LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 8 August 2011
ISSN 1930-2940
Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language

Naushad Umarsharif Shaikh, M.A., B.Ed., Ph.D.
====================================================

Hain Aur Bhi Duniya Mein Sukhanwar Bahut Achay….

Kehatay Hain Ke Ghalib Ka Andaaz-e-Bayan Aur…
~ Mirza Asadullaa Nkhaan Ghalib

There are many good poets and writers be they …

Galib is said to have unparalleled style of expression.

Abstract

Stylistics is an area of study that is growing and developing fast. Its central
concern is the way cognitive and communicative effects are achieved by means of
linguistic choices. It, therefore, covers literary studies and linguistics as well as
discourse studies. One of the types of stylistics, Pedagogical Stylistics, has proved to
be very fruitful for learners.

The present paper focuses on the pragmatic functions of Stylistics, playing a

vital role in learning, teaching and acquisition of English as second language. The
paper also focuses on the history, functions and aim of Stylistics in L2 and its role in
solving the problems faced in learning L2.

The paper concludes by stating the role of Stylistics in learning English as a

second language and how it is practically helpful in acquiring the same.

Keywords: discourse, applied linguistics, second language, literary analysis, rhetoric

discourse analysis, lingual problems.

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Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 259
Introduction

We may learn or acquire English as one of the languages from the same
source/s but develop varying individual patterns and different choices of words and
phrases. This is what makes a person a poet, novelist, an orator, or a famous literary
figure. Ultimately, it is the individual's choice of words in speaking and writing which
makes us speakers and writers with different structures of sentences and words.

Stylistics is a field of study that is growing and developing fast. Its inner
concern is the way cognitive and communicative effects are achieved by means of
linguistic choices. It, therefore, encompasses literary studies and linguistics as well as
discourse studies.

History and Recent Trends in Stylistics

At the time when structuralism was at its most influential phase in

Czechoslovakia, Denmark and the USA, a school known as The New Criticism
originated in Cambridge, Great Britain. The main representatives were I. A. Richards
and W. Empson, who introduced new terms, mainly the method of structural analysis
called close reading. They devoted great effort to the study of metaphor and
introduced the terms tenor and vehicle which are still in use. The New Criticism
represents progress in stylistic thinking and their theory is applicable even today.
They also have followers in the USA (e.g. C. Brooks, R. P. Blackmur, R. P. Warren).

British stylistics is influenced by M. Halliday (1960‟s) and his structuralist

approach to the linguistic analysis of literary texts. British tradition has always been
the semiotics of text-context relationships and structural analysis of text: locating
literature into a broader social context and to other texts.

British Stylistics and Linguistic Criticism reached its most influential point at
the end of the 70s (Kress, Hodge: Language as Ideology, 1979; Fowler, R. et al:
Language and Control, 1979, Aers, et al.: Literature, Language and Society in
England 1580-1680, 1981).

Definitions

Definitions of Stylistics

Stylistics is the study of style. Style can be viewed in several ways. Similarly,
there are several different stylistic approaches. This variety in stylistics is due to the
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 to show their functional significance for the
interpretation of the text; or to relate literary effects to linguistic causes.

Identifying the formal features of any texts is to read and understand the style
of the target text and focus the choice of words, and selection of the phrases.

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Naushad Umarsharif Shaikh, M.A., B.Ed., Ph.D.
Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 260
 Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts from a linguistic perspective.
As a discipline it links literary criticism and linguistics, but has no autonomous
domain of its own. (Widdowson, 1992, and Simpson, P. 2004)

The preferred object of stylistic studies is literature, but not exclusively "high
literature" but also other forms of written texts such as text from the domains of
advertising, pop culture, politics or religion.( Simpson, P. 2004)

According to Katie Wales in A Dictionary of Stylistics, 2nd ed. (Pearson,

2001), "The goal of most stylistics 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 effects to linguistic 'causes'
where these are felt to be relevant."

Types of Stylistics

Stylistics has been classified further under different tags to describe certain
analytical procedures in stylistics. They are as follows:

1. General Stylistics or Stylistics

This is stylistics viewed from the broad notion of the linguistic study of all
types of linguistic events from different domains of life.

2. Literary Stylistics

This is the type of analysis that focuses on literary texts.

3. Textualist Stylistics (Textlinguistics)

This is the type of stylistics which focuses on the “empty technology” of a

text.

4. Interpretative Stylistics

This is the practice engaged in by most stylisticians nowadays. It involves the

analysis of the linguistic data in a (literary) text, the unraveling of the content or
artistic value of the text and the marrying of these two.

5. Formalist and Functional Stylistics

These terms may be viewed as alternatives for textualist stylistics and

interpretative stylistics respectively as discussed above.

6. Evaluative Stylistics

This is a term used by Richard Bradford to designate the type of analysis

which uses linguistic tools to assess or measure the worth or merits and demerits of a
text.
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Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 261
7. Discourse Stylistics

This is the stylistic approach which employs the procedures and terminology
of discourse analysis in the explication of literary language use.

8. Contextualist Stylistics

This has various factions that are united in their emphasis on the ways in
which literary style is formed and influenced by its contexts.

9. Phonostylistics

This has been described by Hartman and Stork as “the study of the expressive
function of sounds” (223).

10. Sociostylistics

This is actually a subject which studies, for instance, the language of writers
considered as social groups.

11. Feminist Stylistics

According to Sara Mills‟, "Feminist Stylistics is the one that uses linguistic or
language analysis to examine texts".

12. Computational Stylistics

This is a sub-discipline of computational linguistics.

13. Expressive Stylistics

This approach emphasizes an identification of how the style, the linguistic

elements, reveals the personality or “soul” of the author.

14. Pedagogical Stylistics

This refers to the employment of stylistic analysis for teaching and learning
purposes. Literary texts may sometimes be difficult for learners to appreciate.

15. Radical Stylistics

This is a term introduced by D. Burton in 1982 to designate a stylistic

approach which tends to go beyond the identification of the artistic effects of
language use to analyse how language is used to express different ideologies of world
views.

16. New Stylistics

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Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 262
 This is a rather vague term used to denote some fresh models of stylistic
analysis. Such models cease to be “new” as soon as “newer” models evolve.

Aims of Stylistic Analysis

"Stylistic analysis, unlike more traditional forms of practical criticism, is not

interested primarily in coming up with new and startling interpretations of the texts it
examines. Rather, its main aim is to explicate how our understanding of a text is
achieved, by examining in detail the linguistic organization of the text and how a
reader needs to interact with that linguistic organization to make sense of it.

Often, such a detailed examination of a text does reveal new aspects of

interpretation or help us to see more clearly how a text achieves what it does.

 Doing stylistics enriches our ways of thinking about language.

 Doing stylistics improves the basic skills of the language.
 It is helpful for both teachers and learners to go for stylistic analysis.
 It is helpful for ESL and EFL learners.
 Stylistics as an independent discipline provides the students with all
the necessary material to skim as well as muse deeply into literary texts
to decode the native competency of the language.
 To develop the skills and approach of analyzing language to improve
receptive skills of the target language.
 To identify the limitations as ESL or EFL learners and acquire the
compositions and sentence structures which have less grammatical
support.
 To know the limitations and acquire idiomatic expressions as idioms
are generally impossible to translate between languages.

Stylistics Today

Modern stylistics is positively flourishing and witnessed in a abundance of

sub-disciplines. Today, Stylistic methods are enriched by theories of discourse,
culture and society be it feminist, cognitive or discourse stylistics.

Stylistics has also become a much valued method in language teaching and in
language learning. Moreover, stylistics often forms a core component of many
creative writing courses. Stylistics is a method of textual interpretation in which
primacy of place is assigned to language.

Language and Stylistics:

The reason why language is so important to stylisticians is because the various

forms, patterns and levels that constitute linguistic structure are an important index of
the function of the text. The text‟s functional significance as discourse acts in turn as a
gateway to its interpretation. While linguistic features do not constitute a text‟s
„meaning‟, an account of linguistic features nonetheless serves to ground a stylistic
interpretation and to help in explaining why certain types of meaning are possible.
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Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 263
Why should we do stylistics?

1. To do stylistics is to explore language, and, more specifically, to explore

creativity in language use.
2. Doing stylistics enriches our ways of thinking about language, whereas
exploring language offers a purchase on our understanding of (literary) texts.
3. This method of inquiry sheds light on the „rules‟ of language because stylistics
shows us how these rules are broken in certain texts . The practice of stylistics
conform to the following three basic principles cast mnemonically as three
'Rs':
 stylistic analysis should be rigorous.
 stylistic analysis should be retrievable.
 stylistic analysis should be replicable. (Simpson, P. 2004)

Functions of Stylistics

In today's materialistic and professional world, we need to stress upon the

utility and functions of any idea or technique, etc.

