Style in Fiction second edition A

Linguistic Introduction to English

Fictional Prose Geoffrey Leech and Mick
Short i
A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose

2011

Structured summary

Snapshot

This book is a comprehensive guide to the stylistic analysis of prose

fiction, exploring the relationship between linguistic form and
literary function, and providing a framework for understanding the
stylistic values associated with different forms of language.

Key findings
 The limitations of this book include the potential for statistical analysis to be limited in
its ability to capture the complexity of literary style, and the need for literary
considerations to guide the selection of features to examine.
 The chapter acknowledges the limitations of its approach, including the difficulty of
defining style objectively and the need to consider the relationship between style and
literary or aesthetic function.
 The study notes that theoretical models of discourse may not be fully applicable to
individual texts, and that a more practical approach is needed to understand the
complexity of discourse in novels.
 Future work in the field of stylistics could include the development of new methods for
analyzing the relationship between linguistic form and literary function, and the
application of stylistic analysis to other forms of literature and media.
 The chapter suggests that future work could involve further exploring the concept of
style in literary analysis, including its various aspects and manifestations, and
developing more nuanced and comprehensive approaches to understanding style.
 The study suggests that further research is needed to explore the complexity of
discourse in novels, and to develop more practical approaches to understanding
narrative creation.
 The practical applications of this book include the provision of a framework for
understanding the stylistic values associated with different forms of language, which
can be used in the analysis of prose fiction and other forms of literature and media.
 The chapter suggests that the concept of style has practical applications in literary
analysis, including the ability to analyze and understand the ways in which language is
used to create literary effects. It also argues that the study of style can inform our
understanding of literary texts and their meanings.
 The study has practical applications for literary critics and scholars, providing insights
into the complexity of discourse in novels and the ways in which authors use different
styles of discourse to create complex narratives.

Methodology
The study of prose style requires an explicit understanding of language, not just in a literary
context.

Linguistic analysis can help explain how a particular effect or meaning is achieved in a
literary work, leading to a greater appreciation of the writer's creation.

The study of prose style is more challenging than poetry due to the more unobtrusive
nature of prose style and the sheer bulk of prose writing.

The chapter will employ cognitive processes and phenomena such as inference,
foregrounding, prototypes, schemas, and inferencing to analyze the short story "The Bucket
and the Rope" by Theodore Francis Powys.

The analysis will make use of terms such as "prototypical", "schematic", and "inferencing" as
shorthand tokens for fuller explanations.

The chapter will also draw on insights from corpus linguistics, including collocational
analysis and comparisons of frequency.

The chapter demonstrates the usefulness of combining different analytical techniques,

including corpus linguistics, discourse presentation, and character analysis.

The techniques used helped to identify style parameters in the text and provided a detailed
textual evidence for critical concerns.

The chapter highlights the importance of balancing descriptive core analysis with allowable
variation among different critical responses.

The text suggests that students should read passages in their original context before
conducting stylistic analysis.

It also provides guidance on how to conduct stylistic analysis, including how to identify and
analyze features such as intransitive verbs, adverbials of time and place, non-human
subjects, and simple past tense verbs.
Challenges And Limitations
The study of prose style has tended to suffer from "bittiness," with writers' styles being
reduced to one feature or a handful of features.

There is no adequate theory of prose style, and no satisfactory and reliable methodology for
prose style analysis.

Even experienced critics and linguists have confessed to being "helpless" when faced with
analyzing prose style.

Goals And Approach

The goal of this book is to provide a more comprehensive and systematic approach to the
study of prose style.

The authors aim to synthesize various viewpoints from linguistics, psychology, sociology,
and philosophy to provide a more nuanced understanding of literary language.

The book will focus on fictional prose, primarily from the 18th to 20th centuries, and will
concentrate on the practical examination of texts and text extracts.

Defining Style
The concept of style is the main basis for Part Two of the book, which investigates different
kinds of stylistic values.

Style refers to the way language is used in a given context, by a given person, for a given
purpose.

Style pertains to parole (particular uses of language) rather than langue (the code or system
of rules common to speakers of a language).

Style can be applied to both spoken and written language, but the book focuses on written
literary texts.

Style is a relational term, referring to characteristics of language use correlated with some
extralinguistic domain (e.g., writer, period, genre).

Stylistics
Stylistics is the linguistic study of style, aiming to explain the relation between language and
artistic function.

The goal of literary stylistics is to relate linguistic description to aesthetic appreciation and
interpretation.

The study of style involves a cyclic motion between linguistic observation and literary
insight, with no logical starting point.

Stylistics can have other goals, such as discovering the author of works of doubtful
attribution, but literary stylistics focuses on artistically relevant features of language.
Textual Analysis
The book focuses on the style of texts, which is the natural starting place for the study of
style.

Texts provide a homogeneous and specific use of language, allowing for more detailed and
systematic analysis of style.

The study of style in texts can exhibit the interrelations between one choice of language and
another, providing a firmer basis for observation and evidence.

Style As Form Vs. Content

There are two conflicting views of style: dualist and monist.

Dualist view: style is the way of writing, separate from the content or meaning.

Monist view: form and content are inseparable, and any change in form changes the content.

Style As "Dress Of Thought"

The "dress of thought" metaphor implies that style is an embellishment or adornment of the
underlying idea or meaning.

This view is problematic, as it is difficult to separate the form from the content, and the
elaboration of form can also elaborate the meaning.

Examples from Lyly's writing show how the aesthetics of form can attract the reader's
attention, but also how the schematism of form is related to the schematic relation between
the ideas being presented.

Style As Manner Of Expression

A more general and tenable version of dualism: every writer makes choices of expression,
and style resides in these choices.

This view is supported by the everyday use of the word "style" as a "manner of doing
something", and by analogies with other art forms and activities.

The distinction between fixed and variable components in literature is not always clear-cut,
and the attack on the dichotomy of form and content has been persistent in modern
criticism.

Dualism Vs. Monism

Dualism assumes that a text has a basic sense that can be preserved in different renderings,
and that style is a separate entity that can be added to or subtracted from this sense.

Monism, on the other hand, rejects the form-meaning dichotomy and argues that meaning is
multivalued and inseparable from style.
Ohmann's Approach
Ohmann's approach involves applying transformational grammar to study the style of
authors, such as Faulkner, Hemingway, James, and Lawrence.

He uses a technique of reversing the effects of transformations to show how an author's

style is distinguished by a heavy use of certain transformations that introduce and condense
syntactic complexity.

Implications For Style And Meaning

The concept of paraphrase is central to dualism, but it is problematic in literature,
particularly in poetry, where metaphor and other devices make it difficult to identify a
literal sense.

Monism finds its strongest ground in poetry, where meaning becomes multivalued, and
sense loses its primacy.

The debate between dualism and monism has implications for how we understand the
relationship between style and meaning in literature.

Language And Aesthetic Interest

The passage from Joyce's novel shows how prose can vary in the amount of aesthetic
interest attached to linguistic form.

The Prague School of poetics distinguishes the 'poetic function' of language by its
foregrounding or deautomatisation of the linguistic code.

This means that the aesthetic exploitation of language takes the form of surprising a reader
into a fresh awareness of, and sensitivity to, the linguistic medium.

Stylistic Pluralism
Burgess's Class 1 and Class 2 categories of prose are not absolute, and there is a spectrum of
'language use' and 'language exploitation' between the two extremes.

The Prague School's concept of foregrounding or deautomatisation of the linguistic code

enables us to see the aesthetic theory of language as more than a vague metaphor.

Stylistic pluralism, as exemplified by Halliday's functional model of language, recognises

that language performs various functions, and any piece of language is likely to be the result
of choices made on different functional levels.

Functions Of Language
Language performs various functions, including referential, directive, emotive, social, and
poetic functions.

The pluralist approach recognises that language is intrinsically multifunctional, and that
even the simplest utterance conveys more than one kind of meaning.
The functions of language can be classified in various ways, such as I.A.

Richards, Jakobson, and Halliday's models, which differ in their categorisations and
emphases.

Language has three coexisting functions: ideational (conveying a message about reality),
interpersonal (fitting into a speech situation), and textual (being well-constructed as an
utterance or text).

These functions are interrelated, and success in one function depends on success in others.

The concept of function is related to the concept of meaning, including the implications of
an utterance regarding the speaker's intention and effect on the hearer.

Linguistic Choice And Style

Halliday's pluralism views all linguistic choices as meaningful and stylistic, allowing for
examination of choices within a network of functional choices.

The pluralist approach is superior to monism, which tends to view a text as an

undifferentiated whole, and dualism, which excludes much that is worthy of attention in
modern fiction writing.

Stylistic Variation And Referential Function

Dualism captures the insight that two pieces of language can be seen as alternative ways of
saying the same thing, allowing for comparison of a writer's choices against other choices
with the same sense.

Halliday's approach views even choices dictated by subject matter as part of style, but this
fails to make an important discrimination between stylistic variation and referential
function.

In fiction, language is used to project a world "beyond language," and some aspects of
language have to do with the referential function, which must be distinguished from stylistic
variation.

Multilevel Approach To Style

A multilevel view of style combines elements of dualism and pluralism, distinguishing
between different levels of stylistic variation, such as sense reference and syntax sense.

This approach recognizes that language has multiple functions, including referential and
stylistic functions, and that the study of style must take these into account.

Style And Language

Style is a concept that lies at the back of large-scale studies of style, considering the stylistic
characterisation of a whole text.
Style can be seen as a perceptive strategy, where we pick out secondary phenomena that
attract attention as individualising elements.

There are two meanings of style: style, which is concerned with how language is used in a
given context, and style, which is concerned with how language renders some subject
matter.

Stylistics And Frequency

Stylistics is concerned with the pattern of choices in a text, rather than individual choices.

Frequency is an important aspect of stylistics, as it helps to identify the pervasive tendency

of preferences in a text.

The recognition of cohesion and consistency in preference is important in acknowledging a

style.

Measuring Style
Some definitions of style are based on the assumption that style can be measured through
frequency distributions and transitional probabilities of linguistic features.

However, measuring style is problematic due to the difficulty of determining the average
length of an English sentence and the impossibility of listing exhaustively all linguistic
features that may be found in a text.

The study of combinatory frequencies is open-ended, and the quest for a completely
objective measurement of style must be abandoned.

Quantification In Stylistics
The use of quantitative methods in stylistics is necessary to provide evidence for claims
about style, but it has its limitations and should be adapted to the need.

Quantitative evidence can serve to confirm or challenge intuitions about style, but it is not
an objective measurement of style.

The role of quantification depends on how necessary it is to prove one's point, and in many
cases, a rough indication of frequencies is sufficient.

Deviance, Prominence, And Literary Relevance

Deviance is a statistical concept that refers to the difference between the normal frequency
of a feature and its frequency in a text or corpus.

Prominence is a psychological notion that refers to the phenomenon of linguistic

highlighting, whereby some linguistic feature stands out in some way.

Literary relevance or foregrounding is associated with the Prague School notion of

artistically motivated deviation, and it involves the use of prominent features of style to
create a particular literary effect.
The relation between prominence and deviance is not a one-to-one match, and prominence
also provides the condition for recognition that a style is being used for a particular literary
end.

Relative Norms
The notion of deviance depends on a comparison outside the text or corpus, and a relative
norm of comparison is necessary to establish what is frequent or infrequent in a text.

A statement about the frequency of a feature in a text is only meaningful if it acts as a

shorthand for a comparison with another corpus or norm.

The use of a relative norm of comparison can help to establish whether a feature is
exceptional or typical in a particular style or genre.

The concept of a relative norm is essential in quantitative stylistics, as it allows for

comparison of a text's style to a contextually related norm, rather than a single, absolute
norm.

The choice of norm affects the validity of statements about a text's style, and a narrower
range of comparison can provide more specific insights into a text's unique features.

Deviance and prominence are best understood in terms of relative norms, as they depend
on the set of expectancies we have acquired as speakers, hearers, readers, and writers.

Style borrowing, where a writer adopts a style from another context, is a form of deviance
that can be recognized by its departure from the norm of the writer's typical style.

Internal deviation occurs when features of language within a text depart from the norms
established by that text itself.

This phenomenon can be observed in poetry and prose, where certain features stand out
against the background of the text's typical style.

Internal deviation can be used to create a sense of drama or emphasis, as seen in examples
from Jane Austen and Ernest Hemingway.

Language And Style

Dickens employs a range of language styles, including formal, rhetorical, and ironic tones, to
convey different emotions and themes.

He uses traditional rhetorical devices such as anaphora, parallelism, and personification to

create a sense of irony and moral seriousness.

The use of parenthetical constructions and fanciful similes is a distinctive feature of

Dickens' style, allowing for authorial interruptions and creative comparisons.

The passage features a range of linguistic devices, including abstract nouns, verbs implying
perception, and adjectives expressing strangeness or lack of definition.
The use of negatives, such as "incomprehensible" and "without a tremor", adds to the sense
of detachment and powerlessness.

The sentence structure is complex, with a tendency to elaborate through coordination and
subordination, imitating the movement from the observer's eye towards the distance.

The passage makes use of prepositions, particularly those of place and direction, to relate
abstract nouns and create a sense of cognitive structuring.

The text discusses the importance of cooperation between stylisticians and corpus linguists
in developing software for stylistic analysis.

It highlights the challenges of text world analysis, particularly in dealing with generic
statements that can apply to multiple text worlds or sub-worlds.

The passage is written in a descriptive and lyrical style, with vivid imagery and metaphors
used to create a sense of atmosphere.

The use of words like "nether", "spongey", and "leaden-headed" creates a sense of heaviness
and oppression.

The passage also uses personification and anthropomorphism to create a sense of life and
movement in the fog.

Tone: authorial, conversational, and tone units

Transparency: style and vividness

Language: transformational grammar, transitivity, and trailing constituents

Rhetorical devices: trope and figurative language

Rhetoric And Emotion

Dickens' use of rhetoric is closely tied to the emotional impact of his writing, with different
styles evoking different emotions in the reader.

In passages of high drama, Dickens employs a declamatory rhetoric, addressing the reader
directly and using inclusive language to create a sense of shared human experience.

In contrast, his use of mock-elevated language and grandiloquence serves as a distancing

device, allowing the reader to approach tragedy with a sense of irony and detachment.

Consistency And Variation

Despite his use of varied styles, Dickens' writing is unified by a pervasive Dickensian style,
characterized by features such as parenthetical constructions and fanciful similes.

The analysis of Dickens' style is often more profitably examined within the narrower scope
of a chapter, page, or paragraph, where stylistic values can be closely related to their
function within a particular context.
Features Of Style
A feature is defined as the occurrence in a text of a linguistic or stylistic category.

Linguistic categories are contrastive, meaning their occurrence entails the non-occurrence
of other categories.

Stylistic categories are more complex and often difficult to define, but are assumed to be
describable in terms of linguistic categories.

Examples of linguistic categories include nasal consonant, noun, transitive verb, question,
and negative.

Examples of stylistic categories include balanced sentence, alliteration, and personification.

Measuring Frequency
When determining the frequency of a particular feature or category, it is important to work
out the number of times it occurs per X, where X is some standard measure.

The ideal standard of measurement is provided by the immediately superordinate category.

An alternative method is to express frequency in terms of the ratio of occurrences of one

category to occurrences of another.

Some stylistic features are themselves variable, such as sentence complexity, which can be
measured by the average number of words per sentence.

Challenges Of Quantitative Stylistics

The measurement of frequency depends on the existence of a clearly articulated set of
linguistic and stylistic categories.

The reliance on intuitive observation in selection means that a heavy burden falls on the
reader's training in the art of alert reading and responding to linguistic and other cues.

The measurement of frequency is often an approximation, and even the best-informed

linguistic analysis leaves a great deal to be desired.

There is no purely objective way of determining a statistical norm, and relative norms are
relied upon out of convenience and practical necessity.

There is no complete list of linguistic properties of a text, and features must be selected for
study.

There is no direct relation between statistical deviance and stylistic significance, and
literary considerations must guide the selection of features to examine.

There is no absolute consistency of style within a given domain, and measuring overall
statistical properties of texts may fail to capture significant variations of style.
There is no agreement on the set of descriptive categories required for an adequate account
of a language, and different investigators may identify linguistic features in a text
differently.

Quantitative methods are essential but not sufficient for the study of literary style, and must
be complemented by literary considerations.

Without quantitative confirmation, statements on style lack concrete evidence, and

statistical analysis is an essential tool in stylistic description.

Frequency counts can be an important aid in practical analyses, and quantitative methods
can provide a foothold for the study of literary style.

Sentence Structure
Sentence complexity: simple or complex structure?

Average sentence length (in number of words)

Ratio of dependent to independent clauses

Complexity variation across sentences

Types of dependent clauses (relative, adverbial, nominal)

Use of reduced or non-finite clauses (infinitive, -ing, -ed, verbless)

Periodic sentence structure saves the main part of the main clause to the end, reinforcing
the highlighting of final position with the highlighting of syntactic form.

Anticipatory constituents, such as subordinate clauses or phrases, play a major part in

periodic sentence structure and create an element of suspense in syntax.

The use of periodic sentence structure can create a dramatic quality, building up to a final
climactic point of resolution.

Periodic sentence structure can create a dramatic effect by building up anticipation through
a series of clauses, but can also lead to disappointment if the final clause does not meet
expectations.

Periodic structure can concentrate significance at one point in the sentence, allowing for a
sense of complex wholeness and escaping the "tyranny of succession".

Loose sentence structure, on the other hand, is more natural and easy to follow, with
trailing constituents that can be decoded as they occur.

Clause And Phrase Structure

Clause elements (objects, complements, adverbials; transitive or intransitive verb
constructions)
Unusual orderings (initial adverbials, fronting of object or complement)

Special kinds of clause construction (preparatory it or there)

Noun phrase complexity (premodification, postmodification)

Verb phrase complexity (tense, aspect, modality)

Other phrase types (prepositional, adverbial, adjective)

Word Choice And Figures Of Speech

Word classes (major and minor; lexical and function words)

Use of particular words for effect (articles, pronouns, determiners, auxiliaries)

Figures of speech (schemes, tropes; metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, irony)

Phonological patterns (rhyme, alliteration, assonance)

Rhythmical patterns and interaction with meaning

Setting
The passage sets a meticulously detailed scene, allowing the reader to reconstruct the
topography in their mind's eye.

The description focuses on the visual world, with an emphasis on general topographical
features, abstract locative nouns, and objects of vision.

The setting is characterized by a sense of loneliness and detachment, with the observer
seeming to stand apart from the scene.

Themes
The passage explores the relationship between the visual world and its observer,
highlighting the process of perceiving and interpreting the scene.

The observer is portrayed as detached and powerless in the face of the immensity of the
environment, with the eye acting as an independent agent.

The passage suggests that perception and cognition are intertwined, with the eye not only
perceiving but also structuring and schematizing the world.

Immensity, stillness, and distance are stressed through rhythmic parallelism, which creates
a sense of vastness and isolation.

Style And Technique

The passage by Lawrence is characterized by lexical repetition, use of definite article, and a
focus on industrial background, which creates a sense of continuity and shared knowledge
with the reader.
The use of the definite article is exceptional, even for insignificant topographical details,
which makes human beings stand out as new and unfamiliar against the industrial
background.

The passage by James is marked by a different style, with a focus on human values and
relationships, and a characteristic way of handling the subject matter.

James's style is formal, with a preference for Latinate terms, and a tendency towards
affectation, euphemism, and circumlocution.

The sentence structure in James's passage is complex, with a tendency to mention

antecedent events after subsequent ones, and causes after effects.

Language And Imagery

The language in Lawrence's passage is simpler and more homely, with a focus on concrete
objects and industrial imagery.

The language in James's passage is more formal, with a focus on abstract entities and social
or psychological planes.

James exploits the associative meaning of words, particularly social connotations, and uses
colloquial turns of phrase alongside more formal language.

Narrative Structure
The narrative structure in James's passage is complex, with a tendency to delay the release
of information and to background factual antecedent information in subordinate positions.

The passage uses anticipatory structure, with anticipatory subordinate clauses before the
verb of the main clause, and parenthetic structures.

The author has control over the narrative structure, allowing them to withhold information
and create suspense or mystery.

The beginning of the fiction should be the point of least presupposition, but modern fiction
often starts in medias res, where certain things are already taken for granted.

The author's artistic sense is shown in the way information is withheld, rather than in the
way it is revealed.

The story has a clear division between the third-person narration and the dialogue between
the bucket and the rope.

The third-person narration provides the framing story, while the direct speech dialogue is
the framed story.

The framing story sets up the narrative, describing the events leading up to Mr. Dendy's
suicide, while the framed story is the conversation between the bucket and the rope as they
try to understand why Mr. Dendy killed himself.
The story of Mr. Dendy's suicide is presented through the conversation between the bucket
and the rope, who try to make sense of the event.

The bucket and the rope's understanding of the event is different from the reader's and Mr.
Dendy's, leading to a disequilibrium between their knowledge world (K-world) and the text
as a whole (TAW).

The conversation between the bucket and the rope is driven by their desire to make sense
of the event and resolve the disequilibrium.

Syntax And Psychological Realism

Anticipatory and parenthetical structures increase difficulty because they require the
reader's mind to store up syntactic information which it will use later on.

Relative and comparative clauses cause processing difficulty because they require the
reader to store up syntactic information until the end of the sentence.

James's syntax is more complex than Conrad's, with a higher ratio of dependent clauses to
independent clauses.

Psychological Elaboration
James grapples with the problem of representing the human sensibility, which holds a
myriad of simultaneous conditions and possibilities.

The passage has virtually no narrative progression, instead focusing on the psychological
scenario of Pemberton's anxiety about the pay, his disappointment, and his interpretation of
Mrs. Moreen and her son.

James's style is more expository than narrative, with delay of clarification to avoid
oversimplification.

Language And Irony

James's use of infinitive clauses is remarkable, indicating how much of his psychological
web is woven out of possibilities and hypotheses rather than known facts.

Negation is used to deny some expectation, and can be a device for irony and comedy.

Irony is the overarching figure of speech in this passage, suggesting ambivalences of

meaning by subtle deviations from expectation.

Style And Cohesion

The passage uses various sentence connections, such as repetition, demonstratives, and
adversative connections, to indicate the conflict between expectation and fact.

The author employs a strategy of delaying clarification, leaving the reader to guess what is
meant by certain phrases or sentences.
The introduction of characters' names is delayed, and the reader is given information about
them gradually, which adds to the complexity of the psychological whole.

Point Of View
The passage is mostly in third-person narration, but it is clear that the reader is inside
Pemberton's consciousness.

The use of indirect thought constructions and assertions of statements that only Pemberton
would know indicate that the reader is seeing things from his perspective.

However, there are moments when the point of view shifts, and the reader is given an
outside view of Pemberton or an inside view of another character.

Fictional point of view refers to the slanting of the fictional world towards "reality" as
apprehended by a particular participant or set of participants in the fiction.

It involves a selective withholding of information or relinquishing of omniscience.

The author can choose to limit the narrative to a particular character's point of view, or take
an external view, achieving an effect of "estrangement" by denying knowledge of what is
inside the character's mind.

Literary Purpose
The passage is part of a larger literary work that deals with the theme of civilised, social
man negotiating and experiencing a world of irreducible ambivalence and complexity.

The stylistic analysis of the passage reveals a common literary purpose that is not easily
summarised or abstracted.

The discovery of unity in diversity through stylistic analysis justifies the importance of
detailed analysis in understanding literary works.

Language As a System Of Communication

Language is often compared to a code, but this analogy has its limitations

Language is multilevelled, with three levels of organisation: semantics (meaning), syntax

(lexicogrammatical form), and phonology (sound pattern)

Syntax mediates between structures of meaning and structures of sound

Graphology (writing system) is an alternative system of realisation to phonology

Language is open-ended, permitting the generation of new meanings and new forms

Language has no clearly defined boundaries as to what is in the code and what is an
infringement of it
Stylistics And The Concept Of Style
Stylistics is concerned with the communicative effects of style

Style involves more or less equivalent choices at a particular linguistic level, which can be
associated with stylistic values or special significances

The concept of style is multilevelled, with different levels of organisation in language

Stylistic values are generated in the use of the code, rather than being part of the code itself

Methodology And Data Analysis

The authors used a quantitative study of the Lancaster-Oslo/Bergen corpus and the British
National Corpus to update figures from Ellegård's statistical study of part of the Brown
Corpus

The chi-square test was applied to all rows of the table in which the total number of
occurrences in the three passages was fifteen or more

The authors provisionally adopted a multilevel concept of style, whereby more or less
equivalent choices at a particular linguistic level could be seen as stylistic variants

Reference And Sense

Expressions can be equivalent in sense but differ in reference, such as "yesterday" which
refers to different days depending on the situation.

Sentences can have the same reference and truth value but differ in sense, such as "John
Smith's birthday was on the twenty-fourth of June" and "Yesterday was my birthday" if
uttered on 25th June by John Smith.

Communication And Reality

Communication involves transferring a message from one person's model of reality to
another's, using language to encode and decode the message.

The model of reality is a psychological construct, consisting of what an individual knows,

believes, or understands to be the case in the world.

Fictional discourse involves transferring a postulated or imagined model of reality, which

depends on the reader's knowledge of the real world for understanding.

Style And Variation

Stylistic variation involves choosing equivalent encodings at different linguistic levels, such
as semantic, syntactic, and phonological levels.

Equivalent sentences can have different stylistic values, such as "The discreet door shut
with a click" and "The discreet door closed with a click", which differ in their focus and
implied meaning.
Analyzing equivalent sentences can help identify an author's technique and the
consequences of their language choices.

Syntax And Semantics

Sentences with different syntactic forms can be equivalent in sense, i.e., paraphrases or
syntactic variants.

Differences in syntactic form can affect the expression of meaning, such as the emphasis on
certain words or the order of events.

The choice of syntactic form can influence the phonological and graphological levels of style.

Phonology And Graphology

Phonological choices can form a distinct level of style in oral literature and can be made
explicit in reading aloud.

Graphology, including punctuation, capitalization, and spelling, can affect the phonological
level of style and can be used to suggest a character's style of speech.

The correspondence between graphological and phonological features is not precise, and
graphological conventions are exploited impressionistically to suggest pronunciation.

Stylistic Variants And Analysis

Examining stylistic variants of a sentence can help identify the stylistic values of the original
and alternative forms.

Comparing unwritten alternatives can help define a writer's achievement and pinpoint the
inferences from the text that are the basis of literary appreciation.

Analyzing stylistic variants can sharpen observation and help understand how larger effects
are built up from smaller ones.

Stylistic Variation And Choice

The principle of stylistic variation explains much of the process of literary composition and
reader interpretation.

Style is multilevelled, with three distinct levels (semantic, syntactic, graphological) at which
stylistic choices can be made.

Stylistic choices are associated with values or significances, which are separate from the
levels of choice.

Foregrounding And Stylistic Value

Stylistic value can be understood through the concept of foregrounding, which involves
deviating from expected expressions to create original meanings and effects.

Foregrounding can be observed on different levels of the code, including tropes (category
violations) and schemes (structural patterns).
The exceptional nature of foregrounded features begs the question of why the author chose
to express themselves in that way, leading to a special act of interpretation.

Meaning Relations
The text highlights the importance of relationships of similarity and contrast between
words, which are reinforced by alliteration and assonance.

The words fall into natural sets, representing something more general than their literal
senses.

Paraphrases can only capture part of what these significances represent.

The relationships between words are not always clear, and the text requires the reader to
make connections between them.

Foregrounding And Interpretation

The text features foregroundings that are less easy to recognize, as they are less absolute
and do not fit into traditional rhetorical categories.

The lack of determiners before nouns makes them generic, creating a sense of vagueness
and insubstantiality.

The use of transitive verbs intransitively creates a sense of disembodied action, blurring the
boundaries between self and others.

The grammatical structure of the text, including the use of parallel graphological sentences,
contributes to the unclarity and requires the reader to make associative connections.

Style And Significance

The passage has a rhythmic regularity, enabling it to be written out and scanned as poetry
in a quasi-blank-verse metre.

The metricality of the prose adds an element of ritual inevitability to the formal patterning
of words and structure.

The formalistic nature of the language helps to express the mystery of unexplained tradition
that governs the boy's upbringing.

The passage represents a fairly extreme position on the scale of opacity, requiring the
reader to engage in an integral process of imaginatively making sense of a strange linguistic
experience.

Language And Reality

The concept of realism in literature is often misunderstood as attempting to replicate an
absolute standard of reality.

Language, by its nature, is a vehicle for abstraction and differentiation, making it impossible
to give an exact physical portrait of a person or event.
Even scientific descriptions, like Huxley's example, are not representations of a rock-bottom
reality, but rather a kind of language that illustrates the inevitable linguistic processes of
generalization and differentiation.

Reality And Mock Reality

The language of newspaper headlines and reports serves to build up or extend our "model
of reality" by drawing on our existing knowledge and understanding of the world.

Communication on a referential plane relies on a commonality of shared knowledge, and

our ability to make sense of a report is influenced by its plausibility and the connections we
can make between one fact and another.

A writer creating a fiction has to make decisions on how much information to give, what
kind of information to give, and in what order to present it, similar to a detective
investigating a real event.

Specification Of Detail: Symbolism And Realism

The choice of detail in a fictional work is guided by artistic criteria of relevance, which may
include omitting information to leave it to the reader's imagination or including
circumstantial information to bring out thematic contrasts or symbolic relationships.

The artistic impulse to universalize may lead to the elaboration of detail in specific areas to
represent a type or category of human experience, making fictional literature "serious".

The impulse towards individuality is also an important factor in the artistic choice of detail,
as art can be described as a continuous process of concretion.

Verisimilitude And Credibility

Verisimilitude is the sense of being in the presence of actual individual things, events,
people, and places in literature.

It is achieved through the use of specific details that contribute to the illusion of reality.

These details can be both symbolic and realistic at once.

Verisimilitude is closely connected with credibility, which is the likelihood and believability
of the fiction as a potential reality.

The Role Of Detail

The use of specific details, such as the color of a chair or the time a train leaves, contributes
to verisimilitude and credibility.

These details make up the individuality of an experience and give us the sense of knowing
places, people, times, occasions, etc. as if we were participants or observers ourselves.

The combination of verisimilitude and credibility is a key aspect of mainstream "realistic"

fiction-writing.
Language And Fiction
Language can be used to simulate reality in fiction, but it is not a direct copy of reality.

Fictional speech, in particular, can aspire to a special kind of realism and authenticity in
representing the kind of language that a reader can recognize as characteristic of a
particular situation.

Features Of Impromptu Speech

Impromptu speech is characterized by non-fluency, which occurs when planning falls
behind delivery.

Features of non-fluency include voiced fillers (e.g., "er" and "erm"), interruptions, and
haphazard transitions between topics.

Speakers use tag constructions (e.g., "you know") and initiating signals (e.g., "Well" and
"Oh") to signal their monitoring role and to fill pauses.

Tag questions (e.g., "isn't it") invite listeners to confirm the speaker's observation.

Conversation tends towards coordination rather than subordination of clauses, and often
uses cliché expressions.

Fictional Conversation
Fictional conversation often lacks the features of non-fluency found in impromptu speech.

Writers may use idealized pictures of conversation to convey meaning and create a sense of
realism.

Dialogue can be directed to have an ulterior literary purpose, even when using banal
language.

Features of non-fluency can be used in fiction to indicate a character's state of mind or

character.

Linguistic Characteristics Of Fictional Dialogue

Fictional dialogue often uses informal or colloquial language, including abbreviated verb
forms and negative forms.

Lexis is often colloquial, using idiomatic expressions.

Dialect and idiolect can be used to distinguish one character's speech from another.

Linguistic features can be used to create a sense of realism and to convey character traits.

Austen's use of vocatives in Aunt Norris's speech in Mansfield Park, where she addresses
her brother-in-law as 'my dear Sir Thomas, is an example of how dialect and idiolect can be
used to influence others.
The more Mrs Norris seeks to influence others, the more liberal her use of vocatives.

Dickens's use of graphological rendering of dialect is an indication of phonological

correlates, but not absolute realism.

Examples include Sam Weller's rendering of w as v in Pickwick Papers and Mr Sleary's lisp
in Hard Times.

Idiolect can be an expression of character, and speech is a revealing indicator of character.

Novelists often use imaginary speech to convey the hidden purport of a person's behavior.

Examples include Smollett's portrait of Sir Giles Squirrel and Dickens's use of utterance as a
reflection of character.

Dickens's use of speech as a reflection of character is a notable manifestation of the generic

principle in his writing.

For him, observable reality is symbolic of deeper realities of mood and spirit.

Examples include the description of Josiah Bounderby's appearance and speech in Hard
Times.

Fictional Technique
Fictional technique can be seen as a "style" of fiction creation, focusing on how the story is
rendered rather than what it is.

It involves choices made on the fictional plane, analogous to stylistic choices made on the
linguistic plane.

Three functions of fictional technique are distinguished: point of view, sequencing, and
descriptive focus.

Sequencing
Fictional sequencing is the order in which information is presented in the narrative.

It is an aspect of a more general topic that belongs to the textual function of language.

The author has to make choices about the order in which to present information,
considering factors such as chronology, psychological immediacy, and presentational
sequencing.

The best order of presentation is often to go from elements that presuppose the least prior
knowledge to those that presuppose the most.

Descriptive Focus
Descriptive focus is the way the author chooses to describe events, concentrating on
physical or abstract aspects.
Physical description concentrates on things with space/time extension and physical
properties, while abstract description concentrates on mental and social properties.

The difference between physical and abstract description is not absolute, but a matter of
degree and emphasis.

Descriptive focus can have varying effects in literature, such as creating estrangement or
inviting an empathic response from the reader.

Reader Inference
The reader has to construct a provisional universe or mock reality as they read the story.

The reader's role is to infer meaning from the text, filling in gaps and making connections
between physical and abstract descriptions.

The author's use of descriptive focus can influence the reader's interpretation and
emotional response to the text.

Realism In Fiction
Realism is a many-sided phenomenon, and its place in fiction must be balanced against the
functions of fiction as ‘second-order symbolisation’.

There are different notions of realism, including credibility, verisimilitude, authenticity,

objectivity, and vividness, which may contribute to the realistic illusion in their own way.

Descriptive Focus And Language

Descriptive focus is a key aspect of literary realism, as it allows writers to range over the
whole data of human experience through language.

Writers use various linguistic techniques, such as simile, metaphor, and repetition, to create
vivid and intense descriptions that evoke sensory experiences in readers.

The choice of language and descriptive focus can influence how readers perceive and
interpret the fictional world.

Mind Style And World-View

Mind style refers to the way a writer's habitual way of experiencing and interpreting things
is revealed through their writing style.

Mind style can be associated with cumulative tendencies of stylistic choice, as well as with
more local stylistic effects, such as descriptions of characters or landscapes.

The writer's mind style can influence how readers perceive and interpret the fictional
world, and can even create a sense of a particular world-view or reality.

Mind Style And Participant Relations

The concept of "mind style" refers to the consistent choices made by a novelist, narrator, or
character in a text, which can indicate their view of the world and the characters within it.
Mind style can be controlled by syntactic and semantic means, and can be used to create
different effects, such as playing down the blame attributed to a character for their actions.

Participant Relations
The way in which participants are represented in a clause can affect the way we ascribe
motivation to their actions.

The use of bodily parts as actors in a clause can change the way we perceive the motivation
behind an action.

The distinction between intentional and non-intentional verbs can also affect the way we
understand the motivation behind an action.

Authorial Mind Style

Steinbeck's description of Tom Joad is characterized by simple lexical and syntactic
structure, with a focus on concrete, perceptual qualities.

Joyce's description of Lenehan is more active and emotive, with a focus on abstract nouns
and adjectives expressing attitudes and states of mind.

Henry James's description of Mr. Grant-Jackson is characterized by complex syntax and

highly abstract nouns and adjectives, with a focus on the character's attitude and standing
in the world.

Mind Style And Literary Expression

The concept of mind style refers to the way a writer's choices of language and description
create a particular view of the world

This view is shaped by the writer's preferences for certain kinds of linguistic expression,
which in turn reflect their mind style

The mind style of a writer can be seen in their typical style, which is not just a matter of
linguistic expression, but also the underlying vision of the world that it represents

Description And Social Relations

The way a writer describes the world can reveal their mind style, including their attention
to physical detail, emotion, and attitude

The use of adverbs of degree and alternative ascriptions can create a sense of precision and
nuance in description

The description of social relations and qualities of character can be particularly revealing of
a writer's mind style

Unusual Mind Styles

Some writers have a more unusual mind style that challenges common-sense views of the
world
Examples include the pathetic fallacy, where human characteristics are attributed to
inanimate nature, and the blurring of boundaries between humans and animals

These unusual mind styles can create a sense of tension or ambiguity, and can be seen in the
work of writers such as Hardy, Faulkner, and Powys

Unconventional Depiction Of Reality

Powys's writing style is eccentric and challenges the reader's understanding of place and
time.

He uses abstract nouns to describe physical and metaphysical concepts, creating a sense of
precision without clear definition.

The reader is left with a feeling of uncertainty, unsure of what is being described.

Mind Style And Deviance

A novelist's mind style can be perceived as deviant if it is significantly different from the
reader's expectations.

Character mind styles are more easily recognized as odd, as they can be compared to other
characters' views.

Novels with differentiated narrators or reflectors can invite the reader to perceive a
particular mind style as deviant.

Benjy's Mind Style In The Sound And The Fury

Benjy's language is simple, concrete, and dominated by visual descriptions.

He uses few technical terms, substituting "common core" words, and his language is
repetitive, with a focus on concrete nouns and visual adjectives.

His syntax is also simple, with short sentences, paratactic and coordinated main clauses,
and a tendency to use transitive verbs without objects.

Benjy's language and syntax create a sense of a restricted and two-dimensional world, with
a focus on the visual field rather than objects themselves.

Mind Style
Benjy's language exhibits a 'primitive' mind style, lacking many of the categories used to
interpret the universe.

The language is characterized by a lack of indefinite determiners or pronouns, limited verb

forms, and few adverbials.

The limitations of Benjy's language make it difficult to make sense of the fictional world
until further context is provided.
Despite the negative aspects, Benjy's style also expresses poetic qualities, particularly in
phrases like 'between the curling flower spaces' and 'a bird slanting and tilting'.

Rhetoric Of Text And Discourse

The rhetoric of text and discourse refers to the principles for achieving communicative ends
in language use.

Communication can be seen as a transaction between speaker and hearer (discourse) or as

a message coded in a medium (text).

The linearity of text is a key characteristic, with implications for language and style.

The dynamics of speech, including sequence, segmentation, and salience, are also relevant
to written texts.

Principle Of End-Focus
The principle of end-focus states that new information is typically reserved for the end of a
tone unit or graphic unit.

This principle facilitates decoding and is observed in neutral circumstances.

End-focus has implications for syntax, influencing the ordering of elements in a message,
and can affect the choice between active and passive sentences.

While end-focus is realized through intonation in speech, it is also important in written

language, where syntactic order is the primary signal of information focus.

Segmentation
Segmentation in speech and writing involves dividing information into "chunks" or units,
which affects the decoding of the message.

In speech, the speaker has freedom to segment their utterance into tone units, which can
change the meaning of the message.

In writing, segmentation is similar, but graphic units tend to be longer than tone units.

The use of punctuation marks can indicate the segmentation of written language.

Rhythm Of Prose
The "rhythm of prose" refers to the implicit intonation of written language, which is
indicated by punctuation marks.

The length and pattern of graphic units can create a sense of dynamic movement or rhythm
in a text.

The use of short or long graphic units can create different rhythmic effects, such as a sense
of increasing tempo or a "dying fall".
The "rhythm of prose" can contribute to the overall style and effect of a text.

Syntax And Segmentation

Segmentation on the syntactic level involves dividing a sentence into independent clauses
or units of meaning.

The way clauses are combined and related to each other can affect the meaning and
emphasis of a sentence.

The use of coordination, subordination, and other devices can change the way clauses are
related and the emphasis of a sentence.

The choice of segmentation on the syntactic level can affect the style and effect of a text.

Syntax And Salience

Subordination places one clause in a dependent status, making it less salient and
backgrounding the phenomenon it describes.

A subordinate clause often expresses information that is at least partially known or

presupposed in advance.

The principle of subordination states that if A is subordinate to B, then A is the

circumstantial background against which B is highlighted.

Rhetorical Principles
The principle of climax states that in a sequence of interrelated tone units, the final position
tends to be the major focus of information.

This principle is linked to the principle of end-focus, which states that the final position in a
tone unit tends to be the most important.

The principle of climax can be seen in the use of punctuation, such as commas and full stops,
to distinguish finality from nonfinality.

Rhetorical Effects
The choice of sentence structure can affect the rhetorical impact of a text, with periodic
structure creating a sense of anticipation and loose structure creating a sense of ease and
informality.

The use of periodic structure can create a sense of artfulness, while loose structure can
create a sense of natural simplicity and directness.

The balance between anticipatory and trailing elements can create a neutral style of writing
that combines both "art" and "nature".
Addresser-Based Rhetoric
Addresser-based rhetoric reflects the exigencies of encoding, and can involve the use of
features such as syntactic inversions, dislocations, and parentheses to create a sense of
spontaneity and vigour.

This type of rhetoric can be used to create a sense of improvisation and expressiveness, and
can be particularly effective in fictional dialogue and stream-of-consciousness narrative.

Iconicity In Language
Iconicity is the principle of imitation in language, where the form of the text imitates the
meaning it expresses.

This principle is particularly characteristic of literary texts, which tend to have both
presentational and representational functions.

Iconicity can be found in various aspects of language, including phonetics, syntax, and
semantics.

Syntactic Iconicity
Syntactic iconicity refers to the way in which the arrangement of words in a sentence can
imitate the relationships between the objects or events they represent.

Examples of syntactic iconicity include chronological sequencing, where the order of events
in the text mirrors the order in which they occurred in reality, and juxtaposition, where the
arrangement of words or phrases imitates the spatial or temporal relationships between the
objects or events they describe.

Sequencing In Text
Sequencing in text can be influenced by various factors, including chronological,
psychological, and presentational considerations.

The order of events in a text can be determined by the author's intention to create a
particular effect or to convey a specific meaning.

The iconic force of sequencing can create an illusion of reality, drawing the reader into the
fictional world and creating a sense of immediacy and drama.

Iconicity
The ordering of impressions in a sentence can create a subjective sensory reality through
the distortion of the linguistic medium.

The trailing syntax can suggest a downward trail of visual connections, leading the reader's
eye through the sentence.

Juxtaposition can create an impression of closeness or connectedness between words or

phrases in a sentence.
The hierarchical structuring of syntax can uphold the iconic principle, keeping related
things together in the sentence.

Psychological Sequencing
The normal way of perceiving and describing the contents of a room can be reversed, giving
pure perception priority over function.

The eye can seize on a perceptual high point, and then follow a track that leads to the thing
that should have been noticed first.

What is new and unpresupposed can precede what is taken for granted, reversing the
expected roles of definite and indefinite articles.

Linguistic Techniques
The rhetoric of text can be iconic, with words that are close in the text evoking an
impression of closeness or connectedness in the fiction.

Discontinuous constructions can violate the juxtaposition principle, upsetting the natural
semantic connections between things.

The possibilities of 'form enacting meaning' are virtually unlimited, resting on the intuitive
recognition of similarities between one field of reference and another.

Cohesion
Definite reference: personal pronouns (he, she, it, they), definite article (the), deictics (this,
that, these, those), implied reference (same, different, other, else, such)

Substitution: pro-forms (one, ones, do, so) that substitute for other linguistic expressions

Ellipsis: omission or deletion of elements whose meaning is recoverable from the context

Formal repetition: repetition of words or phrases for emphasis or clarity

Elegant variation: use of synonymous or almost synonymous expressions to avoid tedious

repetition

Linkage
Coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but, both...and, neither...nor) and linking adverbials (for,
so, yet, however, therefore) that connect clauses or sentences

Cross-reference: repetition of meaning or reference to create cohesion

Reduction: use of pronouns, substitution, or ellipsis to condense messages and avoid

repetition

Style And Aesthetics

Principle of variety: use of elegant variation to avoid tedious repetition
Principle of expressive repetition: use of formal repetition for emphasis or emotive
heightening

Aesthetic value of cohesion: creation of a sense of unity and coherence in a text

Discourse And Cohesion

The chapter examines the principles governing a writer's production of a linear and
coherent text, focusing on five general factors: segmentation, salience, sequence, iconicity,
and cohesion.

Cohesion is a key aspect of textual form, and literary texts often exploit it for heightened
expression.

The use of cohesive devices, such as connectives, can create a sense of logical connection
between ideas, but can also be used to create ambiguity and uncertainty.

Linkage And Inference

The chapter discusses the role of linkage in modern fiction, noting that modern novelists
tend to rely on inferred linkage rather than overt signals.

Inferred linkage requires the reader to make connections between ideas, creating a more
active and engaged reading experience.

Examples from James Joyce's stream-of-consciousness prose and Samuel Beckett's Watt
illustrate the extremes of inexplicitness and explicitness in linkage.

Rhetoric And Textual Form

The chapter concludes by highlighting the importance of rhetoric in shaping the textual
form of literary works.

The use of cohesive devices, iconicity, and other textual features can create a unique
rhetoric that engages the reader and shapes their interpretation of the text.

The chapter suggests that literary texts often bring new significance by foregrounding or
violating textual expectations, creating a distinctive rhetoric that sets them apart from other
forms of writing.

Literary Communication
In literary communication, the writer can assume relatively little about the receiver of the
message or the context in which it will be received.

This uncertainty leads to a degree of redundancy in the message, with the writer repeating
the same point in different ways and at different levels of structure.

The author can assume a common fund of knowledge and experience with the reader,
including general background knowledge, common inferences, and knowledge of historical
events and literary works.
Implied Author And Implied Reader
The addressee in literary communication is not the reader, but the implied reader, a
hypothetical personage who shares the author's background knowledge, presuppositions,
sympathies, and standards.

The implied reader is not the same as the real reader, but rather a construct of the author's
intended audience.

Similarly, there is an implied author between the author and the text, who may not
necessarily share the views expressed in the work.

Discourse Situation
Literary communication is distinct from non-literary messages, as it does not arise from a
previous situation and does not require a response.

The discourse situation in literature is an embedded one, where an implied author

communicates a message disengaged from an immediate situational context to an implied
reader who cannot talk back.

The reader must make allowances for linguistic, social, and moral changes between the time
of writing and the time of reading in order to respond sensitively to the text.

The use of first-person narration can create a sense of sympathy with the narrator, as seen
in Lolita and A Clockwork Orange.

Third-person narration is more common and allows the reader to assume there is no
explicit "you".

The lack of an "I" in third-person narration invites the reader to collapse the addresser side
of the novel's discourse structure, making the implied author and narrator merge.

Author and Reader

The novelist's presence is felt through the choice of narration style, with third-person
narration allowing the author to "appear to disappear".

The use of rhetorical questions by George Eliot in Middlemarch invites the reader to share
her insight and judgment on characters and events.

Narrators and Characters

The use of third-person narration separates the level of character discourse from that of the
narrator.

The choice of narration style can merge the character's and narrator's levels of discourse, as
seen in Bleak House and As I Lay Dying.
Discourse And Point Of View
The term "point of view" refers to the relationship between the implied author and the
fiction, expressed through discourse structure.

Discourse structure can convey ambiguity and complexity of interpretation, especially when
the author withholds signals of transition between levels of discourse.

An author's point of view can be given "bias" through language that expresses value
judgments, such as irony, tone, and distance.

Value Language
Value language refers to the use of words with "good" or "bad" connotations to express
attitude and judgment.

Examples from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and Emma show how authors can use
language to convey their view of characters and events.

Value language can create a "value picture" of a character or fiction, composed of associated
and contrasted kinds of value judgments.

Multiplicity Of Value
The value picture of a fiction is multifaceted, comprising coexisting spheres of value and
coexisting levels of discourse.

Authors can control a reader's attitudes to elements of the narrative, but readers may also
disagree with the values portrayed.

Shared values and standards of judgment can create a "secret communion" between author
and reader, founded on shared standards of evaluation.

Irony
Irony is a double significance that arises from the contrast in values associated with two
different points of view.

It can be manifested in a single sentence or extend over a whole novel.

Irony often involves a contrast between a point of view stated or implied in some part of the
fiction and the assumed point of view of the author and reader.

Examples of irony include:

+ Collocative clash, where words from different value sets are combined to create an
unexpected meaning.

+ Sequencing of impressions, where the reader's expectations are reversed or subverted.

+ Rhetorical build-up, where the reader is led to a sudden reversal of judgment.

Tone
Authorial tone refers to the stance or attitude taken by an implied author towards the
reader and the message.

Tone is a function of the distance between the author and reader, as well as the distance
between the author and the subject matter.

The author-reader relation is symmetrical in some respects, but not in others, as the author
has control over the reader's response through techniques such as irony, direct address,
and rhetorical questions.

Examples of authorial tone include:

+ Formal or informal address to the reader.

+ Direct appeal to the reader through rhetorical questions or generic statements.

+ Indirect appeal to the reader through evaluative terms and inferences.

Author-Reader Relationship
The author-reader relationship is characterized by a "secret communion" between the two,
where the reader shares the author's point of view and values.

The author has control over the reader's response, guiding their sympathy and distance
from the characters and events.

The author's tone can be complex and variable, weighing up different attitudes and values,
and striving for a resolution of competing claims.

The passage describes Mr. Gascoigne, Gwendolen's uncle, as a complex character with both
positive and negative qualities.

The description is three-dimensional, presenting different points of view on Mr. Gascoigne's

character, including the author's sympathetic stance, the negative attitude of "bitter
observers," and the implied author's balanced assessment.

The passage uses irony and tone to convey a nuanced portrait of Mr. Gascoigne, with the
author's sympathetic description of his virtues and advantages tempered by hints of irony
and criticism.

The use of words like "agreeable" and "striking" to describe Mr. Gascoigne's qualities
suggests a tone that is both admiring and slightly critical.

The passage highlights the importance of discourse and authorial presence in shaping the
reader's understanding of the novel.
The author's choice of words, tone, and point of view all contribute to the creation of a
complex and nuanced portrait of Mr. Gascoigne, and the reader's interpretation of the
character is influenced by the author's presence in the text.

Speech Acts
Speech acts are utterances that perform acts like declaring, asking, requesting,
commanding, and promising.

They are independent of syntactic and semantic categories, and their pragmatic force can be
different from their semantic sense.

Speech acts have conditions of appropriateness (felicity conditions) and success, which can
vary across societies and cultures.

In the passage from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet's speech acts are
analyzed, showing how they do not necessarily correspond to easily recognizable units of
syntactic or textual analysis.

Conversational Implicature
Conversational implicature refers to the "extra meanings" that we infer from what is said,
beyond the overt sense of the words.

This concept was proposed by H.P.

Grice, who suggested that people converse with a tacit agreement to cooperate towards
mutual ends, following the cooperative principle and various maxims (e.g., tell the truth, be
relevant, avoid obscurity).

These maxims are often violated, and when they are, the listener perceives the difference
between what is said and what is meant, deducing the implicature.

Examples from Agatha Christie's Destination Unknown illustrate how conversational

implicature works in practice.

Pragmatic Analysis
Pragmatic analysis is concerned with the enactment of situational reality through language,
as opposed to semantics, which represents referential reality.

Deictics (e.g., this, that, here, there, now, then, I, you) refer directly or indirectly to elements
of the situation.

The passage from Pride and Prejudice is used to demonstrate the relevance of speech act
analysis to understanding conversation in the novel.
Implicature And Cooperation
In conversations, people often break Grice's maxims (quality, quantity, relation, and
manner) to convey implicatures, which are indirect messages that go beyond the literal
meaning of the words.

The cooperative principle is obeyed at a deeper level, even when maxims are superficially
violated.

Implicatures can be aided by kinesic signals, such as gestures or eyebrow raising, which
provide additional information.

Violating Maxims
Characters may break maxims to avoid violating others, such as Jessop's reply "She hasn't
helped" to avoid violating the maxim of quality.

Breaking maxims can be used to convey implicatures, such as Nelly Dean's statement "Hush,
hush! He's a human being" to convey sympathy and consideration towards Heathcliff.

Leamas's reply "This is a war" breaks the maxim of quality and relation, but implicates that
having feelings for victims in espionage is inappropriate.

Refusal To Cooperate
Participants can refuse to cooperate, violating the cooperative principle more
fundamentally, such as Mabel's refusal to reply to her brother or Conchis's evasiveness in
The Magus.

This refusal to cooperate can be seen in conversations where participants know the answer
but refuse to give it, such as in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.

Cooperative Principle
The cooperative principle is essential to understanding literary prose, as it allows readers to
construe apparently unrelated observations in a manner that allows a uniform
interpretation.

The principle assumes that the author is obeying the cooperative principle, even if
characters in the text are not.

The maxim of relation demands that sentences be made relevant to the surrounding text,
and readers must assume that the author is obeying this maxim to make sense of the text.

Implicatures And Inference

Implicatures can be derived from character speech, authorial commentary, and the
interaction between author and reader.

The employment of sentences in the generic present tense is a clear example of author-
reader implicature, where the author breaks away from the narrative past and adopts an
aphoristic present tense.
The reader must assume some relevance to the narrative and make inferences about the
author's intended meaning.

Turn-Taking And Control

The dynamics of turn-taking in conversation can help elucidate the power dynamics in a
given situation, such as in a mental hospital or a classroom.

The control of turn-taking can be used to exercise power over others, as seen in the example
of Nurse Duckett in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

The asymmetry of the situation, where one person has control over the conversation, can be
used to implicate to the reader that the person in control is a tyrant.

Power Dynamics
The conversation between Taber and the nurse is a struggle for control, with the nurse
attempting to assert her authority and Taber resisting her commands.

The nurse's language is characterized by a parental tone, with imperatives and declaratives
used to control Taber's behavior.

Taber's questions are met with evasive responses, and he is eventually silenced by the
nurse's brutal put-down.

The conversations in the passages reveal power dynamics between characters, with some
characters exerting control or dominance over others.

In the first passage, Breasley, the old man, challenges David, the young interviewer, with his
questions and comments, establishing a sense of authority.

In the second passage, Guy, the husband, speaks tersely and dismissively to his wife, Doris,
indicating his superior position in their relationship.

Tone And Impoliteness

Tone is a crucial aspect of conversation, and can be indicated through grammatical, lexical,
and graphological markers.

Impoliteness can be seen as a deviation from a contextual norm of appropriateness, and can
be used to reveal character traits and social relationships.

The nurse's tone is impolite and controlling, while Taber's tone is polite and resistant.

Social Distance And Address

The way characters address each other can reveal social distance and relationships.

The use of titles, prefixes, surnames, and first names can signal different levels of politeness
and familiarity.
The examples from Emma and Dombey and Son illustrate how characters' use of address
can reflect their social status and relationships.

Politeness is often associated with indirectness, circumlocution, and hyperbole, as seen in

Mr. Carker's speech to Florence and Mr. Dombey.

Politeness can be insincere, as in Mr. Carker's case, where his overpoliteness betrays his
hypocrisy.

Politeness can also be a sign of distance, as in formal communication, which can be seen in
Mr. Dombey's speech at Paul's christening.

Formality can be associated with politeness, as in Mr. Carker's speech, but it can also be a
sign of insincerity.

Formality can be seen in the use of Latinate diction, elaborate parallelism, and abstract
nouns, as in Mr. Dombey's speech.

Formality can also be a sign of dignity and moral seriousness, as in the case of Sir Thomas
Bertram in Mansfield Park.

Conversation is a two-way interaction, whereas discourse is a one-way interaction between

the author and the reader.

The strategies of communication used in conversation are also used by the author in their
"conversation" with the reader.

The novel as discourse is more complex, multiple, and subtle than conversation.

Speech Presentation
The mode of speech presentation is determined by both formal linguistic features and
extra-linguistic contextual factors.

Direct speech (ds) reports speech faithfully, including the exact form of words used, while
indirect speech (is) only commits to reporting what was stated.

The difference between ds and is affects the truth claim of the reported speech, with is
allowing for alterations to the original speech without changing its truth claim.

The use of free indirect speech (fis) allows the narrator to present a character's words while
maintaining an ironic distance between the reader and the character.

Fis can be identified by its use of third-person pronouns and past tense, but these features
are not essential for its definition.

The presence of colloquial lexical forms, dashes, and other features can also indicate fis.
Variants Of Speech Presentation
Free direct speech (fds) is a more direct form of speech presentation, where the narrator's
presence is reduced or eliminated.

The narrative report of speech acts (nrsa) is a more indirect form, where the narrator only
reports that a speech act occurred, without giving the sense or form of the original speech.

Free indirect speech (fis) is a form that combines features of ds and is, with the reporting
clause omitted, but the tense and pronoun selection associated with is.

Stylistic Variation
The different forms of speech presentation can be regarded as stylistic variants, with
novelists using them to create specific effects or convey particular attitudes.

The use of speech presentation types can influence the reader's interpretation of the
narrative, with fis, for example, creating a sense of ambiguity or uncertainty.

Characterization
Mr. Shepherd's character is presented as deferential and eager to please, with a tendency to
use reassuring phrases.

The use of fis in Mr. Shepherd's dialogue creates an ironic distance between the reader and
the character, suggesting that his persuasiveness is for his own benefit rather than Sir
Walter's.

The characterization of Mr. Shepherd is reinforced by the authorial statement about his
interests and role in the proceedings.

Narrative Style
The use of fis can be found in different narrative styles, including novels written in the
present tense and first-person mode.

The selection of pronouns and tense must be consistent with the primary discourse
situation.

The definition of fis is based on a "family resemblance" approach, where no one particular
feature is essential for its occurrence.

FIS Definition And History

FIS (Free Indirect Speech) is a form of speech presentation where the marker of
subordination is absent, and features from any of the three major linguistic levels (lexical,
graphological, or phonological) indicate that a sentence is in FIS.

FIS was used fairly extensively by Fielding and can be found in non-literary texts even
earlier, such as in Harrison's 1612 account of the trial of the Lancaster witches.
Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) provides an interesting transitional example of FIS in the
novel, where the author avoids repetition of the reporting clause and uses merit adjectives
and laudatory appellations.

FIS Effects And Uses

FIS can be used to create an ironic effect, as it distances the reader from the character's
words and allows the author to interpose their voice.

However, FIS does not have to be used for irony and can be used to contrast with other
speech modes, allowing the author to control the "light and shade" of conversation and
highlight or background speech according to the role and attitude of characters.

FIS can also be used for larger-scale strategic purposes, such as channeling sympathies
towards one character or set of characters and away from another.

The use of FIS can vary depending on the context, and in some cases, it can be perceived as a
movement towards directness rather than indirectness.

Thought Presentation
The presentation of thought is a major concern for novelists, as it allows them to portray
vividly the flow of thought through a character's mind.

Thought presentation is formally similar to speech presentation, but it is ultimately an

artifice, as we cannot see inside the minds of other people.

The representation of thoughts is a necessary licence for novelists to make the motivations
for the actions and attitudes of characters clear to the reader.

The free indirect form (fit) is used to represent a character's thoughts as they occur, making
the reader feel like they are directly inside the character's mind.

fit is often used to indicate a character's emotional state, such as in the example from
Lowry's Under the Volcano, where the character's sudden tenderness is mirrored in the use
of fit.

fit can also be used to create a sense of immediacy and vividness, as in the example from Iris
Murdoch's novel, where the use of fit makes the reader feel like they are getting a more
direct representation of the character's thoughts.

Thought Presentation Modes

The categories of thought presentation are similar to those for speech presentation,
distinguished by features such as tense, pronoun selection, and reporting clauses.

The modes of thought presentation can be distinguished by features from grammar, lexis,
and graphology.

The thought presentation modes can be categorized as:

+ Free Direct Thought (fdt): e.g., "Does she still love me?"

+ Indirect Thought (it): e.g., "He wondered if she still loved him."

+ Narrative Report of a Thought (nrta): e.g., "He wondered about her love for him."

Point Of View And Thought Presentation

When an author represents a character's thoughts, the reader is invited to see things from
that character's point of view.

The reverse is not always true: it is possible to view things from a character's point of view
without representing their thoughts.

A character's point of view can be represented without describing their thoughts, but rather
by portraying scenes and events as they would have looked to the character.

Uses And Implications Of Thought Presentation

The use of thought presentation modes can create ambiguity and allow authors to
manipulate point of view.

The more direct forms of thought presentation (dt and fdt) can create a sense of conscious
thought and authorial minimalism.

Speech And Thought Modes

The norms for speech and thought presentation are different, with direct speech (ds) being
the norm for speech and indirect thought (it) being the norm for thought.

The use of fit and free direct thought (fdt) can create a sense of artificiality, as they imply
that the character is speaking their thoughts aloud.

The use of fit and fdt can also be used to control the reader's sympathies, as in the example
from Angus Wilson's short story Raspberry Jam, where the use of fit creates a sense of
intimacy with the central character.

Versatility Of Speech And Thought Presentation

The interaction of speech and thought presentation can create interesting effects, such as in
the example from Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, where the old man's immediate
reactions are portrayed through ds and his more reflective thoughts are portrayed through
fdt.

The versatility of speech and thought presentation allows authors to create a multiplicity of
viewpoints on the same subject matter, and to vary point of view, tone, and distance.

Point Of View And Narrative Voice

The distinction between the author's voice and a voice from inside the fiction can be
signalled by slight variations of style, which may or may not be perceived as significant by
the reader.
The use of colloquialism and selective imitation of a style of speech by the author can create
a sense of empathy between the author and the inhabitants of the fiction.

The manipulation of the author's voice in relation to the voices of participants in the fiction
can create subtle interactions between speech and thought presentation and point of view.

Speech And Thought Presentation

Speech allusion, a phenomenon where the author imitates a style of speech, can be more or
less noticeable and can have varying effects from ironic distance to sympathetic
identification.

The use of specific phrases or words can accumulate symbolic force by repetition and can
signify certain qualities or characteristics of a character.

The author's use of speech allusion can create a sense of commitment to the narrative style
and can add intensity to the narrative.

Stylistics And Literary Analysis

Stylistics has developed significantly over the last 25 years, with a growing body of research
on the linguistic analysis of poetry, prose fiction, and drama.

The field has expanded to include neighbouring areas of study, such as linguistic
pragmatics, narratology, and empirical literary studies.

The development of stylistics has led to a greater understanding of the language of literary
texts and its role in creating meaning and artistic achievement.

The study of point of view, focalisation, and mind style in literature

The application of cognitive poetics and stylistics to literary analysis

The use of empirical and cognitive approaches to understanding metaphor in literature

The exploration of literary style through the analysis of language and discourse

The text discusses the importance of stylistics in literary analysis, highlighting the need to
consider the linguistic and literary aspects of a text in tandem.

The author emphasizes the role of foregrounding, deviation, and parallelism in creating
stylistic effects.

The text also explores the concept of mind style, which refers to the way an author's
language use reflects their cognitive processes and worldview.

Interdisciplinary Approaches
Stylistics overlaps with empirical literary studies, sharing aims and methods
Stylistics also overlaps with critical discourse analysis (CDA), which analyzes texts to
expose socio-political assumptions

Corpus linguistics is a fast-developing area that is having an increasing effect on

contemporary stylistics

Cognitive stylistics is another area that is becoming more influential, applying cognitive
theories to literary analysis

Methodological Developments
Corpus-based techniques are being used to study literary style, allowing for fast, exhaustive,
and accurate searches of texts

Computational methods are being used to analyze literary texts, but human interpretation is
still necessary for more abstract levels of analysis

The "cognitive turn" within linguistics is influencing stylistics, with a focus on mental
spaces, blending theory, and deictic shift theory

Challenges And Debates

The term "stylistics" no longer accurately represents the field, which has expanded to
include a wide range of analytical activities

Stylistics sits at the boundary between linguistic and literary study, which can lead to
ignorance or hostility from neighboring fields

Debates between stylisticians and literary critics have been ongoing, but often fruitless and
based on outdated accounts of the other side.

The suspense in the final scene of Of Mice and Men is created by Steinbeck's use of textual
strategies, including the separation of the intentional and performance phases of the macro-
action, and the description of George's failed attempts to shoot Lennie.

The dramatic irony of the ambiguity of the pronoun 'it' in Lennie's final request and the
ellipsis in George's reply increase the pathos of the scene.

The description of the echoing sound of the gun before the effect of the shot on Lennie is
described, adding to the suspense.

Story And Plot

The distinction between story and plot is discussed, with reference to E.M.

Forster's (1974 [1927]) suggestion that plots exhibit cause-and-effect relations, unlike
stories.

The problem with Forster's opposition is that it is difficult not to infer cause-and-effect
relations between events in a story.
The use of pragmatic maxims, such as the principle of relation, can help readers infer
connections between events in a story.

Fictional Worlds And Character

The study of fictional worlds, possible worlds, and text worlds is discussed, with reference
to various theorists, including Pavel, Ryan, Ronen, and Werth.

The integration of linguistic, psychological, and literary approaches to the study of fictional
worlds is seen as an area ripe for development.

The study of character and characterisation is discussed, with reference to various

approaches, including the use of speech acts, mind style, and viewpoint to elucidate
characterisation.

