Language and Literature recent issues

`The bodie and the letters both': `blending' the rules of early modern religion

Canning, P. — 2008-08-21

The role of conceptual integration or blending has featured significantly in analyses of contemporary texts. To date, no-one to my knowledge has applied this theory in an early modern context. In the sixteenth century, a historical juncture rich in innovative forms of textual expression, the Reformation generated cognitive and ideological discordances between conceptions of the spiritual and the material, or more specifically, between word and image. These tensions were made manifest in physical acts of iconoclasm by Reformers in response to the `idolatry' of early modern Catholicism. Many poetic texts of the period attempted to validate and perpetuate the Reformed position, denouncing carnal representations of divinity, focusing instead on the spiritual incarnation of Christ as the `Word'. Taking one such text, Herbert's poem `JESU', as the focus of my analysis, I trace the path of a blend through to its emergent structure. I will argue that while the blend coheres conceptually in that it appears to make `plausible' the Reformed worldview, the reality is that it generates an ideological implausibility. As such, this article aims to demonstrate the greater efficacy and scope of blending than would otherwise be available through strictly metaphorical analyses. I will focus specifically on the correspondence between conceptual and formal integration of expression and meaning. My analysis leads to insights that more impressionistic, literary analyses of the period have not addressed, and that stylistic analyses have only briefly outlined, in that I will consider the material effects of this cognitive linguistic phenomenon in the significantly literary theological context of early modern England.

Legal discourse and linguistic incongruities in Bardell vs. Pickwick: an analysis of address and reference strategies in The Pickwick Papers trial scene

Cecconi, E. — 2008-08-21

In this article I intend to show how Pickwick's trial in Dickens's novel The Pickwick Papers is characterized by a strategic use of address and reference forms that produce effects of discoursal incongruities during the opening and the evidence phase of the proceeding. The analysis reveals Dickens's ability to exploit socio-pragmatic features of the speaker—addressee and speaker—referent—addressee relationships in order to foreground the lawyers' manipulative discourse behaviour towards their addressees and referents. In so doing, the writer undermines the assumption according to which the courtroom is a polite setting characterized by the exchange of mutual respect and deference between participants.

The manipulation of address strategies is mainly accomplished by violating the sociolinguistic rules expected in the legal setting or by producing a disjunction between the conventional meaning of honorifics and the speaker's pragmatic intention. The result is that many of the honorifics in the text assume a sarcastic function that contrasts with the politic behaviour prescribed by the courtroom. The manipulation of reference strategies, on the other hand, is accomplished by means of a skilful selection of words for the description of persons and events in a way congenial to the story as claimed and supported by the speaker, no matter how far from the truth this may be. Text evidence shows how the lawyer's referent-term selection denigrates the defendant and creates a mismatch between the reader's expectation of formal politeness in the courtroom and the interrogator's strategic use of a controlled but finally effective rudeness.

Code switching in Ahdaf Soueif's The Map of Love

Albakry, M., Hancock, P. H. — 2008-08-21

This article examines the phenomenon of code switching in The Map of Love (1999) by the Egyptian—British writer Ahdaf Soueif. Though she chooses English as a medium for her creative expression, Soueif deploys Arabic in her narrative to represent different aspects of the linguistic and cultural norms of Egyptian society. The article's methodology is informed by Kachru's framework on contact literature and his categorization of the occurrence of literary code switching or bilingual creativity into different strategies that encompass cultural and linguistic processes. The results indicate the predominance in The Map of Love of the discourse strategies of employing lexical borrowing, culture-bound references and translational transfer. Finally, the article analyzes the functional motivation of code switching in the postcolonial context of the novel and how the use of certain creative strategies might enhance or diminish the narrative's effectiveness and readability.