What has been the primary interest of stylistics for years is the analysis of the
type, fluctuation, or the reason for choosing a given style as in any language a single
thought can be expressed in a number of ways depending on connotations, or desired
result that the message is to produce. Therefore, stylistics is concerned with the
examination of grammar, lexis, semantics, as well as phonological properties and
discursive devices. It might seem that the same issues are investigated by
sociolinguistics, and, indeed, that is the case. However, sociolinguistics analyses the
above mentioned issues seen as dependent on the social class, gender, age, etc., while
stylistics is more interested in the significance of function that the style fulfills.

Functions

Learners of different levels can be improved with the help of stylistic analysis
as one can put learners to the exercises according to their difficult areas and in the
areas where improvements are expected:

 Stylistics examines oral and written texts in order to determine crucial

characteristic linguistic properties, structures and patterns influencing
perception of the texts.
 Thus, it can be said that this branch of linguistics is related to discourse
analysis, in particular critical discourse analysis, and pragmatics.
 Owing to the fact that at the beginning of the development of this study the
major part of the stylistic investigation was concerned with the analysis of
literary texts, it is sometimes called literary linguistics, or literary stylistics.
Nowadays, however, linguists study various kinds of texts, such as manuals,
recipes, as well as novels and advertisements.

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Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 264
  In addition to that, in the recent years so called „media-discourses‟ such as
films, news reports, song lyrics and political speeches have all been studied
within the scope of stylistics.
 Each text scrutinized by stylistics can be viewed from different angles and as
fulfilling at least a few functions.
 Thus, it is said that texts have interpersonal function, ideational function and
textual function. When describing a function several issues are taken into
consideration. Therefore, interpersonal function is all about the relationship
that the text is establishing with its recipients, the use of either personal or
impersonal pronouns is analyzed, as well as the use of speech acts, together
with the tone and mood of the statement and this leads to develop the basic
skills of learns.
 The textual function is the reference of sentences forwards and backwards
which makes the text cohesive and coherent, but also other discursive devices
such as ellipsis, repetition, anaphora are studied.
 In addition to the above, effectiveness of chosen stylistic properties of the
texts is analyzed in order to determine their suitability to the perceived
function, or contribution to overall interpretation.
 What is more, it is thought that being acquainted with stylistics makes students
more aware of certain features of language and to implement the knowledge in
their language production on all levels: phonological, grammatical, lexical and
discursive. Also empirical findings support the view that stylistics helps
students improve their reading and writing skills.
 Linguists dealing with a sub-branch of stylistics called pedagogical stylistics
support the view that this field of study helps learners to develop better foreign
language competence.

Second language (L2) Acquisition and Problems

As we all know, the process of the second language acquisition is different

from that of the first language acquisition. Learning a second language not from
infancy, but at school, or even later is also another different situation. Therefore, the
very circumstances of language acquisition are different, and thus the process itself
shows certain distinctive features.
In applied linguistics and language methodology various manners of second language
learning/acquisition are acknowledged.

There are uncountable factors affecting the process of second language

acquisition. Most of the time, a positive transfer doesn‟t work at all. Therefore,
learners have to know the structure and pattern of the sentences in the second
language to achieve fluency, accuracy, appropriateness to reach higher level.

Transfer

What is characteristic of second language acquisition, but not of the first

language acquisition process is so called transfer. This term denotes the act of trying
to apply the pronunciation, word order, vocabulary or some expression form the
mother tongue to the target language learnt at the moment. When the transfer is

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Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 265
successful, for example a word from the learners‟ native language has been used
while using the target language and such a word indeed exists in the target language
(either with different pronunciation, or not) the learner has benefited from a positive
transfer. However, when in a similar attempt the learner tries to use a structure, or a
word from the native language, but such a word, or structure does not exist in the
target language the learner makes use of the negative transfer.

Looking at the problems of ESL learners in the basic areas of target language,
learners can be offered different stylistic assignments to develop their acquisition of
the language. It is better to have target oriented assignments to reach the higher
results. It is observed that while learning ESL learners switch on to transfers as they
are not exposed to structure and grammar of ESL sufficiently. If we facilitate them
with the books and exercises in which stylistics aspects are well practiced I think they
would prefer the native styles and patterns immediately instead of transfers. So
teachers can apply the student oriented exercise to bring them near to the native skills.