Characterisation
The study of characterisation in fiction has moved away from the idea that characters are
people-like, towards a more nuanced understanding of how readers construe characters
through textual properties.

Readers use their knowledge of people in the real world to infer character traits from
conversations and other textual details.

Stylistic analysis of characterisation can be applied to both dramatic and prose texts, and
involves the analysis of conversational behaviour and other textual features.

Viewpoint
The concept of viewpoint in fiction can be broken down into different kinds, including
spatial, temporal, psychological, ideological, and social viewpoint.

Linguistic features such as pronouns, verb tense, and modality can be used to indicate
viewpoint.

The distinction between discoursal and fictional point of view is important, and the use of
narration can create multiple discourse levels and "discourse architectures" in novels.

Theory And Methodology

The study of characterisation and viewpoint in fiction requires a nuanced understanding of
the reading process and the ways in which readers construe meaning from textual details.

A range of theoretical approaches, including social cognition, attribution theory, and mental
spaces theory, can be used to inform the analysis of characterisation and viewpoint.

The use of corpus-based methods and cognitive stylistics can also provide new insights into
the study of characterisation and viewpoint in fiction.
Narration And Point Of View
The traditional distinction between first-person and third-person narration needs to be
expanded to include second-person narration, which occupies a position between the two.

Second-person narration often begins with a third-person-like generic 'you' and then shifts
into a second-person equivalent of 'I-narration'.

The concept of a 'reflector' or 'focaliser' is problematic, as it suggests that only one person's
view is represented in a story, whereas viewpoint shifts can occur from sentence to
sentence or even within sentences.

Discourse Presentation
Research on discourse presentation has continued to advance, with the development of new
categories such as writing presentation and narrator's representation of voice.

The Lancaster corpus work has established the need for additional scales of presentation
and categories to account for minimal reporting of utterances.

Discourse presentation theory can be combined with possible-worlds theory to analyse

hypothetical discourse.

Stylistic Analysis And Future Directions

The stylistic analysis of fictional texts needs to take into account the work of the last 25
years, including advances in areas such as speech act theory, textual rhetoric, and cognitive
processing of texts.

There are still many areas awaiting development, including the stylistic explications of
theme and evaluation.

The analysis of a whole fictional text is essential to illustrate the integration of various
approaches and techniques.

Author And Context

Theodore Francis Powys was a brother of John Cowper Powys and a prolific essayist,
novelist, and short-story writer.

Powys's stories often feature simple country folk and explore themes of love, death, and the
human predicament.

"The Bucket and the Rope" was first published in 1927 and is characterized by its
idiosyncratic and fantastical elements, including non-human animals and objects that
converse and show human-like intelligence.

Story Overview
The story revolves around a bucket and a rope that discuss their observations of their
master, Mr. Dendy, who has hanged himself.
The bucket and the rope review Mr. Dendy's life, trying to understand the reasons behind
his final act.

The story explores themes of humanity, morality, and the search for truth, as the bucket and
the rope reflect on their own existence and their relationship with Mr. Dendy.

Life And Death

The story revolves around the mysterious suicide of Mr. Dendy, a happy and healthy man
who seemingly had everything going for him.

The bucket and the rope, which were used by Mr. Dendy to take his own life, discuss the
events leading up to his death, trying to make sense of why he would do such a thing.

Appearance Vs. Reality

The bucket and the rope's conversation reveals a disconnect between how things appear
and what is actually happening.

They perceive Mr. Dendy's life as happy and fulfilling, but ultimately, he is driven to suicide.

This contrast highlights the theme of appearance vs. reality, suggesting that things are not
always as they seem.

The bucket and the rope have a different interpretation of the events leading to Mr. Dendy's
suicide, focusing on the bunch of flowers rather than his unhappiness about his wife's affair.

The bucket and the rope's interpretation is logical in its own terms, but also gets it right by
accident, as Mr. Dendy's action of picking the flowers shows his love for his wife.

The human view is also logical in its own terms, but raises questions about which ideology
is preferable.

Love And Relationships

The story touches on the complexities of love and relationships, particularly in the context
of Mr. Dendy's marriage.

The bucket and the rope's utilitarian view of relationships leads them to misunderstand the
motivations behind Mr. Dendy's actions, highlighting the difficulties of understanding
human emotions and relationships.

Fable And Moral

The title "The Bucket and the Rope" suggests a fable-like story, with a moral to be inferred.

The story's structure and narrative cycle are reminiscent of Aesop's fables, with a clear
distinction between the framing story and the framed story.

The conversation between the bucket and the rope serves as a way to explore the human
significance of Mr. Dendy's actions, rather than simply presenting a straightforward
narrative.
Story Logic And Chronology
The story's chronology is not presented in a straightforward, linear fashion.

The events are presented out of chronological order, with the framing story providing the
context for the conversation between the bucket and the rope.

The conversation between the bucket and the rope serves as a way to reorder the events in
a way that makes sense of Mr. Dendy's actions and suicide.

Thematic Oppositions
The story can be seen as a mediation of the thematic oppositions between love/marriage
and love/infidelity, and between appearance and reality.

The bucket and the rope's view of the events represents the appearance, while Mr. Dendy's
view represents the reality.

The two views are juxtaposed in opposing columns, highlighting the differences between
the bucket and the rope's utilitarian view and Mr. Dendy's more human reaction to his
wife's infidelity.

Interpretation
The story can be interpreted as a exploration of the complexities of human relationships
and the consequences of infidelity.

The use of the bucket and the rope as narrators adds a layer of complexity to the story,
highlighting the differences between their simplistic view of the world and the more
nuanced human experience.

Fictional Worlds And Viewpoint

The story has a fable-like Textual Actual World (TAW) with human-like characters,
including the bucket and the rope, which obey natural and psychological laws of the real
world.

The TAW is constructed through the reader's inference and integration of textual details
with schematic knowledge.

The story's viewpoint is idiosyncratic, focusing on the bucket and its position rather than
the man, and presenting the information about the suicide in a subordinate structure.

Text-World Structure
The rest of the story is told through the direct speech of the bucket and the rope, which
provides an "unreliable narration" of Mr. Dendy's suicide.

The direct speech moves through different sub-worlds, including a desire world, a
character-based attitudinal sub-world, and a flashback via a generalized memory.
The text-world structure is complex, with multiple sub-worlds and deictic centers, which
can be frustrating for the reader trying to understand why Mr. Dendy killed himself.

Text World Structure

The story has a complex text world structure, with multiple embedded worlds and sub-
worlds.

The worlds are created through the narrative, direct speech, and inferred inner worlds of
characters.

The text world structure goes against normal expectations, with many embedded worlds
taking up just a few words.

Viewpoint And Discourse Presentation

The story expresses a viewpoint that goes against normal expectations, with a focus on the
bucket and rope's conversation rather than Mr. Dendy's suicide.

The naming and discourse presentation of characters, such as the use of "Mr. Dendy" and
"Betty", creates a sense of distance and familiarity.

The bucket and rope's direct speech discourse world allows for multiple interpretations of
the story, including the appearance/reality theme.

Narrative Comprehension
The story requires the reader to monitor the text for information related to Mr. Dendy's
suicide, as the narrative jumps between different worlds and sub-worlds.

The reader must piece together the story through the bucket and rope's conversation,
which creates a sense of disequilibrium and requires active engagement.

Characterization And Narration

The story's use of inferred thought presentation and lack of direct forms of thought
presentation for Mr. Dendy makes it difficult for readers to become emotionally involved
with his plight.

The bucket and the rope's direct speech and narration are used to establish their characters,
but their unreliability as narrators is highlighted through their duplicitous behavior and
biased perspectives.

The use of embedded direct speech and writing presentation is used to highlight Betty's
duplicitous behavior and unfaithfulness to her husband.

Lexical Patterning And Themes

The story features a tendency to archaism, with words and expressions that strike the
reader as quaint, old-fashioned, and literary.
The use of words like "nosegay" and "burden of desire" creates a sense of timelessness and
highlights the themes of life/death and appearance/reality.

The story's lexical patterning also emphasizes the negative connotations of desire and the
positive/negative themes of the story.

Characterization And Understanding

The characterization of Mr. Dendy and Betty relies on top-down processing, with readers
bringing their own schematic assumptions to the text.

The bucket and the rope's characterization, on the other hand, relies on bottom-up
processing, with readers relying on textual signals to understand their characters.

The story highlights the importance of combining top-down and bottom-up processing to
arrive at an understanding of characters and characterization.

Character Analysis
Mr. Dendy: The omniscient narrator describes him as a "simple countryman", which evokes
schemata of country folk being honest, naive, hard-working, and traditional.

He is portrayed as happy and contented, but becomes unhappy before his suicide.

Betty: The bucket and the rope's direct speech reinforces a conventional set of assumptions
about attractive young women, portraying her as sweet, loving, and playful, but also
manipulative.

The bucket and the rope: They have the same ideological assumptions and difficulties in
interpreting human behavior, but exhibit some differences.

The rope is more objective, careful, and thoughtful, while the bucket is more emotional and
impulsive.

Narrative Analysis
The story is deceptively simple, and the analytical techniques used helped to explain the
subtleties of the text.

The combination of various narratological approaches provides a toolkit for interpreting

the story logic of a text.

The new approaches to fictional world construction and viewpoint were revealing, but
require grounding in textual and inferencing detail.

Stylistic Analysis
The text provides examples of stylistic analysis, including a comparison of two translations
of a passage from Kafka's The Trial, and an analysis of Anthony Burgess's reworking of the
opening of Joyce's Ulysses.
It also provides exercises for further study, including an examination of sentence structure,
vocabulary, and syntax in passages from Golding's The Inheritors and Peake's Gormenghast.

Language Complexity
The text discusses the correlation between three measures of language complexity:
syllables per word, word length in morphemes, and their relationship to literary function.

The task is to identify instances of linguistic features in passages from Dombey and Son and
relate them to narrative function.

Literary Style
The text analyzes the literary style of Dickens in passages from Dombey and Son, focusing
on features such as parallelism, anaphora, alliteration, parenthetical constructions, -ing
forms of verbs, personification, and metaphors.

The task is to compare the features of style in different passages and discuss their
relationship to Dickens' characteristic style.

Narrative Function
The text explores the narrative function of language in passages from Dombey and Son,
including the use of language to create atmosphere, convey emotion, and establish
character.

The task is to relate the linguistic features of each passage to its narrative function and
discuss the difficulty of quantifying these features of style.

Fog And Atmosphere

The passage describes a dense fog that pervades the streets and buildings of London,
creating a sense of gloom and isolation.

The fog is personified as a living entity that "cruelly pinches" and "looms" over the city.

The description of the fog creates a sense of foreboding and menace, setting the tone for the
rest of the passage.

Context And Setting

The passage is set in London, specifically in the area around Temple Bar and Lincoln's Inn
Hall.

The description of the fog and the setting creates a sense of historical and cultural context,
evoking a sense of tradition and authority.

Style And Rhetoric

The passage from William Faulkner's Requiem For a Nun features a unique style
characterized by long, winding sentences and vivid imagery.
The text employs a poetic, almost biblical tone to describe the creation of the earth and the
emergence of human civilization.

The passage from Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent features a more straightforward
narrative style, with a focus on descriptive language and a sense of tension and foreboding.

Iconicity And Cohesion

The passage from Norman Mailer's Armies of the Night features a distinctive style that
blends descriptive language with a sense of introspection and self-awareness.

The text employs a range of literary devices, including metaphor and imagery, to create a
vivid picture of the scene.

The passage from Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions features a more conversational
tone, with a focus on dialogue and a sense of irony and humor.

Discourse And The Discourse Situation

The passage from Sinclair Lewis's Main Street features a satirical tone, with a focus on
critiquing small-town America and the values of its citizens.

The text employs a range of literary devices, including irony and hyperbole, to create a
sense of ridicule and scorn.

The passage from Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit features a more serious tone, with a focus
on social commentary and critique.

Conversation In The Novel

The passage from an unnamed novel features a conversational tone, with a focus on
dialogue and a sense of tension and conflict.

The text employs a range of literary devices, including subtext and implication, to create a
sense of unease and uncertainty.

Social Norms And Expectations

The passages highlight social norms and expectations, particularly in terms of behavior and
relationships.

In the first passage, the conversation between Breasley and David is influenced by their
social roles and expectations, with Breasley playing the part of the experienced artist and
David the young interviewer.

In the second passage, Guy's behavior towards his wife, Doris, is shaped by societal
expectations of masculinity and authority.

Inner Lives And Emotions

The passages also explore the inner lives and emotions of the characters, often through
descriptive language and imagery.
In the third passage, the lyrical description of the girl on the beach and Stephen's reaction to
her reveals his emotional state and inner world.

In the fourth passage, Katharine's thoughts and feelings are conveyed through her inner
monologue, showing her anxiety and relief when she finds her lost bag.

Here are three key themes:

Stylistics And Fiction

The chapter reviews developments in stylistics since 1981, including new work on cognitive
stylistics, metaphor, and narrative theory.

Exercises are suggested to help students follow up on topics dealt with in the book,
including stylistic analysis, possible worlds analysis, and cognitive stylistics.

Text Worlds And Fictional Worlds

The nature of the 'fictional world' or 'mock reality' of novels and short stories is explored.

