INTRODUCTION TO STYLISTICIS
THE SUBJECT AND MAIN
OBJECTIVES OF STYLITICS
ROOTS AND PREDECESSORS
• Ancient time: Rhetoric - the art of creating speeches and
Poetics (process of artistic creation)
• Aristotle “Poetics” 320 B.C. – epic drama and lyrics,
• Socrates - Dialectics ( the art of creating a dialogue)
Poetics developed into Literary Criticism; Rhetoric and
Dialectics – into Stylistics
In ancient Rome:
CAESAR and analogists
CICERO and anomalists
•Stressed regularity and system
rules
•Focused on facts and data
•Their aim was to create simple
clear and straightforward
speeches
•Seneca and Tacituts
•Aimed at creation of flowery language
•Used unnatural syntactic patterns,
artificial sentence structures
•Created anomalies on all language
levels
•Their true message was secondary to
the form of presentation
MIDDLE AGES AND THE NEW AGE
• Anomalistic rhetoric of Cicero (aesthetically attractive)
became a model way of public speaking
• Influence of ancient India – brevity of speech
• Distinction between FORM and CONTENT
• The language of science, culture, administration (Latin)
was different from the language of common people
• Romanticism: style referred to written form of language
Nicolas Boileau L’Art poetique (1674) language and parole
• 1. stylus altus (works of art)
• 2. stylus mediocris (the style of high society)
• 3. stylus humilis (the style of low society and comedies)
19 century W.von Humboldt “ Uber die Verschiedenheit des
menschlichen Sprachbaues..” functional styles
Prague Linguistic Circle (1926)
PLAN
1. The Object, Objectives and Units of Stylistics, its
Methodological Basis. Structural and Functional
Approaches.
Stylistics and Other Sciences. Theory of Information.
Major Scholars and Landmarks of Stylistics Development
as a Science.
The Main Terms, Categories and Notions of Stylistics.
Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Expressiveness
and Emotiveness.
Types of Meaning. Meaning and Sense. Meaning from a
Stylistic Point of View
Functional styles and varieties of a language
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LITERATURE
1. Алексеев А.Я. Сопоставительная стилістика.
– Д.: НГУ, 2012
2.Galperin I.R. Stylistics.- M.: Higher School,
1977, p.1
3.Мороховский А.Н. Стилистика английского
языка.-Киев: Вища школа,1991
4.Арнольд И.В. Стилистика современного
английского языка.- М.: Просвещение, 1990
5.Дубенко О. Ю. Порівняльна стилістика
англійської та української мов. – Вінниця:
Нова книга, 2005
Єфімов Л.П. Стилістика англійської мови. –
Вінниця: Нова книга, 2004
6.
Stylistics – is a branch of general linguistics.
2 objectives
• Investigation of special language media which secure the
desirable effect of the utterance – they are called
stylistic devices(SD) and expressive
means(EM). Stylistics studies the nature, functions
and structure of SDs and EMs
• The second field of investigation is concerned with certain
types of texts which due to the choice and arrangement of
language means are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect
of communication. These types are called functional
styles of language.
DEFINITION
stylistics - is a science, a branch of linguistics,
investigating principles and the results of
selection and use of lexical, grammatical,
phonetic and other language means for the
transfer of thoughts and emotions under di
Lat - stylus - a stick made of material for
writing.
Stylistics - from French " Stylistique " instrument for Writing.fferent
circumstances of communication
Landmarks
1. The first discussion on the problems of style
“Issues of linguistics” in 1954
2.Conference on Style - Indiana University , 1958
publication of its materials in 1960 under the
editorship of Thomas Sebeok
Conference on Style , Moscow State Pedagogical
Institute of Foreign Languages in 1969
Symposium , Italy , Proceedings under the
editorship of Prof. Chatman in 1971.
American journals , Illinois University “Style” and
“Language and Style”.
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XX century
• Germany New Idealists: B.Croce, K.Vossler etc.
