Abstract
To what extent can the application of procedures derived from linguistic theory be of relevance in the analysis of literary texts? This is a controversial question - one that is the focus of muchscrutiny and debate amongliterary critics and stylisticians.
Highlights
Ito what e x t ^ t can the application of procedures derived from linguistic theory be of relevance in the analysis of literary texts? Ihis is a controversial question - one that is the focus of much scrutiny and debate among literary critics and stylisticians
His inquiry has evoked conflicting responses vAiich Ccin be regarded as a manifestation of the diverging trends in linguistics and stylistics concerning the nature and location of linguistic meaning, and the manner in vtiich a literary text is interpreted
Among the linguistic theories that are of relevance in the analysis of the language of literary texts are those that aim to account for the manner in which meaning is conveyed through syntactic structures
Summary
Ito what e x t ^ t can the application of procedures derived from linguistic theory be of relevance in the analysis of literary texts? Ihis is a controversial question - one that is the focus of much scrutiny and debate among literary critics and stylisticians. Michael Halliday's (1971) inquiry into the language of William Golding's novel The Inheritors exemplifies the potential that linguistic theories have for elucidating the meaning of literary texts. Among the linguistic theories that are of relevance in the analysis of the language of literary texts are those that aim to account for the manner in which meaning is conveyed through syntactic structures. According to Traugott and Pratt (1980:191), analysing the relations that obtain between the participant roles and the predicates in sentences can provide 'exciting ways of aoxunting for aspects of worldview created in literary works'. Transitivity represents that function of the clause that expresses the 'reflective experiential aspect of weaning' (Halliday, 1985:101) This system specifies 'the different types of processes that are recognized in the language, and the structures which they are e>ipressed'.
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