Lesley Jeffries

Stylistics is the linguistic study of style in language. Now in its second edition, this book is an introduction to stylistics that locates it firmly within the traditions of linguistics. Organised to reflect the historical development of stylistics, it covers key principles such as foregrounding theory, as well as recent advances in cognitive and corpus stylistics. This edition has been fully revised to cover all the major developments in the field since the first edition, including extensive coverage of corpus stylistics, new sections on a range of topics, additional exercises and commentaries, updated further reading lists, and an entirely re-written final chapter on the disciplinary status of stylistics and its relationship to linguistics, plus a manifesto for the future of the field. Comprehensive in its coverage and assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, it is essential reading for students and researchers new to this fascinating area of language study.

Stylistics is the linguistic study of style in language. Now in its second edition, this book is an introduction to stylistics that locates it firmly within the traditions of linguistics. Organised to reflect the historical development of stylistics, it covers key principles such as foregrounding theory, as well as recent advances in cognitive and corpus stylistics. This edition has been fully revised to cover all the major developments in the field since the first edition, including extensive coverage of corpus stylistics, new sections on a range of topics, additional exercises and commentaries, updated further reading lists, and an entirely re-written final chapter on the disciplinary status of stylistics and its relationship to linguistics, plus a manifesto for the future of the field. Comprehensive in its coverage and assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, it is essential reading for students and researchers new to this fascinating area of language study.

This book introduces a new way of looking at how poems mean, drawing on the framework first developed in the author’s book Critical Stylistics, but applied here to aesthetic more than ideological meaning. The aim is to empower readers of poetry to articulate the features of poetic language that they come across and explain to themselves and others why these features convey the meanings that they do. While this volume focuses on contemporary poets writing in English and mostly based in the UK and Ireland, the framework will work just as well for other eras’ poetry, as well as for other cultures and languages.

This book introduces a new way of looking at how poems mean, drawing on the framework first developed in the author’s book Critical Stylistics, but applied here to aesthetic more than ideological meaning. The aim is to empower readers of poetry to articulate the features of poetic language that they come across and explain to themselves and others why these features convey the meanings that they do. While this volume focuses on contemporary poets writing in English and mostly based in the UK and Ireland, the framework will work just as well for other eras’ poetry, as well as for other cultures and languages.

What's the word that describes the process of making supportive noises when you're listening to someone? What is syntax and how does it differ from grammar? Do you know what a morpheme is? And did you know that it's not only an atom that has a nucleus? The Babel Lexicon of Language is an entertaining and accessible introduction to the key terminology involved in the study of language. It defines over 500 terms and uses contemporary language examples, explaining complex issues in an easy-to-understand way. Written by the expert editorial team behind Babel, the popular language magazine, and assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, The Babel Lexicon of Language is an invaluable resource for students, teachers and anyone with an interest in language.

What's the word that describes the process of making supportive noises when you're listening to someone? What is syntax and how does it differ from grammar? Do you know what a morpheme is? And did you know that it's not only an atom that has a nucleus? The Babel Lexicon of Language is an entertaining and accessible introduction to the key terminology involved in the study of language. It defines over 500 terms and uses contemporary language examples, explaining complex issues in an easy-to-understand way. Written by the expert editorial team behind Babel, the popular language magazine, and assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, The Babel Lexicon of Language is an invaluable resource for students, teachers and anyone with an interest in language.

Building on Raymond Williams’ iconic "Keywords" released in 1975, Jeffries and Walker show how some pivotal words significantly increased in use and evolved in meaning during the years of the ‘New Labour’ project. Focussing on print news media, this book establishes a set of socio-political keywords for the ‘Blair Years’, and demonstrates how their evolving meanings are indicative of the ideological landscape in Britain at that time, and the extent to which the cultural hegemony of the New Labour project influenced the language of the commentariat.Combining corpus linguistic approaches with critical stylistics the authors conduct an analysis of two newspaper corpora using computational tools. Looking closely at textually-constructed meanings within the data, their investigation of the keywords has a qualitative focus, and sets out a clear methodology for combining corpus approaches with systematic co-textual analysis.

Building on Raymond Williams’ iconic "Keywords" released in 1975, Jeffries and Walker show how some pivotal words significantly increased in use and evolved in meaning during the years of the ‘New Labour’ project. Focussing on print news media, this book establishes a set of socio-political keywords for the ‘Blair Years’, and demonstrates how their evolving meanings are indicative of the ideological landscape in Britain at that time, and the extent to which the cultural hegemony of the New Labour project influenced the language of the commentariat.Combining corpus linguistic approaches with critical stylistics the authors conduct an analysis of two newspaper corpora using computational tools. Looking closely at textually-constructed meanings within the data, their investigation of the keywords has a qualitative focus, and sets out a clear methodology for combining corpus approaches with systematic co-textual analysis.

In this important book, Lesley Jeffries introduces a phenomenon which has not been given the attention it deserves - the contextual construction of oppositional meaning. These are opposites not recognisable as such out of context but that are clearly set up this way in the text concerned. The significance of oppositional meaning is well-known but the main emphasis has always been on the conventional opposite: the opposite recognised by lexical semantics.Starting from socio-cultural viewpoints, moving to original research and then concluding with a new theoretical formulation, this book introduces and consolidates a significant new approach to the analysis of oppositional meaning. It closes with a discussion of the importance of constructed opposition in hegemonic practice and makes a case for the inclusion of opposition as a central tool of critical discourse analysis. It is essential reading for those in stylistics, linguistics and language studies.

Lesley Jeffries introduces a phenomenon which has not been given the attention it deserves - the contextual construction of oppositional meaning. These are opposites not recognisable as such out of context but that are clearly set up this way in the text concerned. The significance of oppositional meaning is well-known, and has been discussed by scholars for millennia, from Philosophy to Politics. But the main emphasis has always been on the conventional opposite: the opposite recognised by lexical semantics. Starting from socio-cultural viewpoints, moving to original research and then concluding with a new theoretical formulation, this book introduces and consolidates a significant new approach to the analysis of oppositional meaning. It closes with a discussion of the importance of constructed opposition in hegemonic practice and makes a case for the inclusion of opposition as a central tool of critical discourse analysis. It will be essential reading for researchers and graduates in stylistics, linguistics and language studies.

Stylistics is the linguistic study of style in language. It aims to account for how texts project meaning, how readers construct meaning and why readers respond to texts in the way that they do. This book is an introduction to stylistics that locates it firmly within the traditions of linguistics. Organised to reflect the historical development of stylistics from its origins in Russian formalism, the book covers key principles such as foregrounding theory, as well as more recent developments in cognitive stylistics. It includes an examination of both literary and non-literary texts, and substantial coverage of methodologies for stylistic analysis. Throughout the book, the emphasis is on the practicalities of producing stylistic analyses that are objective, replicable and falsifiable. Comprehensive in its coverage and assuming no prior knowledge of the topic, Stylistics will be essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students new to this fascinating area of language study.

Lesley Jeffries introduces a phenomenon which has not been given the attention it deserves - the contextual construction of oppositional meaning. These are opposites not recognisable as such out of context but that are clearly set up this way in the text concerned. The significance of oppositional meaning is well-known, and has been discussed by scholars for millennia, from Philosophy to Politics. But the main emphasis has always been on the conventional opposite: the opposite recognised by lexical semantics. Starting from socio-cultural viewpoints, moving to original research and then concluding with a new theoretical formulation, this book introduces and consolidates a significant new approach to the analysis of oppositional meaning. It closes with a discussion of the importance of constructed opposition in hegemonic practice and makes a case for the inclusion of opposition as a central tool of critical discourse analysis. It will be essential reading for researchers and graduates in stylistics, linguistics and language studies.

This original and engaging textbook is concerned with stylistic choices, and the textual analysis which can illuminate the choices that a text producer has made. It combines the strengths of two approaches – critical discourse analysis and stylistics – to uncover the deep-seated ideologies of everyday texts. In so doing, it introduces a comprehensive set of tools which will help readers to explain and analyse the power of written texts. Each chapter focuses on a particular linguistic feature – such as naming and describing, prioritizing, negating, and hypothesizing – gives an overview of its argument and then explains the technical aspects of the feature along with a wealth of examples.This book will be ideal reading for students on a wide range of courses, including stylistics, discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, English functional grammar and advanced composition.

This original and engaging textbook is concerned with stylistic choices, and the textual analysis which can illuminate the choices that a text producer has made. It combines the strengths of two approaches – critical discourse analysis and stylistics – to uncover the deep-seated ideologies of everyday texts. In so doing, it introduces a comprehensive set of tools which will help readers to explain and analyse the power of written texts. Each chapter focuses on a particular linguistic feature – such as naming and describing, prioritizing, negating, and hypothesizing – gives an overview of its argument and then explains the technical aspects of the feature along with a wealth of examples.This book will be ideal reading for students on a wide range of courses, including stylistics, discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, English functional grammar and advanced composition.

Ideal for those who are starting a degree in English language or linguistics, this textbook covers all the basic knowledge and tools of analysis students need for studying language. It introduces methods of English language description and enables readers to learn about the smallest units of language (sounds) and work through the subsequent levels (morphology and syntax) until the sentence is reached. The book also contains a chapter on basic lexical semantics. The final chapter in the book introduces readers to text structure, discourse and linguistic theory. This book is core reading for students taking introductory modules as part of an English language or linguistics degree. It will act as a foundation for more advanced work further into the curriculum.

Ideal for those who are starting a degree in English Language or Linguistics, this textbook covers all the basic knowledge and tools of analysis students need for studying language. It introduces methods of English language description and enables readers to learn about the smallest units of language (sounds) and work through the subsequent levels (morphology and syntax) until the sentence is reached. The book also contains a chapter on basic lexical semantics. The final chapter in the book introduces readers to text structure, discourse and linguistic theory. This book is core reading for students taking introductory modules as part of an English Language or Linguistics degree. It will act as a foundation for more advanced work further into the curriculum.

This accessible and lively introduction to semantics and the multi-faceted nature of language guides the student and non-specialist through the major ways in which the English language makes meaning. The author discusses the meaning of linguistic units at all levels of language, from sound to discourse, while studying also the role of theories and models themselves in helping us to understand human linguistic behaviour. Through examples and exercises, readers are encouraged to think through and evaluate complex ideas and theories for themselves.

This accessible and lively introduction to semantics and the multi-faceted nature of language guides the student and non-specialist through the major ways in which the English language makes meaning. The author discusses the meaning of linguistic units at all levels of language, from sound to discourse, while studying also the role of theories and models themselves in helping us to understand human linguistic behaviour. Through examples and exercises, readers are encouraged to think through and evaluate complex ideas and theories for themselves.