St. Cecilia’s College- Cebu, Inc.

A LASSO Supervised School

Poblacion, Minglanilla, Cebu
SY 2020-2021
Second Semester

Instructional Study Module

( ISM ) # 1

_STYLISTIC AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS_

(Subject)

_______________________ ____________________ ______________________

Student Name Grade Level and Section Instructor’s Name

Rationale
This module tackles the overview and fundamental input in Stylistics. Before analyzing different
literary works, students must first gain understanding of Stylistics as a branch of Linguistics and as a
study.

This module contains Nature and Scope of Stylistics; Rhetorics and History of Stylistics
including the influences Analogists and Anomalists; Definitions of Style; Linguistic & Extralingual
Contexts; Expressiveness & Emotiveness; Expressive Means, Stylistic Devices and Functional Means as
well as the different activities intended for the students to do for the assessment of their learning.

It is vital that students internalize and study these topics so as to understand the significance of
interpreting literary works. As future professionals, they must also possess the skill of critically
analyzing any literary work or information they encounter. As individuals, being well-versed in
language and expression will also be advantageous for them in honing relationships with the people they
encounter in life and understanding expressions of others as well, especially in literature. Most
importantly, it is in learning this course that they will thoroughly internalize the significance of language
and the power of words and writing.

Learning Objectives

A. Define stylistics, style, meaning, contexts, expressiveness and emotiveness in relation to nature and
goals of the study, history and influences;
B. Discuss and differentiate styles, meanings, contexts and devices and means in language and
literature;
C. Share one’s interest in stylistic research and study through appreciation of author’s unique styles
and literature as an art form;
Learning Resources
A. References

 Simpson,P. (2004) Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students. Routledge. New Fetter Lane London.
 Abdulmughni, A.(2019) Stylistics, Literary Criticism, Linguistics and Discourse. Internation
Journal of English Linguistics. Canadian Center of Science and Education. Saudi Arabia
 Tuurosong,D; Pelpuo,R.; Bakuuro,J. Stylistics as an Approach to Discourse Analysis: A Thematic
Textual Analysis. European Centre for Research Training and Development. United Kingdom.
 Hikmatovna,I. (2021) Types of Stylistic Meaning. University of World Languages of Uzbekistan.

 https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/stylistics/introduction/history.htm
 https://studylib.net/doc/9886924/1.-introduction-to-stylistics
 https://prezi.com/kvycncmymb4n/lexical-expressive-means-and-stylistic-devices/
 https://doclecture.net/1-61536.html

B. Instructional Materials

 Module
 Book Reference
 Audio-Visual Material
 Visual Images

Learning Experience
A. Terms to Study

 Stylistics
 Discourse
 Analysis
 Expressiveness
 Emotiveness
 Rhetoric
 Analogists
 Anomalists
 Expressive Means
 Stylistic Devices
 Functional Means
 B. Presentation and Discussion

Nature and Goals of Stylistics

Stylistics is a branch of applied linguistics concerned with the study of style in texts, especially, but not
exclusively, in literary works. Also called literary linguistics, stylistics focuses on the figures, tropes,
and other rhetorical devices used to provide variety and a distinctness to someone’s writing.

Stylistics is a systematic way of exploring a literary text especially the language of a text and tries to
explain how language creates meaning, style and certain effect. The study of stylistics is considered as
one of the significant tools to analyze a literary piece from the point of view of language.

Stylistics is a method of textual interpretation in which primary of place is assigned to language

(Simpson, 2004).

Definition of Stylistics:

 Stylistics is the application of concepts from linguistics and allied disciplines in the analysis and
interpretation of samples of communication through language (Otanes, ms.).
 The linguistic study of different styles is called Stylistics. (Chapman, 1973)
 Stylistics is a linguistic approach to the study of literary text (Brumfit and Carter)
 Stylistics is the study of literary discourse from a linguistics orientation. What distinguishes it from
literary criticism… is that it is a means of linking the two. (Widdownson, 1975).

