TYPES OF STYLISTICS (I)

CONTENTS :

1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Linguistic Stylistics
3.2 Some Features of Linguistic Stylistics
3.3 Lexical Repetition
3.4 Semantico-Syntactic Level
3.5 Syntactic/Grammatical Level
3.6 Phonological Level
3.7 Graphological Level
3.8 Literary Stylistics

1.0 INTRODUCTION
In this unit, we shall discuss linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics as
two broad types of stylistics. In discussing linguistic stylistics, we shall
use some poems and demonstrate how stylistics can be done at some levels of language
description. We shall therefore look at graphological, phonological, syntactic, and lexico-
semantic features. In addition, we shall also discuss the literary perception of style.

2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
• mention two types of stylistics and distinguish between them
• identify some features that can be looked at in a linguistic stylistic analysis
• explain what is involved in a stylistic analysis of a literary text.

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 Linguistic Stylistics

Linguistic stylistics explores the linguistic features of a text. Remember

that there is reference to style as the selection of certain linguistic forms or features over other
possible ones. Linguistic stylistics, therefore, points out those linguistic choices which a writer or
speaker has made as well as the effects of the choices.
The foregoing implies that linguistic stylistics is primarily concerned with the use of language
and its effects in a text. Given a piece of literature, a poem for example, a linguistic stylistic
analyst will be interested in describing the form and function of language in the poem, paying
attention to certain curiosities that may be accounted for in linguistic terms.
This does not imply that linguistic stylistics ignores the meanings which a poem conveys. In fact,
the meaning is the focal point. But what the system of language is used to do is of paramount
importance to the stylistician who works within the system of linguistic stylistics. Widdowson
(1975: 5) posits that “… it may well be the case that the
linguist’s analysis of the language of a poem is dependent on some prior
intuitive interpretation of what the poem is about.”
Linguistic stylistics, then, directs its attention primarily to how a piece of discourse expresses the
language system. By language system, we mean linguistic features that can be examined based
on the levels of language. In the section that follows, we shall examine some linguistic features
based on the levels of language description. But before then, let
us note that the gap between linguistic stylistic and literary studies has
been bridged by the advent of the discipline of linguistic stylistics. Linguistic stylistics was
introduced to act as a complementary approach to literary criticism where the linguistic study of
texts was conspicuously absent.

Linguistics being “the academic discipline which studies language scientifically” (Crystal
and Davy, 1969: 10) has everything to do with language usage and its applicability. According to
Ayeomoni (2003:
177),

Like any scientific discipline, the linguistic study of texts is precise and definite as it
employs objective and verifiable methods of analysis and interpretation of texts.
Linguistic stylistics studies the devices in languages (such as rhetorical figures and syntactical
patterns) that are considered to produce expressive or literary style. It is different from literary
criticism in that while literary criticism rests solely on the subjective interpretation of texts,
linguistic stylistics concentrates on the “linguistic frameworks operative in the text” (Ayeomoni
2003: 177). This gives the critic a pattern to follow; what to look out for in a text; and
consequently his standpoint can be verified statistically.
Similarly, the linguistic study of a text reveals a writer’s style and purpose of writing. For
instance, the use of proverbs in Achebe’s novels defines his style. Thus, if one criticizes a text
through the parameters of linguistic usage, it can be verified, but if on the other hand, one relies
primarily on literary criticism, one will only react to a text as his emotion dictates.
However, Hassan (1985) cited in Ayeomoni (2003) notes that linguistic stylistics acknowledges
the fact that it is not just enough to study the language of literary texts, since there are two
aspects to literature: the verbal and the artistic. In view of this factor, linguistic stylistics has its
major purpose, which is relating language use in literary texts to its artistic function. So when
language as used in the text is studied, it is not studied in isolation of the artistic function, it is
studies in order to ascertain how the writer has used language to express his message.

According to Ayeomoni (2003), linguistic stylistics is known by such

other terms as:
• Stylistics: (Hassan, 1985; Kachru and Herbert 1972; and
Widdowson 1975)
• Modern Stylistics (Freeman, 1973)
• The New Stylistics (Fowler, 1986; Cluysenaar, 1975; Leech and
Short, 1981)

• Literary Linguistic Stylistics (Michael Short, 1982).

3.2 Some Features of Linguistic Stylistics

In this section, we shall limit ourselves to some linguistic features that

would serve as a platform for an in-depth stylistic analysis of any text,
though in this unit, we restrict ourselves to poetry.

