Language and Characterisation: People in

How do we construct an image of the characters we read about? Drawing together theories from linguistics, social cognition and literary stylistics, this is the first book-length study to focus on the role of language and characterisation in the dialogue of play texts. Containing numerous examples from Shakespeare's plays, the book also considers a wide range of other genres, including, prose fiction, verse, films, advertisements, jokes and newspapers. Language and Characterisationis as practical as it is theoretical and equips readers with analytical frameworks to reveal and explain both the cognitive and the linguistic sides of characterisation.

Preface

xiii

Acknowledgements

xiv

Modelling Characterisation

1

(46)

Introduction

1

(2)

Raising the issues

3

(2)

Characters: Approaches in literary criticism

5

(7)

Humanising approaches

6

(1)

De-humanising approaches

7

(2)

A mixed approach

9

(3)

People: Approaches in linguistics

12

(14)

Language attitude research

13

(2)

Identity in sociolinguistics: Insights from gender studies

15

(3)

Social constructivist approaches

18

(5)

Developing a pragmatic view of language and people

23

(3)

Text comprehension and characterisation

26

(8)

Information sources and cognitive processes: Top-down and bottom-up

27

(1)

Mental representations in text comprehension

28

(4)

Mental representations in literary texts and characterisation

32

(2)

A model for characterisation

34

(4)

Characterisation in plays: Some preliminaries

38

(9)

Discourse structure

38

(1)

Text and performance

39

(8)

PART ONE: CHARACTERISATION AND THE MIND

Character Categories and Impressions of Character

47

(66)

Introduction

47

(1)

Literary approaches to categorising character

48

(9)

Traits and 'semes'

48

(1)

Actant roles

49

(1)

Dramatic roles

50

(2)

Character typologies: The 'flat'/ round' distinction

52

(5)

The organisation and role of prior knowledge

57

(13)

Memory Stores

58

(1)

Semantic memory and episodic memory

59

(1)

Knowledge structures

60

(10)

Social cognition

70

(16)

Perspectives on social cognition

70

(2)

Cognition, social dimensions and discourse

72

(1)

From non-social to social categories

73

(2)

Social categories: Three main groups

75

(1)

Social schemata

76

(4)

Social categories and social schemata in two advertisements

80

(3)

Impression formation

83

(3)

Social cognition and fictional characterisation

86

(13)

Categories in characterisation

86

(2)

Prototypically distortions in fictional contexts

88

(4)

Possibility distortions in fictional contexts

92

(1)

The flat/round distinction revisited

93

(3)

Category shifts in characterisation

96

(3)

Investigating readers' descriptions of character

99

(11)

Aims and methodology

99

(4)

Discussion

103

(7)

Conclusion

110

(3)

Inferring Character From Texts

113

(50)

Introduction

113

(1)

Approaching character inferencing from within literary studies

114

(1)

Attribution theories

115

(14)

Correspondent inference theory

116

(3)

Critique of correspondent inference theory

119

(3)

Correspondent inference theory, speech act theory and play texts

122

(4)

Covariation theory

126

(2)

Integrating two attribution theories

128

(1)

Foregrounding theory

129

(4)

Foregrounding theory and attribution theory: Are they analogous?

133

(2)

Attribution theory in practice

135

(4)

When and how does attribution accur?

135

(1)

Attribution and perceiver biases

136

(3)

Attribution theory and language

139

(5)

Conversational action

139

(2)

Inferencing in a communicative context

141

(2)

Language attitude research

143

(1)

Inferring characteristics in plays

144

(9)

The inferential context

145

(1)

Reader manipulations

146

(3)

Investigating readers' inferences

149

(4)

Conclusion

153

(10)

Further directions and exercises

156

(1)

Jokes

156

(1)

Adverts

157

(1)

Personal adverts

158

(1)

Newspapers

159

(4)

PART TWO: CHARACTERISATION AND THE TEXT

Textual Cues in Characterisation

163

(72)

Introduction

163

(1)

Preliminaries

164

(3)

Form, function and context

164

(2)

Idiolect, dialect and different media

166

(1)

Explicit cues: Self-presentation and other-presentation

167

(5)

Self-presentation in the presence of other characters

168

(1)

Self-presentation in the absence of other characters

169

(2)

Other-presentation

171

(1)

Implicit cues

172

(57)

Conversational structure

172

(8)

Conversational implicature

180

(2)

Lexis

182

(20)

Syntactic features

202

(4)

Accent and dialect

206

(7)

Verse and prose

213

(2)

Paralinguistic features

215

(6)

Visual features

221

(4)

Context: A character's company and setting

225

(4)

Authorial cues

229

(3)

Proper names

229

(2)

Stage directions

231

(1)

Conclusion

232

(3)

(IM) Politeness and Characterisation

235

(28)

Introduction

235

(1)

Speech acts, politeness and characterisation: Opening examples

235

(2)

Linguistic politeness

237

(8)

Face, face-threatening acts, and degree of face threat

238

(5)

Superstrategies

243

(2)

A note on impoliteness

245

(2)

The case for the importance of (im) politeness in characterisation

247

(8)

(IM)politeness, power and person perception

247

(4)

(IM)politeness and characterisation: The study of The Entertainer revisited

251

(4)

Characterisation in the film Scent of a Woman

255

(6)

Conclusion

261

(2)

Conclusion: The Characterisation of Katherina in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew

263

(28)

Introduction

263

(1)

Literary criticism and Katherina

263

(2)

Analysis of Katherina in the Taming of the Shrew

265

(18)

The Shrew Schema

265

(3)

First impressions: Instatiating the shrew schema

268

(2)

Character context: The role of Bianca

270

(1)

Inferring shrewish characteristics

271

(2)

Characterisation through other-presentation

273

(2)

A close-up on Katherina

275

(1)

Character context: Petruchio replaces Bianca

276

(2)

Characterisation through other-presentation: A reversal

278

(1)

Katherina's behaviour

279

(1)

Katherina and the run-up to the 'obedience' speech (V.ii.137--180)

280

(3)

Conclusion

283

(8)

Further directions and exercises

287

(1)

Narrative

287

(2)

Verse

289

(2)

References

291

(26)

Index

317

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Language and Characterisation: People in Plays and Other Texts

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Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials