Nadia Morarasu - An Introduction to English Stylistics

1

An Introduction to English Stylistics

AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH STYLISTICS

UNIVERSITATEA “VASILE ALECSANDRI” DIN BACĂU

FACULTATEA DE LITERE

AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH STYLISTICS

Lect. Dr. NADIA MORĂRAŞU

2011

2


1. STYLES OF DEFINING VS. DEFINING STYLES

1.1. STYLES OF DEFINING

In philosophy, a definition is the specification of the meaning of an expression

relative to a language. Defining is a process of classifying and distinguishing by:

- by explanation as in a dictionary entry (A woman is a an adult female) - by giving examples (A liberal is a man like Jefferson; That is a snowfall).

- by negating (A voyage is a kind of journey but not on land). - by comparing and contrasting (A magazine is sometimes as big as a book but it

differs in binding and layout).

- by foregrounding some constitutive parts (A novel may be regarded as exposition, plot, development of actions, climax and denouement).

- by trying to find a cause of the thing in question or an effect produced by that thing

(Scurvy is the result of a dietary deficiency and often leads to anemia);

- by seeing a thing as a way of fulfilling a purpose, as the end of something (Representation is the end of the electoral system and the means to good

government). - by suggesting something metaphorically (An interpreter is a road knower)

TASKS 1. Define a word giving at least three definitions: - dictionary entry;

- comparing and contrasting; - suggesting something metaphorically.

2. From denotation to connotation (from neutral to expressive words)

What is a writer? Denotative definition: a writer is a person who writes.

Metaphorical definition: a weaver of words/of linguistic threads. Give similar metaphorical definitions for specialists in different fields (professionals).

3

An Introduction to English Stylistics 3. Observe the means of defining money in the following examples and comment upon the type of definition with each of them:

CONVENTIONAL/DENOTATIVE DEFINITIONS o Money is an accounting device (economic models, Ingham 1996). o Money is a measure of value (or unit of account); a medium of exchange; a standard of

deferred payment; and a store of value. (Ingham 1996)

METAPHORICAL DEFINITIONS

"The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man." (Jose Ortega y Gasset,

The Dehumanization of Art, 1948) o Money is power (for businesses, politicians, and marketers)

'Money talks' because money is a metaphor, a transfer, and a bridge. Like words and language, money is a storehouse of communally achieved work, skill, and experience." (Marshall McLuhan in Understanding Media (1964), p. 136)

o Money is a liquid. My money is all dried up. He’s solvent/insolvent. Don't pour your money down the drain.

o Money is both a drug, a strong incentive and an efficient tool (psychologists: Webley and Lea, 2005)

‘Think how terrible the fascination of money is! I see this, and hate this, and dread this, and don't know but that money might make a much worse change in me. And yet I have money always in my thoughts and my desires; and the whole life I place before myself is money, money, money, and what money can make of life!' (Dickens, Little Dorrit, Book 3, Ch. 4, p. 521)

o Money is an object of desire (the key element in the discourse of the fortune-hunter). 'I have made up my mind that I must have money, Pa. I feel that I can't beg it, borrow it, or steal it; and so I have resolved that I must marry it.' (…) 'Have resolved, I say, Pa, that to get money I must marry money. In consequence of which, I am always looking out for money to captivate.' (Dickens, Little Dorrit, Book 2, p. 375)

o “Money is the real brain of all things.” (The Power of Money, Marx, 1844) o Money is the root of all evil.

“Money, then, appears as this distorting power both against the individual and against the bonds of society, etc., which claim to be entities in themselves. It transforms fidelity into infidelity, love into hate, hate into love, virtue into vice, vice into virtue, servant into master, master into servant, idiocy into intelligence, and intelligence into idiocy.” (The Power of Money, Marx, 1844) “… every day he changes for the worse, and for the worse. Not to me – he is always much the same to me – but to others about him. Before my eyes he grows suspicious, capricious, hard, tyrannical, unjust. If ever a good man were ruined by good fortune, it is my benefactor.” (Dickens, Little Dorrit, Book 3, Ch. 4, p. 521)

4


1.2. DEFINING STYLES

The word “style” is derived from the Latin word “stilus” which meant a short, stick,

sharp at one end and flat at the other, used by the Romans for writing on wax tablets.

WHAT IS STYLE? Style is a means of communicating one’s ideas, thoughts and emotions in an

expressive way;

Style is a way of showing the function of language/ implies registering language and requires statistics, analysis of grammar, stylistic devices;

A way of individualizing an act of speaking or writing;

A way of involvement (how to express something in a neutral or expressive way);

A way of catching attention;

A cultural mark/sign; An individual choice and arrangement of linguistic units according to the context

(specific WHERE/WHEN), in order to convey a message;

An application of words with certain intentionality; Embellishment of language; The correspondence between thought and expression

Style is “ticks” (Cmeciu, 2007);

Style is a shell surrounding a pre-existing core of thought or expression (Enkvist, 1965).

“Le style est l’homme même" (Style is the man himself) (Buffon, 1753). Arthur Schopenhauer: "Style is the physiognomy of the mind. It is more infallible

than that of the body. To imitate the style of another is said to be wearing a mask.

However beautiful it may be, it is through its lifelessness insipid and intolerable, so that even the most ugly living face is more engaging.1"

"Essentially style resembles good manners. It comes of endeavoring to understand

others, of thinking for them rather than yourself—or thinking, that is, with the heart

as well as the head." (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch) Style is “a going back to the root of the words” (Cmeciu, 2007).

