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Phrases in literary contexts: patterns and distributions of suspensions in Dickens’s novels

Mahlberg, Michaela; Smith, Catherine; Preston, Simon

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Authors

Michaela Mahlberg

Catherine Smith

SIMON PRESTON simon.preston@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Statistics and Applied Mathematics



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.

Citation

Mahlberg, M., Smith, C., & Preston, S. (2013). Phrases in literary contexts: patterns and distributions of suspensions in Dickens’s novels. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 18(1), https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.18.1.05mah

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2013
Deposit Date May 15, 2014
Publicly Available Date May 15, 2014
Journal International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
Print ISSN 1384-6655
Electronic ISSN 1569-9811
Publisher John Benjamins Publishing
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 18
Issue 1
DOI https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.18.1.05mah
Keywords Dickens; body language presentation; reporting verbs; suspended quotation; suspension annotation
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/712344
Publisher URL http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jbp/ijcl/2013/00000018/00000001/art00003?token=00591b8ab40da4975e37b76504c48663c707b234a6c5f7a514d3b6a332b257d7241255e4e6b6331944ce39bb5

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