According to Holmes, there are four typical factors that characterize every text: social distance, status, level of formality, and function. We will try to analyze them in the speech of Alex and Mr. Deltoid. However, it should be mentioned at the beginning that the speech of two characters, as we may have observed, as far as the vocabulary is concerned is rather atypical. The writer, Anthony Burgess, being deeply interested in linguistics (he worked as a lecturer in phonetics and as a grammar school master) created almost a new language. Alex and his friends speak Nadsat language, which is not a standard language, but an onomatopoeic combination of English, slang and anglicized Russian. We are confronted with Nadsat mainly via Alex’s and his friends’ speech, but from the dialogue we can see that also Deltoid uses it (words of Russian origin such as ‘nozhes’, or ‘millicents’), mostly when he wants Alex to take him as his partner, or even a friend, i.e. to get “closer” to him. Since Nadsat language is not the main topic of our paper, we will continue in analyzing the given text, though we may refer to Nadsat vocabulary and style whenever it should appear relevant.
The first of the factors to be analyzed - social distance (or solidarity) shows closeness or distance of a language user. In the dialogue, social distance varies through the time. It is closely connected with the status of speakers. In our case, generally, Mr. Deltoid plays a superior role, while Alex plays a subordinate one. This fact is evidently closely connected with social class or social role. Despite it might seem, from the rest of the information given after having read this book, that Alex belongs to a higher social class (as far as the wealth is considered – regarding the hierarchical position of his parents, or the hi-fi equipment in his room; according to Deltoid: “you’ve got a good home here, good loving parents, you’ve got not too bad of a brain”) than Mr. Deltoid, this observed fact appears to be not so typical in the conversation.
In our text, Mr. Deltoid in his obvious role as a “teacher – adviser – parent – authority” tries to persuade Alex (who is in the role of a “student – juvenile delinquent”) to stop his criminal activities. Deltoid’s social role varies, not surprisingly, which might be explained by the already- mentioned fact that he wants to establish a closer contact with Alex and to receive a positive response from him.