Language, Discourse, Style

For the first time, the works on stylistics by one of the most brilliant linguists of our times are collected in a single volume. This book highlights the evolution of John Sinclair’s theories and insights from studies on language teaching through detailed analyses of text and discourse, and into his later works on corpus stylistics. More specifically, Part I focuses on how theory can inform teaching practice. Part II is more directed towards linguistic analyses of specific texts and provides practical bases for stylistic approaches. In Part III, Sinclair’s contributions to discourse analysis shed light on ways of looking and understanding literature. Written in his crisp clear, straightforward style, this book demonstrates Sinclair’s explicit concern for more systematic approaches to the integration of language and literature and shows why his works on stylistics have been both reference and inspiration to students, language and literature teachers and researchers over many decades.

Justin Nicholes, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, in Scientific Study of Literature 7:1 (2017):
Overall, the book achieves its aim of filling in a gap related to maybe lesser recognized contributions of Sinclair’s work by putting together in one place the many powerful chapters, articles, and talks that Sinclair produced on the topic of interfaces of language and literature. The range of audiences that would be most appreciative of this collection includes stylisticians, language and literature scholars and teachers, syllabus and curriculum designers, as well as undergraduate, graduate, and college faculty members in English studies working particularly with literary reading, creative writing, and literary education.