Text worlds, fictional worlds, and possible worlds are discussed in relation to narrative
theory, cognitive linguistics, and stylistics.

Cognitive Stylistics, Including Metaphor

Cognitive stylistics is a field that has achieved great significance in the past 25 years,

The mental models and operations involved in the interpretation of texts can be studied in
depth using Fauconnier's mental spaces and blending theory.

Discourse Analysis And Critical Discourse Analysis

The application of discourse analysis to the study of literature

The use of critical discourse analysis to examine power, identity, and gender in literary texts

The analysis of language and ideology in literary discourse

The study of language, discourse, and literature in relation to social context

Pragmatics, Speech, And Dialogue

The application of pragmatics to the study of literary language and communication

The analysis of speech, dialogue, and conversation in literary texts

The study of literary pragmatics and its relation to communication and language use

The exploration of the role of speech and dialogue in shaping literary meaning There are
three key themes in this text: Language and Literature, Stylistics, and Linguistics.

Linguistics And Literature

The relationship between linguistics and literature is a central theme, with many authors
exploring the application of linguistic theories to literary analysis.
Authors such as Halliday, Hasan, and Leech have made significant contributions to the field
of stylistics, which examines the language of literature.

Other authors, such as Ohmann and Pratt, have developed speech act theory and its
application to literary discourse.

Narrative And Discourse

Narrative theory is another key area of research, with authors such as Propp, Prince, and
Rimmon-Kenan exploring the structure and functioning of narrative.

Discourse analysis is also a significant theme, with authors such as Labov, Waletsky, and
van Dijk examining the language of conversation and its relationship to narrative.

The study of character and characterization is also a prominent area of research, with
authors such as Margolin and Semino exploring the ways in which characters are
represented in narrative.

Style And Semantics

The study of style is a major theme, with authors such as Mukarovsky, Ohmann, and Leech
examining the ways in which language is used to create literary effects.

Semantics is also a significant area of research, with authors such as Lyons, Leech, and Louw
exploring the meaning of words and phrases in literary contexts.

The study of metaphor and figurative language is also a prominent area of research, with
authors such as Lakoff, Johnson, and Turner exploring the ways in which language is used to
create vivid and evocative descriptions.

Stylistics And Literary Theory

The text provides a comprehensive overview of stylistics and literary theory, covering
various approaches, models, and concepts.

It discusses the works of prominent scholars and researchers in the field, including Semino,
Short, Simpson, Toolan, and others.

The text explores the intersection of stylistics and literary theory, highlighting the
importance of understanding language, cognition, and context in literary analysis.

Corpus Linguistics And Cognitive Stylistics

The text touches on the role of corpus linguistics in stylistic analysis, highlighting its
potential for quantitative and qualitative research.

It introduces cognitive stylistics as an approach that combines insights from cognitive

linguistics, pragmatics, and literary theory to analyze literary texts.

The text mentions the importance of conceptualization, blending theory, and cognitive
metaphor theory in understanding literary meaning.
Literary Analysis And Critical Discourse Analysis
The text provides examples of literary analysis, showcasing the application of stylistic and
literary theoretical concepts to various texts.

It briefly mentions critical discourse analysis as an approach that examines the relationship
between language, power, and ideology in social contexts.

The text highlights the importance of considering context, credibility, and conversational
implicature in literary analysis.

Discourse And Narrative

The text examines the relationship between discourse and narrative, highlighting the
importance of considering the social and cultural context in which a text is produced and
received.

The author discusses the concept of implied author and implied reader, and how these
figures shape our understanding of a text.

The text also explores the role of speech and character in narrative, including the use of
direct and indirect speech, free direct and free indirect speech, and narrative report of
speech acts.

Linguistics And Pragmatics

The text discusses the importance of linguistic and pragmatic factors in shaping our
understanding of a text, including the role of inference, implicature, and presupposition.

The author explores the concept of possible worlds theory and its application to literary
analysis.

The text also examines the role of politeness, face, and power in shaping language use and
interpretation.

Thought And Viewpoint

Presentation of thought: direct, free direct, free indirect, and indirect thought

Thought act: narrative report of thought

Viewpoint: aspects of viewpoint, including discoursal, ideological, psychological, spatial,

social, and temporal

Literary Theory And Criticism

Literary theory: verisimilitude, fictional worlds, and text worlds

Literary criticism: references to various authors and critics, including Tolstoy, Updike,
Woolf, and Yeats

Narrative theory: narrative report of thought acts and presentation of thought

Analysis

Research comparison

Builds on previous work

[3] Dombey was about eight-andforty years of age. The book begins with the description of
father and son at the latter’s birth; the following paragraph is so formal in its rhetorical
design, balancing each element of Mr Dombey’s description against a similar element of
the description of Paul, that we may set it out in tabular form (reading the columns
from left to right):.

This trait is. Style, text and frequency not restricted to one variety of style, for we can
observe it both in passage [3] (‘though (of course) an undeniably fine infant’; ‘remorseless
twins they are for striding through their human forests, notching as they go’); and in
passage [7] (‘as is not unusual in men of transparent simplicity’)we can observe it both in
passage [3] (‘though (of course) an undeniably fine infant’; ‘remorseless twins they
are for striding through their human forests, notching as they go’); and in passage [7]
(‘as is not unusual in men of transparent simplicity’)

Now, however, we elaborate the left-hand part of Figure 4.1, in order to include this more
complete picture of the communication process (restricting the diagram to written
language), and to illustrate how Figure 4.3 can be applied to the study of style,
concentrating on stylistic variation as choice of equivalent encodings at each of the three
linguistic levels: 4.3 An example: Katherine Mansfield. As an illustration, we shall take a
simple seven-word sentence from Katherine Mansfield’s story A Cup of Tea: [3] The
discreet door shut with a click. 100

The difference between these sentences and [5] and [6] is that they can be interpreted as
descriptions of the event portrayed in [3]. This is not to say that they convey the same
sense, nor that they necessarily refer to the same event; but, given what we know, both
about the real world and the fictional world, it is reasonable to infer from each the same
eventdifference between these sentences and [5] and [6] is that they can be
interpreted as descriptions of the event portrayed in [3]. This is not to say that they
convey the same sense, nor that they necessarily refer to the same event; but, given
what we know, both about the real world and the fictional world, it is reasonable to
infer from each the same event

It goes without saying that semantic variants also involve differences of expression – of
syntax and graphology/phonology – since codings at the more abstract level of meaning
have consequences of expression. But now we turn to sentences which, though differing
in syntactic form, are equivalent in sense; that is, they are paraphrases, or syntactic
variants of [3]:
In [13], the change of syntactic form, although it makes the sentence more concise, has
phonological consequences which appear to be undesirable. To see this, we first have to
note that the original sentence [3] has a phonological aptness to its meaning

Passages [17] and [18] are respectively the unemended and emended versions of a short
extract from Chapter 17 of Samuel Butler’s The Way of All Flesh (changes of wording have
been italicised).8 The extract concerns the birth of the book’s hero, to the younger son of
George Pontifex:. [17] Now, therefore, that the good news [viz of the birth of Theobald
Pontifex’s son] came it was doubly welcome and caused as much delight at Elmhurst as in
Woburn Square [it caused dismay], where the John Pontifexes were now living[17] Now,
therefore, that the good news [viz of the birth of Theobald Pontifex’s son] came it was
doubly welcome and caused as much delight at Elmhurst as in Woburn Square

But there are occasions where verisimilitude and credibility work in opposite directions:.
[2] I left my poor wife big with child, and accepted an advantageous offer made me, to be
captain of the Adventure, a stout merchantman, of 350 tons. . . . We set sail from Portsmouth
upon the 2nd day of August 1710; on the 14th we met with Captain Pocock, of Bristol, at
Teneriffe, who was going to the Bay of Campechy, to cut logwood. [Gulliver’s Travels, IV. 1]
[2] I left my poor wife big with child, and accepted an advantageous offer made me, to
be captain of the Adventure, a stout merchantman, of 350 tons. . . . We set sail from
Portsmouth upon the 2nd day of August 1710

[3] ‘Have you had a letter from Lucy?’ Fred Henry asked of his sister. (1) ‘Last week,’ came
the neutral reply. (2) ‘And what does she say?’ (3) There was no answer. (4) ‘Does she ask
you to go and stop there?’ persisted Fred Henry. (5) ‘She says I can if I like.’ (6) ‘Well, then,
you’d better. (7) Tell her you’ll come on Monday.’ (8) This was received in silence. (9)
‘That’s what you’ll do then, is it?’ said Fred Henry, in some exasperation. (10) But she made
no answer. (11). There are no examples in this passage of what we have called ‘normal
nonfluency’, and this is the most obvious way in which, like most fictional dialogue, it
fails to resemble the transcription

No doubt a dominant consideration, in determining this choice, is plain chronology: A is

presented before B, because A happens (in the fiction) before B. This is the order followed
in the news report [1], and may be considered the neutral order for the telling of any story

[14] The chief walked forward and raised his hand in greeting. Once again, the role of
inference must be stressed: we cannot help interpreting physical facts in terms of their
abstract significance – a raised hand as a sign of greeting, a smile as a sign of friendship

The sentence thus produces a merger, in one impression, of three senses: touch, vision and
sound. 150. Sentence [2] is a particularly striking case of the phenomenon sometimes called
‘world-view’, but for which we will prefer Fowler’s term mind style (see section 1.5):
Cumulatively, consistent structural options, agreeing in cutting the presented world
to one pattern or another, give rise to an impression of a world-view, what I shall call
a ‘mind style’.1
More narrowly still, mind style can be associated with quite local stylistic effects, for
example in the description of a character or a landscape. Although here we are mainly
concerned with cumulative tendencies of stylistic choice, even a single sentence, such
as [2], might be said to encapsulate a mind style

Mrs Bennet, whose zeal for matchmaking has been frustrated by her daughter’s rebuff of Mr
Collins, addresses her unsympathetic husband:. [4] ‘O Mr Bennet, you are wanted
immediately; we are all in an uproar[4] ‘O Mr Bennet, you are wanted immediately; we
are all in an uproar

The subject of authorial tone was discussed in section 8.5, and to match it, we shall give
some account here of tone in the speech of characters, particularly in its role of indicating
the social stance of speaker to hearer. Its importance in dramatising personal relationships
has already been seen in [6], where the dynamics of conversation are reflected variously in
the politeness, familiarity or rudeness of tone adopted by one character towards anotherIts
importance in dramatising personal relationships has already been seen in [6],
where the dynamics of conversation are reflected variously in the politeness,
familiarity or rudeness of tone adopted by one character towards another

A bucket once lay upon its side in a little shed, that was a short way down a by-lane, near to
the village of Shelton. [1]. We have not numbered each sentence, as that would be more
distracting for our readers, and in any case, most of the paragraphs are short.

‘Is it not a little curious if not altogether surprising,’ observed the bucket, ‘that we should
have been put to so sad a use in helping our good master die?. Perhaps you can remember
as well as I the joyful day when we were first purchased, which happened to be the
very day before Mr Dendy was married. [9]

The lawyer’s son looked unhappy and she allowed him to kiss her, while Mr Dendy was out
of the way.’ [28] ‘She had a little foot,’ observed the bucket, ‘and a winning gait, and had Mr
Dendy peeped through the dingy bar-window, when he was having a merry jest with
Farmer Pardy, he should have been glad to see that the lawyer’s son thought her as nice as
he did.’ [29] ‘A rope would have fancied so,’ said the other dryly. [30] ‘Mr Dendy had no
sooner bought you,’ said the bucket, ‘than he went to the ironmonger’s and purchased me.
We were carried off together, and so we became acquainted, and that very evening I was
made use of to collect the swill for the pigs; I remember even now the unpleasant smell of
those rotten potatoes.’ [31] ‘It was not the stink of the sour garbage that made our master
hang himself,’ observed the rope thoughtfully, ‘for he would be often whistling when he
brought you in, full of the nastiest stuffWe were carried off together, and so we became
acquainted, and that very evening I was made use of to collect the swill for the pigs; I
remember even now the unpleasant smell of those rotten potatoes.’ [31] ‘It was not
the stink of the sour garbage that made our master hang himself,’ observed the rope
thoughtfully, ‘for he would be often whistling when he brought you in, full of the
nastiest stuff
He would perhaps tarry at a cottage gate, and have a merry word with the occupants, telling
a droll story of country matters for the young girls to smile at, and bidding them to ask of his
kind Betty what the fancies were that she had found the most useful in the getting of a
husband.’ [33]. ‘We could watch nearly all that he did,’ remarked the rope, ‘and he
certainly appeared to be living a very happy life: the sweet country air, the plain and
wholesome food that he ate, as well as his constant though not too tedious toil, gave him
health and joy, and he was never in want of a shilling to spend when he needed one.’ [34]