1 Excerpted from Essays of Shopenhauer, “On Authorship and style”. Internet URL: http://www.fullbooks.com/Essays-of-Schopenhauerx13261.html.

5


The concept of style is so broad that it is hardly possible to regard it as a term. We

speak of style in architecture, literature, behaviour, linguistics, dress and other fields of human activity.

On the basis of the definitions of style and of most familiar collocations with “style”, we

can identify an impressive number of style labels: latest, modern, new vs. classical, old, old-fashioned, traditional style of

…management;

characteristic, distinctive, individual, inimitable, original, personal style of …humour; authoritarian or autocratic, participative or democratic, delegative, benevolent,

coaching, consultative, manipulative, bureaucratic style of leadership;

impulsive, irrational, aggressive vs. passive, assertive vs. non-assertive behaviour

style ; elegant, lively, flamboyant, glossy, glitzy, ostentatious vs. plain, simple, unaffected

style of dress; formal vs. informal, simple vs. complex, intricate; plain vs. ornate, sarcastic, sardonic,

ironic, mocking, caustic, derisive, humorous, ambiguous literary/ narrative/ prose

style; frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate conversational style/ style of

speech (Joos, 1959);

clear, concise, objective, effective, appropriate vs. inappropriate, ineffective; direct

and lean vs. inflated and static writing style etc.

6


2. STYLISTICS: THEORETICAL CONCERNS

The science that has style as its object of study, i.e. stylistics, raises many problems

when trying to define it and set its field of investigation. One of the possible solutions could

be that of constantly considering it against a background of related domains.

There are mainly three perspectives that influence the possible definitions of Stylistics2.

1. There are some theorists who believe that Stylistics should be included either in the

field of literature, or in that of linguistics, with any possible compromise:

The direction based upon the ambiguity of style itself is adopted by Wales (1991)

who states that:

Stylistics is the study of style; yet, there are several different stylistic

approaches. This variety in Stylistics is due to main influences of linguistics and literary criticism. [...] The goal of most stylistic studies is not simply to

describe the formal features of texts for their own sake, but in order to show their functional significance for the interpretation of the text; or in order to

relate literary facts to linguistic 'causes' where these are felt to be relevant.3

Taking the debate to one of its extremes, I. R. Galperin assigns stylistics to the area

of linguistics exclusively, and gives it two main directions of research as a science.

Stylistics, also called linguo-stylistics, is a branch of general linguistics. It deals

mainly with two interdependent tasks: a) the investigation of the inventory of special language media which by their ontological features secure the

desirable effect of the utterance, and b) certain types of texts (discourse)

which due to the choice and arrangement of language means are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of the communication.4

2. From a different perspective, H. G. Widdowson (1997) suggests a definition of stylistics that sends to its interdisciplinary character, somewhere at the border between lit-

erary criticism and linguistics:

By 'stylistics' I mean the study of literary discourse from a linguistic

orientation and I shall take the view that distinguishes stylistics from literary 2 Şorcaru, D. (2006), “Ways of Pleating Stylistic Functions in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse”, in Style in Language, Discourses and Literature (editor Horia Hulban), Perspectives of The English Language Series 4, Vol. II, Ed. Tehnopress, Iasi, pp. 278-280. 3 Wales, K., A Dictionary of Stylistics, pp. 437-438. 4 Galperin, I.R., Stylistics, Moscow, p. 9.

7


criticism on the one hand and linguistics on the other is that it is essentially a means of linking the two and has (as yet at least) no autonomous domain of

its own. [...] Stylistics, however, involves both literary criticism and linguistics, as its morphological make-up suggests: the 'style' component relating it to

the former and the 'istics' component to the latter.5

3. Finally, members of the third party grant it autonomous existence among other related sciences.

The definition that we favour and adopt is the one proposed by Short (1997:1): “an

approach to the analysis of literary texts, using linguistic description”.

To sum up, stylistics can be seen:6

1. Primarily as a subdepartment of linguistics, when dealing with the peculiarities of

literary texts;

2. Secondly, it can be a subdepartment of literary study, when it draws only

occasionally on linguistic methods;

3. Thirdly, it can be regarded as an autonomous discipline when it draws on methods

from both linguistics and literary study.

Each of these three approaches has its own virtues. However, we should keep in mind

that to study styles as types of linguistic variations and to describe the style of one particular

text for a literary purpose are two different activities.

5 Widdowson, H. G. (1997), Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature, London: Longman, 1997, p. 3. 6 Enkvist, N.E., Linguistic Stylistics, The Hague: Mouton, 1973, p. 27.

8


3. STYLISTIC ANALYSIS vs. LEVELS OF STYLE

3.1. STYLISTIC ANALYSIS AND LITERARY INTERPRETATION

In his work on stylistics, J. Mistrík (1985) draws clear boundaries between stylistic

analysis and literary interpretation7: a. Stylistic analysis aims at exploring the linguistic means and devices of a given

text. The method of stylistic analysis can be equally applied to the study of

language use in literary as well as non-literary texts.

The stylistic analysis of language (linguistic stylistics) implies the exploration of the main components, or levels of language in order to elucidate the way in which an author uses a unique combination of

language units in order to create his/her individual style.

As style is a relational concept, the aim of literary stylistics is that of relating the literary reader’s or the critic’s concern of aesthetic appreciation with the linguist’s concern of linguistic description.

Thus, the study of style involves both grammatical correctness (the way in which language works) and rhetoric effectiveness of linguistic

means (e.g. the rhetorical construction of sentences). b. Literary interpretation is a process which applies exclusively to literary texts; it aims

at understanding and interpreting the topic, content and the message of a literary work, its literary qualities and the so called decoding of the author's signals by the recipient.

3.2. LEVELS OF STYLE AND STYLISTIC DEVICES

According to Leech and Short (1994), a stylistic approach is concerned with the study

and interpretation of all the linguistic features of a writer's work, at five levels of style:

phonological (restricted to the use of sounds, rhyme, rhythm, sound devices such as

alliteration and assonance);

lexical (items concerning the vocabulary used: specific choice of words, synonyms and related words, antonyms and other semantic relations between words);

morphological (the way in which the grammatical categories are exploited);

7 Mistrík (1985:31), apud Miššíková, Gabriela (2003): Linguistic Stylistics, Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa, Filozofická Fakulta, Nitra.

9


syntactic (the way in which the relations between words and structures are

handled);

artistic (shows the personal imprint of every writer’s skill in enriching the language with new meanings through their use of stylistic devices and of figures of speech).

These five levels are connected to the text itself as a signifying system, but analysis does

not limit to the textual boundaries; on the contrary, it combines linguistic information with contextual and general world knowledge.

A deeper insight into the multiple levels and units of analysis in language that can help

organize and shape a stylistic analysis is offered by Mick Short and Dawn Archer. They start from the premises that language is an intricate web of levels, layers and links. Thus, any

utterance or piece of text is organized through several distinct levels of language8.

Levels of language Branch of language study

The sound of spoken language; the way words are pronounced. phonology; phonetics The patterns of written language; the shape of language on the page. graphology The way words are constructed; words and their constituent structures. morphology

The way words combine with other words to form phrases and sentences. syntax; grammar

The words we use; the vocabulary of a language. lexical analysis; lexicology The meaning of words and sentences. semantics The way words and sentences are used in everyday situations; the meaning of language in context.

pragmatics; discourse analysis

These basic levels of language can be identified in the stylistic analysis of text, which in turn

makes the analysis itself more organised and principled. Interaction between levels is important: one level may complement, parallel or even collide with another level.

8 Simpson, Paul (2004): Stylistics. A Resource Book for Students, Routledge, p. 4.

10


3.2.1. PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES

The analysis of connected speech identifies the constructional units at the

phonetic/phonological level which are used for expressive purposes:

1. segmental phonemes (realizations of abstract phonemes, basic rhythmical units); 2. suprasegmental (prosodic), which result from three types of sound variation

(modulation):

temporal (speed/rate, pause, rhythm);

force (loudness, stress, emphasis);

tone (pitch, tune) modulation. Examples of phonetic devices Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced

in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc.) by things (machines or tools, etc.) by people (singing, laughter) and animals.

Alliteration is the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words: E.g. "Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever

dared to dream before" (E. A. Poe). Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combination of words.

Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and is a mighty weapon in stirring up

emotions whatever its nature or origin, whether it is musical, mechanical or symmetrical as in architecture.

Sound symbolism (i.e., a non-arbitrary connection between phonetic features of linguistic items and their meanings) is also exploited in non-poetic language (e.g.,

occurrence of close vowels in words denoting smallness: petite, teeny-weeny).

11


3.2.2. STYLISTIC DEVICES AT THE LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC LEVELS

Lexical expressive means

We may consider three criteria for the systematization of stylistic devices at the

lexical and semantic levels: 1. The interaction of different types of lexical meaning (metaphor, metonymy, irony,

zeugma and pun, epithet, oxymoron, antonomasia)

2. Intensification of a feature (simile, hyperbole, euphemism, periphrasis). 3. Peculiar use of set expressions (clichés, proverbs, epigram, quotations).

Semantic relations with stylistic relevance

Synonymy demonstrates not only the originality of a given language (as it enables it

to express the subtlest ideas in a style appropriate to the context, the time, audiences and the writer’s or speaker’s personality), but also the originality of its users.

E.g. A. There is one thing we are all out for when we are young.

Z. And what is that, pray?

A. Trouble, adventure, hardship, care, disappointment, doubt, misery, danger, and death. (Shaw, G.B., Village Wooing)

From a stylistic point of view, the opposition between two terms aims at achieving contrast, being an important device in obtaining antithesis:

E.g. "Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing; age, which forgives

itself everything, is forgiven nothing." (G. B. Shaw, Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists”) Antonyms are used not only in various types of antitheses, but they also stand on the

base of oxymoron, which associate two contradictory words, e.g. infinitesimal storm, disastrous abundance, cruel kindness.

Homonymy and paronymy are often used as stylistic devices in puns. The use of

homonymous terms is a classic device in puns. Their use can be unintentional or purposely

ambiguous, as in the following example from Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: E.g. "Mine is a long and sad tale," said the Mouse.

"It's a long tail, certainly," said Alice. (Chapter III: “A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale”)

12


3.2.3. GRAMMATICAL STYLISTIC MEANS

1. STYLISTIC FUNCTIONS OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH

A study of the special choice of words in conveying the message is an approach focusing on the appropriateness of words, that is, on diction.