Portrayals of Spanish in 19th-century American prose: Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton's The Squatter and the Don

Moyna, M. I. — 2008-08-21

This article analyzes the portrayals of Spanish in The Squatter and the Don (1885), a novel written in English by María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, a Baja Californian who immigrated to Alta California at the time of its annexation to the USA in 1848 and became the first Hispanic American woman writer. Her novel had an ideological purpose, namely, to denounce the land dispossession of the Californios — i.e. Hispanic settlers in California during the Spanish-Mexican period — and to propose an alliance between the Anglo and Hispanic elites. It also had a financial purpose, since writing was for Ruiz de Burton one of many ways in which she attempted to achieve financial prosperity. The representation of language was thus dictated not just by linguistic or aesthetic considerations, but also by the author's interpretation of the conditions prevalent in late 19th-century California, where Spanish had become subordinate to English. Ruiz de Burton's positive attitude towards bilingualism is revealed in her portrayal of protagonists as proficient in both languages. Yet, her awareness of the biases and limitations of her intended Anglo readership is also evident in the fact that Spanish use in the novel is sporadic and restricted. Comparison of her literary and non-literary code mixing highlights some consistent differences between both text types providing additional evidence of Ruiz de Burton's purposeful manipulation of linguistic codes in her artistic production.

The distribution of humour in literary texts is not random: a statistical analysis

Corduas, M., Attardo, S., Eggleston, A. — 2008-08-21

The article presents statistical evidence for the claim that the distribution of humor in Oscar Wilde's Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Douglas Adams's The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy is not random and differs significantly between both texts. Using the methodology of the General Theory of Verbal Humor, all the instances of humour in both texts were identified and recorded. The distance between each instance was then calculated and subjected to analysis. The statistical model used to prove the hypotheses is explained in some detail and some hypotheses to explain the findings are presented. The significance of the finding that the distribution of humour in long texts is not random is found to lie in having introduced a new fact in need of explanation through literary theories.

Book Review: Bertrand Russell, Language and Linguistic Theory by Keith Green, 2007. London: Continuum, pp. ix + 174. ISBN 0 8264 9736 5 (hbk)

Chapman, S. — 2008-08-21

Book Review: The Language of Work by Almut Koester, 2004. London: Routledge, pp. xii+124. ISBN 0 415 30729 5 (hbk); 0 415 30730 9 (pbk)

McIntyre, D. — 2008-08-21

Book Review: Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel by Lisa Zunshine, 2004. Athens: Ohio State University Press, pp. ix + 198. ISBN 0814210287 (hbk); 081425151X (pbk)

Whiteley, S. — 2008-08-21

Book Review: From Fantasy to Faith: Morality, Religion and Twentieth-Century Literature by D. Z. Phillips, 2006. Canterbury: Student Christian Movement (SCM) Press, pp. 240. ISBN 0 334 04028 0 (pbk)

Kohn, L. — 2008-08-21

Book Review: Twentieth-Century Drama Dialogue as Ordinary Talk: Speaking Between the Lines by Susan Mandala, 2007. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. xiv + 138. ISBN: 0754651055 (hbk)

Mullender, J. — 2008-08-21

`Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter': synaesthetic metaphors and cognition

Yeshayahu Shen, , Aisenman, R. — 2008-04-03

Synaesthetic metaphors exhibit a robust, universal, tendency to use the `lower-tohigher' structure more frequently than the inverse one. This robust pattern was found across genres (poetic and non-poetic discourse), language boundaries (e.g. English, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian) and historical periods. A cognitive account of this pattern is introduced, according to which this lower-to-higher mapping reflects a cognitively simpler and more basic directionality than the inverse one. Several predictions that follow from this account were tested, using various psychological measures (recall, difficulty in context generation, and naturalness judgments). In accordance with the present account, it was found that the lower-to-higher structure is judged as more natural than its inverse, is better recalled and is judged as easier to construct a context for.

The uses of literature: towards a bidirectional stylistics

Gugin, D. L. — 2008-04-03

In this article, I demonstrate how an examination of the pragmatics of the pseudo-cleft in the fiction of Flannery O'Connor can do more than simply illustrate the precise manner in which she employs and patterns a given linguistic structure. Such an examination can also provide persuasive evidence of the overall value of literary language for the study of linguistics. That is to say, a careful, complete analysis of the pragmatics of the pseudo-cleft in O'Connor's fiction not only shows how linguistics can be used to enrich our understanding of literature, but, more importantly, how literature can be used to enrich our understanding of linguistics. More specifically, though previous linguistic definitions of the pseudo-cleft differ in a variety of ways, to my knowledge none of those definitions have ever discussed the pseudo-cleft as a given + given (presupposition only) information packaging structure. Since 18 of the 79 pseudo-clefts in O'Connor's canon do, in fact, pattern as given + given structures, I will argue that, at the very least, O'Connor's use of the pseudo-cleft challenges existing linguistic accounts of the structure. Based on the results of my analysis, I therefore argue for what I call a `bidirectional stylistics' — a broader approach to stylistics that emphasizes its ability as a discipline to expand and complete existing linguistic explanations that are based only on non-literary data.

