refuses and Dee leaves the house empty handed. The story is told in the first person perspective or point of view, from the point of view of the mother and this creative decision by the author gives the narrator a more authoritative stance, giving the story a very ancestral and advocating tone.
The suffusion of figurative language in the story serves to complement the general symbology of the quilt and what it represents. This abundance of figurative language is textually evident, such as in the lines, She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, (Walker) a hyperbole referring to the sisters dominant, outgoing, and controlling personality, My fat keeps me hot in zero weather, (Walker) another hyperbole referring to the heavy built of the protagonist, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake, (Walker) a simile describing the skin colour of the protagonist to be mottled, and She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didnt necessarily need to know, (Walker) which is a metaphor symbolizing the efforts of the protagonists mother to conceal the truth from her children and teach them things that an ordinary child is not supposed to learn at a juvenile age. These figures of speech in the story give it an almost guarded tone, perhaps in preparation and in anticipation of the larger symbolism represented by the quilt in the end. In terms of language, as the story is told from the point of view of the mother, contemporary black language is used adding to the authenticity as well as to the aggressive and quite urgent tone of the story.
This type of language is seen in the dialogue between the mother and the daughters, such as in the line, Why shouldnt I I asked. If thats what you want us to call you, well call you., (Walker) indicating how the protagonist seems to have a problem with grammar, typical of black speakers, and the line, I said.Ream it out again. (Walker) illustrating the use of unconventional and relatively endemic idiomatic expressions. This use of black language is even portrayed in the narration, which incidentally is also narrated by a black protagonist, such as in the lines, I wanted to ask him was he a barber, but I didnt really think he was, so I didnt ask., (Walker) and chitlins and com bread, the greens and everything else. She talked a blue streak over the sweet potatoes. (Walker) both portraying a speaking pattern that intentionally omits certain sentence essentials and bases sentence and word construction on sound instead of grammar.
The most important symbology in this piece is when the mother describes the quilt to be a patchwork of fabric from past ancestors, and when Maggie says to her mother in the end, I can member Grandma Dee without the quilts. (Walker) This line from Maggie forms a critical point in the story as it validates that the quilt is not really the item being quarrelled over but the memory of black slavery. All these stylistic and language elements all contribute to the establishment of the tone in this particular story. The same is true for the second story written by Kate Chopin.
Chopins story is about Mrs. Mallard, a lady whose husband was supposedly killed in a vehicular accident. Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as someone with a heart condition, so when news of the death of her husband came in, her sister Josephine took extra care in revealing this to Mrs. Mallard. Surprisingly, the protagonist does not show the usual reaction to the news of the death of a loved one instead she quietly retires to her room and spends time contemplating about herself and her life with her husband. Later, while contemplating, she concludes that the death of her husband was necessary for her to enjoy self-liberation and freedom and to begin living for herself as she felt constrained in the presence of her husband. She then takes on upon herself a somewhat sick sense of joy at the loss of her husband. In an exciting ending to the story, it turns out that the husband was alive and his death was reported mistakenly. The husband returns to their home and upon seeing him alive, instead of rejoicing, Mrs. Mallard drops dead. This story is told in the third person point of view and the reason for this is that it is necessary in the unfolding of the story that the audience be given access to the thoughts of the protagonist.
This gives the story a meditative tone. There are barely any metaphors in the story indicating the absence of much figurative language, giving it a more direct tone of storytelling as well as a more sterile feel to it. We see this directness and formalism in narration in lines like, She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength., (Chopin) and Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold, imploring for admission. (Chopin) and even in dialogue lines like, Go away. I am not making myself ill. (Chopin) These lines show how clean and stiff the narrative style is, making the reader conclude that the story is told in an almost academic, matter-of-factly tone.
The direct language gives the story an indifferent tone in such that reading the story one would feel a bit detached from the characters and the protagonist. This is a requirement in the story because as mentioned, it is about a lady with a heart condition and giving the audience unabashed access to the unfolding of the story would overdo the plot and would make it sound begging and contrived. Hence, the language and style serves to achieve an indifferent tone to keep the audience at bay and allow the events to unfold without compromising the plot.
Hughes poem, A Dream Deferred is written in the tradition of the work song of the slaves during the transatlantic slave trade. As history would tell us, the work song was a song that the white masters of slaves had them sing during work for entertainment, but since the slaves were not allowed to talk during their work, they used these songs to convey messages to the other slaves who were working in the plantation. In terms of style, the poem achieves a melodic or playful tone with the proper placement of sounds in the poem. First, we see this clever placement of sound in the terminal rhyme, such as in the lines, Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun Or fester like a sore-- And then run. (2-5) Other than just the internal rhyme, the short brief lines also contribute to this jazzy rhythmic tone, such as, And then run... Maybe it just sags Or does it explode (5,9,11) Then, in terms of organization the poem also builds up the imagery with vivid verbs, as in, dry-upfesterrunstinkcrustsagsexplode. (2-11) The explosion in the end is suggestive of the long-drawn emotions that eventually go over the top, and explode. The conveyance of the message is mostly seen in the symbology of this very short poem as it is as well heavy with figurative language.
Most of this figurative language are similes such as in the second to fifth lines which describe a raisin drying up referring to or symbolizing the hard labour that the blacks had to go through in the presence of white masters, or in the same lines where an deferred dream (1) is described as a festering sore, indicative of the physical pain the slaves had to go through. Of course the most important metaphor is when the dream is portrayed as something that will explode in the end, which is symbolic of the liberation movement of the slaves that resulted in the abolition of slavery and freedom for the blacks. At first reading one might dismiss the poem as an immature musing because it is presented in al almost nursery-rhymey tone, but on close perusal, it becomes evident that this tone is used to conceal the mores serious message of individuality in the pursuit of ambition. The language used in the poem contributes even more to the playful tone. The use of black language and vocabulary serves to make it more authentic and reminiscent of the poems early ancestors, the work song and the shout.
Literature is indeed very interesting and as shown in these three pieces of literature, a very important element of literature, tone, can be achieved in more ways than one, in particular by using style and language to endow the piece of literature with qualities that are instrumental in building tone.
This quality of literature requires that for the audience to appreciate it better, the right amount of stimulus is given through the words to create a mental atmosphere that will allow the story or the poem to unfold and the imagination to supply the missing details that are not visually available on a page of literature. With words as the basic media in the achievement of tone, literature uses two basic devices to do this, style and language. Style includes such other literary devices as point of view, figurative language, and line cutting to achieve tone, while language includes vocabulary as well as the sentence patterns used. In Alice Walkers Everyday Use, Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour and Langston Hughes Dream Deferred style and language play a very important role in the achievement of tone. To understand how style and language both work to achieve tone in a piece of literature, it is first necessary to go deeper into the conventions of style and language.
Style, as mentioned, includes elements like point of view, figurative language, line cutting, as well as the mode of deliver for some pieces of literature. This serves to achieve tone by creating consistency in the piece. For instance, if a story is awash with figurative language instead of direct statements a reader would perceive the story to be more meditative instead of aggressive. IN the same manner, in poetry, line enjambment also achieves a contemplative tone in the poem instead of the formalistic and almost structured feel of a poem written in bound and uniform lines. As for point of view, Edgar Allan Poe was the master of achieving tone using the point of view. In most cases, the point of view is often overlooked, but what most people do not know is that the point of view actually does many things to a piece of literature. In fiction, for example, a first person point of view situates the reader as a participant spectator to the events that unfold participant to the narrator of the story who is also a character in the story. This gives the story a more distant tone, quite like knowing what happens in a movie when someone tells you all about it. As a result, the audience does not have control over what happens in the story, and so the one builds an imaginary wall between the reader and the story, somewhat isolating the audience.
This is effective in achieving a tone where the reader does not have to agree with the protagonist-narrator, and the reader only needs to appreciate the story as it is written, devoid of the intrusion of hisher personal opinion. Such stories also aim to win the sympathy of the reader to the narrator or other characters in the story in relation to the events that unfold or the circumstances that surround the narrator or any other character which may be considered in literature as the significant human experience (SHE). A third person point of view on the other hand allows the audience to access the internal workings of the characters and so gives the story an almost psychological feel to it. The third person point of view is often termed as the god point of view because the teller of the tale has access even to the thoughts of the characters in the story. This gives the story a broader tone and allows more participation from the reader not that the reader can influence how the story will unfold, but at least it gives the reader this kind of illusion of control. In poetry, the point of view is often tied together with the I of the voice in the poem.
The reader sees things from the point of view of the voice that should not be automatically equated with the poet as most poets create a separate persona in their pieces to give their poems more flesh and so achieve what poetry is often attributed with achieving, concreteness of abstract emotions or ideals. Therefore, in poetry, the point of view is a main element that determines the tone of the poem the take of the voice of the issue at hand is very important in setting the tone and how the voice handles the subject becomes the basis for the tone of the poem. Finally, the mode of delivery, if it is epistolary or confessional, or straight narrative, also affects the tone of the piece. In many stories and poems the mode of delivery often allows the audience to easily associate the piece with something in real life and so contributes to the general experience of literature.
