In this book, Monika Bednarek addresses the need for a systemic analysis of television discourse and characterization within linguistics and media studies. She presents both corpus stylistics and ‘manual’ analysis of linguistic and multimodal features of fictional television. The first part focuses on communicative context, multimodality, genre, audience and scripted television dialogue while the second part focuses on televisual characterization, introducing and illustrating the novel concept of ‘expressive character identity.’

Aside from the study of television dialogue, which informs it throughout, this book is a contribution to studying characterization, to narrative analysis and to corpus stylistics. With its combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, the book represents a wealth of exploratory, innovative and challenging perspectives, and is a key contribution to the analysis of television dialogue and character identity. The volume will be of interest to researchers and students in linguistics, stylistics and media/television studies, as well as to corpus linguists and communication theorists. The book will be a useful resource for lecturers teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in media discourse and related areas.

‘Monika Bednarek's careful quantitative eye looks around unusual corners for a corpus linguist. Her book The Language of Fictional Television offers a distinctive, linguistic approach to analyzing popular culture, but draws productively on stylistics, cultural studies, media studies and sociological frameworks. This book provides a model for linguists who want to combine corpus evidence with 'big picture' questions, like how characterisation and identity works, and how ideologies are naturalized - and might be challenged - both in and out of fiction. The material can be adapted for teaching materials in senior undergraduate and postgraduate classes: for example, the chapter on how vegetarians and vegetarian foods are construed, and how this is involved in character development in the 'dramedy' Gilmore Girls, makes an excellent platform for teaching language and ideology.’

Alison Moore, Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics, University of Wollongong & Honorary Research Associate, Centre for Language in Social Life, Macquarie University, Australia