Pedagogical Stylistics

As this application of stylistics proved to be fruitful for both learners and

teachers, different patterns of facilitating to L2 learners have been discussed here.

Hence, a teacher may analyse the linguistic patterns in the text, breaking down
complex linguistic units to smaller ones, converting excerpts in verse form prosaic
form, hyperbaton (syntactic inversion) to regular forms in the belief that such will
help the learner to grasp the message therein.

Wales remarks on this as follows: Because of its eclecticism, stylistics has

increasingly come to be used as a teaching tool in language and literature studies for
both native and foreign speakers of English; what can be termed pedagogical
stylistics. (438)

Carter and McRae claim that stylistics in its pedagogical application “has been
accused of tending towards the simplistic” (xxxi). However, since the aim of teaching
and learning is to make things clearer or simpler than they seem, pedagogical
stylistics would be considered a positive development.

Learners can be exposed to the stylistic patterns which would help them
understand and improve their language near to the native standard in writing and
reading to a good extent, depending on the learners' capacity.

What is more, it is thought that being acquainted with stylistics makes student
more aware of certain features of language and to implement the knowledge in their
language production on all levels: phonological, grammatical, lexical and discursive.
Also empirical findings support the view that stylistics helps students improve their
reading and writing skills.

Linguists dealing with a sub-branch of stylistics called pedagogical stylistics

support the view that this field of study helps learners to develop better foreign
language competence.
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Naushad Umarsharif Shaikh, M.A., B.Ed., Ph.D.
Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 266
 These strategies consist of a close reading of the model, followed by an
intensive study of the features of the given text and writing assignments:

1. Reading for stylistic analyses and

2. Exposing them to exercises

Learners' Activity

 Learners read the model carefully before and make observations on their
copies to the model.
 Learners reread the text and then questions on following stylistic aspects could
be asked;
 Sentence structure
 diction
 verbs
 word choice, etc.
 Different texts could be used for the activity. The exercise offered to the
students should be more specific and limited.
 Give students writing assignments. The purpose of this assignment should be
to insure the students understanding of rhetorical and grammatical principles
to be used or applied.
 Another purpose is to reinforce their reading skills, since they must necessarily
read the model text (paragraph) carefully in order to write about it.
 (supervisor or teacher should guide them during the activities)
 Students can be given liberty to select the structural and stylistic features
unless required to improve aspects.
 The practicing of the same will develop learners' ability to understand certain
kinds of stylistic features and learn how important it is to be able to choose the
proper set of features that will communicate their intended meaning.

Important Activities

 Supervisor or teacher should

 comment on the relative strengths and weaknesses of each,
 make suggestions for improvement.
 reinforce this procedure by writing marginal and
 summary comments on their worksheets.

These activities would definitely result into improving the targeted stylistic
features in reading and writing skills.

Stylistics to Analyse and Develop Lexical Awareness and Competency of

Learners

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Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 267
 Learners also face problems in lexis, style, and appropriateness. Different
types of exercises can be designed to develop the learner's awareness in the desired
areas.

Activities

Activity One

1. Select a text form any English language newspaper.

2. Give learners worksheets

Assign learners to:

1. list nouns which is stylistically inappropriately used

2. list nouns which are inappropriately used or given
3. find out Incorrect verbs which fail to convey the intended meanings
4. find odd, verbs used in wrong forms

Activity Two

1. Select the two texts on physical exercises or cookery.

2. Give learners worksheets

Assign learners to:

1. List all types of verbs used in imperative forms.

2. List all verbs in past and past participle forms.
3. List all verbs related to action or processes.
4. Assign them to provide synonyms for the verbs with actions.
5. List the different words with same or almost same in meaning.
6. Ask them to rewrite the texts or paragraphs using alternate words and
verbs

Various tasks can be framed and exercises based on the different stylistic
features could be given to the learners:

1. Find out grammatical faults.

2. Lexical items used incorrectly
3. Collocations which learners feel wrong
4. Uses and misuses of prepositions
5. Adjective order and mistakes
6. Pronouns and reflexive pronouns
7. Order of nouns and pronouns in sentences. Etc.

