This book explores the intersection of linguistics and literature and offers new insight into linguistic methods of literary criticism. The methods include the analysis of questions of requests, topic analysis and its relation to the notion of dominance, and case grammar, with special reference to the concept of agentivity. Readers interested in language will value the contribution of this book to applied linguistics while readers interested in Shakespeare will welcome the fresh perspectives on the three selected plays. Rudanko demonstrates the usefulness of interdisciplinary cooperation between linguistics and literature and helps to break down artificial barriers between the two fields.
Contents: Introduction; The Changing Othello: A Look at Some Adjacency Pairs in Othello; "That she may make, unmake, do what she list": Case Grammar and Othello and Iago's Soliloquies; Speech Acts in Coriolanus; Turning Down Requests: Politeness and Nastiness in Timon of Athens; Concluding Observations.