The following are the Goals of Stylistics:

To establish discourse peculiarities - Stylistics studies the peculiarities that characterize the discourse
of a writer, speaker, period, people or genre. Hence, stylistics could bring out certain features of
Soyinka’s works which are different from Osofisan’s works. It could help us identify the British English
style as different from the American English style, etc.

To induce appreciation of discourses - Stylistics involves the appreciation of a discourse in order to

increase our enjoyment of the discourse. It opens the reader’s mind to the form and function of a
particular discourse. Stylistics is sensitive to different linguistic manipulations and choices in a give text.
It unfolds the beauty in authorial and characters’ linguistic choices and opens the reader or listener’s
mind to the aesthetic appeals of such choices.

To ascertain linguistic habits - An author’s style is the product of a particular linguistic habit,
conditioned by some social, cultural and ideological environments. The objective of stylistics is to help
determine the linguistic background and orientation of a given writer or speaker. Thus, according to
Chatman (1971), every analysis of style can be seen as an attempt to discover the artistic principles that
underpin the choice a writer has made.
 Rhetorics and the History of Stylistics

Ancient Times
In ancient Greece the use of language can be seen mainly as an effort to create speeches. Thus, we may
recognize a practical function of language in political and judicial speeches, and an aesthetic function in
ceremonial ones. The art of creating speech was called Rhetoric (from the Greek techne rhetorike) and
was taught as one of the main subjects in schools. The aim was to train speakers to create effective and
attractive speeches. Another language activity was the creation of poetic works. The process of artistic
creation was called Poetics. Its aim was to study a piece of art, and unlike rhetoric, it focused on the
problems of expressing the ideas before the actual moment of utterance. The work of Aristotle (384-322
B.C.) entitled Poetics is considered to be a pioneer publication in this field. His distinction of epics,
drama and lyrics within artistic works is still applicable. The third field of language use was the art of
creating a dialogue. The study of creating and guiding a dialogue, talk or discussion, as well as the study
of methods of persuasion, was called Dialectics. The "dialogue technique" as one of the most convenient
and efficient form of exchanging experiences and presenting research results was introduced and
supported by Socrates. This method is still known in pedagogy as the "dialogical" or "Socrates' method".

The further development of Stylistics was based on the three above mentioned sources from which
Poetics went its own way and created the field of study known at present as Literary Criticism. Rhetoric
and Dialectics developed into Stylistics.

The development of Stylistics in ancient Rome, that is about 300 years later, brought the distinction of
two different styles in speech represented by Caesar and Cicero. Their main characteristics are
summarized in the following table:

Caesar (Analogists) Cicero (Anomalists)

 stressed regularity and system rules  aimed at the creation and development of
 focused on facts and data “Ornate Dicere’ that is flowery language
 Aim was to create simple, clear and  used unnatural syntactic patterns, sought
straightforward speeches for innovative often artificial sentence
 Other representatives were Seneca and structures
Tacituts  created anomalies on all language levels
 Due to their approach, where the true
meassage and communicated content
were secondary to the form of
presentation, Rhetotic was called the
“mother of lies”
 Cicero built his theory of rhetoric on the
distinction between three styles: high,
middle and low
The Middle Ages
Latin was exclusively used as the language of science, art and administration, and no attempts were
made to deal with problems of speech. This period shows no progress in the development of stylistics.
An anomalistic rhetoric of Cicero became a model way of public speaking, which means that
aesthetically attractive speeches were popular. They enabled speakers to develop their individual styles.
However, the influence of ancient India brought about a tendency to make speeches brief in the case of a
sufficient amount of data and facts being available to a speaker. This tendency to economize the speech
intentionally enhanced the distinction between the FORM and CONTENT.

The language of science, culture and administration was very different from the language of common
people. However, it would be inappropriate to speak about styles at this stage. It was the same language
(and the same style) but, of course, different phrases, cliches and stereotyped bookish Latin formulas
were used in each sphere. The most apparent differences occurred in terminology.

The New Age

On the one hand there were traditions of Cicero and Aristotle, on the other, new theories of style have
developed: individualist, emotionalist, formalist, functionalist, etc. In the era of Romanticism the notion
and term style referred exclusively to the written form of language (from Gr. stylos = a carver, an
instrument for writing). Spoken language was the main subject of rhetoric.