Examples

He and I played carols or

I and me played carols or
He and me played carols or
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Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 268
 I and he played carols.

In using a language to express the meaning, a speaker has a linguistic choice

that allows him or her to change the order of groups of words or in other words, the
speaker is given an allowance to use many ways of language use, for example: when a
speaker intents to know the time, he or she may use his or her own expressions to the
language offers such as:

What‟s the time?

What time is it, please?
Would you mind telling the time, please?
Tell me the time, please.
I‟d like to know the time.

Those are the different forms of expression of getting same information for
time. The first and the second are interrogative forms, the third is requesting form.
The fourth one is imperative form, while the last one is declarative form.

Most of the linguistics choices that a speaker makes are unconscious. He or

she never makes a conscious choice among the available language forms. He or she
had chosen the best form to express or to convey the meaning.

Worksheets and Evaluation Sheets

Stylistic analysis of the written assignments of the learners could be done on

the basis of following criteria:

Essay Essay has

relevant D C P F little

Structure:

The Essay The Essay

has little is relevant
relevance to topic
Superficial Topic
Relevance covered in
of Topic depth

Style

Clumsily Fluent piece

written of writing
Unnecessarily Succinct
Repetitive writing

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Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 269
Mechanics

Many Sentences
Ungrammatical grammatical
Sentences
Incorrect Correct
Spellings Spellings

Appropriate Use of Verbs, Noun and Prepositions

Inappropriate Use Appropriate Use

Prepositions
Verbs
Conjunctions
Nouns and pronouns
Articles
Idioms and phrases

Name: Date:

Text's author and title/Comment?

____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

Consider the text's rhetorical situation. What is behind its creation? What is its
audience?

____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
What is the author's purpose? Inform the audience? Persuade? Explain?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Cite a passage that illustrates the author's message (embodied thought/logos) and
discuss it.
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

Cite additional content that develops / supports / illustrates the writer's message. What
claims does the author make? How does the author assert his presence and
knowledge?

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Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 270
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

Conclusion

Stylistics, as an independent discipline, provides students with all the

necessary material (investigation tools) to skim as well as muse deeply into literary
texts, which seem to them too difficult and perhaps, sometimes, unapproachable. It is
within the scope of the present article to introduce stylistics to the English learning
community in general and to the ESL and learners in particular.

Stylistics being a multidisciplinary discipline there are different approaches of

stylistic analysis. It is required to know the following facts about the application of
stylistic analysis to reach to the qualitative results as well as producing target and
result oriented materials for learners. Pedagogical stylistics proved to be scientific as
it is based on analysis of learners‟ performance and putting them to the target oriented
exercises on selected areas. Therefore we can conclude as follows:

 Stylistic analyses of student reading and writing assignments have really

proved to be very useful medium of motivating students and helping them in
improving their acquisition of the language.
 Learners can be exposed to different exercises by means of working with a
wide variety of texts including literary (artistic) texts, stylistics can function as
a bridging discipline between literary and linguistic courses.
 Different stylistic aspects can be applied and achieved by assigning them
different and problem oriented exercises.
 The resourcefulness of teachers or supervisors is expected.
 The analysis of the language learners, dividing them in levels and giving them
target oriented exercises, affects the results.

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References

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Brown K. (Editor) 2005. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics – 2nd Edition.

Oxford: Elsevier.

Bradford, Richard.( 1997) Stylistics. London: Routledge.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com

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Naushad Umarsharif Shaikh, M.A., B.Ed., Ph.D.
Role of Stylistics in Learning English as a Second Language 271
Carter, Roland, and John McRae. Introduction. Language, Literature and the
Learner.

Finch G. 1998. How to study linguistics. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

Simpson, P. ( 2004) Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students. Routledge: London .

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

Wales, Katie. A Dictionary of Stylistics. London: Longman, 1990.

Watson, G. and Zyngier, S. (eds.) (2006) Literature and Stylistics for Language
Learners: Theory and Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan .

Widdowson, H.G. (1992) Practical Stylistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Widdowson, H.G. 1975. Stylistics and the teaching of literature. Longman: London.
===================================================
Naushad Umarsharif Shaikh, M. A., B.Ed., Ph.D.
Department of English
Faculty of Science and Arts Khulais
King Abdulaziz University
Jeddah, PBO-80230
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
[email protected]
[email protected]

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