How does a literary text get to have literary form, and what is the relation between literary form and linguistic form? This theoretical study of linguistic structure in literature focuses on verse and narrative from a linguistic perspective. Nigel Fabb provides a simple and realistic linguistic explanation of poetic form in English from 1500–1900, drawing on the English and American verse and oral narrative tradition, as well as contemporary criticism. In recent years literary theory has paid relatively little attention to form; this book argues that form is interesting. Fabb offers a new linguistic approach to how metre and rhythm work in poetry, based on pragmatic theory and provides a pragmatic explanation of formal ambiguity and indeterminacy and their aesthetic effects. He also uses linguistics to examine the experience of poetry. Language and Literary Structure will be welcomed by students and researchers in linguistics, literary theory and stylistics.

‘This book presents a highly original linguistic approach to literary structure, and especially to English metrical verse.’

Source: Journal of Literary Semantics

'… an interesting addition to the linguistic study of verse … Language and Literary Structure is a significant contribution to the linguistic analysis of literature. It describes and analyzes a broader set of English verse than previous generative accounts … The writing is clear throughout the book … Language and Literary Structure could easily serve as the textbook in an advanced course on metrics … the ongoing and active debate over t his makes Fabb's work both timely and relevant … Language and Literary Structure will prove useful to both the linguist and the literary scholar … The book poses interesting answers to provocative questions …'

Source: Journal of Linguistics