3.3 Lexical Repetition

As a form of lexical repetition, words may be repeated; synonyms or near-synonyms may be

used. At times, poets repeat some lexical items,
near-synonymy may be used, for instance, to foreground the intended
message. For instance, look at these lines:
“The poetry of earth is never dead …
The poetry of earth ceasing never…”
(Keats)
“I nearly died! Honestly, I give you my word, I nearly passed away”.
3.4 Lexico-Semantic Level

Semantics deals with meaning. At the lexico-semantic level, we look at

the lexical choices made by a writer or speaker. Here, words can be chosen for their denotative,
connotative and other dimensions of meanings. Look at this line:
“But tomorrow cannot be consoled.”
The above line is taken from Yeibo’s Maiden Lines. Syntactically, i.e., in terms of grammar, the
line is normal. The sentence begins with ‘but’, giving the assumption that it contrasts with the
idea that precedes it. But
if we look at the sentence semantically, “tomorrow” is not an animate
thing that can be consoled; it is only humans that can be “consoled” or
not consoled. Making “tomorrow” to go with “consoled” creates some
effect at this level.

3.5 Syntactic Level

This has to do with the arrangement of units larger than the word. These units include
groups/phrases, clauses and sentences. Look at this sentence: “He went home”.
The pattern of the sentence is SPA (S – Subject, P = Predicator, A –
Adjunct).
A poet can violate the order of the above sentence in the form below: “Home he went” (This has
ASP pattern).
The item “home” occurs in the initial position of the sentence to
foreground it. This is deviation for a specific effect.

3.6 Phonological Level (Sounds)

Phonology refers to how sound is organized to mean. Sound patterning functions

linguistically in poetry to project a poet’s purpose or concern in a work” (Aboh. 2008: 67-8).
Poetry has fashions and different forms of sound patterning. Let us look at this example taken
from Dasylva’s
Songs of Odamolugbe:
• Their stanzas of stifling scandals
• Cause the masses to curse
This is an example of alliteration. The sound stanzas and scandals are
the poet’s deliberate selections. The sound effect created by such selection gives the reader a
deeper sense of understanding the enormity of corruption and insincerity in the Nigerian society.
It is the insincerity of the rulers that ‘cause’ the masses to ‘curse’.

3.7 Graphological Level

Another way in which poets can make us contemplate the otherwise unmarked
morphological structure of words is by playing around with word boundaries. Graphology means
the arrangement of words based on their meanings. If a poet breaks the word “Kingdom”
into “king - dom” the poet has tampered with the morphology of the word, thereby affecting the
meaning. Let us consider the example taken
from Ushie’s Hill Songs:
On the wrinkled face of the hills
I see my shortening shadow
as my sun creeps towards the west hills
gently, gently, gently
like afternoon’s flame
l
o
w
e
r
i
n
g

to ash in the evening. (P. 35)

The above poem describes birth and death. While the preceding lines of the poem explicitly point
to aging, “lowering” (the graphological symbolism) shows interment. It describes the process of
burial.
3.8 Literary Stylistics

Literary stylistics is synonymous to literary criticism, in a way. The ultimate purpose of

literary stylistics is to explain the individual message of the writer in terms which makes its
importance clear to others. The task of literary stylistics is to decipher a message encoded in an
unfamiliar way, to express its meaning in familiar and communal terms and thereby to provide
the private message with a public relevance. This activity is not essentially different from the
criticism of other art forms.

The literary stylistician is obviously sensitive to language, but his/her concern is not
principally with the way the signals of the artist are constructed but with the underlying message
which an interpretation of
the signals reveals. Furthermore, literary stylistics is less interested in
devising a metalanguage into which the original message can be transferred. The literary
stylistician is rather concerned with figurative and evocative uses of language which characterise
the message being interpreted. Literary stylistics, then, is primarily concerned with messages and
the interest in codes (language) lies in the meaning they convey in particular instances of use.
The beauty of language and how it is used to capture reality is also the focal concern of literary
stylistics. Literary stylistics takes interpretation as its aim. It is interested in finding out what
aesthetic experience or perception of reality a poem, for example, is attempting to convey. Its
observation of how language system is used will serve only as a means to this end.

Literary stylistics, therefore, searches for underlying significance, for the essential artistic
vision which language is used to express. It treats literary works as messages.
Literary stylistics undertakes the interpretation of a text as the ultimate objective of analysis. It is
based on the consideration of the stylistically significant features of the text (including clause
and sentence structure, paragraphing and cohesion) and of lexis. It is however the stylistic effects
and functions produced by these features rather than the objective description of them that is
more important here (i.e. in literary stylistics).

To the literary stylistician, the description of language and style is not important in itself;
instead, the primary task is to provide an account of
his intuitions concerning the effect and functions produced by the text. This is expected to
provide a sure basis for the interpretation of texts and for teaching interpretation.