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these two units are not identical.
In the first place, the paragraph is a stretch of written (printed) literary text delimited by a new (indented)
line at the beginning and an incomplete line at the close. As different from this, the dicteme, as we have just
seen, is essentially a feature of all the varieties of speech, both oral and written, both literary and colloquial.
In the second place, the paragraph is a polyfunctional unit of written speech and as such is used not only for
the written representation of a dicteme, but also for the introduction of utterances of a dialogue (dividing an
occurseme into parts), as well as for the introduction of separate points in various enumerations.
In the third place, the paragraph in a monologue speech can contain more than one dicteme. For instance,
the following paragraph is divided into three parts, the first formed by a separate sentence (i.e. by a sentence-
dicteme), the second and third ones presenting cumulemes. For the sake of clarity, we mark the borders
between the parts by double strokes:
When he had left the house Victorina stood quite still, with hands pressed against her chest. // She had slept
less than he. Still as a mouse, she had turned the thought: "Did I take him in? Did I?" And if not-what? // She
took out the notes which had bought - or sold - their happiness, and counted them once more. And the sense of
injustice burned within her (J. Galsworthy).
The shown division is sustained by the succession of the forms of the verbs, namely, the past indefinite and
past perfect, precisely marking out the events described.
On the other hand, the dicteme cannot commonly be prolonged beyond the limits of the paragraph, since the
paragraphal border-marks are the same as those of the dicteme, i.e. a characteristic finalizing tone, a pause of
two and a half moras. Besides, we must bear in mind that both multidicteme paragraphs and one-sentence
paragraphs are stylistically marked features of the monologue text. Thus, we return to our initial thesis that the
paragraph, although it is a literary-compositional, not a purely syntactic unit of text, still as a rule represents a
dicteme; the two units, if not identical, are closely correlative.
§ 7. The introduction of the notions of dicteme and cumuleme in linguistics helps specify and explain the
two peculiar and rather important border-line phenomena between the sentence and the sentential sequence.
The first of these is known under the heading of "parcellation". The parcellated construction ("parcellatum")
presents two or more collocations ("parcellas") separated by a sentence tone but related to one another as parts
of one and the same sentence. In writing the parts, i.e, respectively, the "leading parcella" and "sequential par-
cella", are delimited by a full stop (finality mark). E.g.:
There was a sort of community pride attached to it now. Or shame at its unavoidability (E. Stephens). Why
be so insistent, Jim? If he doesn't want to tell you (J. O'Hara). ...I realized I didn't feel one way or another about
him. Then. I do now (J. O'Hara).
Having recourse to the idea of transposition, we see that the parcellated construction is produced as a result
of transposing a sentence into a cumuleme. This kind of transposition adds topical significance to the sequential
parcella. The emphasizing function of parcellation is well exposed by the transformation of de-transposition.
This transformation clearly deprives the sequential parcella of its position of topical significance, changing it
into an ordinary sentence-part. Cf:.
….> There was a sort of community pride attached to it now or shame at its unavoidability. ... > Why be so
insistent, Jim, if he doesn't want to tell you! ... > I didn't feel one way or another about him then.
With some authors parcellation as the transposition of a sentence into a cumuleme can take the form of
forced paragraph division, i.e. the change of a sentence into a supra-cumuleme. E.g:.
...It was she who seemed adolescent and overly concerned, while he sat there smiling fondly at her, quite
self-possessed, even self-assured, and adult.
And naked. His nakedness became more intrusive by the second, until she half arose and said with urgency,
"You have to go and right now, young man" (E. Stephens).
The second of the border-line phenomena in question is the opposite of parcellation, it consists in forcing
two different sentences into one, i.e. in transposing a cumuleme into a sentence. The cumuleme-sentence
construction is characteristic of uncareful and familiar speech; in a literary text it is used for the sake of giving a
vivid verbal characteristic to a personage. E.g.:
I'm not going to disturb her and that’s flat, miss (A. Christie). The air-hostess came down the aisle then to
warn passengers they were about to land and please would everyone fasten their safety belts (B. Hedworth).
The transposition of a cumuleme into a sentence occurs also in literary passages dealing with reasoning and
mental perceptions. E.g.:
If there were moments when Soames felt cordial, they were such as these. He had nothing against the young
man; indeed, he rather liked the look of him; but to see the last of almost anybody was in a sense a relief;
besides, there was this question of what he had overheard, and to have him about the place without knowing
would be a continual temptation to compromise with one's dignity and ask him what it was (J. Galsworthy).