In:Practising Stylistics: Essays in Honour of Paul Simpson
Edited by Clara Neary, Simon Statham and Peter Stockwell
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 45] 2026
► pp. 200–215
Chapter 16Towards a local grammar of speech presentation in narrative fiction
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Abstract
In this chapter, Michaela Mahlberg introduces a local grammar for the analysis of speech — a ‘local
grammar’ is a model for a specific purpose, as a set of local textual functions. Here, the specific focus is speech in
narrative fiction, which Mahlberg explores using the corpus stylistic tool CLiC, that she and colleagues developed initially
to research characterisation in the nineteenth century novel. The chapter shows evidence for how Charles Dickens, among other
writers, frames the direct speech of characters with body language, manner of speaking, and expressions of time. In doing so,
Mahlberg offers stylisticians a new tool for the exploration of all narrative discourse and characterisation.
Keywords: characterisation, corpus stylistics, Dickens, local grammar, narrative, speech, suspensions
Article outline
- Introduction
- Body language accompanying speech
- Collocations across quotes and non-quotes
- Sequencing time in suspensions with after
- Conclusions
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