Stylistics-LET Review

STYLISTICS

Key Concepts and Terms

Main Sources: Arp, T., & Johnson, G.(2009). Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound & Sense.Tenth Edition. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Barry, P. (2002). Beginning Theory, 2nd ed. Manchester Univ. Press.

WHAT IS STYLISTICS?

the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation

explicates the message to interpret and evaluate literary writings as works of art

deals with expressive means which secure the desirable effect of the utterance

WHAT ARE THE BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS?

1. Lexical stylistics

studies functions of direct and figurative meanings

also the way contextual meaning of a word is realized in the text

deals with various types of connotations – expressive, evaluative, emotive; neologisms, dialectal words and their behavior in the text.


2. Grammatical stylistics subdivided into morphological and syntactical:

A. Morphological s. views stylistic potential of grammatical categories of different parts of speech. Potential of the number, pronouns…

B. Syntactical s. studies syntactic, expressive means, word order and word combinations, different types of sentences and types of syntactic connections. Also deals with origin of the text, its division on the paragraphs, dialogs, direct and indirect speech, the connection of the sentences, types of sentences.


3. Phonostylistics

phonetical organization of prose and poetic texts

here are included rhythm, rhythmical structure, rhyme, alliteration, assonance and correlation of the sound form and meaning

also studies deviation in normative pronunciation


4. Functional S (stylistics of decoding)

deals with all subdivisions of the language and its possible use (newspaper, colloquial style)

Its object - correlation of the message and communicative situation


5. Individual style study

studies the style of the author

looks for correlations between the creative concepts of the author and the language of his work


6. Stylistics of Encoding

The shape of the information (message) is coded and the addressee plays the part of decoder of the information which is contained in message.

The problems which are connected with adequate reception of the message without any loses (deformation) are the problems of stylistics of encoding.

The Notion of STYLE

What is STYLE in the context of Stylistics?

Style is primarily a quality of writing

Today the word style has a very broad meaning. We speak of style not only in literature but also in architecture, painting, clothes, behaviour, music, work, and so on. In fact, the concept of style can be applied to any kind of human activity that may be performed in more than one way, and also to the result of such an activity.

In literary discourse, STYLE is… the creation of language patterns over and

above those required by the linguistic code. These patterns then bestow certain additional meanings on the linguistic items within them over and above the code

(H. G. Widdowson, Linguistics and the Teaching of Literature)

The very notion of style includes an aesthetic purpose. We may not always admit or immediately notice the aesthetic purpose.

I.R.Galperin’s Notion of StyleAccording to Ilya Romanovich Galperin (notable Russian linguist), the term ‘style’ refers to the following spheres:

1) THE AESTHETIC FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE

It may be seen in works of art- poetry, imaginative prose, fiction, but works of science, technical instruction or business correspondence have no aesthetic value.

2) SYNONYMOUS WAYS OF RENDERING ONE AND THE SAME IDEA

The possibility of choice of using different words in similar situations is connected with the question of style as if the form changes, the contents changes too and the style may be different.

Galperin’s Notion of Style3) EXPRESSIVE MEANS IN LANGUAGE

- are employed mainly in the following spheres – poetry, fiction, colloquial speech, speeches but not in scientific articles, business letters and others.

4) EMOTIONAL COLORING IN LANGUAGE

Very many types of texts are highly emotional – declaration of love, funeral oration, poems(verses), but a great number of texts is unemotional or non-emphatic (rules in textbooks).

Galperin’s Notion of Style

5) A SYSTEM OF SPECIAL DEVICES CALLED STYLISTIC DEVICES

The style is formed with the help of characteristic features peculiar to it. Many texts demonstrate various stylistic features:

She wears ‘fashion’ = what she wears is fashionable or is just the fashion metonymy.

Five Styles in Present-day English (Galperin)

I. Belles Lettres

-Poetry -Emotive prose -The Drama

II. Publicistic Style

-Oratory and Speeches -The Essay -Articles

Five Styles in Present-day English (Galperin)

III. Newspapers

-brief news items -headlines -advertisements and announcements-The Editorial

IV. Scientific Prose

V. Official Documents

STYLISTIC DEVICES

Figurative Language, Sound Techniques, Structural Devices, Irony,

Register

Tropes and Figures of Speech

Tropes are based on the “transfer” of meaning, when a word (or combination of words) is used to denote an object which is not normally correlated with this word. Examples: Metaphor (“Love is a caged bird.”)/ Metonymy (“The pen is mightier than the sword.”)