Truth values and truth-commitment in interdiscursive dating ads

Marley, C. — 2008-04-03

In this article, I explore issues of commitment to truth in dating ads that use apparently impossible categorizations to project identities for ad writers and their desired others. The article begins with a brief overview of relevant aspects of Text World Theory (especially Gavins's work on dating ads), Sinclair's model of fictional worlds and Routledge and Chapman's account of truth-commitment in discourse, and proposes the need for a framework that allows for a partial suspension of commitment to truth. I then draw on the work of Ivanic and Weldon on identity in writing, in order to develop an account that offers a discourse- and genre-based discussion of how the intertextual metaphors in such ads are interpreted in relation to truth values. I suggest the default stance is that of positive commitment to literal truth and that, when this is not possible, a fall-back mode of negative commitment to metaphorical truth is preferred over an interpretation in which questions of truth are truly suspended. Finally, I consider a related category, of apparently negative dating ad identities, in order to suggest a functional motivation for the inclusion of elements that cannot be interpreted in truth-committed mode.

Representing Maori speech in Alan Duff's Once Were Warriors

Lambert, I. B. M. — 2008-04-03

Much of the reaction, both positive and negative, to the publication of Alan Duff's novel Once Were Warriors centred on its language. This article analyses the ways in which characteristic linguistic features of New Zealand English are represented in the novel, in particular by its Maori protagonists. It also draws stylistic comparisons with other writers, such as Scotland's James Kelman, who have attempted to give their characters a particular local voice outside of, or in opposition to, Standard English by having them speak in their own language or variety of English.

Book Review: Introducing Metaphor by Murray Knowles and Rosamund Moon, 2006. London: Routledge, pp. x + 180. ISBN 0 415 27800 7 (hbk), 0 415 27801 5 (pbk)

West, D. — 2008-04-03

Book Review: Thinking about Language: Theories of English by Siobhan Chapman, 2006. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. x + 174 ISBN 1 403 92203 9 (pbk): Discovering Language: The Structure of Modern English by Lesley Jeffries, 2006. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. xvii + 252 ISBN 1 403 91262 9 (pbk)

Lennon, N. — 2008-04-03

Book Review: Pragmatic Stylistics by Elizabeth Black, 2006. Edinburgh: Edinbugh University Press, pp. 166. ISBN 0 7486 2041 9 (pbk)

Jobert, M. — 2008-04-03

Book Review: Beckett and Authority: The Uses of Cliche by Elizabeth Barry, 2006. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. x + 232. ISBN 978 0 230 00833 5 (hbk)

Vassilopoulou, K. — 2008-04-03

Some observations on English binary metres

Duffell, M. J. — 2008-02-07

In an earlier article ( Language and Literature, 11(4)) the author argued that Hanson and Kiparsky's parametric theory failed to account for some statistically verifiable features of the English iambic pentameter, in particular, the far from random distribution of mid-line word boundaries in this metre. The present article argues that there are a series of other features of English binary metres that can only be identified and explained if parametric theory is supplemented by quantitative techniques borrowed from Russian linguistic metrics. It analyses samples of verse in various binary metres by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Longfellow, and Browning, and identifies some peculiar properties of each poet's use of tension. It measures inversion and erosion in iambic pentameters, and in iambic, trochaic and mixed tetrameters, and concludes that: (1) more than 85 percent of strong positions in the English iambic pentameter contain a stressed syllable; (2) English iambic verse contains a constraint against two consecutive strong positions lacking stress; (3) the tetrameter is more regularly iambic than the pentameter; (4) the English trochaic tetrameter allows up to half of its lines to have a non-trochaic opening; and (4) Milton's `L'Allegro' and `Il Penseroso' contain a balanced mixture of the metrical features of iambic and trochaic verse.

Genre-dependent metonymy in Norse skaldic poetry

Sullivan, K. — 2008-02-07

This article describes a metonymic process which is common in skaldic verse, but rare in everyday language. This process allows one member of a category to stand for another (for example, SEA is referred to by the name of another member of BODIES OF WATER, such as `river' or `fjord'). This process has previously been called `metaphor' (cf. Fidjestøl, 1997). However, I show that the process lacks several characteristics of metaphor as defined in cognitive linguistics, including multiple mappings and the creation of target-domain inferences. I suggest that the process is more similar to metonymies such as Category for Member (cf. Radden and Kövecses, 1999), and should be called `Member for Member' metonymy.