In terms of language and how this affects tone, each piece of literature uses a distinct kind of language to give it a unique feel. For instance, in the Pulitzer Prize winning novel of Alice Walker, The Colour Purple, which is an epistolary novel, she uses Creole language to give the novel an authentic African-American tone. In the same way, the kind of language used creates a cultural platform for the tone of literature. If the writer uses language associated with young people, then the piece will achieve a more juvenile tone, while using formalistic language will give the piece a period or archaic tone. These are the ways by which language and style affect the tone of a piece of literature.
In the three pieces concerned, the two stories both by Alice Walker and Kate Chopin, and the poem by Langman Hughes all illustrate how style and language are used to achieve certain tones in each of the pieces. Initially, upon reading the three pieces, what is immediately noticeable is the fact that Walkers story is heavy with figurative language, while the story by Chopin is more direct in approach. The interesting thing is when language is taken into light. In Walkers story she combines heavy figurative language with the stark language of the blacks and achieve a contemplative but at the same time, aggressive and urgent tone. This is not true with Chopins story which consistently uses direct language giving the piece a more indifferent tone. Hughes poem, as the third piece, like Walkers piece, is suffused with figurative language but also presented in the stark language of the blacks, achieving a contemplative and somewhat playful tone, despite the seriousness of the subject being tackled. Considering the themes of the pieces, the reason for the style and language employed becomes clearer.
Walkers story is generally about the preservation of heritage but makes references to the difficulties of African-Americans during contemporary times and how this time is different from the past Chopins story is about liberation on a more personal level, as well as death and Hughes piece is about ambition and not being able to achieve ones goals verily, one can conclude that the reason for the employed style of Walker is her piece is to direct the audience to the greater issue of heritage and history, hence, the use of symbolism and figurative language which gives the story a hidden tone which is the typical tone of most of the African slaves art genres during the transatlantic slave trade. Chopins piece, on the other hand, because of the abstract matter tackled, has to be indifferent in ton to allow the audience of the reader to make hisher own conclusions. Finally, Hughes poem is reminiscent of the work songs and shouts of the African slaves of the past, songs that were not actually for entertainment but for communication, hence, the hidden and figuratively presented messages.
Walkers story is about a mother who has two daughters, Maggie and Dee. Dee ran off to marry a well-off lad while Maggie remained with her mother in a decrepit house in a farm because she was the less intelligent of the two, as is suggested in the story. Soon, Dee returns to visit her mother and tries to impose black liberal contemporary beliefs on her mother and her sister but the mother reminds her that they should not forget what their ancestors had gone through. Dee then attempts to take the quilts made by her ancestors from her mother saying that she would preserve these and hang them up, but the mother refuses because according to her these quilts were reserved for Maggie. Dee insists on having the quilts saying that Maggie would just use these until they were old useless rags. Then, the story takes an unexpected twist when Maggie, hearing the argument between her mother and her sister, agrees to give the quilts to Dee. The mother still refuses and Dee leaves the house empty handed. The story is told in the first person perspective or point of view, from the point of view of the mother and this creative decision by the author gives the narrator a more authoritative stance, giving the story a very ancestral and advocating tone.
The suffusion of figurative language in the story serves to complement the general symbology of the quilt and what it represents. This abundance of figurative language is textually evident, such as in the lines, She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, (Walker) a hyperbole referring to the sisters dominant, outgoing, and controlling personality, My fat keeps me hot in zero weather, (Walker) another hyperbole referring to the heavy built of the protagonist, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake, (Walker) a simile describing the skin colour of the protagonist to be mottled, and She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didnt necessarily need to know, (Walker) which is a metaphor symbolizing the efforts of the protagonists mother to conceal the truth from her children and teach them things that an ordinary child is not supposed to learn at a juvenile age. These figures of speech in the story give it an almost guarded tone, perhaps in preparation and in anticipation of the larger symbolism represented by the quilt in the end. In terms of language, as the story is told from the point of view of the mother, contemporary black language is used adding to the authenticity as well as to the aggressive and quite urgent tone of the story.
This type of language is seen in the dialogue between the mother and the daughters, such as in the line, Why shouldnt I I asked. If thats what you want us to call you, well call you., (Walker) indicating how the protagonist seems to have a problem with grammar, typical of black speakers, and the line, I said.Ream it out again. (Walker) illustrating the use of unconventional and relatively endemic idiomatic expressions. This use of black language is even portrayed in the narration, which incidentally is also narrated by a black protagonist, such as in the lines, I wanted to ask him was he a barber, but I didnt really think he was, so I didnt ask., (Walker) and chitlins and com bread, the greens and everything else. She talked a blue streak over the sweet potatoes. (Walker) both portraying a speaking pattern that intentionally omits certain sentence essentials and bases sentence and word construction on sound instead of grammar.
