A fruitful, well-established development in literary studies has been the application of ideas drawn from linguistics. Precise analytical methods help the practical criticism of texts, while at the same time the theory of language has illuminated literary theory.

Linguistic Criticism is an introduction to the subject by one of its most experienced practitioners. Roger Fowler sets out clearly and simply a variety of analytical techniques whose application he demonstrates in discussion of a wide range of texts drawn from fiction, poetry, and drama. He concentrates on structures which relate literature to ordinary language, stressing the importance of the reader's every day language skills.

This second edition gives clarified and expanded sections dealing with the role of the reader in literary criticism, and includes more twentieth-century texts and examples for analysis and discussion.