Allusions in the Press

Download or read book Allusions in the Press written by Paul Lennon and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2008-08-22 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This corpus-based study of allusions in the British press shows the range of targets journalists allude to - from Shakespeare to TV soaps, from Jane Austen to Hillary Clinton, from hymns to nursery rhymes, proverbs and riddles. It analyzes the linguistic forms allusions take and demonstrates how allusions function meaningfully in discourse. It explores the nature of the background cultural and intertextual knowledge allusions demand of readers and sets out the processing stages involved in understanding an allusion. Allusion is integrated into existing theories of indirect language and linked to idioms, word-play and metaphor.