NOUNS – use of common/proper nouns, use of concrete/abstract nouns. Special importance should be attached to the use of names, of all types. ADJECTIVES – grouped in pairs/triplets as if creating a multifold, embracing perspective on the same thing; the adjectives premodifying nouns refer to size/shape/colour/extent/physical peculiarities of rooms/buildings/landscapes. In the groups of adjectives qualifying the same noun, an adjective usually completes the meaning of the other, rounding the image created. PRONOUNS – provide relevant information in detecting point of view, relations between characters, etc. VERBS – are motors of action, making the wheel of narration spin to create the plot. The uses of tenses, modalization, passivization, stative vs. dynamic verbs, the semantic components of verbs are but a few of the elements to be observed. (eg. The –ing forms hint at presentness and continuity, endowing the chain of words wit fluidity and dynamism; present participles enhance progressiveness and bridge the past and present). ADVERBS, CONJUNCTIONS/PREPOSITIONS also have an important role, depending on their semantic features.

Task

Analyse the following poem in terms of the stylistic functions of the complex noun phrases.

Edwin Morgan: Spacepoem 3: Off Course

the golden flood the weightless seat the cabin song the pitch black the growing beard the floating crumb the shining rendezvous the orbit wisecrack the hot spacesuit the smuggled mouth-organ the imaginary somersault the visionary sunrise the turning continents the space debris the golden lifeline the space walk the crawling deltas the camera moon the pitch velvet the rough sleep the crackling headphone the space silence

13


the turning earth the lifeline continents the cabin sunrise the hot flood the shining spacesuit the growing moon the crackling somersault the smuggled orbit the rough moon the visionary rendezvous the weightless headphone the cabin debris the floating lifeline the pitch sleep the crawling camera the turning silence the space crumb the crackling beard the orbit mouth-organ the floating song

2. STYLISTIC FUNCTIONS OF CLAUSES

The use of different types of clauses shows a dynamic and fruitful variation of style. A wide palette of sentences and clauses moulds a complex perspective on life. There can be combinations of long, agglomerating, confusing structures and loose sentence structures (showing easiness, relaxation, linear chain of ideas, informality, normal sequence).

3. SYNTACTIC STYLISTIC DEVICES Short vs. long sentences

The usage of different kinds of sentence structures leads to different kinds of stylistic effects. In good writing, short phrases and clauses balance longer ones that alternate in turn with others of medium length. (Russell, 2001:203) Short sentences are usually emphatic, suitable for the presentation of important facts and ideas. Long sentences are capable of expressing complex ideas with precision or of making the description of things with many details, because they may contain many modifiers. Parallel structures show your control not only of grammar but also of style. When words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence grammatically match, the result is parallelism.

a. Balanced Sentences

A balanced sentence is a type of parallel sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other: the structure of the second clause is a mirror image of the structure of the first.

E.g. "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." (Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

14


b. Loose sentences

A loose sentence is a type of parallel sentence which builds through parallel constructions (dependent phrases or clauses) after a main clause. As it puts the main idea before all supplementary information, it is easier, simpler, more natural and direct.

E.g. Nothing could deflect that wall of water, sweeping away trees and boulders, engulfing streets and villages, churning and roaring like a creature in pain.

c. Periodic sentences

A periodic sentence is a type of parallel sentence in which the main idea is expressed at or near the end of it, and it is not grammatically complete until the end is reached. It is perceived as more complex, emphatic, formal, or literary.

E.g. But if life hardly seems worth living, if liberty is used for subhuman purposes, if the pursuers of happiness know nothing about the nature of their quarry or the elementary techniques of hunting, these constitutional rights will not be very meaningful. (E. Warren)9

The main stylistic devices are: a. Syntactical stylistic devices based on peculiar syntactical arrangement:

Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional colouring

to the surface meaning of the utterance. E.g. In went Mr. Pickwick.

Detached constructions: sometimes one of the secondary members of the sentence

is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it refers to. E.g. She was gone. For good.

Parallel construction: the necessary condition in parallel construction is identical or

similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of sentence.

Chiasmus is based on repetition of syntactical patterns, but it has a reversed order in one of the utterances.

E.g. She was a good sport about all this, but so was he. Climax (gradation) - an ascending series of words or utterances in which intensity or

significance increases step by step.

E.g. Every racing car, every racer, every mechanic, every ice-cream van was also plastered with advertising.

Antithesis is based on the author's desire to stress certain qualities of the thing by

appointing it to another thing possessing antagonistic features.

9 http://teachers.yourhomework.com/celhabr/public/sentencehandout.doc.

15


E.g. They speak like saints and act like devils. Enumeration separates things, properties or actions brought together and form a

chain of grammatically and semantically homogeneous parts of the utterance. E.g. She wasn't sure of anything and more, of him, herself, their friends, her

work, her future.

b. Syntactical devices based on peculiar use of colloquial constructions: Ellipsis - is the omission of a word necessary for the complete syntactical

construction of a sentence, but not necessary for understanding. The stylistic

function of ellipsis used in author's narration is to change its tempo, to connect its structure.

E. g. You feel all right? Anything wrong or what?

c. Syntactical devices based on stylistic use of structural meaning:

Rhetorical questions are frequently used in dramatic situation and in publicistic style.

e. g. What was the good of discontented people who fitted in nowhere? Litotes – an affirmation is expressed by denying its contrary. Its function is to convey

doubts of the speaker concerning the exact characteristics of the object or a feeling.

E.g. It's not a bad thing - It's a good thing. He was not without taste.

3.2.4. A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS AT THE ARTISTIC LEVEL

STYLISTIC DEVICES AS STRUCTURAL DEVICES

Syntactic parallelism – it invites the reader to look for meaning connections between parallel structures; it is a mark of an elaborate, dense style, in which every word is carefully chosen.

Contrast – as a structural device, it functions at different levels: of themes, characters and functions, of time, space, figures of speech and themes. At the artistic level we may have contrast with: description vs. dialogue, simile vs. antithesis, dynamic vs. static imagery, harmonious flow of words vs. fragmentation of language. Contrast organizes the text and its presence in the fabric of the novel supports different aspects of reality and denounces the clash between reality and essence.

Repetition – there are as types: lexical, thematic and syntactic repetition. Accumulation of details – specific to descriptions

16

An Introduction to English Stylistics TASKS Choose one of these two texts and perform a stylistic analysis using the framework of

analysis given above. A. And morning after morning, all over the immense, damp, dreary town and the

packing-case colonies in the suburb allotments, young men were waking up to

another workless empty day to be spent as they could best contrive; selling boot-laces, begging, playing draughts in the hall of the Labour Exchange, opening the doors of cars, helping in the markets, gossiping, lounging, stealing, overhearing

racing tips, sharing stumps of cigarette-ends picked up in the gutter, singing folk-songs in courtyards and between stations in the carriages of the Underground Railway. After the New Year, the snow fell, but did not lie; there was no money

to be earned by sweeping it away. The shopkeepers rang all the coins on the

counter for fear of the forgers. Schroeder’s astrologer foretells the end of the world. ‘Listen,’ said Fritz Wendel, between sips of a cocktail in the bar of the

Eden Hotel, ‘I give a damn if this country goes communist. What I mean, we’d have to alter our ideas a bit. Hell, who cares?’

B. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern France

then, than at any other time, before or since. Everything in Marseilles, and about Marseilles, had stared at the fervid sky, and been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of

countenance by staring white houses, staring white walls, staring white streets,

staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping

under their load of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.

Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to keep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow. The churches were the freest from it.

To come out of the twilight of pillars and arches--dreamily dotted with winking

lamps, dreamily peopled with ugly old shadows piously dozing, spitting, and begging – was to plunge into a fiery river, and swim for life to the nearest strip of

shade. So, with people lounging and lying wherever shade was, with but little hum of tongues or barking of dogs, with occasional jangling of discordant church

bells and rattling of vicious drums, Marseilles, a fact to be strongly smelt and

tasted, lay broiling in the sun one day.

17


4. A FRAMEWORK OF STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

Style is highlighted as a general set of technical devices exploited by any of the

language users according to individual choice of linguistic items or persuasive strategies meant to cover a specific purpose (Cmeciu & Sava, 2007). The set of devices referred to above includes:

1. Devices working at the level of the whole text and of the sentence: l.a. Accumulation, analogy, contrast, detail, enumeration, example, gradation, inversion, parallelism, repetition, variety of paragraph development;

1.b. Diction carries away the attitude of a message's sender, attitude which is required by

social, linguistic and cultural codes; diction circumscribes notions such as:

usage (formal, standardized English, informal, slang, jargon; or language used in different types of discourse: scientific, legal, religious, political, literary, etc);

tone (the voice of the sender eager to convey an impression/feeling is reflected in the rhythms of the words, sentences and paragraphs of a text; the tone may be ironic, caustic, sarcastic; mild, angry, awe-struck; joyful, whimsical; neutral, dull,

monotonous);

concreteness (refers to the making of an abstract idea or impression perceptible to the senses in order to give it immediacy; concreteness is achieved by the use of specific detail, imagery and figurative language);

imagery (referring to sensory impressions: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory,

gustatory; caloric and kinetic);

figurative language (tropes whose purpose is to evoke the quality of experience and give shape or substance to an emotion or awareness of grasping the multiplicity of the message by avoiding its indefiniteness; antithesis, epithet, irony - bathos, litotes,

oxymoron, understatement, personification, metaphor, metonymy, synaesthesia,

synecdoche etc.) 1.c. Graphological devices: marks of punctuation (the function of brackets, dashes,

exclamatory and question marks) 2. Devices working at the level of the sentence:

2.a. Syntactical devices: types of sentences (topic, loose and periodic); subordination of

ideas; unity, coherence and cohesion; emphasis; ellipsis; 2.b. Morphological devices: types of words (grammatical categories: nouns, adjectives, transitive verbs, passives, etc)

18

An Introduction to English Stylistics 3. Devices and strategies of persuasion working at the level of the text: 3.a. Organization of ideas (deductive/inductive reasoning; definition and classification)

3.b. Organization of the whole text (incipits and endings; chapters and subchapters; titles and subtitles).

3.c. Relation text – discourse.

TASK Analyse the following text using the framework for the analysis of stylistic devices.

Why is London like Budapest? A. Because it is two cities divided by a river. "Good morning! Let me introduce myself. My name is Dora Chance. Welcome to the

wrong side of the tracks.

Put it another way. If you're from the States, think of Manhattan. Then think of Brooklyn. See what I mean? Or, for a Parisian, it might be a question of rive gauche, rive droite. With

London, it's the North and South divide. Me and Nora; that's my sister, we've always lived on the left-hand side, the side the tourist rarely sees, the bastard side of Old Father Thames.

