TY - CHAP
T1 - Hocus Pocus or God’s Truth
T2 - the dual identity of Michael Stubbs
AU - Cook, Guy
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Text analysis is in an anomalous position: hovering on the borders between the sciences on the one hand, and the arts on the other. As science it seeks to be descriptive rather than prescriptive, replicable by other analysts, expounding objective facts about language use. As an art it evaluates and prescribes, imposing the writer's views upon the external world, saying as much about the analyst as the analysed. This chapter explores the position of Michael Stubbs in relation to this dichotomy, suggesting that, while he advocates objectivity, and has made an outstanding contribution to linguistic description, his achievement - almost despite himself - is also to be an evaluator and interpreter. Like a good literary critic, he is worth reading not only for what he tells us about the external world (which is a great deal) but also for his own unique ideas.
AB - Text analysis is in an anomalous position: hovering on the borders between the sciences on the one hand, and the arts on the other. As science it seeks to be descriptive rather than prescriptive, replicable by other analysts, expounding objective facts about language use. As an art it evaluates and prescribes, imposing the writer's views upon the external world, saying as much about the analyst as the analysed. This chapter explores the position of Michael Stubbs in relation to this dichotomy, suggesting that, while he advocates objectivity, and has made an outstanding contribution to linguistic description, his achievement - almost despite himself - is also to be an evaluator and interpreter. Like a good literary critic, he is worth reading not only for what he tells us about the external world (which is a great deal) but also for his own unique ideas.
M3 - Chapter
SN - 9042023503
SN - 9789042023505
T3 - Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics
SP - 305
EP - 327
BT - Language, People, Numbers
A2 - Gerbig, Andrea
A2 - Mason, Oliver
PB - Rodopi
CY - Amsterdam and New York
ER -