J: “Give his life?” S: “According to Mycroft, theres an underground network planning
an attack on London, thats all we know.”
a. Context 1 Characters
: John J and Sherlock S 2 Setting
: in Sherlock’s room 3 Context of Situation: Sherlock is telling John that
according to Mycroft, there is an agent who died to get information about an underground network planning an
attack on London.
b. Euphemism and Meaning
The phrase give his life is a euphemism for ‘died’. The type of this
euphemism is indirection because there are more direct ways to
speak about an agent who died on duty, like ‘an agent died’, or ‘an agent got killed in action’, or even ‘an agent passed away’. However,
talking about someone’s death directly does not feel right, especially when this someone is an agent who died in his attempt to catch
terrorists. That is why the type of meaning of this euphemism is
affective meaning. The agent who died was a hero for revealing the
terrorist’s plan, and by saying give his life is Sherlock’s way to honor his work. Moreover, he is talking to John, a retired soldier who cares
about this kind of thing.
8. Do this sort of thing Episode 02
J : “Im very very glad to see you, sir. I know you dont really do this sort of thing.”
MS: “Well, I do for old friends, Watson… John.”
a. Context 1 Characters
: John J and Major Sholto MS 2 Setting
: at John’s wedding 3 Context of Situation : John is talking to Major Sholto, a
good friend of his when they both served in the army in Afghanistan. Major Sholto, as described by Mary, is almost
reclusive and the most unsociable man that John has ever met. Later in this episode, it is explained that he becomes
like what he is now because in the past he led a team of new recruits into battle, but it all went wrong. Everyone died,
except him. Since then he has been hated by the press and by the family of the fallen, and got many death threats. That
is what made him what he is now. Knowing all this, John still decided to invite him to his wedding because he is a
good old friend, and John wanted to share his happiness
with friends.