I argue that Member for Member metonymy is rare in conversational language because it fails to generate the inferences and cognitive benefits provided by most metaphors and metonymies. However, Member for Member is abundant in skaldic verse, because the aesthetic and sociolinguistic goals of this genre outweigh the considerations of clarity and efficiency imposed on conversation by the Gricean Maxims. I furthermore propose that Member for Member metonymy is a defining feature of classical skaldic poetry, and one that distinguishes this genre from later, more naturalistic styles such as hrynhent.

The observation that Member for Member occurs in a specific literary genre like skaldic poetry — even though it is normally barred from conversational language — indicates that cognitive linguists must study the full range of linguistic genres in order to document the cognitive processes that underlie language use.

Apposition and affective communication

Blakemore, D. — 2008-02-07

This article focuses on the rhetorical effects of structures that involve the apposition of two (or more) segments with similar, but not identical, interpretations — for example, He felt depressed, flattened. Building on existing relevance theoretic accounts of poetic effects, it aims to show how these structures can be used to communicate an impression of emphasis or intensification that can be compared with the effects achieved by repetitions. It argues that these effects are not achieved in the same way, and that three different cases can be distinguished. First, the use of this structure may lie in the way it encourages the reader to explore the differences between the interpretation of the second segment and the interpretation of the first. Second, it may encourage the reader to explore the total set of contextual assumptions made accessible by both (or all) segments for the derivation of an interpretation that cannot be derived from any one segment alone. Finally, the article considers the use of these structures by authors who use free indirect style to represent a character's struggle to identify an emotion s/he is experiencing.

The pivotal eighth function and the pivotal fourth character: resolving two discrepancies in Vladimir: Propp's Morphology of the Folktale

Murphy, T. P. — 2008-02-07

In Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folktale, uncertainty has continually hovered over the pivotal role occupied by the eighth function in what the Russian theorist suggested was a single invariant wondertale structure. In this article, I suggest that this discrepancy can be resolved: there are in fact two major types of wondertale, with their separate structures pivoting on the choice of one or other of the two eighth function options. By analyzing the Preparation and Complication sections of Charles Perrault's Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's `The Robber Bridegroom', I suggest further that the notion of a pivotal eighth function requires the positing of the complementary notion of a pivotal fourth character. In conclusion, I briefly examine the introduction of four pivotal fourth characters in four canonical texts in order to pose the question: do such celebrated texts exhibit canonical ordering?

What's in a clause?: Milton's participial style revisited

Twose, G. — 2008-02-07

In this article, I aim to identify and explicate stylistic distinctiveness in the use of -ed clauses in parts of Milton's Paradise Lost, in the process testing findings outlined in a 1968 article by Seymour Chatman. I compare the frequency of occurrence of the clause type in the Milton texts with that in a constructed corpus of Early Modern English poetry, and with that in the Helsinki corpus. I measure differences in usage of the clause type by focusing on the use of -ed clauses in stretched chains of control, and on the way adverbially functioning -ed clauses map onto conceptual semantic space. I demonstrate how literary effects are conditioned and enabled by the clause type's properties as outlined in cross-linguistic studies. I prove that in the data analysed Milton's use of -ed clauses is a distinctive feature of his style.

Book Review: The Author by Andrew Bennett, 2005. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 151. ISBN 0415281644 (pbk)

Warner, C. — 2008-02-07

Book Review: Point of View in Plays: A Cognitive Stylistic Approach to Viewpoint in Drama and other Text-Types by Dan McIntyre, 2006. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. xi + 203. ISBN 9 027 23335 7 (hbk)

Stockwell, P. — 2008-02-07

Book Review: American Indian Rhetorics of Survivance: Word Medicine, Word Magic by Ernest Stromberg (ed.), 2006. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. ix + 286. ISBN 0 822 95925 9 (pbk)

Trimarco, P. — 2008-02-07

Discursive diversity in the textual articulation of epidemic disease in Early Modern England

