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Part of
Language in Place: Stylistic perspectives on landscape, place and environment
Edited by Daniela Francesca Virdis, Elisabetta Zurru and Ernestine Lahey
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 37] 2021
► pp. 17–44

Chapter 2
Thematic adverbial adjuncts of place and direction and their relationship to conceptual metaphor in A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad

 | Lingnan University
Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), in discussing the textual metafunction of grammar, identifies any sentence element other than Subject in initial position in declarative clauses as “marked Theme”. Previous research analysed the use of marked Theme in A. E. Housman’s poem sequence A Shropshire Lad (Goatly 2008), revealing the importance of space, place, orientation and direction. These semantic fields have been identified as significant sources for conceptual metaphors, and this chapter re-examines the widespread use of place and direction adjuncts in marked thematic position for their symbolic significance. By analysing in detail ten of the poems in which marked Theme is particularly prominent, it demonstrates that they do indeed achieve symbolic value, and that their symbolism is dependent upon the conceptual metaphors/metaphor themes identified in and catalogued in Metalude (Goatly 2002-2005). One can conclude that, though apparently backgrounded by being positioned in Theme position, these adjuncts are, in fact, of importance to literary theme.
Keywords: conceptual metaphor, marked theme, symbolism, A.E Housman, A Shropshire Lad, Systemic Functional Grammar, Metalude database
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Housman’s a Shropshire Lad (1896/2010)
    • 1.2Marked theme in systemic functional grammar (SFG)
    • 1.3Conceptual metaphor theory and symbolism
  • 2.Classifying and sorting marked themes in relation to literary theme
    • 2.1Relation of place adjuncts to literary theme
      • 2.1.1Place
      • 2.1.2Time
      • 2.1.3Exile and separation
  • 3.Place adjuncts as conceptual metaphors or symbols and the present study
    • 3.1Poem 14
    • 3.2Poem 35
    • 3.3Poem 61
    • 3.4Poem 30
    • 3.5Poem 42
    • 3.6Poem 17
    • 3.7Poem 31
    • 3.8Poem 32
    • 3.9Poem 36
    • 3.10
    • 3.11Summary on marked theme of place and conceptual metaphor
  • References
Published online: 15 April 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.37.02goa
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Virdis, Daniela Francesca
2022. Ecostylistics, Ecolinguistics and Stylistics: A Theoretical Overview. In Ecological Stylistics, ► pp. 29 ff. DOI logo
Virdis, Daniela Francesca
2022. Environmental issues in the Victorian era: an ecostylistic examination of metaphor and framing in Ruskin’sThe Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century. Text & Talk 42:4 ► pp. 613 ff. DOI logo

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