Phrases in literary contexts
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Michaela Mahlberg
Abstract
This paper addresses relations between lexico-grammatical patterns and texts. Our focus is on a specific linguistic unit, the ‘suspended quotation’ (or ‘suspension’), which has received particular attention in Dickens studies. The suspended quotation refers to an interruption of a fictional character’s speech by the narrator with a sequence of at least five words. We show how corpus linguistic methods can help to systematically study suspensions in a corpus of Dickens’s novels: we investigate relationships between patterns of body language presentation and suspensions; we consider the distribution of suspensions across novels; and we illustrate how patterns in suspensions relate to meanings of reporting verbs. Overall, we argue that suspensions are discernible units that contribute to meaningful patterns in narrative prose.
Abstract
This paper addresses relations between lexico-grammatical patterns and texts. Our focus is on a specific linguistic unit, the ‘suspended quotation’ (or ‘suspension’), which has received particular attention in Dickens studies. The suspended quotation refers to an interruption of a fictional character’s speech by the narrator with a sequence of at least five words. We show how corpus linguistic methods can help to systematically study suspensions in a corpus of Dickens’s novels: we investigate relationships between patterns of body language presentation and suspensions; we consider the distribution of suspensions across novels; and we illustrate how patterns in suspensions relate to meanings of reporting verbs. Overall, we argue that suspensions are discernible units that contribute to meaningful patterns in narrative prose.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- About the authors vii
- Introduction 1
- Like I said again and again and over and over 7
- Phrases in literary contexts 35
- On “true” portraits of Letters to Shareholders – and the importance of phraseological analysis 57
- The development of formulaic sequences in first and second language writing 83
- Lexical frames in academic prose and conversation 109
- 50-something years of work on collocations 135
- Index 165
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- About the authors vii
- Introduction 1
- Like I said again and again and over and over 7
- Phrases in literary contexts 35
- On “true” portraits of Letters to Shareholders – and the importance of phraseological analysis 57
- The development of formulaic sequences in first and second language writing 83
- Lexical frames in academic prose and conversation 109
- 50-something years of work on collocations 135
- Index 165