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developed individualistic and psychoanalytical
approach to language
French School of Charles Bally and F. de Saussure
(Geneva) – expressive stylistics
STRUCTURALISM
The Prague Linguistic Circle – Jakobson,
Trubetskoi, Mathesius and Copenhagen
Structuralistic school – Hjelmslev, in the US – Sapir
and Blooomfield
1920s Russia FORMALISM – the focus of the text
analysis was on the form (HOW) not content
(WHAT) Roman Jakobson, Tynianov and
Vinogradov
Main representatives
Michael Riffatere - theory of information:
Denotative and Connotative Meaning
Decoding stylistics - I.V.Arnold
Zhirmunsky(1921), Vinogradov (1923),
Tynianov (1924) - literary trend of
formalism
Galperin, Lotman, Kukharenko, Morokhovsky
Darbyshire 1971 “A Grammar of Style”
Enkvist “Linguistic Stylistics” 1973
Main Terms, Categories and Notions
STYLE
The correspondence between thought and language
expression
An individual manner of making use of language
The set of rules how to write a composition
The aesthetic function of language
Expressive means in language
Synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea
Emotional coloring in language
A system of special devices called stylistic devices
The splitting of the literary language into separate systems
called styles
The individual manner of an author in making use of
language
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STYLE
• “style is the man himself “(Buffon 18thc.)
• “Style is depth” Darbyshire
• “style is deviation” Enkvist
• “style is the result of an author’s success in compelling
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language to conform to his mode of experience (Middleton
Murry)
“Style is a contextually restricted linguistic variation”
(Enkvist)
Style is a selection of non-distinctive features of
language(Bloomfield)
Style is simply synonymous with form or
expression(Benedetto Croce)
“structures, sequences and patterns which extend beyond
the boundaries of individual sentences - style (Archibald
Hill )
Individual style and idiolect
Individual style implies the peculiarities of a writer’s
individual manner of using language means to achieve the
effect he desires: components of individual style composition of phrasal units
rhythm and melody of utterances
system of imagery
preference for definite stylistic devices and their
correlation with neutral language media
interdependence of the language means employed by the
author and those characteristic to his personages.
The speech of any individual, which is characterized by
particular elements, is called an idiolect that reveals his
breeding and education
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"A VERY SHORT STORY” by Ernest Hemingway
• One hot evening in Padua they carried him up onto the
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roof and he could look out over the top of the town. There
were chimney swifts in the sky. After a while it got dark and
the searchlights came out. The others went down and took
the bottles with them. He and Luz could hear them below
on the balcony. Luz sat on the bed. She was cool and fresh
in the hot night….
She loved him as always, but she realized now it was only a
boy and girl love. She hoped he would have a great career,
and believed in him absolutely. She knew it was for the
best. The major did not marry her in the spring, or any
other time. Luz never got an answer to the letter to Chicago
about it. A short time after he contracted gonorrhea from a
sales girl in a loop department store while riding in a
taxicab through Lincoln Park.
James Joyce “Ulysses”
INELUCTABLE MODALITY OF THE VISIBLE: AT LEAST THAT IF NO MORE,
thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, seaspawn
and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot. Snotgreen, bluesilver, rust:
coloured signs. Limits of the diaphane. But he adds: in bodies. Then he was
aware of them bodies before of them coloured. How? By knocking his sconce
against them, sure. Go easy. Bald he was and a millionaire, maestro di color
che sanno. Limit of the diaphane in. Why in? Diaphane, adiaphane. If you can
put your five fingers through it, it is a gate, if not a door. Shut your eyes and see.
Stephen closed his eyes to hear his boots crush crackling wrack and
shells. You are walking through it howsomever. I am, a stride at a time. A
very short space of time through very short times of space. Five, six: the
nacheinander. Exactly: and that is the ineluctable modality of the audible.
Open your eyes. No. Jesus! If I fell over a cliff that beetles o'er his
base, fell through the nebeneinander ineluctably. I am getting on nicely in
the dark. My ash sword hangs at my side. Tap with it: they do. My two feet
in his boots are at the end of his legs, nebeneinander. Sounds solid: made
by the mallet of Los Demiurgos. Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount
strand? Crush, crack, crick, crick.
