<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=DE link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US>---apologies for cross-postings ---<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US>The Courant Research Centre "Text Structures" (Göttingen) is pleased to announce the talk “Language, Mind and Autism in Mark Haddon’s <i>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time</i>”<i> </i> by Professor Elena Semino (Lancaster, UK).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US>It will be held at the "Seminarraum" of the CRC "Textstrukturen", Nikolausberger Weg 23, 37073 Göttingen, 2. OG (second floor), on Wednesday, 16 November 2011, at 16h (cum tempore). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US>If you are interested in attending the talk, please send a note to <a href="mailto:crc.text@uni-goettingen.de">crc.text@uni-goettingen.de</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US>Directions to the CRC can be found here:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US><a href="http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/contact/108679.html">http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/contact/108679.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US>Abstract:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US>Language, Mind and Autism in <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US>Mark Haddon’s <i>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time</i></span></b><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Elena Semino, Lancaster University, UK<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>In this talk I adopt a linguistic approach to Mark Haddon’s <i>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time</i> (2003) in order to account for one of the most central aspects of readers’ interpretation of the novel – the perception that the protagonist and first-person narrator, Christopher Boone, has an autistic-spectrum disorder, usually identified as Asperger’s syndrome. I begin by considering the variety of kinds of information that Christopher provides about himself, either directly or via the voices of other characters. I then discuss distinctive choices and patterns in vocabulary, grammar, figurative language, deixis, speech presentation, and interactional behaviour. I argue that these patterns contribute to or, minimally, are consistent with the inference that Christopher has an autistic-spectrum disorder. Where relevant, I supplement traditional stylistic analysis with quantitative evidence gained by applying corpus-linguistic methods to the novel. </span><span lang=EN-US style='mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'>More generally, my analysis of Haddon’s novel also aims to demonstrate how a linguistic approach to the study of literary texts can be fruitful in a number of important ways.</span><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>