Cover not available
Part of
Linguistics and Literary History: In honour of Sylvia Adamson
Edited by Anita Auer, Victorina González-Díaz, Jane Hodson and Violeta Sotirova
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 25] 2016
► pp. 87–110

Chapter 5. Decoding the parentheses in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus

A functionalist approach

| National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education, Beijing Foreign Studies University
| School of Foreign Languages, North China Electric Power University
Though it has been pointed out that Shakespeare uses the figure parenthesis “extensively, especially in his later plays” (Joseph 1947: 57), it has been more often marginalized, if not totally neglected. The present paper contends that parenthesis contributes greatly to characterization and the development of conflicts in dramatic texts. Through a detailed analysis of its use in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, this paper attempts to illustrate the significance of parenthesis. At the rhetorical level, parenthesis may have the dual functions of varying and amplifying as differentiated by Adamson (1999). For example, a parenthesis may take the form of a noun phrase in apposition to its antecedent as a way of varying and it may take the form of a non-restrictive relative clause as a way of amplifying, and therefore helps achieve diverse rhetorical effects and convey rich rhetorical meanings. For this reason, a functional study of the subjective and interpersonal function of parentheses can provide clues to a deeper understanding of speaker-hearer relationship, hence of overall dramatic characterization and conflict management.
Published online: 20 October 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.25.06che
References (26)
References
Adamson, S. 1999. Literary language. In The Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. 3, 1476–1776, R. Lass (ed.), 539–653. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Biber, D. 2004. Historical patterns for the grammatical marking of stance: A cross-register comparison. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 5(1): 107–136. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burton-Roberts, N. 2006. Parentheticals. In Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, Vol. VIII, K. Brown (ed.), 179–182. Amsterdam: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dobson, M. & Wells, S. (eds.). 2001. The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Downing, A. & Locke, P. 2006. English Grammar: A University Course, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Evans, G. Blakemore & Tobin, J.J.M. (eds). 1974/1997. The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd edn. Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Finegan, E. 1995. Subjectivity and subjectivisation in language: An introduction. In Subjectivity and Subjectivisation: Linguistic Perspectives, D. Stein & S. Wright (eds.), 1–15. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Graham-White, A. 1995. Punctuation and Its Dramatic Value in Shakespearean Drama. Newark DE: University of Delaware Press.Google Scholar
Greenblatt, S., Cohen, W., Howard, J.E. & Maus, K.E. 1997. The Norton Shakespeare. New York NY: Norton.Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K. & Matthiessen, C. 2004. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Hinman, C. (ed.). 1968[1996]. The Norton Facsimile: The First Folio of Shakespeare, 2nd edn. New York NY: NortonGoogle Scholar
Joseph, Sister M. 1947. Shakespeare’s Use of the Arts of Language. New York NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Lamb, J.P. 2010. Parentheses and privacy in Philip Sidney’s Arcadia. Studies in Philology 107(3): 310–335. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lennard, J. 1991. But I Digress: The Exploitation of Parentheses in English Printed Verse. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Mack, P. 2002. Elizabethan Rhetoric: Theory and Practice. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mulcaster, J. 1582. The Elementarie. Accessed through Early English Books Online (EEBO).Google Scholar
Parkes, M.B. 1992. Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West. Menston: Scolar Press.Google Scholar
Peacham, H. 1577[1971]. The Garden of Eloquence. Menston: Scolar Press.Google Scholar
Puttenham, G. 1589[1936/1969]. The Arte of English Poesie, G. Doidge Willcock & A. Walker (eds). Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, W. 2000/2010. Coriolanus (The New Cambridge Shakespeare, updated edn), L. Bliss (ed.). Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
. 1964. Coriolanus [The New Shakespeare], J.D. Wilson (ed.). Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
. 1998. The Tragedy of Coriolanus [Oxford World’s Classics], R.B. Parker (ed.). Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
. 1976. The Tragedy of Coriolanus [The Arden Shakespeare], P. Brockbank (ed.). London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Traugott, E.C. & Dasher, R.B. 2002. Regularity in Semantic Change. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Vickers, B. 1988. In Defence of Rhetoric. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Williams, R.G. 1993. Reading the parenthesis. SubStance 22(1): 53–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Lugea, Jane
2017. The year’s work in stylistics 2016. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 26:4 ► pp. 340 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.