In: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
Guohua Chen | National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education, Beijing Foreign Studies University
Published online: 20 October 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.25.06che
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.25.06che
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.
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