Michael Toolan

Bio: Michael Toolan is an academic researcher from University of Birmingham. The author has contributed to research in topics: Narrative & Integrational linguistics. The author has an hindex of 17, co-authored 61 publications receiving 1739 citations. Previous affiliations of Michael Toolan include University of Washington.

Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction

Abstract: Contents Series Editor's Introduction to the Interface Series Preface Acknowledgements 1. Preliminary orientations 2. Basic story structure 3. The articulattion of narrative text I: time, focalization, narration 4. The articulation of narrative text II: character, setting, suspense, film 5. The articulation of narrative text III: representing character discourse 6. Narrative as socially situated: the sociolinguistic approach 7. Children's narratives 8. Narrative as political action Further Reading Notes and Exercises Bibliography Index

What is critical discourse analysis and why are people saying such terrible things about it?1

Abstract: Increasingly, discourse makes and sustains the worlds we live in. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is one form of a justifiably reflective and suspicious inspection of how discourses shape and fra...

Language in literature : an introduction to stylistics

Abstract: Getting started. Cohesion. Modality and generic sentences. Processes and participants. Recorded speech and thought. Narrative structure. A few well-chosen words. Talking acts of give and take. Presuppositions.

The Fictions of Language and the Languages of Fiction

Abstract: It was another typical chaotic day at the university, with discussions ranging from ‘limited’ generic sentences to spittoons in Midnight’s Children to Owen Barfield on metaphor. So it was not until that evening that thoughts on free indirect discourse were taken up again. Surely sentences with parentheticals were not free enough, and not problematic enough, not (precisely by virtue of the yes! he would say it! intrirding parenthetical) sufficiently productive of uncertainties about the preceding discourse’s sponsor? (from Moms Pizzazz, Sniall lVorld Enorrgh and Tlijnie)

Total Speech: An Integrational Linguistic Approach to Language

Abstract: Units, rules, codes, systems: this is how most linguists study language. Integrationalists such as Michael Toolan, however, focus instead on how language functions in seamless tandem with the rest of human activity. In Total Speech , Toolan provides a clear and comprehensive account of integrationalism, a major new theory of language that declines to accept that text and context, language and world, are distinct and stable categories. At the same time, Toolan extends the integrationalist argument and calls for a radical change in contemporary theorizing about language and communication. In every foundational area of linguistics—from literal meaning and metaphor to the nature of repetition to the status of linguistic rules—Toolan advances fascinating and provocative criticisms of received linguistic assumptions. Drawing inspiration from the writings of language theorist Roy Harris, Toolan brings the integrationalist perspective to bear on legal cases, the reception of Salman Rushdie, poetry, and the language of children. Toolan demonstrates that the embeddedness of language and the situation-sensitive mutability of meaning reveal language as a tool for re-fashioning and renewal. Total Speech breaks free of standard linguistics’ fascinated attraction with “cognitive blueprints” and quasi-algorithmic processing to characterize language anew. Toolan’s reflections on the essence of language, including his important discussion of intention, have strong implications for students and scholars of discourse analysis, literature, the law, anthropology, philosophy of language, communication theory, and cognitive science, as well as linguistics.

Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract: Since the late 1980s, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) has become a well-established field in the social sciences. However, in contrast with some branches of linguistics, CDA is not a discrete academic discipline in the traditional sense, with a fixed set of research methods. The manifold roots of CDA lie in a myriad of disciplines including rhetoric, anthropology, philosophy and cognitive science, to name a few. This four-volume set brings together seminal articles on the subject from varied sources, creating an invaluable roadmap for scholars seeking to consolidate their knowledge of CDA, and of its continued development. Sculpted and edited by a leading voice in the field, this work covers the interdisciplinary roots, the most important approaches and methodologies of CDA, as well as applications in other disciplines in an updated and comprehensive way. Structured thematically, the four volumes cover a wide range of aspects and considerations: Volume One: Histories, Concepts and Interdisciplinarity Volume Two: Theoretical Approaches and Methodologies Volume Three: 'Doing CDA' - Case Studies Volume Four: Applications and Perspectives - New Trends in CDA

Critical discourse analysis

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This paper provides a survey of critical discourse analysis (CDA), a recent school of discourse analysis that concerns itself with relations of power and inequality in language. CDA explicitly intends to incorporate social-theoretical insights into discourse analysis and advocates social commitment and interventionism in research. The main programmatic features and domains of enquiry of CDA are discussed, with emphasis on attempts toward theory formation by one of CDA's most prominent scholars, Norman Fairclough. Another section reviews the genesis and disciplinary growth of CDA, mentions some of the recent critical reactions to it, and situates it within the wider picture of a new critical paradigm developing in a number of language-oriented (sub) disciplines. In this critical paradigm, topics such as ideology, inequality, and power figure prominently, and many scholars productively attempt to incorporate social-theoretical insights into the study of language.

Discourse: A Critical Introduction

Abstract: This engaging 2005 introduction offers a critical approach to discourse, written by an expert uniquely placed to cover the subject for a variety of disciplines. Organised along thematic lines, the book begins with an outline of the basic principles, moving on to examine the methods and theory of CDA (critical discourse analysis). It covers topics such as text and context, language and inequality, choice and determination, history and process, ideology and identity. Blommaert focuses on how language can offer a crucial understanding of wider aspects of power relations, arguing that critical discourse analysis should specifically be an analysis of the 'effects' of power, what power does to people, groups and societies, and how this impact comes about. Clearly argued, this concise introduction will be welcomed by students and researchers in a variety of disciplines involved in the study of discourse, including linguistics, linguistic anthropology and the sociology of language.

Narrating the self

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Across cultures, narrative emerges early in communicative development and is a fundamental means of making sense of experience. Narrative and self are inseparable in that narrative is simultaneously born out of experience and gives shape to experience. Narrative activity provides tellers with an opportunity to impose order on otherwise disconnected events, and to create continuity between past, present, and imagined worlds. Narrative also interfaces self and society, constituting a crucial resource for socializing emotions, attitudes, and identities, developing interpersonal relationships, and constituting membership in a community. Through various genres and modes; through discourse, grammar, lexicon, and prosody; and through the dynamics of collaborative authorship, narratives bring multiple, partial selves to life.