The object of study of text linguistics (textology)

1970 – text linguistics began to develop as a separate branch of linguistics.

Jerzy Baetminrski:

- Textology as a common ground for linguists and literary researchers, which opens a prospect for
the integration of the whole philological discipline.
- Textology encompasses all the detailed aspects of text. It may therefore be divided into a
number of branches:
 theoretical textology (text theory);
 descriptive textology;
 applied textology (practical).

The first branch – theoretical textology (text theory) – focuses on studying suprasentential units, which
are able to function independently in the process of communication.

The aim of the second branch – descriptive textology – is to study the structure, semantics, and
pragmatics of concrete texts, and carry out their analysis and interpretation with the help of methods of
linguistics and literary studies.

The third branch, i.e. applied textology, covers practical operations on texts, their transformations,
development, summarising, etc.

Both terms – text linguistics and textology – imply a broader context then only the strictly linguistics
one, i.e. they indicate the interdisciplinary approach to the subject.

What is literature?
It is impossible to formulate a totally comprehensive and all encompassing definition of literature
because literature is never static.

Literature is generally taken to mean those pieces of writing which, despite the passing of the years and
even of the centuries, still inspire admiration, reflection and emotion in readers.

Not only older works can be called literature.

For the reader, literature is simply beautiful, meaningful writing.

Poems, plays, novels and short stories in a given language that have stood the test of time collectively
make up a national literature.

Why read literature?

The most obvious answer to this question is because it is enjoyable.

Literature provide an escape from our daily lives by transforming us to different times and places
(escapism). It breaks down our personal barriers, allows us to leave behind our age, sex, family
background and economic condition so that we can see the world from the perspective of people who
are completely different from us. Literature stirs up our emotions, widens our field of vision.
Literature can also be viewed as a source of knowledge and information. Almost every poem, play or
novel we read gives us more information about the world we live in.

Why analyse literature?

Literary analysis is any attempt to understand a literary text.

An analytical approach to literature involves careful observation and drawing conclusions (it entails
discovering patterns of meaning and becoming aware of the writer’s intentions), provides the
vocabulary we need to define and communicate our responses to literary texts.

Literary analysis is a way of learning more about how literary texts are structured. We must know the
definitions of terms such as setting, character, plot and point of view in order to express and exchange
opinions.

What is poetry?
Poetry, like all literature, is a writer’s attempt to communicate to others his emotional and intellectual
response to his own experiences and to the world that surrounds him. The poet puts words together to
make the reader feel what he has felt and experience what he has experienced.

Poetry emerges from the interplay between the meaning of words and their arrangement on paper.

‘Poetry is the best words in their best order’ – Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Figures of speech
A figure of speech is any use of language, which deviates from the obvious or common usage in order to
achieve a special meaning or effect.

The density and originality of a writer’s use of figures of speech is part of his characteristic style.

There are many different figures of speech. The most widely used are:

 a simile is a figure of speech in which a comparison between two distinctly different things is
indicated by the word ‘like’ or ‘as’ (‘life is like a rollercoaster’). A simile is made up of three
elements:
- the tenor: the subject under discussion;
- the vehicle: what the subject is compared to;
- the ground: what the poet believes the tenor and the vehicle have in common.
 a metaphor is an implied comparison, which creates a total identification between the two
things being compared (‘he’s a live wire’). Words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’ are not used. A metaphor
is made up of three elements (the tenor, the vehicle, the ground).
 in metonymy (Greek for ‘a change of name’) the term for one thing – is applied to another with
which it has become closely associated (the crown = king).
 in synecdoche (Greek for ‘taking together’) a part of sth is used to signify the whole or vice
versa, although the latter form is quite rare (‘many hands make light work’ = ‘the labour’; ‘I’m
reading Dickens’).
  personification is a form of comparison in which human characteristics, such as emotions,
personality, behaviour and so on, are attributed to an animal, object or idea (‘The proud lion
surveyed his kingdom’).
The primary function of personification is to make abstract ideas clearer to the reader by
comparing them to everyday human experience. Humanising cold and complex abstractions can
bring them to life, render them more interesting and make them easier to understand.

Imagery
Images are words or phrases that appeal to our senses.

We use the term imagery to refer to combinations or clusters of images that are used to create a
dominant impression.

A writer may use an image to help us:

 re-live a sense experience that we have already had. We may be able to conjure up the sound of
old women coughing or the sensation of walking through mud from past experience;
 have a new sense experience. This is achieved when our sense memories are called forth in a
pattern that does not correspond to any of our actual experiences. Exploited in this way, images
allow us to see, hear, feel, smell and taste experiences that are new to us.

Writers often develop meaningful patterns in their imagery, and a writer’s choice and arrangement of
imagines is often an important clue to the overall meaning of his work.

Symbols
A symbol is an example of what is called the transference of meaning. Writers a concrete item – an
object, a colour, a person, a place – and attribute a deeper meaning to it. A symbol may be a detail, an
object, a character or an incident. It exists first as sth literal and concrete in the work, but also has a
capacity to evoke in the mind of the reader a range of invisible and abstract associations.

