ABSTRACT
This chapter elaborates the view that syntax functions in a way that is roughly analogous to perception. Syntax is thus an experiential ground for the reader of literature. An overview of the scholastic philosophy of John Duns Scotus, in relation to the poetics of Gerard Manley Hopkins, will secure a framework for counting the syntactical register of literary art as prerequisite to appreciating how attentional capacities are key to human agency. The syntactical practices on display in Hopkins’ poetry and prose, and those of William Faulkner in his short novel “The Bear,” are adduced to show how syntax bears directly on acts of mind and the human activities that ensue from them.