The most impressive work from this period is the book L'Art poetique (1674) written by Nicolas
Boileau-Despreaux, which became the bible of French poets of the 17th and 18th century. This book
includes explanations of prose, poetry and drama, and is considered an unusual guidebook for poets and
other artists. At the same time it is not limited to poetics, several definitions are of a stylistic character or
even more general (e.g... those pieces of information which are not new should be pronounced without
any special stress or accent, expressions should not be unnecessarily extended, borrowed and loan words
should be avoided and special attention should be paid to the selection of a title, etc.) In general, the
book is based on the poetics of Aristotle and Horatio. The three different styles are mentioned, their
distinction being based on the opposition of language and parole first mentioned by Cicero (and later
elaborated, quite independently, by Ferdinand de Saussure).

The French classical theory of styles requested the usage of a high (grand) style in all verbal works of
arts as an opposite to the everyday communication of common people in which the middle and low
(plain) styles were used. The styles were classified as 1. stylus altus (works of art), 2. stylus mediocris
(the style of high society) and 3. stylus humilis (the style of low society but could be used in comedies).
This theory reflects preliminary attempts to describe the notion of style as based primarily on the
selection of expressive means.

At the beginning of the 19th century a German linguist and philosopher, Wilhelm von Humboldt
described functional styles in his book "Uber die Verschiendenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und
ihren Einfluss..." and treated poetry and prose (colloquial, educational and belles-letters prose) as
opposites: poetry and prose differ in the selection of expressive means, i.e. words and expressions, use
of grammatical forms, syntactic structures, emotional tones, etc. Humboldt's ideas appeared quite
intruiging, however, and since his classification of styles was not based on and supported by any
linguistic analyses of text samples, it remained idealistic. Later on, many linguists returned to and
elaborated on his ideas, among others, the most influential were the members of the Prague Linguistic
Circle (1926), V. Mathesius, B. Havnarek and F. Travnicek
.
Some literary schools have also contributed towards the development of stylistics, the French school
Explication de Texte developed a method of text analysis and interpretation which is known as close
reading. This method was based on a correlation of historical and linguistic information and on seeking
connections between aesthetic responses and specific stimuli in the text. The method became quite
popular and was used by many other schools and movements.

The 20th Century: Linguistic Schools and Conceptions before Ferdinand de

Saussure
At the beginning of the 20th century a group of German linguists, B.Croce, L. Vossler and L.Spitzer,
represented the school of the New Idealists. Their approach is known as individualistic or
psychoanalytical because its main aim was to search for individual peculiarities of language as elements
of expressing a psychological state of mind (in German "Seelische Meinung"), B.Croce regarded
language as a creation and thus suggested viewing linguistics as subdepartment of aesthetics, Karl
Vossler was known for looking for clues to national cultures behind linguistic details and Leon Spitzer
for tracing parallels between culture and expression. His working method became famous as the
Spitzerian circle. However, the German school of individualists and psychoanalysts belongs to the past
and there are no followers anymore.

The origin of the new era of linguistic stylistics is represented by the linguistic emotionalistic
conception of the French School of Charles Bally. Ch.Bally worked under the supervision of Ferdinand
de Saussure in Geneva and after Saussure's death published his work: Cours de linguistique generale
(1916). Bally's own concept of stylistics is classified as emotionally expressive because fo his strong
belief that each particular component of linguistic information combines as part of alnguage and a part
of a man who inteprets and announces the information.
While at the beginning of the 20th century the Romance countries were mainly influenced by Bally's
expressive stylistics and Germany by Croce's individual stylistics, a new linguistic and literary
movement developed in russia and became known as formalism. The Russian Formalists introduced a
new, highly focused and solid method of literary and linguistic analysis. Formal method used in
linguistics was based on the analystical view of the form, the content of a literary work was seen as a
sum of its stylistic methods. In this way, the formal characteristics of a literary work are seen in
opposition to its content. In other words, the focus was on 'devices of artistry' not on content (i.e. HOW
not WHAT). The formalists originated as an opposition to a synthesis introduced by the symbolists. The
development follows from synthesis towards analysis, putting the main emphasis on the form, material,
or skill. The main representative was Roman O. Jakobson; others were J.N.Tynjanov and V. Vinogradov.
Russian formalism origianted in 1916, flourished in 1920-1923, and had practically ceased to exist by
the end of the 20's. In spite of the short, about ten-year, existence of Russian formalism, many ideas
were modified and further elaborated. They became part of structuralism, and can also be found in the
works of the members of the Prague School ten years later.

