STYLISTICS AND VARIATION

● One manner of drawing close to the phenomenon of stylistic variation is via

means of thinking about the fact that a language-system often provides its users with
alternative means of pronouncing the same thing.
● Synonymy is rarely complete and hardly ever absolute. Two words or phrases
may be descriptively equivalent and yet differ in terms of social and expressive
meaning. For example: father vs. daddy.
● Incompletely synonymous expressions may be referred to as stylistic variants,
more precisely, as stylistically non-equivalent variants. Whether they are said to be
semantically, as well as stylistically, non-equivalent depends, of course, on one's
adoption of a broader, rather than narrower, definition of 'meaning' and 'semantics'.
● If one in every synonymous expression can't occur in any respect in a selected
context, the query of there being a stylistically significant choice among alternatives
in that context simply does not arise.
● Completely free variation, which subsumes complete synonymy, is relatively
rare especially in literature, where the determinants of contextual acceptability are
more numerous and more diverse than they are in the everyday, unreflecting use of
language.
● The term "free variation'' is customarily employed by phonologists to refer
to what we may now recognize as a particular kind of incompletely free variation, in
which the notion of functional contrast is restricted to the function of distinguishing
one form from another.
● Much, if not all, of what is covered by the term 'context' is social and falls
within the scope of the sociolinguisticaly definable notion of the domain of discourse.
● Many authors would include within the social context of an utterance, not
only the more obvious sociolinguistic variables (status, age, sex of the participants;
formality or informality of the situation; etc.), but also the author's feelings and
communicative intentions.

Stylistic variation (in general) and register variation (in particular) is not simply a matter
of vocabulary.

It affects grammar and pronunciation (if spoken language is concerned).

● For example,
elliptical utterances (Just wanted to say “Thanks” for last night, etc.) and
tag-questions (you haven’t seen my pen, have you? etc.)

These are more frequent in informal English than in formal English.

● In informal speech, there are more cases of assimilation, of special Allegro forms etc, than
in a formal speech.

● The informal registers of all languages are rule governed in the same way as the more
formal registers are.
● These rules are immanent rather than transcendent in both cases.
● It is legally established or normative.

● It has promoted the view that informal usage is sloppy and unruly.
● Speakers of Standard English use the appropriate informal register in recognisably informal
situations like, chatting with friends or colleagues, taking part in every day family
meals, and so on.

● Non-standard dialects not have the same register range as the standard, because there are
many official or semi-official situations in which non-standard dialects are not
generally employed.

● Language-communities, diglossia i(a situation in which two languages are used under
different conditions within a community, often by the same speakers) is operated
the distinction between dialects and styles loses much of its force.

● However, the distinction (in principle) is valid.

● It has not always been respected in the discussion of such issues as the difference between
the restricted and elaborated codes of language.
● • The norms of stylistic agreement are stylistical in nature.
● • For example, although certain expressions or constructions as formal or informal are
possible to identify but the difference between them (formal and informal English)
does not contain one expression or construction that the other can not.
●
● • It depends more on the ratio of more formal to less formal alternatives in texts and
conversations.
● • Speakers do not switch between discrete registers as they move from one kind of
situation, or domain, to another.
●
 • It must be emphasised that the stylistics can be specified in relation to being neutral
that it is appropriate for specific contexts regarding.
● • In writing scientific papers in English, it is customary to avoid active sentences with
first-person subjects (‘I decided to…’, ‘We selected five specimens from each
group…’, etc.)
●
● and to make extensive use instead of impersonal passive sentences (‘It was decided that…
should/would…’, ‘Five specimens from each group were selected…’ etc.).
●
● • Although the first person is actively unusually marked, not only in every day
informal registers but also in the most formal registers, and the conversation is true
that we can identify the scientific English.
●
● • The point of independent liberation is most important because after using this
effect, expressions and constructions depend on it that has been marked for context
registers which happens, not for the overall language system.
●
● • So, stylistics is well established branch of macro-linguistics, which definition is:
● “Stylistics is the study of stylistic variation into languages
● and of the way in which this is exploited by their users.”
●
● • This definition covers everything that Stylists use to cover it by.
● • But arguably it covers too much.
●
● • Stylistics would be wholly integrated within socio-linguistics (widely formed) and
projects.
● • Some Scholars would be happy enough with the interpretation of ‘stylistics’.
●

• Questions can be asked in English by uttering an interrogative sentence or can be

asked by uttering a declarative sentence with a distinctive rising tone pattern.

• For example:
(1) Is it raining?
(2) It's raining?
• The question-mark is attached to both (1) and (2). But the Q-mark attached to (2) is
no more than a conventional representation.

• Linguists may disagree that whether (2) is a declarative sentence which was uttered to
ask a question or a particular kind of interrogative sentence.
• and (2) differ in their grammatical structure. o (2) has the additional expressive
function to indicate or reveal the speaker's surprise, distress, anger, etc.
o (1) can has an additional expressive function which was conveyed by the
superimposition upon it. It is stylistically more neutral than (2).

• Another kind of stylistic variation may be exemplified by:

(3) We want Watney's
(4) What we want is Watney's
• (3) is stylistically neutral and unmarked like (1) while (4) like (2) is stylistically
marked as non-neutral. In this case, the stylistic difference between the marked and
the unmarked or neutral and non-neutral can be seen but its construction would not
generally be sticked to register variation.

• Register variation includes the ability to vary one's language style based on the
social context or communication partner. For example, adult speakers talk differently
to babies than they do to other adults.

• It can also be linked with functional sentence perspective. In linguistics, functional

sentence perspective (FSP) is a theory describing the information structure of the
sentence and language communication in general.

• Although (3) and (4) are truth-conditionally equivalent and have the same descriptive
or propositional meaning. But they are not equivalent with respect to the contexts in
which they would normally occur.

• is more effective as an advertising slogan than (3) because (4) claims to take for
granted the fact that the person or persons uttering (4) are known to want something.

• ● A speaker’s ability to control the significant differences of his roll in which he can
comment to his context is the basic part of his knowledge to any language.
• For example any one who has the ability in English that he can recognize following
both sentences:

• 1:I have read that book.

• 2:That book I have read.
As grammatically well built but doesn’t know that the 2nd sentence is linguistically
marked and can’t be reviewed.
• So the less competent in English would use the 1st sentence and the native speaker
would use the 2nd sentence.

• Non native speakers of a language often reveal themselves as linguistically

incompatible because of their failure.

• For example : by the comparison of two linguistically marked expression one is

informal and other is formal.

• On the others hand stylistically incongruity can be used with intentional effect of a
comic man and poets. But this kind of departure from the standard proves that there is
any other standard .

• Stylistic incongruity is known for what it is and it’s role that it plays in the relation
with the standards of stylistic congruity.
 The term stylistics is restricted to literary stylistics. But the term literary and
literature can be given a broader or narrower interpretation. As Bloomfield
expressed literature
● "Literature, whether presented in spoken form or, as is now our custom, in
writing consists of beautiful or otherwise notable utterances. Literature in this
sense is not only culturally universal, it is one of the most important defining
characteristics of cultures, distinguishing one from another.
 Regrettably there is something of a rift between linguistics and literary studies.
Linguists are no longer as assertive as they used to be about the scientific status
of their own discipline.
 There are now many scholars working in the field of literary stylistics. Literary
stylistics set itself the task of describing these resources.
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