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Phrases in literary contexts

Patterns and distributions of suspensions in Dickens’s novels

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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.

  • Affiliations: 1: University of Nottingham; 2: University of Birmingham

References

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  10. Francis, G
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    1999 Structure and Meaning in Conversation and Literature. Lanham: University Press of America.
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     https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.41.03stu [Google Scholar]

References

  1. Biber, D
    2011 “Corpus linguistics and the scientific study of literature: Back to the future?”. Scientific Study of Literature, 1 (1), 15–23. doi: 10.1075/ssol.1.1.02bib
     https://doi.org/10.1075/ssol.1.1.02bib [Google Scholar]
  2. Biber, D. , Johansson, S. , Leech, G. , Conrad, S. & Finegan, E
    1999 Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Brown, G
    1996 Listening to Spoken English. 2nd ed. London: Longman.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Busse, B
    2010 Speech, Writing and Thought Presentation in a Corpus of Nineteenth-Century English Narrative Fiction. Bern: University of Bern.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Caldas-Coulthard, C
    1994 “On reporting reporting: The representation of speech in factual and factional narratives”. In M.Coulthard (Ed.), Advances in Written Text Analysis. London: Routledge, 295–308. doi: 10.4324/9780203422656
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203422656 [Google Scholar]
  6. Carter, R. & McCarthy, M
    2006 Cambridge Grammar of English: A Comprehensive Guide: Spoken and Written English Grammar and Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Culpeper, J
    2001 Language and Characterisation. People in Plays and other Texts. Harlow: Pearson Education.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. 2009 “Keyness: Words, parts-of-speech and semantic categories in the character-talk of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 14 (1), 29–59. doi: 10.1075/ijcl.14.1.03cul
     https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.14.1.03cul [Google Scholar]
  9. Fischer-Starcke, B
    2010 Corpus Linguistics in Literary Analysis: Jane Austen and her Contemporaries. London: Continuum.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Francis, G
    1993 “A corpus-driven approach to grammar: Principles, methods and examples”. In M.Baker , G.Francis & E.Tognini-Bonelli (Eds.), Text and Technology: In Honour of John Sinclair. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 137–156. doi: 10.1075/z.64.10fra
     https://doi.org/10.1075/z.64.10fra [Google Scholar]
  11. Greaves, C
    2009 ConcGram 1.0. A Phraseological Search Engine. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Hoey, M
    2004 “Lexical priming and the properties of text”. In A.Partington , J.Morley & L. Haarman (Eds.), Corpora and Discourse. Bern: Peter Lang, 386–412.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Hori, M
    2004 Investigating Dickens’ Style. A Collocational Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9780230000766
     https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230000766 [Google Scholar]
  14. Kendall, M.G
    1970 Rank Correlation Methods. 4th ed. London: Griffin.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Korte, B
    1997 Body Language in Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Lambert, M
    1981 Dickens and the Suspended Quotation. New Haven / London: Yale University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Mahlberg, M
    2005 English General Nouns: A Corpus Theoretical Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/scl.20
     https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.20 [Google Scholar]
  18. 2007 “Lexical items in discourse: Identifying local textual functions of sustainable development”. In M.Hoey , M.Mahlberg , M.Stubbs & W.Teubert , Text, Discourse and Corpora. Theory and Analysis. London: Continuum, 191–218.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. 2009 “Local textual functions of move in newspaper story patterns”. In U.Römer & R.Schulze (Eds.), Exploring the Lexis-Grammar Interface. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 265–287. doi: 10.1075/scl.35.17mah
     https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.35.17mah [Google Scholar]
  20. 2013a “Corpus analysis of literary texts”. In C.A.Chapelle (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. 2013b Corpus Stylistics and Dickens’s Fiction. New York/London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Mahlberg, M. & Smith, C
    2010 “Corpus approaches to prose fiction: Civility and body language in Pride and Prejudice”. In D.McIntyre & B.Busse (Eds.), Language and Style. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 449–467.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. 2012 “Dickens, the suspended quotation and the corpus”. Language and Literature, 21 (1), 51–65. doi: 10.1177/0963947011432058
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947011432058 [Google Scholar]
  24. McIntyre, D. & Walker, B
    2010 “How can corpora be used to explore the language of poetry and drama?”. In M.McCarthy & A.O’Keeffe (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics. Abingdon: Routledge, 516–530. doi: 10.4324/9780203856949.ch37
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203856949.ch37 [Google Scholar]
  25. Newsom, R
    2000 “Style of Dickens”. In P.Schlicke (Ed.), The Oxford Reader’s Companion to Dickens. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 553–557.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. O’Donnell, M.B. , Scott, M. , Mahlberg, M. & Hoey, M
    2012 “Exploring text-initial words, clusters and concgrams in a newspaper corpus”. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 8 (1), 73–101.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Person, R.F
    1999 Structure and Meaning in Conversation and Literature. Lanham: University Press of America.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Römer, U
    2010 “Establishing the phraseological profile of a text type: The construction of meaning in academic book reviews”. English Text Construction, 3 (1), 95–119. doi: 10.1075/etc.3.1.06rom
     https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.3.1.06rom [Google Scholar]
  29. Schreibman, S. , Siemens, R. & Unsworth, J
    (Eds.)2004 A Companion to Digital Humanities. Oxford: Blackwell. doi: 10.1111/b.9781405103213.2004.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/b.9781405103213.2004.x [Google Scholar]
  30. Scott, M. & Tribble, C
    2006 Textual Patterns. Key Words and Corpus Analysis in Language Education. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/scl.22
     https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.22 [Google Scholar]
  31. Semino, E. & Short, M
    2004 Corpus Stylistics. Speech, Writing and Thought Presentation in a Corpus of English Writing. London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Sinclair, J
    2004 Trust the Text. Language, Corpus and Discourse. London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Stockwell, P
    2009 Texture. A Cognitive Aesthetics of Reading. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Stubbs, M
    2005 “Conrad in the computer: Examples of quantitative stylistic methods”. Language and Literature, 14 (1), 5–24. doi: 10.1177/0963947005048873
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947005048873 [Google Scholar]
  35. 2010 “Three concepts of keywords”. In M.Scott & M.Bondi (Eds.), Keyness in Texts. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 21–42. doi: 10.1075/scl.41.03stu
     https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.41.03stu [Google Scholar]

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