Linguistics and Literature (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) - Softcover

Fabb, Nigel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0631192433 ISBN 13: 9780631192435

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 1997

Synopsis

Linguistics and Literature is the first book to offer an overview of how linguistic theory can be applied to the oral and written literatures of the world

About this title

About the Author

Nigel Fabb is Senior Lecturer in the Programme in Literary Linguistics at the University of Strathclyde. He is the author of several books on linguistics and literature, including Sentence Structure, How to Write Essays, Dissertations and Theses in Literary Studies, Ways of Reading, Literary Studies in Action, and The Linguistics of Writing.

Introducing basic concepts in linguistics as it proceeds, the book begins with an account of the types of metrical verse and the phonological bases of metrics. Examples of metrical verse are illustrated from a selection of European, African, and Asian traditions, both familiar and unfamiliar; there is also some discussion of the setting of song texts to music. It then considers the exploitation of linguistic structure as found in many traditions, from ancient Semitic literatures to contemporary Austronesian and Mayan verbal arts. Narratology is presented from the perspective of linguistics, with complete narratives in the original languages with translations from a variety of traditions. The book concludes by looking at the linguistic aspects of the performance of literature, and the ways in which literature exploits the communicative function of language, in irony and metaphor.

The book is illustrated with examples from around a hundred different literary traditions, quoting texts in the original languages, fully translated and explained. Exercises are provided which enable readers to put theoretical issues discussed in the chapters to practical analysis of texts; texts for discussion range from major works of English literature to previously unpublished oral texts from rarely discussed traditions.

Introducing basic concepts in linguistics as it proceeds, the book begins with an account of the types of metrical verse and the phonological bases of metrics. Examples of metrical verse are illustrated from a selection of European, African, and Asian traditions, both familiar and unfamiliar; there is also some discussion of the setting of song texts to music. It then considers the exploitation of linguistic structure as found in many traditions, from ancient Semitic literatures to contemporary Austronesian and Mayan verbal arts. Narratology is presented from the perspective of linguistics, with complete narratives in the original languages with translations from a variety of traditions. The book concludes by looking at the linguistic aspects of the performance of literature, and the ways in which literature exploits the communicative function of language, in irony and metaphor.

The book is illustrated with examples from around a hundred different literary traditions, quoting texts in the original languages, fully translated and explained. Exercises are provided which enable readers to put theoretical issues discussed in the chapters to practical analysis of texts; texts for discussion range from major works of English literature to previously unpublished oral texts from rarely discussed traditions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0631192433
• ISBN 13: 9780631192435
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 315