[Corpora-List] NY Times Book Review Section

[Ken Litkowski]

Orin Hargraves provided me with the link to Ben Zimmer's reference to 
his piece, just as interesting as Ben's piece:

The Stuff of Fiction May 1, 2008 By Orin Hargraves ----------------- 
Does Art imitate Life? When the written word is involved it's not always 
easy to tell. This month in the Lounge, we examine the curious 
phenomenon of English word patterns that seem to occur mainly in fiction 
writing. To read the whole article, visit the following URL: 
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/article/crSeCicn4Hh_cV3O90Z7.MAi.C4TjKeWLPfqSWarrAv3lFuXZYQFEw--A 


On 7/31/2011 10:41 AM, John F. Sowa wrote:
> On 7/30/2011 9:00 AM, Susana Sotillo wrote:
>> Mark et al., I thought you might be interested in reading this essay
>> (also published in Zimmer's blog):
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/books/review/the-mechanic-muse-the-jargon-of-the-novel-computed.html?_r=1 
>>
>
> Thanks for the reference.  But I'd like to comment on the following 
> point by Zimmer:
>
>> Has a vernacular style become the standard for the typical fiction 
>> writer?
>> Or is literary language still a distinct and peculiar beast?
>
> As examples of differences between spoken and written language,
> Zimmer notes:
>
>> Sour facial expressions, gruff noises and emphatic bodily movements
>> (wiggling fingers and gritting teeth) would seem to rule the verbs
>> peculiar to today’s published fiction...
>> “Bolting upright” and “drawing one’s breath” are two more fiction-
>> specific turns of phrase revealed by the corpus.
>
> Anyone present in the situation would not comment on such phenomena
> because the listeners would observe them as easily as the speaker.
>
> It would be better to compare spoken language with the quoted
> speech in fiction.
>
> John Sowa
>
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-- 
Ken Litkowski                     TEL.: 301-482-0237
CL Research                       EMAIL: ken at clres.com
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Damascus, MD 20872-1025 USA       Blog: http://www.clres.com/blog


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