The crucial question of the movement known as Structuralism is What is language and what is its
organisation like? The main ideas of structuralism are presented in its fundamental work Cours de
linguistique generale written by F. de Saussure (1856-1913) and published posthumously by his student
Ch.Bally in 1916. The ideas of Structuralism penetrated not only into linguistic and literary criticsm, but
also into ethnography, folklore studies, aesthetics, history of arts, drama and theatre studies, etc.
The program and methodology of work of the Prague Linguistic Circle (1926) were truly structuralistic.
They introduced systematic application of the term structuralism, which brought about new phenomena
introduced into linguistics and literary study. Its influence on stylistics was crucia;. The main aspects of
the movement can be summarized as follows:

-distinction between the aesthetic function of poetic language and the practical, communicative function
of language;
-language is seen as a structure, supra-temporal and supra-spatial, given inherently (in the sense of
Saussure's language);
-literary work is an independent structure related to the situation of its origin/creation;
-individual parts of literary or linguistic structure are always to be understood from the point of view of
a complex structure;
-the analyses of particualr works were based on language analysis because it was assumed that in a
literary work all components (i.e. language, content, composition) are closely inter-related and
overlapping within the structure.

Recent Development: Stylistics in the United Kingdom

At the time when structuralism was at its most influential in Czechoslovakia, Denmark and the USA, the
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 analyses 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 valid even today. They also have followers int he USA.
(e.g.C.Brooks,R.P.Blackmur,R.P.Warne)

British Stylistics is influenced by M.Halliday (1960's) and his structuralist approach to the linguistic
analysis of literary texts. British tradiation 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: Literatyre,
Language, and Society in England 1580-1680, 1981). All three books used transformational and
systemic linguistics, an overtly structuralists and Marxist theoretical approach to the analysis of literary
texts. Two years later Roger Fowler published a book signalling new directions in British Stylistics and
marking its transition to Social Semiotics (Fowler, R: Literatyre as Social Discourse: The PRactice of
Linguistc Criticism,1981). Fowler's book brings together British works (Halliday) with those of Barthes,
Bakhtin and others European traditions.

Romance, English and American stylistics are based on observation and analysis of literary works (texts)
and are very close to poetics. The original American tradition is based on practical methods of creating
various texts, there is a school subject called creative writing and composition which is very often
identified with stylistics.
The field of study of stylistics in Slovakia is understood as more independent from poetics that the
British tradiation, but also very different from the American tradition (more theoretical, academic,
e.g.F.Miko, K.Mistrik,T.Zilka,etc.)

It is necessary to mention a contribution of Czech linguist, B.Havnarek, one of the representatives of the
Prague Linguistic Circle, introduced the notion of functional styles based on the classification of
language functions. According to B.Havnarek the language functions are: 1.communicative, 2. practical
professional, 3.theoretical professional and 4. aesthetic function. The first three functions are
informative and the fourth one is aesthetic. This system of functions is reflected in the classification of
styles in the following way: 1. colloquial (conversational) style, 2professional (factual) style, 3.
scientific style, 4. poetic (literary) style.

In the 1970's larger structures of texts and networks of relations within which they circulate were
studied, and recourses to Hallidayan linguistics, register and genre theory became influential. Typical
representatives are Ronald Carter and Roger Fowler.

Among the latest tendencies there is the interesting approach of textual Stylistics which originated in
Anglo-Saxon countries (Halliday: Cohesion in English, London 1976; Turner; Stylistics, Penguin Books,
1973) and from American centres of stylistic studies the Indiana University of Bloomington should be
mentioned (Style in Language, 1958).

