Shared Logical Form or Shared Metaphysics? In search of Corpus-derived Empathy in Stylistics

Abstract

The paper presents a corpus stylistics view on empathy, seen as a mechanism of sharing textual meaning that subsists between authors and their readers. After a brief mention of the relevant developments in psychology and empirical stylistics, the paper focuses on the relevant research in the field of corpus linguistics. The paper shows that the semantic auras of grammar strings are consistent in the language and interact within a text. Thus in a poem, the subtext of the first line, obtainable through the most frequent lexical collocates of its underlying grammar string, may prospect the later developments within the poem by, for example, foreshadowing negativity or even violence. Empathy is thus seen as the sharing of the subliminal layers of meaning which a priori subsist in grammatical strings devoid of lexis, via their most frequent lexical collocates.