Allusions in the Press: An Applied Linguistic Study

ISBN-13: 9783110179507 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 311 str.

Paul Lennon

Opis

This corpus-based study of allusions in the British press shows the range of targets journalists allude to - from Shakespeare to TV soaps, from Jane Austen to Hillary Clinton, from hymns to nursery rhymes, proverbs and riddles. It analyzes the linguistic forms allusions take and demonstrates how allusions function meaningfully in discourse. It explores the nature of the background cultural and intertextual knowledge allusions demand of readers and sets out the processing stages involved in understanding an allusion. Allusion is integrated into existing theories of indirect language and linked to idioms, word-play and metaphor.

Spis treści

1. Introduction
2. Theories of indirect language comprehension
3. Previous work on allusion
4. A newspaper corpus of allusions: Initial analysis (of quotations, titles, proverbs, formulaic text, names and naming phrases, set phrases)
5. The alluding and target units
6. The comprehension of allusions
7. The functions of allusion
8. Conclusion
9. Appendix: The national dailies: Social class and age of readers, average daily sales 1995
10. Notes
11. List of primary texts
12. References

O autorze

Paul Lennon teaches at the University of Bielefeld, Germany.