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Descriptive Linguistics In Literary Studies By M. K. Halliday Summary

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M. A. K. Halliday: In his essay “Descriptive Linguistics in Literary Studies”, Halliday (1970) explains that the categories and methods of descriptive linguistics are as much applicable in the analysis of literary texts as in the analysis of any other kind of textual materials. In this approach, he focuses the attention on the revelation and precise description of language features which might remain undiscovered because of inexact linguistic investigation. Halliday in his approach uses the term ‘application’ to refer to the study of literary texts by theories and methods of linguistics. He focuses on one branch of linguistics, that is, descriptive linguistics (the study of how language works). This contrasts with both historical …show more content…

In his approach, he stresses only on ‘grammar for interpretation’. In the structure of a sentence, Sinclair recognizes two aspects of linguistic organization which plays a vital role in the setting up of intra-textual patterns in literary texts. The first one is called release clause / phrase and the second is named arrest clause / phrase. The former refers to the interposition of arresting adverbial to interrupt the sentence and delay its completion. For example, in the following three first lines of the poem mentioned above Sinclair explains the meaning of arrest: ‘Lambs that learn to walk in snow, When their bleating clouds the air, Meet a vast unwelcome………...’. Here, the syntactic pattern NP (Lambs that learn to walk in snow) and Vph (meet a vast unwelcome….) are interrupted by the inserting of adverbial clause arrest or bound clause because it delays the completion of the sentence Stressing on grammar, Sinclair pinpoints some lexical and contextual matter. He points out: “Grammar deals with contrasts, multiple choices from a great many systems simultaneously, and the meaning of a grammatical statement can only be full elicited with reference to the total grammatical description. Nevertheless, the exercise shows how some aspects of the meaning of the poem can be described quite independently of evaluation”. (Sinclair 1966:81)
Geoffrey Leech: Geoffrey Leech in his approach

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