Once upon a time, you could make a crude distinction, thus: the rich lived amidst pleasant verdure in the North speedily whisked to exclusive shopping by abundant public transport while the poor eked out miserable existences in the South in circumstances of urban

deprivation condemned to wait for hours at windswept bus-stops while sounds of marital

violence, breaking glass and drunken song echoed around and it was cold and dark and smelled of fish and chips. But you can't trust things to stay the same. You'd never believe

the price of a house round here, these days. And what does the robin do then, poor thing? Bugger the robin! What would have become of MS, if Grandma hadn't left us this house? 49

Bard Road, Brixton, London, South West Two. Bless this house. If it wasn't for this house, Nora and I would be on the streets by now, hauling our worldlies up and down in plastic bags. (Angela Carter – Wise Children)

19


STYLISTIC AND LITERARY TERMINOLOGY

Atmosphere

the emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author’s choice of objects that are described

Audience the readership whom the writer is addressing, e.g. young people, the elderly, an intelligent, sophisticated and articulate readership etc.

Attitude a speaker’s, author’s or character’s disposition or opinion on a subject

Connotation

the various secondary meanings and overtones of a word; the set of associations implied by a word in addition to its literal meaning

Denotation the most specific or direct meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings

Device

a literary contrivance (figures of speech, syntax, diction etc.) used to collectively produce a particular artistic effect

Devices of sound

techniques of deploying the sound of words (rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia) in order to create a general effect of pleasant or of discordant sound, imitate another sound, or to reflect meaning

Convention a device of style or subject matter so often used that it becomes a recognized means of expression

Contrast a stylistic device that functions at different levels: of themes, characters and functions, of time, space, figures of speech and themes. At the artistic level we may have contrast with: description vs. dialogue, dynamic vs. static imagery, harmonious flow of words vs. fragmentation of language. Contrast organizes the text and its presence in the fabric of the text supports different aspects of reality and denounces the clash between reality and essence.

Diction

Word choice

writer’s or speaker’s particular word choice, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness, used to make a point in the story

the selection of individual words to create specific effects

Emotive language

language deliberately designed to arouse the emotions. (often to be found in tabloid newspapers) e.g. murderers described as "beasts" or people who might have unusual views on something being described as "raving lunatics" etc.

Expressive means

phonetic means, morphological forms, means of word-building, lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms, all of which function in the language for emotional or logical intensification of the utterance

Figurative language

language using figures of speech

an intentional departure from the normal order or meaning of words

Figures of speech devices used by writers create special meanings that emphasize the intention of the passage and to create special effects;

any use of language which deviates from the obvious or common usage in order to achieve a special meaning or effect

Imagery figurative or descriptive language which builds a mental picture of a person, place

20


or idea

sensory details of figurative language used to describe, arouse emotions or represent abstraction. On a physical level, imagery uses terms related to the five senses

the use of expressive or evocative images in poetry, art, literature, or music

Language devices

all the elements of language that combine to form a whole (diction, syntax, figurative language, and sentence structure) and to create a cumulative (increasing) effect

Mood its literary meaning is that of prevailing atmosphere of a work. Setting, tone, and events can affect the mood

Narrative devices

any of the language or stylistic devices (organizational strategies, emphasis on detail, descriptive language, connotation etc.) used within the narrative; the tools of the storyteller such as ordering events so that they build to a climactic moment, or withholding information until a crucial or appropriate moment when revealing it will create a desired effect

Narrative techniques

Methods/procedures involved in telling a story; techniques such as point of view, manipulation of time, dialogue, or interior monologue

Poetic device the way in which a poet conveys his/her mood

Resources of language

general phrase for all the devices of composition, linguistic devices or techniques for style and rhetoric of a passage: diction, detail, syntax, figurative language, imagery

Rhetorical device a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective

Rhetorical strategies

any language devices, rhetorical aims and argumentation that help the writer to achieve his or her purpose

Strategy management of language for a specific effect; planned pacing of elements to achieve an effect

Style

Author’s style

mode of expression in language;

characteristic manner of expression of an author;

the habitual manner of expression of an author;

the product of choices, made consciously or unconsciously, about elements such as vocabulary, organization, diction, imagery, etc. and even certain recurring themes or subjects

Stylistic device a conscious and intentional literary use of language, including means in which the most essential structural and semantic features of the language forms are raised to a generalized level

the elements of language that contribute to style – diction, syntax, attitude, figures of speech, connotation.

Schemes rhetorical devices that produce a shift in the shape of words; lexical figures of speech that deal with twists in and manipulation of the meanings of words

21


figures of speech that deal with word order, syntax, letters, and sounds, rather than the meaning of words

Syntax combination of words to make a sentence; the way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences

Sentence structures

the ways in which sentences are organised:

The short, simple sentence is often used very effectively to shock the reader or to heighten tension.

Complex or compound-complex are characterised by length and by number of secondary clauses. They are often used to convey complex ideas or to develop a basic point into a more elaborate one.

Tone author’s attitude toward his subject and audience; the tone may be angry, matter-of-fact, ironic, playful, serious, humorous, formal, ornate, somber, etc. through characters’ actions and speech

Trope A rhetorical device that produces a shift in the meaning of words; a structural figure of speech that deals with word placement, letter order, syntax, and sound

22


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Critical sources

Abrams, M. H. (1971): A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Baker, Sheridan (1962): The Practical Stylist. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.

Baldick, Chris (2004): The Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press.

Bally, Charles (1905): Précis de Stylistique. Genève: Droz.

Bally, Charles (1909): Traité de Stylistique Française. Heidelberg: C. Winter.

