The Grammar of Genres and Styles: From Discrete to Non-Discrete Units (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM] Book 320)

The book provides new findings about the grammar of genres and styles. It combines new methods with different kinds of empirical material, from social reports to live TV sports commentaries or 16th century newspapers, in English, French, Latin and Spanish. The study of non-discrete units suggests new ways of seeing the linguistic variation between genres and styles and the ways in which belonging to a genre predetermines linguistic choices. Contents 5 Grammar of genres and styles: an overview 7 Text types, audience and thematic organisation in the recent history of English 20 Reference chains and genre identification 45 Taking into account coherence relations to describe a textual genre: methodology and application to the discourse of tourist attraction guides 73 Linguistic features of genre and method variation in translation: a computational perspective 98 Approaching French theatrical characters by syntactical analysis: a study with motifs and correspondence analysis 124 Towards a topological grammar of genres and styles: a way to combine paradigmatic quantitative analysis with a syntagmatic approach 146 The balance between quantitative and qualitative literary stylistics: how the method of “motifs” can help 170 Live TV sports commentaries: specific syntactic structures and general constraints 200 Bursts of written language as performance units for the description of genre routines 225 Index 253 The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. The series considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems