Prof. Toolan is an expert of literature-related linguistics. He has several books on stylistics, integrational linguistics, language and law, narrative analysis, language processing and discourse analysis. He is a founding member of the International Association for the Integrational Study of Language and Communication (IAISLC) and editor of the Journal of Literary Semantics, an international peer-reviewed journal which aims to promote research into the relations between linguistics and literature. In the presentation, Professor Toolan interpreted Jacobson’s concepts about the poetic function and ‘projection’ of equivalence. He made analysis of different kinds of repetition of language by citing some examples from literary works. By doing so, he pointed out some repetitions are redundant while some others are non-redundant and creative.

The audience showed interest in Professor Toolan’s talk and raised some questions for exchange.