Black, Elizabeth (2006): Pragmatic Stylistics. Edinburgh University Press.

Bradford, Richard (1997): Stylistics. The New Critical Idiom. Routledge.

Brown, Gillian & Yule, George (1983): Discourse Analysis. Cambridge University Press.

Carter, R., Goddard, A., Reah, D., Sanger, K., Bowring, M. (1997): Working with Texts. A Core Book for Language Analysis. London and New York: Routledge.

Cmeciu, Doina (2003): Signifying Systems in Literary Texts. Bacău: Editura “Egal”.

Cmeciu, Doina & Sava, Ioan (2007): Approaches to Literary Texts. Bacău: Ed. “Alma Mater”.

Crowley, Sharon (1994): Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. New York: MacMillan.

Crystal David and Davy D. (1969): Investigating English Style. London: Longman.

Culler, Jonathan (1997): Literary Theory. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Du Marsais, César Chesneau (1981): Despre tropi, sau despre diferitele sensuri în care poate fi luat un acelaşi cuvînt într-o aceeaşi limbă. trad., studiu introductiv şi aparat critic de Maria Carpov. Bucureşti: Ed. "Univers.

Dubois, Jacques et al., Groupe Mu (1982): Rhétorique générale, Paris: Editions du Seuil.

Eagleton, Terry (1996): Literary Theory. An Introduction. Second edition. Oxford: Blackwell.

Enkvist, N. E. (1973): Linguistic Stylistics. The Hague: Mouton.

Enkvist, N. E. (1964): “On defining style”, in Enkvist, N. E., Spencer, J. & Gregory, M.J., Linguistics and Style, London, Oxford University Press.

Fontanier, Pierre (1977): Figurile limbajului. Translated by Antonia Constantinescu. Bucureşti: Editura “Univers”.

Freeman, Donald C. (ed.) (1971): Linguistics and Literary Style. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Galperin, I. R. (1977): Stylistics. Moscow.

23


Genette, Gerard (1992): The Architext: An Introduction, trans. Jane E. Lewin. Berkeley and Oxford: University of California Press.

Grupul µ (1974): Retorică generală, translated by Antonia Constantinescu and Ileana Littera. Bucureşti: Editura “Univers”.

Harris, Robert, A. (2003): Writing with Clarity and Style: A Guide to Rhetorical Devices for Contemporary Writers, Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing.

Haynes, John (1976): Introducing Stylistics. London: Unwin Hyman.

Hoffmannová, J. (1997): Stylistika a...: Současná situace stylistiky. Praha: Trizonia.

Hope, Jonathan (1995): Stylistics: A Practical Coursebook. London and New York: Routledge.

Hulban, Horia (2001): Syntheses in English Lexicology and Semantics. Perspectives of the English Language Series, 1. Iaşi: Editura “Spanda”.

Hulban, Horia (2001): Syntheses in English Morphology. Perspectives of the English Language Series, 2. Iaşi: Editura Spanda.

Hulban, Horia (ed.) (2003): Style in Language, Discourses and Literature. Vol.1. Iaşi: Ed. “Lumen”.

Hulban, Horia (ed., co-author) (2004): Style in Language, Discourses and Literature. Perspectives of the English Language Series 4. Vol. II. Iaşi: Ed. “Lumen”.

Hulban, Horia (ed., co-author) (2005): Style in Language, Discourses and Literature. Tehnopress, Vol. III, Iaşi: Ed. “Tehnopress”.

Hulban, Horia (ed., co-author) (2006): Style in Language, Discourses and Literature. Vol. IV. Iaşi: Ed. “Tehnopress”.

Irimia, Dumitru (1999): Introducere în stilistică. Iaşi: Editura POLIROM.

Klarer, Mario (2004): An Introduction to Literary Studies. Routledge.

Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson (1992): Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Lambrou, M. and Stockwell, P. (eds.) (2010): Contemporary Stylistics. London: Continuum.

Lanham, Richard (1991): A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, 2nd ed, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Leech, G. (1974): Semantics, the Study of Meaning. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.

Leech, Geoffrey & Short, Michael (1994): Style in Fiction. A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose. London: Longman.

Lodge, David (1992): The Art of Fiction, London: Penguin Books Ltd.

Lodge, David (1966): The Language of Fiction. Essays in Criticism and Verbal Analysis of the English Novel. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.

24


Lodge, David (1977): The Modes of Modern Writing: Metaphor, Metonymy and the Typology of Modern Literature. Edward Arnold.

Macrae, John (1998): The Language of Poetry. London: Routledge.

Maingueneau, Dominique (2003): Linguistique pour le texte littéraire. 4th edition. Paris: Nathan.

McKee, Alan (2003): Textual Analysis: A Beginner’s Guide. London, Thousand Oaks, New Dehli: Sage Publications Ltd.

Mills, Sara (1995): Feminist Stylistics. London and New York: Routledge.

Miššíková, Gabriela (2003): Linguistic Stylistics. Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa, Nitra.

Mistrík, Jozef (1985/1997): Štylistika. Bratislava: Media Trade – SPN.

Moody, H.L.B. (1968): Literary Appreciation: A Practical Guide to the Understanding and. Enjoyment of Literature in English. London: Longman.

Morăraşu, Nadia N. (2010): A Dictionary of Similes: from Phrasemes to Tropes. Iaşi: Editura PIM.