The most important symbology in this piece is when the mother describes the quilt to be a patchwork of fabric from past ancestors, and when Maggie says to her mother in the end, I can member Grandma Dee without the quilts. (Walker) This line from Maggie forms a critical point in the story as it validates that the quilt is not really the item being quarrelled over but the memory of black slavery. All these stylistic and language elements all contribute to the establishment of the tone in this particular story. The same is true for the second story written by Kate Chopin.
Chopins story is about Mrs. Mallard, a lady whose husband was supposedly killed in a vehicular accident. Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as someone with a heart condition, so when news of the death of her husband came in, her sister Josephine took extra care in revealing this to Mrs. Mallard. Surprisingly, the protagonist does not show the usual reaction to the news of the death of a loved one instead she quietly retires to her room and spends time contemplating about herself and her life with her husband. Later, while contemplating, she concludes that the death of her husband was necessary for her to enjoy self-liberation and freedom and to begin living for herself as she felt constrained in the presence of her husband. She then takes on upon herself a somewhat sick sense of joy at the loss of her husband. In an exciting ending to the story, it turns out that the husband was alive and his death was reported mistakenly. The husband returns to their home and upon seeing him alive, instead of rejoicing, Mrs. Mallard drops dead. This story is told in the third person point of view and the reason for this is that it is necessary in the unfolding of the story that the audience be given access to the thoughts of the protagonist.
This gives the story a meditative tone. There are barely any metaphors in the story indicating the absence of much figurative language, giving it a more direct tone of storytelling as well as a more sterile feel to it. We see this directness and formalism in narration in lines like, She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength., (Chopin) and Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold, imploring for admission. (Chopin) and even in dialogue lines like, Go away. I am not making myself ill. (Chopin) These lines show how clean and stiff the narrative style is, making the reader conclude that the story is told in an almost academic, matter-of-factly tone.
The direct language gives the story an indifferent tone in such that reading the story one would feel a bit detached from the characters and the protagonist. This is a requirement in the story because as mentioned, it is about a lady with a heart condition and giving the audience unabashed access to the unfolding of the story would overdo the plot and would make it sound begging and contrived. Hence, the language and style serves to achieve an indifferent tone to keep the audience at bay and allow the events to unfold without compromising the plot.
Hughes poem, A Dream Deferred is written in the tradition of the work song of the slaves during the transatlantic slave trade. As history would tell us, the work song was a song that the white masters of slaves had them sing during work for entertainment, but since the slaves were not allowed to talk during their work, they used these songs to convey messages to the other slaves who were working in the plantation. In terms of style, the poem achieves a melodic or playful tone with the proper placement of sounds in the poem. First, we see this clever placement of sound in the terminal rhyme, such as in the lines, Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun Or fester like a sore-- And then run. (2-5) Other than just the internal rhyme, the short brief lines also contribute to this jazzy rhythmic tone, such as, And then run... Maybe it just sags Or does it explode (5,9,11) Then, in terms of organization the poem also builds up the imagery with vivid verbs, as in, dry-upfesterrunstinkcrustsagsexplode. (2-11) The explosion in the end is suggestive of the long-drawn emotions that eventually go over the top, and explode. The conveyance of the message is mostly seen in the symbology of this very short poem as it is as well heavy with figurative language.
Most of this figurative language are similes such as in the second to fifth lines which describe a raisin drying up referring to or symbolizing the hard labour that the blacks had to go through in the presence of white masters, or in the same lines where an deferred dream (1) is described as a festering sore, indicative of the physical pain the slaves had to go through. Of course the most important metaphor is when the dream is portrayed as something that will explode in the end, which is symbolic of the liberation movement of the slaves that resulted in the abolition of slavery and freedom for the blacks. At first reading one might dismiss the poem as an immature musing because it is presented in al almost nursery-rhymey tone, but on close perusal, it becomes evident that this tone is used to conceal the mores serious message of individuality in the pursuit of ambition. The language used in the poem contributes even more to the playful tone. The use of black language and vocabulary serves to make it more authentic and reminiscent of the poems early ancestors, the work song and the shout.
Literature is indeed very interesting and as shown in these three pieces of literature, a very important element of literature, tone, can be achieved in more ways than one, in particular by using style and language to endow the piece of literature with qualities that are instrumental in building tone.
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