ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with tribute to the work of scholars who were among the first to avow the value of a linguistic approach to the study of literature. As M. A. K. Halliday puts it, "the value of a theory lies in the use that can be made of it". Indeed, the aim of an appliable linguistics is to challenge the boundaries between theory and practice. The chapter focuses on the practice of doing stylistics in a Systemic Functional Linguistics perspective, i.e. on the Systemic Socio-Semantic Stylistics framework and on how it might achieve its 'social accountability' in higher academic contexts. These contexts for us are literary criticism and the teaching and learning of English, which are conflated in our teaching of stylistics. Regarding language and artistic conventions, the students readily find mention of J. K. Rowling's creative and evocative use of language, and the multiple intertextual strands in Harry Potter.