In the 1990's two journals which map recent development have to be mentioned: Language and
Literature (first published in Great Britain, 1992) and Social Semiotics (first published in Australia,
1991).

What is Style?

Since stylistics is the borderline discipline between language and literature, it focuses on language use in
both literary and non-literary texts. It takes into account many disciplines such as literature, sociology,
psychology, philosophy and so on. Stylistics looks at style from the following perspectives:

1. Style as Choice: In this, the writer makes certain choices of the words an expressions to describe the
situations or the characters. The poets make use of certain words or expressions to highlight his or her
intensely felt emotions.

2. Style as Deviation: Here, the writer/poet avoids the standard form of writing and makes use of
deviations to sound stylistically significant. In other words, the writer does not conform to the standard
form of writing. Thus, we can say that the writer has a poetic license to break the rules of grammar.

3. Style as Situation: Here, the situation is the context in which the text comes to life. The situation
could be social, cultural, political or pragmatic. We come to know the situation in a literary text via the
style of the writer.
4. Style as the Temporal Phenomenon: Here, the time factor plays an important role. When the writer
wants to write a text, he/she has to consider the time factor. For example, Shakespeare wrote the plays
and used the language that wsa relevant to his period. The modern playwrights do not write the same
way as Shakespeare did. Therefore, there is a marked difference between Old English and Modern
English.

5. Style as Individual: It is often said that man is known by his style. Every individual is unique in his
style of speech and writing. There are some specific characteristic features associated with particular
individuals.

Linguistic vs. Extralingual Contexts

A linguistic context is the encirclement of a language unit by other language units in speech. Such
encirclement makes the meaning of the unit clear and unambiguous. It is especially important in case
with polysemantic words.

Types of linguistic context:

 Microcontext is the context of a single utterance (sentence).

 Macrocontext is the context of a paragraph in a text.

 Megacontext is the context of a book chapter, a story or the whole book.

An extralingual (situational) context is formed by extralingual conditions in which communication takes

place. Besides making the meaning of words well-defined, a situational context allows the speaker to
economize on speech efforts and to avoid situationally redundant language signs. The commands of a
surgeon in an operating room, such as "scalpel", "pincers" or "tampon", are understood by his assistants
correctly and without any additional explanations about what kind of tampon is needed.

Extralingual context can be physical or abstract and can significantly affect the communication. Such
surroundings form a physical context. A dialogue between colleagues can be affected by the nature of
their relationship. That is, one may be of higher status than the other. Such nature forms an abstract
context. Historical accounts are more easily understood when evoked in the context of their own time.
Such context is called temporal or chronological. There would be a psychologically advantageous
context within which to tell one's spouse about that dented bumper on the new car. Such context may be
called psychological.
 Expressiveness vs. Emotiveness

In linguistics there are different terms to denote particular means by which the utterance is made
effective imparting some additional information: Ems, SDs, stylistic markers, tropes, figures of speech,
etc. All of them are set against the so-called neutral means. All language units bear some grammatical
and lexical meanings and some of them have a specific meaning to the previous one, which may be
called stylistic. The reader perceives neutral language automatically – they are easily and quickly
decodable – others arrest the listener’s attention by peculiar use and he tries to solve this enigma. What
is the SD? How does it differ from EM?

To answer this question, it is first of all necessary to enlighten the concept category of “expressiveness”.
Expressiveness in etymological sense is a kind of intensification of the utterance (or a part of it). It
should not be confused with the category of Emotiveness that reveals emotions of the writer or a
speaker – by not directly manifesting their emotions but by echoing real feelings, designed to awaken
co-experience on the part of the reader. Expressiveness is broader than emotiveness and cannot be
reduced to the latter, which is the part of expressiveness and occupies a predominant position in it.
Expressiveness Emotiveness
Mr. Smith was an extremely unpleasant person. Isn’t she cute!
Never will he go to that place again Fool that he was!
In rushed the soldiers This goddamn window won’t open!
It took us a very, very long time to forget This quickie tour did not satisfy our curiosity.

Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

Expressive means, stylistic devices and some other terms are often used indiscriminately. Thus,
it is necessary to make “distinction” between Expressive Means (EM) and Stylistic Devices (SD). All
stylistic means of a language can be divided into Expressive Means which are used in some specific
ways and special devices called Stylistic Devices.

The Expressive Means of a language are those phonetic means, morphological, word-building,
lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms, all of which function in the language for the emotional or
logical intensification of the utterance. Some of them are normalized in the language and labeled in the
dictionaries as intensifiers. In most cases they have corresponding neutral synonymous forms.

The most powerful Expressive Means of any language are phonetic because the human voice
can indicate subtle nuances of meaning that no other means can convey. Melody, stress, drawling out,
whispering, sing-song manner of speech and other ways of using the voice are more effective than any
other means in intensifying the utterance emotionally and logically.

Among the morphological expressive means the use of Present Indefinite instead of Past
Indefinite must be mentioned first – this has been acknowledged as a special means and is named
Historical Present. In describing some past events the author uses the Present Tense achieving a more
vivid picture of what was going on.
The use of “shall” in the second and third person may also be regarded as Expressive Means.
He shall do it. He has to do it.

Among word-building or lexical expressive means we find a great many forms which serve to
make the utterance more expressive and fresher or to intensify it. The diminutive suffixes -y/ie,- let –
add some emotional coloring to the words (dearie; sonny; auntie; streamlet). A certain suffix has gained
such power of expressing and they began functioning as separate words, generalizing meaning they
usually attain to different roots as for example – ism(s).

At the lexical level there are a great many words which due to their inner expressiveness constitute a
special layer. There are:
1) Words with emotive meaning only like interjections;
2) Like some of the qualitative adjectives;
3) Words which still retain a double meaning (two-fold) – denotative and connotative;
4) Words belonging to special groups of literary English;
5) Of non-standard English and some other groups;

The same can be said about the set-expressions of the language. At the lexical level expressiveness can
also be rendered by the words possessing inner expressive charge - interjections, epithets, slang and
vulgar, poetic or archaic words, set phrases, idioms, catchwords, proverbs and sayings. Proverbs and
sayings form a considerable number of language units which serve to make speech more emphatic,
mainly from the emotional point of view. Their use in everyday speech can hardly be overestimated,
some of these proverbs and sayings are so well-known that their use in the process of communication
passes almost unobserved, others are rare and therefore catch the attention of the reader or listener.
 Finally, at the syntactical level there are many constructions which being set against
synonymous ones, will reveal a certain degree of logical or emotional emphasis.
Let us compare the following pairs of structures.
1) I have never seen such a film.
Never have I seen such a film.
2) Mr. Smith came first.
It was Mr. Smith who came first.
The second structure in each pair contains emphatic elements. They cause intensification of the
utterance: emotional in character and logical.

The Expressive Means of the language are studied respectively in manuals of phonetics, grammar,
lexicology stylistics. Stylistics, however, observes not only the nature of the Expressive means but also
their potential capacity of becoming a Stylistic device.

When then is it a Stylistic Device? Most Stylistic Devices may be regarded as aiming at the further
intensification of the emotional or logical emphasis contained in the corresponding Expressive Means.

This conscious transformation of a language fact into a Stylistic Device has been observed by certain
linguists whose interest is scientific research which have gone beyond the boundaries of grammar. The
birth of SDs is not accidental. These SDs form a special group of Expressive means which are more
abstract in nature than Expressive Means of the language. It would be more correct to say that unlike
Expressive Means, Stylistic Devices are patterns of the language while the Expressive Means do not
form patterns. They are just like words themselves, they are facts of the language. So, they are registered
in the dictionaries.

The interrelation between Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices can be outlined in terms of the theory
of the information.
- Expressive Means are commonly used in the language and therefore have greater degree of
predictability
- Stylistic Devices carry a greater amount of information because if they are at all predictable, they
are less predictable than Expressive Means.

