A Corpus Stylistics Approach to Contemporary Present-tense Narrative
Focusing on the growing trend of employing the present tense in storytelling, this book explores present-tense narrative in contemporary fiction. Using a corpus approach, speech, writing, and thought presentation in 21st-century present-tense narrative is compared with 20th-century past-tense narrative. An in-depth comparative analysis reveals previously undiscovered innovative features specific to how character discourse is presented in modern narratives. Notably, narrative tenses have an impact on thought presentation; in present-tense narrative, Free Direct Thought (FDT) emerges as frequently as Free Indirect Thought (FIT), a departure from the dominance of FIT in modern past-tense narrative. This book will be of interest to stylisticians, narratologists, corpus linguists, and those who have found themselves absorbed in a 21st-century work of present-tense fiction.
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature, 43] 2024. xx, 269 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 25 September 2024
Published online on 25 September 2024
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements | pp. ix–x
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List of tables | pp. xi–xvi
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List of figures | pp. xvii–xviii
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List of abbreviations | pp. xix–xx
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Chapter 1. Narrative tense: Theory and practice | pp. 1–15
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Chapter 2. Present tense in fiction: A historical overview | pp. 16–33
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Chapter 3. Corpus stylistics and our corpora | pp. 34–46
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Chapter 4. The Semino and Short model and the annotation of PREST and PAST | pp. 47–70
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Chapter 5. Comparisons of lexis and grammatical structures in PREST and PAST | pp. 71–96
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Chapter 6. Comparisons of speech presentation in PREST and PAST | pp. 97–143
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Chapter 7. Comparisons of writing presentation in PREST and PAST | pp. 144–155
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Chapter 8. Comparisons of thought presentation in PREST and PAST | pp. 156–209
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Chapter 9. Comparisons of narration in PREST and PAST | pp. 210–244
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Chapter 10. Conclusion | pp. 245–256
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Titles of novels and short stories in the corpora | pp. 257–259
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References | pp. 260–266
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Index | pp. 267–269
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Subjects
Literature & Literary Studies
Main BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
Main BISAC Subject
LAN015000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Rhetoric