Seargeant, P. — 2007-10-30

This article provides a detailed examination of the way in which the social response to epidemic disease in Early Modern England was constructed through discourse, and of how a matrix of meanings for the 'plague' was promoted to fill the conceptual gap between experience and social understanding. It analyses the variety of textual genres that were used to articulate this response, from the sermon tradition to prose pamphlets and the bills of mortality, and considers the dialogic nature of the interaction between these genres and how this facilitated the spread and generation of metaphoric associations for the disease. The article also considers the way in which this discourse itself is structured, and how it is marked by diversity and heterogeneity; it contends that rather than there being a clear hierarchy of dominant and 'alternative' discourses, it is more an unstable equilibrium of competing explanations. In part, this diversity is a result of plural and competing meanings being ascribed to the disease; in part, it is due to the range of different voices eager to promote their own opinion. This results in multiplicity not just of 'product', but also of 'process', with different genres and institutional centres of power (including the church, the civic authorities, the publishing industry) all claiming authority over the prescription of meaning. In this way the discourse itself becomes disordered, as there is no major controlling influence, and the structure of the discourse can be seen to reflect iconically the very themes that it articulates.

New varieties, new creativities: ICQ and English-Cantonese e-discourse

Fung, L., Carter, R. — 2007-10-30

Internet Relay Chat-based computer-mediated communication provides a distinct space for social interaction and cultural contact, with new and inventive forms of language generated. Research has not fully investigated the specifically creative aspects of language in online interaction, and even less in communication between bilingual and multilingual speakers of English and other languages. Based on a 20,000-word corpus of private ICQ ('I Seek You') data and as evidenced in extensive examples of online communication, this article explores the linguistic creativity of a group of bilingual English-Cantonese speaking university students from Hong Kong. The study reveals the emergence of a bimodal, 'hybrid' spoken-written variety of English embracing an essentially informal, speakerly style that is produced in intimate, collaborative and synchronic contexts. The linguistic creativities in this variety, evidenced, in particular, by code-switching, loan translation and relexicalization, as well as by acoustic and graphical wordplay, represent an e-discourse repertoire that is used to achieve both specific interactional purposes and to articulate a dual cultural identity. The article argues that this form of creative computer-mediated literacy practice has a significant impact on the ways in which interactive and expressive meanings are conveyed.

Unambiguous free indirect discourse? a comparison between 'straightforward' free indirect speech and thought presentation and cases ambiguous with narration

Ikeo, R. — 2007-10-30

Although they have been characterized in terms of the mixture of a protagonist's and the narrator's voices, the formal specifications of the free indirect forms of speech and thought presentation are not always applicable to actual cases, and the decision to make a free indirect speech (FIS) or free indirect thought (FIT) reading mainly depends on the contexts in which that decision occurs. This study compares prototypical FIS/FIT cases with those which are ambiguous between narration and either one of these forms (N-FIS/N-FIT cases) and tries to specify the textual/contextual elements which differentiate straightforward FIS/FIT and N-FIS/N-FIT ambiguities. The analysis, which is based on the data of the Lancaster Speech, Writing and Thought Presentation (SW&TP) corpus, shows that the management of viewpoint is the key to distinguishing straightforward FIS/FIT from ambiguous cases. It also suggests that N-FIS and N-FIT ambiguities with narration can have different effects on the reader's understanding of the textual worlds compared with prototypical FIS/FIT cases.

Review Article: The year's work in stylistics 2006

Gavins, J. — 2007-10-30

Book Review: The Language of Websites by Mark Boardman, 2005. London and New York: Routledge, pp. xiii + 117. ISBN: 0 415 32854 (pbk).

Smith Stvan, L. — 2007-10-30

Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory by David Herman, Manfred Jahn and Marie-Laure Ryan (eds), 2005. London and New York: Routledge, pp. xxix + 718. ISBN: 0 415 28259 4.

Tammi, P. — 2007-10-30

Book Review: Psycholinguistics: The Key Concepts by John Field, 2004. London: Routledge, pp. xx + 366. ISBN: 0 415 258901 (hbk), 0 415 25891 X (pbk).

West, D. — 2007-10-30

Book Review: 'Kubla Khan' Poetic Structure, Hypnotic Quality and Cognitive Style: a Study in Mental, Vocal and Critical Performance by Reuven Tsur, 2006. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. xi + 252. ISBN: 90 272 2369 6 (hbk)

Wichmann, A. — 2007-10-30

Books Received

2007-10-30