It follows that Stylistic Devices must be regarded as a special code which has still to be decoded
(deciphered). The study of linguistic nature of Stylistic Devices in any language, therefore, becomes an
essential condition for the general study of the functions of the stylistic devices and ultimately for the
language in general, not excluding such elements of language as feeling with the emotional aspect.
Stylistic devices (tropes, figures of speech) unlike expressive means are not language phenomena. They
are formed in speech and most of them do not exist out of context. According to principles of their
formation, stylistic devices are grouped into phonetic, lexico-semantic and syntactic types. Basically, all
stylistic devices are the result of revaluation of neutral words, word-combinations and syntactic
structures. Revaluation makes language units obtain connotations and stylistic value. A stylistic device
is the subject matter of stylistic semasiology.

Denotative vs Connotative,
Lexical vs Stylistic Meaning

In speaking about EMs and SDs we have to resort to the notion of meaning so it is necessary to give a
clear definition for this concept. As many linguistic terms meaning has been defined in quite a number
of ways. At some period in the development of descriptive linguistics meaning was excluded from the
domain of language science – it was considered an extra-linguistic category. But later on this tendency
has been justly ruled out. Instead came investigation of the interrelations between meaning and concept,
meaning and sign, meaning and referent. The general tendency is to regard meaning as something stable
at a given period of time. In stylistics meaning is a category capable of acquiring new aspects imposed
on the words by the context. Such meanings are called contextual. It also deals with meaning that have
fallen out of use. In stylistics it is important to discriminate shades of meaning, its components called
semes ( the smallest units of meaning).

Meaning can also be viewed in terms of information theory. A word renders primary (denotative) and
additional (connotative) information that is ascribed to it in different contexts. The first kind of
information only denotes a realia existing in an objective plane while the second kind reflects the
emotive plane of the word usage.

− Connotation represents the various social overtones, cultural implications, or emotional meanings
associated with a sign.

− Denotation represents the explicit or referential meaning of a sign. Denotation refers to the literal
meaning of a word, the ‘dictionary definition.’ For example, the name ‘Hollywood’ connotes such
things as glitz, glamour, tinsel, celebrity, and dreams of stardom. In the same time, the name
‘Hollywood’ denotes an area of Los Angeles, worldwide known as the center of the American movie
industry.

If a word has only connotative meaning it is stylistically neutral: e.g. a child may be called tenderly or
teasingly monkey-face, honey bum, sugar plum, cookie while taken in isolation or in another context the
same words have absolutely different meaning.
Connotative meaning may be of 4 types:
1. functional (reflecting the sphere of usage of the word)
2. 2. evaluative (positive, negative or neutral)
3. 3. emotive (rendering the attitude of the speaker)
4. expressive (containing an image of pragmatic value)

Most of the words contain a combination of different meanings. The ability of a word to comprise
several meanings, that is to be polysemantic, becomes of crucial value for stylistic studies. The
multitude of meanings is not limited by those already fixed in the dictionaries. Some meanings are in the
process of becoming legitimate. Summing up all that was said above we can state that stylistic meaning
as distinguished from lexical one, which is representing primary information, is based on the secondary
(additional) information. It denotes the features which are adherent (ascribed) to the object while lexical
meaning renders inherent features that cling to a word as a permanent part of it. Lexical meaning is
given explicitly while stylistic meaning is always implied. Lexical meaning is relatively stable, and
stylistic meaning is liable to change as it is affected by extralinguistic fact

C. Feedback

What part of the discussion confuses you or were not very clear to you?

Do you have a clarification or question related to the topics discussed?

D. Self/Peer/Group Assessment

 Summative Test on the covered topics of the termwill be given through Google Forms.

Activities/ Performance Task

A. Hands on Activities

 Graphic Organizer on Overview of Stylistics

Students will be tasked to create a graphic organizer containing the topics discussed in
the Preliminary term.
 B. Graded Assessment

 Author Analysis Presentation

Students will be tasked to to analyze literary style of their designated Author.

VI. Wrap Up

- What have you learned in this module?

- What are the muddiest part of the lesson?

- What are the clearest portion of the lesson?

Prepared by:

Ms. Kim Athena A. Roslinda

Course Instructor