By definition symbols are open-ended. A given symbol will evoke different responses in different
readers.

Many symbolic associations are widely recognised and accepted: the dawn with hope, the serpent with
evil, the colour white with innocence, light with knowledge, dark with ignorance. Writers often make
use of these cultural or shared symbols. Sometimes writers will enlarge or narrow the meaning of a
cultural symbol.

Authors also use their own original symbols. Personal or literary symbols do not have pre-established
associations: the meaning that is attached to them emerges from the context of the work in which they
occur. A particular landscape or certain atmospheric conditions may become associated with a
character’s emotional state. A colour, or an object may take on a secondary meaning. A recurring
gesture or a character may be given symbolic meaning.

The principal techniques that writers use for creating symbols are:
  repetition: the reader should take note of multiple references to a particular object or the
recurrence of the same gesture;
 emphasis: does the author seem to pay particular attention to some element, describe it in
detail or use poetic or connotative language when referring to it?
 associations automatically made with shared symbols: the reader should try to understand if the
author wishes him to make conventional associations with the symbol or if he has added his
own personal significance.

‘Symbol hunting’ – attributing symbolic status to objects, characters or actions when there is little
evidence in the text that they should be viewed as a symbol, should be avoided.

Sound features
Different sounds have different effects on us. The sound of language also create a different responses in
us and writers, especially poets, use their work. By choosing words for their sound as well their meaning,
writers create a musicality in their work that can evoke strong emotional responses and reinforce the
meaning they wish to convey. The most common sound features are rhyme, alliteration, assonance and
onomatopoeia.

The term rhyme refers to the effect that is created when a poet repeats the same sound at the end of
two or more lines.

Rhyme has several important functions:

 it adds a musical quality to the poem;

 it marks the end of each line;
 it makes the poem easier to remember;
 it affects the pace and tone of the poem.

There are several different types of rhyme:

 single-syllable or masculine rhyme: the beginning of the syllable varies while the rest stays the
same (day/say; light/night);
 double-syllable or feminine rhyme matches two syllable words or parts of words
(ocean/motion; pretending/bending);
 triple-syllable rhyme matches three-syllable words (beautiful/dutiful; comparison/garrison);
 true or perfect rhyme: the rhymed sounds correspond exactly (boat/float; double/trouble);
 imperfect rhyme (half rhyme or slant rhyme): the sound of two words is similar, but it is not as
close as is required in true or perfect rhyme. Generally the words contain identical vowels or
identical consonants but not both (loads/lids/lads; road/moan/boat);
 end rhymes fall at the end of the lines;
 internal rhymes occur within the same line (‘Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered
weak and weary’).

Alliteration is the repetition of the same initial consonant sound in a sequence of nearby words (‘black
and blue’, ‘safe and sound’, ‘right as rain’).
Assonance is the repetition of similar or identical vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words
containing different consonants. It creates ‘vowel rhyme’ as in break/play, hope/spoke. Like alliteration,
assonance adds a musical quality to the language and it also establishes rhythm:

 open, broad sounds ‘o’, ‘u’, ‘a’ (flow, burn, heart, flame) tend to slow the rhythm down;
 slender ‘i’ and ‘e’ (hill, met) sounds create a quicker pace.

The use of the sound of words to suggest the sound they denote is called onomatopoeia.

Rhythm is also an important part of the language of literature. Writers build on the natural rhythms of
language, putting words with the same stress pattern side by side and creating an underlying beat or
rhythm in their work.

Metrical terms and scansion

The regular and rhythmic arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables found in poetry is called
metre. The basic unit of metre is the foot, which consists of one stressed syllable and one or more
unstressed syllables. The most common feet are:

 iamb (adj.: iambic) – one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable: (a|way);
 trochee (adj.: trochaic) – one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable: (fa|ther);
 anapaest (adj.: anapaestic) – two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable: (in|the|
light);
 dactyl (adj.: dactylic) – one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables: (o|ver|the);
 monosyllable (adj.: monosyllabic) – one stressed syllable: (sky);
 spondee (adj. spondaic) – two stressed syllables: (rain|bow).

Analysing metre is called scansion. When we scan a poem we first count the number of syllables and
identify the position of the stresses and accents. We then divide the line into feet and determine the
metrical length of the line:

 monometer – one foot  pentameter – five feet

 dimeter – two feet  hexameter – six feet
 trimester – three feet  heptameter – seven feet
 tetrameter – four feet  octameter – eight feet

When we have identified the kind of feet and the line length, we combine the two to give the metre a
name (iambic pentameter – the metrical form that most closely resembles natural speech and it is the
most widely used metre in English poetry; trochaic hexameter; anapaestic heptameter).

The rhythm may establish an atmosphere or create a tone, and deviations from the predominant
metrical pattern may highlight key elements.

Other rhythmic devices

 When a pause occurs naturally at the end of a line we refer to it as an end-stopped line.
 Enjambment or run-on line are the terms we use when the sense of the sentence extends into
the next line.
 If a strong break occurs in the middle of a line it is referred to as caesura.

Enjambment and caesura give their own particular rhythm to poetry.