Two different approaches to the definition of literature (criterial and prototypical) are described, and some features of a prototypical literary work are outlined. The criterial approach attempts to provide criteria that must be met by all texts to be called literature. The prototype approach focuses on a particularly good example to which other…

Articles included in this compilation represent functional approaches to literary analysis. Most of these papers were presented at the Sixteenth International Systemics Congress held in Helsinki, Finland, in 1989. The aim of the congress was to establish dialogue between various functional approaches to the theoretical study of language, to…

When creative uses of spoken language have been investigated, the main examples have been restricted to particular contexts such as narrative and related story-telling genres. This paper reports on an initial investigation using the 5 million word CANCODE corpus of everyday spoken English and discusses a range of social contexts in which creative…

The process of embedding, a term used in generative grammar to refer to a construction in which a sentence is included within another sentence, is examined as it occurs in Yoruba literature. Examples are drawn from Yoruba praise poetry, in both written and oral form and within Yoruba novels. Forms of embedding identified include those to draw…

The nature of literary translation and ways in which it differs from other forms of translation are examined, looking at practical difficulties, challenges, and satisfaction in the profession of literary translation. The difficulties discussed include suggestions about how to get started, legal questions of copyright, and choice of text.…

The collection of seven working papers in linguistics includes: "Proceeding from Syllable Inventory to Phonemic Inventory in the Analysis of Liangshan Yi (Andy Eatough); "Empty Consonants in Root-Medial Position" (Stephen A. Marlett); "What Is Literature? A Definition Based on Prototypes" (Jim Meyer); "Seri…

Forty-five papers on linguistic theory and language research from the annual conference address these topics: aspects of discourse analysis; agreement languages; grammatical relations; syntax; phonology; grammar; contrastive linguistics; second language learning; syntax; quotations; topic management; aphasia; interpersonal communication; laughter;…

Essays on the teaching of translation and on specialized translation, all in French, include: "Perspectives d'optimisation de la formation du traducteur: quelques reflexions" ("Perspectives on Optimization of Training of Translation Teachers: Some Reflections") (Egan Valentine); "L'enseignement de la revision…

Forty-one papers on language research and linguistic theory from the annual conference address these topics: linguistic philosophy; aspects of phonetics and phonology; topics in syntax; aspect; topics in semantics; topics in discourse analysis; sociolinguistics and language contact; historical linguistics; metatheory; and interdisciplinary…