Foregrounding Theory in Linguistics: Foundations, Trends, Interpretations

The article considers general and specific issues of foregrounding theory from the perspective of its study by Anglophone and Russophone researchers. The article focuses on the disputable issues related to the interpretation of foregrounding, its terminological nomination and the basics of implementing this notion into academic practice. In addition, a particular attention is given to describing the distinctive features of foregrounding. Generally, foregrounding theory presupposes that there exists a definite set of regulations which serves as a background for highlighting the stylistic properties based on the violations of both the norms of the standard language and the norms typical of different types of text. The specificity of foregrounding theory as a methodological tool in contemporary stylistics is determined by authorial characteristics of linguistic deviation and communicative-pragmatic potential of foregrounding devices, as well as their importance in textual construction and contextual knowledge (explicit and explicit) representation.

stylistics, text, foregrounding, foregrounding theory, foregrounding devices, enstrangement, language norm, linguistic deviation