NORM, expressiveness and emotiveness
Norm – is an invariant, which should embrace all variable
phonemic, morphological, lexical, and syntactic patterns
with their typical properties circulating in the language at a
definite period of time.
language-as-a-system and language-in-action, language and
speech (discourse), lange and parole.
Expressiveness – in etymological sense is a kind of
intensification of the utterance (or a part of it).
Emotiveness - reveals emotions of the writer or a speaker by
not directly manifesting their emotions but by echoing real
feelings, designed to awaken co-experience on the part of
the reader
Emotional synonyms
• BIG – enormous, huge, large, gigantic, great, immense,
monstrous, macroscopic, mammoth, tremendous
• SMALL – little, tiny, minute, miniature, miniscule,
undersized, diminutive, lilliputian, midget, petite
• BEAUTIFUL - fair, fine, good-looking, handsome, splendid,
gorgeous, lovely, picturesque, pretty, scenic, stunning
• UGLY – disfigured, evil-looking, grotesque, monstrous,
hideous, repulsive, unsightly
• INTERESTING - absorbing, engrossing, fascinating,
gripping, riveting, entertaining, amusing, intriguing
• BORING - boring, deadening, dull, irksome, slow, tedious,
tiresome, wearisome, uninteresting
Expressiveness vs emotiveness
Expressive means
Expressive means are those phonetic, morphological, wordbuilding, lexical, phraseological, syntactical forms, which
exist in language-as-a-system for the purpose of logical or
emotional intensification of the utterance.
Phonetic EM - pitch, melody, stress, pausation, drawling out,
whispering and sing-song manner
Morphological EM - number, Historical Present, “shall” in
the 2 or 3 person, demonstrative pronouns, verbals
Lexical EM - different affixes: e.g. diminutive suffixes –
dearie, sonny, auntie, streamlet. At the lexical level
expressiveness can also be rendered by the words
possessing inner expressive charge - interjections,
epithets, slang and vulgar, poetic or archaic words, set
phrases, idioms, catchwords, proverbs and sayings
If you can keep your head when all about
you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men
doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting
too:
If you can wait and not be tired by
waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too
wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams
your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts
your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and
Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the
same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've
spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for
fools,
If you can make one heap of all your
winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your
beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your
loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and
sinew
To serve your turn long after they are
gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in
you
Except the Will which says to them:
"Hold on!“
If you can talk with crowds and keep
your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the
common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can
hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too
much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance
Harvey Keitel recites “IF” by R.Kipling
Stylistic devices
Stylistic device is a conscious and intentional
intensification of some typical structural and/or
semantic property of a language unit (neutral or
expressive) promoted to a generalized status thus
becoming a generative model.
SDs display an application of 2 meanings: the ordinary one
(already established in language-as-a-system) and a
special – imposed on the unit by the author (or content),
a meaning, which appears in language-in-action
Stylistic devices (tropes, figures of speech) unlike expressive means are
not language phenomena. They are formed in speech and most of
them do not exist out of context. According to principles of their
formation, stylistic devices are grouped into phonetic, lexicosemantic and syntactic types. Stylistic devices are the result of
revaluation of neutral words, word-combinations and syntactic
structures. Stylistic devices are studied by stylistic semasiology.
Types of context
Linguistic context is the encirclement of a language unit by
other language units in speech. Such encirclement makes
the meaning of the unit clear and unambiguous. It is
especially important in case with polysemantic words.
Microcontext is the context of a single utterance
(sentence). Macrocontext is the context of a paragraph in a
text. Megacontext is the context of a book chapter, a story
or the whole book.
An extralingual (situational) context is formed by
extralingual conditions in which communication takes
place : physical context and abstract context. Temporal or
chronological context , psychological context
Linguistic micro context
Extralinguistic context
Speech and writing (oral and written language varieties)
Speech is normally a
continuous stream of sound.
