Aim:

To identify some typical features of vocabulary and structure in convers-ation, and to examine how novelists exploit dialect and accent in writing dialogue.

Method:

(i) Transcripts of ordinary conversational narrative are analysed for their vocabulary and structure, and contrasted with conversational dialogue in novels and short stories.
(ii) The conventions of presenting dialectal speech are discussed.

Aim:

To acquire some understanding of how the choice of words and grammatical structures affects and produces an important element of style in writing.

Method:

By the contrastive analysis of two texts - the first that of the original author, the second a "simplified" version.

Aim:

To examine the relation between the rhythms of everyday speech and metrical conventions, and to identify the principal phonological patterns of sound in verse.

Method:

Patterns of stress in ordinary speech are described, and related to patterns of verse writing through the concepts of “heightening” and “foregrounding”. Rhythm in speech and metre in verse are compared.

Aim:

To study some distinctive features of Dickens’ rhetorical styles.

Method:

Extracts from The Old Curiosity Shop, Pickwick Papers, and Dombey and Son are analysed. The rhythmic features of one extract are studied in detail. Contrasting choices of words and grammatical structures that contribute to distinct styles are made specific, and the relation of form to function is explored.