Figures of speech whose stylistic effect is achieved due to the unusual arrangement of linguistic units, unusual construction or extension of utterance. Examples: Simile, litotes, oxymoron, antithesis...

Levels of Tropes and Figures of Speech

1. Phonetic devices alliteration, assonance – f. repetition of the same sound – (Ex: “A university should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning” – they produce effect of euphony )

2. Graphical (icons and graphic symbolisms)

3. Lexical – interrelation of different meaning of one word and of connotative meanings of different wordsMetaphor – t. use of words (word combinations) in transferred meanings by way of similarity or analogy – Ex: “Art is a jealous mistress”

Levels of Tropes and Figures of Speech

4. Syntactical – is based on the arrangement of elements of the sentence(Ex: Inversion, ellipsis, rhetorical question )

5. Lexico-syntactic – f. simile, litotes

Stylistic Device No. 1: Figurative Language In Thomas Hardy’s novel, Jude the Obscure,

the protagonist, Jude Fawley, suffers from his own folly over the two women in his life. In Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol,” Ebenezzer Scrooge is a miserly old man.

Fawley sounds like “folly,” which means “foolishness.”

Scrooge means “miserly.”

CHARACTONYM when the name of a character has a symbolic meaning

Figurative Language

The pen is mightier than the sword. The Pentagon denies knowledge of the cover-up.

METONYMY is similar to synecdoche, but instead of a part representing the whole, a related object or part of a related object is used to represent the whole

She was greeted by the sound of silence as she entered. O hateful love, O loving hate! I burn and freeze like ice!

OXYMORON is a combination of openly contradictory words and meanings (cold war, silent scream, hateful love). It is more “compact” than paradox.

Figurative Language

Einstein is not a bad mathematician. Our opinions differ slightly (instead of, “Our opinions are very

different.”)

UNDERSTATEMENT an expression that is deliberately less forceful or dramatic than the subject would seem to justify or require (litotes & meiosis)

If you love someone, set him free. True living is dying unto oneself.

PARADOX is a statement that seems to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense, but on close examination, it mostly reveals some truth.

Forms of Understatement (Figures of Quantity)

LITOTES MEIOSIS

a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite, as in This is no small problem. (American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Ed.)

“not unusual” “no mean feat” “not the kindest

person”

understatement used for effect such as sarcasm or sardony. e.g. "Charlie is not the sharpest knife in the drawer" means that Charlie does not even come close to the sharpest because he's a blathering idiot.

can also be used to describe mannerism and tone (e.g., a brooding, quiet, Byronic hero will often be understated in action and tone)

Figurative Language

“Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice…” And the lovers walked towards the rising sun, fearing no

storm that may be brewing in the horizon.

SYMBOL may be an object, a person, a situation, an action, a word, or an idea that has literal meaning in the story as well as an alternative identity that represents something else

Love is a star to every wandering bark. The eyes are the windows to the soul.

METAPHOR is a direct comparison used to add descriptive meaning to a phrase

Figurative Language

That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

ANTITHESIS emphasizes the contrast between two ideas. The structure of the phrases / clauses is usually similar in order to draw the reader's / listener's attention directly to the contrast

Noli Me Tangere contains characters, events and realities that existed during Spanish colonization. The story may be seen as symbolic.

ALLEGORY is a story that has a second meaning, usually by endowing characters, objects or events with symbolic significance; expanded metaphor

Stylistic Device No. 2: Sound Techniques Full fathom five thy father lies Death bed beckons Odds and ends, short and sweet

ALLITERATION is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words occurring in succession

ASSONANCE is the repetition of vowel sounds in the words occurring in succession

CONSONANCE the repetition of consonants at the ends of words occurring in succession

Stylistic Device No. 3: Structural Devices He’s such a Romeo, that guy. If a face could launch a thousand ships, then where am

I to go?

ALLUSION a reference, direct or indirect, to something or someone from history or literature

Before Hector came out to face Achilles, he bid a long, sad farewell to his wife and expressed his dear wishes for his only son’s future.

FORESHADOWING when the author drops clues about what is to come in a story, which builds tension

and the reader's suspense throughout the narrative

Stylistic Device No. 4: Irony So, the world will end on the 21st of December? Great! Thanks for revealing our secret plan, Einstein!

VERBAL IRONY also known as “sarcasm,” this is the simplest form of irony, in which the speaker says the opposite of what he or she intends

In Hugo’s Les Miserables, one wouldn’t expect Javert to kill himself towards the end of the story, especially when Valjean is well within his reach. (also, Twist Ending)

SITUATIONAL IRONY when the author creates a surprise that is the perfect opposite of what one

would expect

Stylistic Device No. 4: Irony

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the drama of Act V comes from the fact that the audience knows Juliet is alive, but Romeo thinks she's dead. If the audience had thought, like Romeo, that she was dead, the scene would not have had the same power.

DRAMATIC IRONY when the reader knows something important about the

story that one or more characters in the story do not know

Stylistic Device No. 5: RegisterDICTION is the choice of specific words to

communicate not only meaning, but emotion as well (establishes tone)

TONE expresses the writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject, the reader, or

herself or himself

DECORUM the appropriateness of a work to its subject, its genre, and its audience

MOOD the emotional color of or the prevalent emotion in a poem or work of fiction

Other Stylistic Devices

LOCAL COLOR depiction of the unusual or traditional features of a particular

place that make it interesting MOTIF a word, phrase, image, or idea is

repeated throughout a work or several works of literature

ANALOGY a comparison between two things that are similar in some way, often used to help explain something or make it easier to understand

Other Stylistic Devices

PUN/ DOUBLE ENTENDRE also known as “word play,” this refers to the use of words with

double meanings, sometimes relying on how the word is pronounced (“homophonic pun”).

Examples: Everybody kneads flour.Santa’s helper’s are subordinate

Clauses.A horse is a very stable animal.“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like

a banana.” –Groucho Marx

REVIEW EXERCISES ON STYLISTIC DEVICES

Study the given excerpts and tell what stylistic device is at

work.

“And so it was that laterAs the miller told his taleThat her face at first just ghostlyTurned a whiter shade of pale.” (from A Whiter Shade of Pale by Reid & Brooker)

ANSWER: ALLUSION

“That twenty centuries of stony sleep1

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem2 to be born?” (from The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats)

ANSWERS: 1. HYPERBOLE; 2. ALLUSION

“Fair daffodils1, we weep to seeYou haste away so soon;As yet the early-rising SunHas not attain’d his noon.Stay, stay,Until the hasting dayHas run2.” (from To Daffodils by Robert Herrick)

ANSWERS: 1. APOSTROPHE; 2. PERSONIFICATION

“Parting is such a sweet sorrow…” (from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet)

ANSWER: OXYMORON

“With your merc’ry mouth in the missionary1 times,And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes,And your silver cross, and2 your voice like chimes,Oh, who do they think could bury you?” (from Sad-eyed Lady of the Lowlands by Bob Dylan)

ANSWER: 1. ALLITERATION; 2. POLYSYNDETON

“And sweet it was to dream of fatherland,Of child, and wife1, and slave; but evermoreMost weary seemed the sea2, weary the oar,Weary the wandering fields of barren foam.” (from The Lotos-Eaters by Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

ANSWERS: 1. ASSONANCE; 2. PERSONIFICATION

“He clasps the crag with crooked1,2 hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands3…” (from The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

ANSWERS: 1. ALLITERATION, 2. PERSONIFICATION;

3. RHYME

“Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise Him.” (from Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins)

ANSWER: ALLITERATION

“And then the clock collected in the towerIts strength, and struck.” (from Eight O’clock by A.E. Housman)

ANSWER: PERSONIFICATION

“A poem should be wordlessAs the flight of birds.A poem should be motionless in timeAs the moon climbs…” (from Ars Poetica by Archibald MacLeish)

ANSWER: SIMILE

“Night is a curious child1, wanderingBetween earth and sky, creepingIn windows and doors, daubing2,3

The entire neighbourhoodWith purple paint.” (from Four Glimpses of Night by Frank Marshall Davis)

ANSWER: 1. METAPHOR; 2-3. PERSONIFICATION

“Mary had a little lamb,You've heard this tale beforeBut did you know she passed her plateand had a little more?” (Author unknown)

ANSWER: PUN/DOUBLE ENTENDRE

“A blind man looks back Into the future with the Ear-splitting whispers of Unconcealed ghosts Thundering silently.” (Author unknown)

ANSWERS: OXYMORON

“He said I was averageBut was just being mean.Invisible cows are herdBut not seen…” (by Paul Waddington)

ANSWER: PUN/DOUBLE ENTENDRE

Stylistics-LET Review

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