Morăraşu, Nadia Nicoleta (2006): “Grammatical Features of Proper Names in George Eliot’s Middlemarch”. Messages, Sages and Ages, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on British and American Studies. Editura Universităţii Suceava, pp.533-542.

Morăraşu, Nadia Nicoleta (2009): “Translation Strategies for English and Romanian Conventionalized Similes”, Translation Studies. Retrospective and Prospective Views, issue 6, Galati University Press, pp 72-77.

Munteanu, Ştefan (1972): Stil şi expresivitate poetică. Bucuresti: Ed. Stiinţifică.

Nasta, Mihail & Sorin Alexandrescu (1972): Poetică şi stilistică. Orientări moderne. Bucureşti: Ed. “Univers”.

Parapală Afana, Emilia (1998): Introducere in stilistică. Piteşti: Ed. “Paralela 45”.

Pavel, Lucia (1999): Commented English Literary Terms. Dictionary. Cluj-Napoca: Editura “Dacia”.

Plett, Heinrich (1983): Stiinţa textului şi analiza de text. Bucureşti: Ed. “Univers”.

Richards, I.A. (1936/1965): The Philosophy of Rhetoric. Oxford University Press.

Russell, Shirley (2001): Grammar, Structure and Style. A Practical Guide to Advanced Level English Language. Oxford University Press.

Sanger, Keith (1998): The Language of Fiction. London and New York: Routledge.

Sebeok, Thomas A. (1960) Style in Language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

25


Semino, Elena and Jonathan Culpeper (eds.) (2002): Cognitive Stylistics. Language and Cognition in Text Analysis. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Shaw, Harry (1976): Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Short, Michael (1996): Exploring the Language of Poems, Prose and Plays. Harlow: Longman.

Simpson, Paul (2004): Stylistics. A Resource Book for Students. London and New York: Routledge.

Swovelin, Barbara V. (2006): CliffsAP English Langugae and Composition, Wiley Publishing Inc., Hoboken, NJ.

Spitzer, Leo (1948): Linguistics and Literary History: Essays in Stylistics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Strunk, William and E. B. White (1959): The Elements of Style. MacMillan Publishing Co.

Toolan, Michael (1990): The Stylistics of Fiction. A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose. London: Routledge.

Toolan, Michael (1998): Language in Literature: An Introduction to Stylistics. London and New York: Arnold Publishers.

Trudgill, P. (1992): Introducing Language and Society. London: Penguin.

Tung, C. H. (1991): Imagination and the Process of Literary Creation. Taipei: Bookman Books.

Ullmann, Stephen (1964): Language and Style, vol.III. Oxford.

Van Peer, W. (1986): Stylistics and Psychology: Investigations of Foregrounding. London: Croom Helm.

Verdonk, Peter (2002): Stylistics: Oxford Introductions to Language Study. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Verdonk, Peter & Jean Jacques Weber (1995): Twentieth-Century Fiction: From Text to Context. New York: Routledge.

Verdonk, Peter (1993): Twentieth Century Poetry. From Text to Context. London: Routledge.

Vianu, Tudor (1957): Stilistica literară şi lingvistică. Problemele metaforei şi alte studii de lingvistică. ESPLA.

Vianu, Tudor (1968) : Studii de stilistică. Bucureşti: Editura didactică şi pedagogică.

Warner, Alan (1961): A Short Guide to English Style, London: Oxford University Press.

Wales, K. (1990): A Dictionary of Stylistics. London: Longman.

Weber, Jean Jacques. (1996): The Stylistics Reader: from Roman Jakobson to the Present. New York: St. Martin's.

Widdowson, H.G. (1997): Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature. London: Longman.

26


Williams, Joseph (2007): Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Pearson Longman.

Wright, Laura & Hope, Jonathan (1996): Stylistics. A Practical Coursebook. London and New York: Routledge.

Znamenskaya, T.A. (2004): Stylistics of the English Language, Fundamentals of the course. YPCC.

Web-based stylistics courses or textbooks

Ismail S. Talib, Literary Stylistics, National University of Singapore. http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/ellibst/lit-stya.html#content, retrieved on May 12th, 2008.

Mick Short and Dawn Archer, Ling 131 Language & Style, University of Lancaster, http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/

projects/stylistics/contents.htm, retrieved on March 15th, 2008.

http://www.durov.com/study/STYLISTICS-175.doc, retrieved on January 10th, 2010.

http://www.stedwards.edu/newc/green/effwr/styled.htm, retrieved on March 15th, 2008.

http://www.iic.md/html/materials/Pedas_Elena/Stylistics.doc, retrieved on March 26th, 2008.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=style, retrieved on May 27th, 2009.

Sources of texts

Dickens, Charles (2002): Little Dorrit. Wordsworth Editions Limited.

Ingham, G. 1996. “Money is a social relation”. Review of Social Economy 54: 507-29.

Isherwood, Christopher (1987): Mr Norris Changes Trains. Meuthen.

Lea, S. E. G. and P. Webley (2006): “Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29: 161-209.

Marx, Karl (1844): The Power of Money. Available on http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/power.htm, retrieved on March 25th, 2008.

McLuhan, Marshall (2001): Understanding Media. Routledge.

Russell, Shirley (2001): Grammar, Structure and Style. A Practical Guide to Advanced Level English Language. Oxford University Press.

Valenze, Deborah (2006): The Social Life of Money in the English Past. Cambridge University Press.

Documents

Nadia Morarasu - An Introduction to English Stylistics