Conversations are often
accompanied by other sign
systems which aid
understanding. These might
be physical gestures, facial
expressions, even bodily
posture. Meaning in speech is
commonly conveyed by tone
and other non-verbal means
such as irony. Speech quite
commonly includes false
starts, repetition, hesitation
Writing is the use of visual
symbols which act as a
code for communication
between individuals or
groups. The code of written
language consists of letterforms (the alphabet) used
to form a visual image of
spoken words. Words are
formed in accordance with
the conventions of
spelling, then combined
according to the rules of
syntax to form meaningful
statements.
Types of Meaning
primary (denotative) meaning and additional (connotative)
meaning/ objective and emotive planes
Connotative meaning may be of 4 types:
1.functional (reflecting the sphere of usage of the word) –
formal/informal – dear Sir/ Hey, dude
2.evaluative (positive, negative or neutral) –
ambitious/pushy/goal-oriented
3.emotive (rendering the attitude of the speaker) – It’s
fabulous! Disgusting! Oh boy! Tut tut!
4.expressive (containing an image of pragmatic value) – to
express what is really meant
stylistic meaning as distinguished from lexical one, which is
representing primary information, is based on the
secondary (additional) information.
Types of Meaning
Lexical meaning is given explicitly while stylistic meaning is
always implied. Lexical meaning is relatively stable, and
stylistic meaning is liable to change
Grammatical meaning reflects the relations between words or
some forms of words or constructions, it can also be called
structural meaning. All the words have grammatical
meaning simply because they belong to some language and
have their place in it
Logical, emotive and nominal meaning
Logical meaning (synonymously called referential or direct) is
the precise naming of a feature, an idea, a phenomenon or
an object. There can be primary and secondary logical
meanings. All the meanings fixed by the dictionaries
comprise what is called the semantic structure of a word
Types of Meaning
Emotive meaning also materializes the concept of a word but
it has reference to the feelings and emotions of a speaker
towards the thing. It names the object by evaluating it.
Usually we deal with contextual emotive meaning. But some
classes of words – interjections, exclamations, and
swearwords – are direct carriers of emotive meaning.
Interjections have even lost completely their logical
meaning: e.g. alas, oh, ah, pooh, darn, gosh.
Nominal meaning steps in when we deal with the words
serving the purpose of singling out one definite and
singular object of a whole class of similar objects. These
words are classified by grammarians as proper nouns as
different from common nouns
Functional styles of language
The object of linguostylistics as the study of the nature,
functions and structure of SDs and EMs and the study of the
functional styles of language.
Functional style (FS) may be defined as a system of
interrelated language means which serves a definite aim of
communication
FSs are sometimes called registers or discourses:
the language of belles-lettres
the language of publicistic literature
the language of press/media
the language of scientific prose
the language of official documents
I.V. Arnold mentions four styles: poetic style, scientific style,
newspaper style, colloquial style.
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Linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics
The old man is dead. Старик умер.
The gentleman well advanced in years attained the
termination of his terrestrial existence. Старец скончался
The ole bean kicked the bucket. Старый хрыч подох
Linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics are two separate and
at the same time interconnected branches of stylistics
Linguistic stylistics studies functional styles of a language
and the elements of language from the point of view of
their ability to express and cause emotions
Literary stylistics studies expressive means and stylistic
devices characteristic for a definite work of art, man of
letter, literary movement, trend or epoch, and factors
influencing the expressiveness of language.
Structure of Stylistics
Phoneme
Morpheme
Lexeme
Sentence
Paragraph
Text
Stylistic phonetics
Stylistic morphology
Stylistic lexicology
Stylistic syntax
Connection of stylistics with other branches of linguistics
Stylistics and phonetics: Phonetics studies sounds, articulation,
rhythmics and intonation. Stylistics concentrates on expressive sound
combinations, intonational and rhythmic patterns. Stylistics and
lexicology: Lexicology describes words, their origin, development,
semantic and structural features. Stylistics also deals with words, but
only those which are expressive in language or in speech. Stylistics and
grammar: Grammar describes regularities of building words, wordcombinations, sentences and texts. Stylistics restricts itself to those
grammar regularities, which make language units expressive.