Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and

Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose examines how readers interact with literary works, how they understand and are moved by them. Mick Short considers how meanings and effects are generated in the three major literary genres, carying out stylistic analysis of poetry, drama and prose fiction in turn. He analyses a wide range of extracts from English literature, adopting an accessible approach to the analysis of literary texts which can be applied easily to other texts in English and in other languages.

Preface: how to use this book

xi

Author's acknowledgements

xiv

Publisher's acknowledgements

xv

Who is stylistics?

1

(35)

Introduction

1

(9)

Foregrounding

10

(6)

An example of stylistic analysis

16

(11)

Who was stylistics?

27

(9)

Discussion of exercises

28

(4)

Notes

32

(1)

Further reading

33

(1)

Checksheet 1: deviation, parallelism and foregrounding

34

(2)

More on foregrounding, deviation and parallelism

36

(44)

Introduction

36

(1)

Kinds of deviation

37

(26)

More about parallelism

63

(5)

Meaning, style and choice

68

(12)

Discussion of exercises

72

(6)

Notes

78

(1)

Further reading

79

(1)

Style variation in texts

80

(26)

Style variation in English

80

(7)

Literature and dialect

87

(4)

Literature and medium

91

(1)

Literature and tenor

91

(2)

Medium and tenor intertwined

93

(3)

Literature and domain

96

(2)

An extended example of style variation

98

(3)

How finicky can you get?

101

(5)

Discussion of exercises

103

(1)

Notes

104

(1)

Further reading

104

(1)

Checksheet 2: style variation

105

(1)

Sound, meaning and effect

106

(19)

Introduction

106

(1)

Alliteration, assonance, rhyme and related matters

107

(7)

Sound symbolism

114

(5)

Phonaesthemes

119

(6)

Discussion of exercises

122

(1)

Notes

123

(1)

Further reading

124

(1)

Checksheet 3: phonetic structure

124

(1)

Rhythm and metre in the reading of poetry

125

(43)

What is rhythm?

125

(1)

Rhythm in language

126

(1)

Metre

127

(4)

Different kinds of metre

131

(3)

Fitting together the metre and what a poet wants to say

134

(8)

Intonation, or `sentence stress'

142

(4)

Metrical and phonetic organisation put to appropriate use

146

(4)

Rhythm and timing

150

(5)

Foot, line and grammar

155

(3)

An extended analysis

158

(10)

Discussion of exercises

162

(3)

Notes

165

(1)

Further reading

166

(1)

Checksheet 4: metrical structure

166

(2)

Drama: the conversational genre

168

(27)

Introduction

168

(1)

The discourse structure of drama

169

(4)

How like real conversation is dramatic dialogue?

173

(22)

Discussion of exercises

189

(4)

Note

193

(1)

Further reading

193

(1)

Checksheet 5: discourse structure and speech realism

194

(1)

The meaning of speech acts, turn-taking and politeness

195

(27)

Speech acts

195

(10)

Turn-taking and topic control

205

(7)

Politeness

212

(10)

Discussion of exercises

217

(1)

Notes

217

(2)

Further reading

219

(1)

Checksheet 6: turn-taking, speech acts and politeness

219

(3)

Assumptions, presuppositions and the inferring of meaning

222

(33)

Introduction

222

(5)

Schema theory

227

(5)

Presuppositions

232

(6)

Inference

238

(8)

An example analysis

246

(9)

Discussion of exercises

250

(2)

Further reading

252

(1)

Checksheet 7: inferring meaning

252

(3)

Fictional prose and point of view

255

(33)

Introduction

255

(1)

The discourse structure of fictional prose

256

(7)

Linguistic indicators of viewpoint

263

(16)

A more extended example

279

(9)

Discussion of exercises

282

(4)

Further reading

286

(1)

Checksheet 8: linguistic indicators of point of view

286

(2)

Speech and thought presentation

288

(38)

Introduction

288

(3)

An example of variation in speech presentation

291

(4)

The categories of speech presentation discussed in detail

295

(16)

Thought presentation

311

(15)

Discussion of exercises

320

(3)

Notes

323

(1)

Further reading

324

(1)

Checksheet 9: speech and thought presentation

324

(2)

Prose style

326

(28)

Introduction: authorial style and text style

326

(5)

Lies, damned lies and statistics

331

(3)

What language features should we examine to elucidate text style?

334

(1)

Analysisng style and meaning in a passage from The Great Gatsby

335

(13)

Concluding remarks

348

(6)

Discussion of exercises

349

(1)

Notes

349

(1)

Further reading

350

(1)

Checksheet 10: style features of narrative description

350

(4)

Bringing it all together

354

(21)

Introduction

354

(1)

How to go about a stylistic analysis

355

(3)

Lady Macbeth tries to calm Macbeth

358

(9)

Doris begins to realise that she does not really know the man she has married

367

(6)

Concluding remarks

373

(2)

Notes

374

(1)

Appendix: a list of English phonemes

375

(2)

References

377

(9)

Index

386

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Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials