Great Expectations

"After darkly looking at his leg and me several times, he came closer to my tombstone, took me by both arms, and tilted me back as far as he could hold me; so that his eyes looked most powerfully down into mine, and mine looked most helplessly up into his.
`Now lookee here,' he said, `the question being whether you're to be let to live. You know what a file is?'
`Yes, sir.'
`And you know what wittles is?'
`Yes, sir.'
After each question he tilted me over a little more, so as to give me a greater sense of helplessness and danger.
`You get me a file.' He tilted me again. `And you get me wittles.' He tilted me again. `You bring 'em both to me.' He tilted me again. `Or I'll have your heart and liver out.' He tilted me again.
I was dreadfully frightened, and so giddy that I clung to him with both hands, and said, `If you would kindly Please to let me keep upright, sir, perhaps I shouldn't be sick, and perhaps I could attend more.'
He gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the church jumped over its own weather-cock. Then, he held me by the arms, in an upright position on the top of the stone, and went on in these fearful terms:"

Dickens demonstrates the adult in the conversation as the powerful participant by setting the agenda with the use of interogatives, "you know what wittles is?". This supports the ideas based on Fairclough's principles of ideological assumptions we make towards society; particulary in Vicorian society, when the book was set, children could not speak unless spoken to. Acooriding to Fairclough, we would expect adults to be the powerful participant over children as this is the "assumption" we make. Furthermore, as it is a closed question there is an implication that if the child does not no the answer to the question they are stupid and if they do then they are liked.

History of the word "short"

The word "short" is most commonly used as an adjective either to describe something lasting or taking a small amount of time - for example, "a short bus ride" - or to measure a small distance from a certain point to another - for example, "I have short hair".

Due to the introduction of technology, "short" has broadened in semantic meaning. For example, "short" can now be used when referring to an electrical item that has "short-circuited". However, this requires pragmatic understanding of how technology works and how it can go wrong.

Ngram viewer shows a decline in the use of the word "short" since the 1800's. This could be due to negative connotations associated with the word "short". For example, to be short could be seen as making you more disadvantaged than those of other heights. As a result, to be politically correct people previously described as "short" may now be referred to as "vertically challenged".

"Short" is now also used in a colloquial sense in slang amongst society. For exapmle, people may say "I'm a bit short" but not in refference to their height but rather the fact they do not have enough money for something. This means that it can be used as an off the record, indirect way of asking for money.

The word "short" is originally Germanic and in old English was "sceort". It is related to the word "skirt". It could have chamged to "short" due to giving a way for people to describe the length of the skirt.