Awakening a World With Words: How J.R.R. Tolkien Uses Linguistic Narrative Techniques to Take His Readers to Faery in His Short Story Smith of Wootton Major. Page: 79

                                
back an apprentice astonished the village. As such, this sentence is really what Labov calls an
abstract; it summarizes the episode, or better put, summarizes the evaluation which comes from
the villagers' perspective. But the next paragraph does not begin by telling why this apprentice
astonished; instead, it begins with an evaluative negative comparator, "It was not astonishing for
the Master Cook to have an apprentice." The next sentence-"it was usual"-tells us in no
uncertain terms that having an apprentice is quite ordinary, which is followed by what Labov
would call orientation material, informing readers of the exact customs of taking apprentices, but
still not telling exactly why this apprentice was astonishing. Labov says, "the most interesting
thing about orientation is its placement. It is theoretically possible for all free orientation clauses
to be placed at the beginning of the narrative, but in practice, we find much of this material is
placed at strategic points later on" (364-5). It is placed at strategic points to evaluate a narrative
by suspending its action, and this is what is happening in these lines.
This orientation itself also contains evaluation, once again comparing the villager's
expectations and predispositions to what actually happened. "The master chose one [an
apprentice] in due time," which is what the villagers expect, but by an evaluative negative
comparator, "this Master had never2 chosen an apprentice." The next sentences are direct quotes
from the current Master, explaining why he has not chosen an apprentice, giving his perspective
on the narrated events. But within the greater context of the scene, for his perception of the
events to hold readers' attention it must, at least in part, be supported by the perception inherent
in the narrative. It is not. Instead, the following sentence finally tells why Alf astonished the
villager and does so in terms that strongly evaluate the story from the villager's perspective: "But
now he [the Master Cook] brought with him a mere boy, and not one from the village" (my
italics).

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