Cover not available
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
References
Banfield, S.
1989 Sensibility and English Song: Critical Studies of the Early Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fries, P.
1995 Themes, method of development and texts. In On Subject and Theme: A Discourse Functional Perspective, R. Hasan & P. H. Fries (eds), 317–360. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frost, R.
1916 The road not taken, [URL] (13 March 2018).Google Scholar
Gardner, E.
1992 A. E. Housman: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Goatly, A.
2002-2005 Metalude. [URL] (18 September 2017).Google Scholar
2007 Washing the Brain: Metaphor and Hidden Ideology. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 Explorations in Stylistics. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
2011 The Language of Metaphors. 2nd edn. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
2017 The poems of Edward Thomas: A case study in ecostylistics. In The Stylistics of Landscapes, the Landscapes of Stylistics, J. Douthwaite, D. F. Virdis & E. Zurru (eds), 95–122. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Greimas, A. J.
1966 Sémantique Structurelle. Paris: Larousse.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M.
2004 Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Hodder.Google Scholar
Hasan, R.
1989 Linguistics, Language and Verbal Art. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Housman, A. E.
1896 [2010] A Shropshire Lad and Other Poems, N. Laird (ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Johnson, M.
1987 The Body in the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G.
1987 Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. Chicago: Chicago University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G & Johnson, M.
1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. & Turner, M.
1989 More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago: Chicago University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leech, G. N.
2008 Language in Literature: Style and Foregrounding. Harlow: LongmanGoogle Scholar
Leggett, B. J.
1978 The Poetic Art of A.E. Housman. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Martin, J. R. & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M.
1991 Systemic typology and topology. In Literacy in Social Processes, F. Christie (ed.), 345–383. Darwin: Centre for Studies of Language in Education, Northern Territories University.Google Scholar
Page, N.
1983 A. E. Housman: A Critical Biography. London: Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paprotte, W. & Dirven, R.
(eds) 1985 The Ubiquity of Metaphor. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shelley, P. B.
1943 Shelley: Poetical Works, T. Hutchinson (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wells, S.
2004 Looking for Sex in Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 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’s The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century . Text & Talk 42:4 ► pp. 613 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 april 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.