The mediation proposition 2 above ‘Mr Dendy wants (a) but not (b)’ also cannot be found in
the text, as the bucket and the rope do not see any problem in Betty giving her sexual
favours both to her husband and the lawyer’s son (indeed they see her satisfying both men
as an advantage – cf [21], [28], [29], [47] and [54]). In Campion’s poem I care not for these
ladies (which we found using a Google search on ‘come where comfort is’), Amaryllis is a
country girl who is free with her favours compared with women who come from the town
or higher social orders, and the refrain at the end of each of the three verses of the poem is
‘But when we come where comfort is, she never will say no.’ The response of Mr Dendy to
what he sees seems schematically to confirm the sexual act interpretation.cannot be found
in the text, as the bucket and the rope do not see any problem in Betty giving her
sexual favours both to her husband and the lawyer’s son (indeed they see her
satisfying both men as an advantage – cf [21], [28], [29], [47] and [54]). In Campion’s
poem I care not for these ladies (which we found using a Google search on ‘come
where comfort is’), Amaryllis is a country girl who is free with her favours compared
with women who come from the town or higher social orders, and the refrain at the
end of each of the three verses of the poem is ‘But when we come where comfort is,
she never will say no

We do not indicate sentence-by-sentence ‘toggling’ between an embedded world and the

world it is embedded in (for example, where sentences relating straightforwardly to the
Flashback 1 level below are interspersed with some inferred minor character sub-worlds).
Nevertheless, even with our somewhat simplified presentation, it can be seen that in text-
world terms, this very short story turns out to be rather complex, with some sub-worlds
being created for just a few words (e.g. those of the grand military gentleman and the lady
in [17]): Narrated text world (TAW in Ryan’s terms): the scene in the shed [1,2,3] The
bucket and the rope’s (B&R’s) desire sub-world (Ryan’s wish-world) [4 –8] B&R’s
shared discourse world (their direct speech) [9 onwards] Flashback 1 (R in the shop
window and what it sees) [14 –30] Flashback 2 (R remembers its childhood) [14] Inferred
inner world of ‘the grand military gentleman’ [17] Inferred inner world of the ‘lady’ [17]
Inferred inner world of the ‘young and pleasing girls’ [19] Inferred inner world of the ‘poor
debtor’ [20] Inferred inner world of Betty [28] Flashback 3 (B remembers being purchased)
[31] Flashback 4 (B being carried by Mr Dendy to collect swill) [31] R rejects the ‘sour
garbage’ hypothesis world re the suicide [32] R rejects the ‘heavy bucket’ hypothesis world
re the suicide [32] Flashback 5 (B being carried by Mr Dendy again) [33,34] Mr Dendy’s
discourse world [33] Flashback 6 (B remembers the nosegay incident) [35,36,37,38,39]
Flashback 7 (R throttling Mr Dendy in his suicide) [43] R proposes the Mr Dendy’s negative
attitude hypothesis for the suicide [45] (which the bucket rejects [46] and the rope agrees
[47]) Flashback 8 (Betty’s unfaithful behaviour) [49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58] Betty’s
discourse world [49] Betty’s inner world [51] B’s hypothesis about Mr Dendy’s inner world
(which is then rejected) [54 –55] B’s ‘hungry man’ hypothesis [56] B’s nosegay hypothesis
[60]our somewhat simplified presentation, it can be seen that in text-world terms,
this very short story turns out to be rather complex, with some sub-worlds being
created for just a few words (e.g. those of the grand military gentleman and the lady
in [17]): Narrated text world (TAW in Ryan’s terms): the scene in the shed [1,2,3] The
bucket and the rope’s (B&R’s) desire sub-world (Ryan’s wish-world) [4 –8]
B&R’s shared discourse world (their direct speech) [9 onwards] Flashback 1 (R
in the shop window and what it sees) [14 –30] Flashback 2 (R remembers its
childhood) [14] Inferred inner world of ‘the grand military gentleman’ [17] Inferred
inner world of the ‘lady’ [17] Inferred inner world of the ‘young and pleasing girls’
[19] Inferred inner world of the ‘poor debtor’ [20] Inferred inner world of Betty [28]
Flashback 3 (B remembers being purchased) [31] Flashback 4 (B being carried by Mr
Dendy to collect swill) [31] R rejects the ‘sour garbage’ hypothesis world re the
suicide [32] R rejects the ‘heavy bucket’ hypothesis world re the suicide [32]
Flashback 5 (B being carried by Mr Dendy again) [33,34] Mr Dendy’s discourse world
[33] Flashback 6 (B remembers the nosegay incident) [35,36,37,38,39] Flashback 7
(R throttling Mr Dendy in his suicide) [43] R proposes the Mr Dendy’s negative
attitude hypothesis for the suicide [45] (which the bucket rejects [46] and the rope
agrees

Given the overall brevity of the story, it is clear that, although many of these embedded
worlds take up just a few words, they are nonetheless disruptive of our wish to understand
why Mr Dendy killed himself. Initially in Flashback 1 the rope is in a shop window, and can
observe happenings in two directions, outside and inside the shop.3 Paragraphs [16]–[21]
describe what the rope saw outside the window, and we also move, presumably via the
rope’s inferencing abilities, inside the mental worlds of some of the people it
observesInitially in Flashback 1 the rope is in a shop window, and can observe
happenings in two directions, outside and inside the shop.3 Paragraphs [16]–[21]
describe what the rope saw outside the window, and we also move, presumably via
the rope’s inferencing abilities, inside the mental worlds of some of the people it
observes

Indeed, in this respect Mr Dendy is treated rather like a minor character – for the mind
states of a number of minor characters are also established through inferred narration of
inner states, for example the ‘grand military gentleman’ in [17], who the rope tells us
‘became prouder than ever’. Within the bucket and the rope’s direct speech there is not
much embedded presentation of the speech or writing of the other characters, which is
consistent with Powys’s ‘withdrawal of sympathy’ tactic that we have just outlined
Differs from previous work
In contrast to [10], this sentence contains four definite expressions: the (twice), now, they.
Since definite expressions are only used on the assumption of shared knowledge about the
identity of the referent, these expressions in effect say to the reader: ‘You already know
when “now” is, who “they” are, where “the dining tent” is; in fact you are already a party to
the situation.’ Moreover, the verb pretend carries the presupposition that ‘something has
happened’, although we do not yet know what it iscontrast to [10], this sentence contains
four definite expressions: the (twice), now, they. Since definite expressions are only
used on the assumption of shared knowledge about the identity of the referent, these
expressions in effect say to the reader: ‘You already know when “now” is, who “they”
are, where “the dining tent” is; in fact you are already a party to the situation.’
Moreover, the verb pretend carries the presupposition that ‘something has
happened’, although we do not yet know what it is

In practice, the two things may be difficult to separate. But we can recognise a clear
difference in these two examples: [1] It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were
striking 13

Both these sentences are odd, but for different reasons. Sentence [1], which opens Orwell’s
1984, is linguistically transparent, and the only strange thing about it is the fictional world it
postulates: a world in which clocks behave differently from the clocks we know

Sentence [2] is a description, from Joyce’s Ulysses, of someone playing the piano. Here it is
not the fictional world that causes surprise: the sentence describes a familiar activity

The independent effect of the climax principle can be illustrated, however, with coordinate
clauses, which are syntactically of equal status:. [18] The gale died dówn and we were
picked up by a còaster[18] The gale died dówn and we were picked up by a còaster

We noticed in [21] that Lawrence’s style implied the violation of end-focus in such
sentences as:. [35] We càn’t go back. [36] He còuldn’t go back to the savages[35] We càn’t
go back

Speech acts, as this example already shows, are in principle independent of syntactic and
semantic categories; for example, to make a request, we may use many different syntactic
forms, which overtly, in their semantic content, mean different things:. [1] Please come here
[2] Could you come here [3] I’d like you to come here (imperative) (interrogative)
(declarative)[1] Please come here

[1] Please come here [2] Could you come here [3] I’d like you to come here (imperative)
(interrogative) (declarative). In most contexts sentences [1]–[3] would have approximately
the same force as speech acts, although they have different syntactic forms, and differ in
sense and toneIn most contexts sentences [1]–[3] would have approximately the same
force as speech acts, although they have different syntactic forms, and differ in sense
and tone
Rather, such a style is consonant with their dignity and moral seriousness. Some sign of this
is seen in the contrast between the speech of Mrs Bennet and that of her husband in
our earlier quotation [5] from Pride and Prejudice

Moreover, a reader faced with an indirect string cannot automatically retrieve the original
direct speech: [3] above could be an indirect version of [1] or any of the following:. [4] ‘I will
return to the hospital to see you tomorrow.’ [5] ‘I’ll come back here and see you again
tomorrow.’ [6] ‘I’ll be back again to see you tomorrow, duck.’[4] ‘I will return to the
hospital to see you tomorrow.’ [5] ‘I’ll come back here and see you again tomorrow

Similarly, although the majority of prosodic features can only be captured in writing by the
insertion of information into the narrative description (e.g., by the use of adverbs as in ‘he
said sternly’), some can be indicated by orthographic convention in the speech itself, as in:.
[8] He said, ‘I’ll come back here to see you again tomorrow.’[8] He said, ‘I’ll come back
here to see you again tomorrow

Accordingly, it is possible to remove either or both of these features, and produce a freer
form,3 which has been called free direct speech: one where the characters apparently speak
to us more immediately without the narrator as an intermediary:. [9] He said I’ll come back
here to see you again tomorrow. [10] ‘I’ll come back here to see you again tomorrow.’ [11]
I’ll come back here to see you again tomorrow[9] He said I’ll come back here to see you
again tomorrow

Hence [1] could have been reported by either of the following: [12] He promised his return.
[13] He committed himself to another meeting. where only a minimal account of the
statement is given. We call this form the narrative report of speech acts (nrsa)reported by
either of the following: [12] He promised his return. [13] He committed himself to
another meeting. where only a minimal account of the statement is given. We call this
form the narrative report of speech acts

And now that Mr Dendy had hanged himself, pressing both of them into this last service, to
forward his self-destruction, the bucket and the rope thought they would review the man’s
life, in the hope of finding one true reason at least for his final act. [8]. ‘Is it not a little
curious if not altogether surprising,’ observed the bucket, ‘that we should have been put
to so sad a use in helping our good master die?

This is made clear in the last two pure narrative paragraphs [7] and [8], and also in the first
part of the bucket’s succeeding utterance, which opens the conversation between the bucket
and the rope:. ‘Is it not a little curious if not altogether surprising,’ observed the bucket,
‘that we should have been put to so sad a use in helping our good master die? [ . . . ]’ [9]

All the time the reader, of course, is monitoring the text for information which is relatable to
the initial narrative disequilibrium, Mr Dendy’s suicide. The first conceivable possibility
finally occurs in paragraph [26]: The fact that his prospective wife makes the rope into a
noose and puts it round Mr Dendy’s neck cannot be related to his suicide in a direct way,
but like the ‘death’ semantic prosody we perceived in the title phrases ‘the bucket’
and ‘the rope’ in section 12.3.2 (see also section 12.3.7 below), it can be seen as a possible
prefiguring of what is to happen later in the chronological narrative

This is extremely minimal internal narration (cf Semino and Short 2004, pp. 132– 135). By
paragraph [7], on the other hand, the bucket and the rope are making weak inferences
about Mr Dendy’s inner world: Here, the first clause is internal narration concerning the
mind state of the bucket and the rope and the third clause shows Mr Dendy’s internal mind
state as inferred by the bucket and the rope (cf Semino and Short 2004, pp. 135–137), with
appropriate hedging via the non-factive verb ‘seem’By paragraph [7], on the other hand,
the bucket and the rope are making weak inferences about Mr Dendy’s inner world:
Here, the first clause is internal narration concerning the mind state of the bucket
and the rope and the third clause shows Mr Dendy’s internal mind state as inferred
by the bucket and the rope

(b) Both were interested in any kind of life that was not like themselves [5] (c) Now and
again the two friends had been a little puzzled by Mr Dendy, who did not often act as they
would have expected him to [ . . . ] [7] (d) ‘Is it not a little curious if not altogether
surprising,’ observed the bucket,. ‘that we should have been put to so sad a use in helping
our good master die? [ . . . ]’ [9] (e) ‘[ . . . ] and a few of them particularly attracted my notice
[ . . . ]’ [16] (f) ‘[ . . . ] it is curious to think now what she did next.’ [26] (g) ‘Only once,’
observed the bucket sadly, ‘did I notice Mr Dendy act in a way that was not usual for a
village man. [ . . . ]’ [35]we should have been put to so sad a use in helping our good
master die? [ . . . ]’ [9] (e) ‘[ . . . ] and a few of them particularly attracted my notice [ . . .
]’ [16] (f) ‘[ . . . ] it is curious to think now what she did next.’ [26] (g) ‘Only once,’
observed the bucket sadly, ‘did I notice Mr Dendy act in a way that was not usual for a
village man

Confirmation of earlier findings

The syntax is that of direct histrionic appeal: disjunctive, verbless sentences, exclamations,
apostrophes and imperatives. The more schematic rhetoric of passages [3] and [4] is found
here too, especially in the parallelisms of sentences (3), (5) and (6), and in the repetition of
the leitmotiv the old, old fashionThe more schematic rhetoric of passages [3] and [4] is
found here too, especially in the parallelisms of sentences

Fictional dialogue imitates the very thing it consists of: language. It is therefore possible to
make a linguistic judgment about passages such as [3] and [4], and to say, even though we
cannot compare them with any specific original, that they are like the real thing

[8] Edwin went to the doorway of the drawing-room and stood there. In the following
passage from Bennett’s Clayhanger, we have a clear impression (consistent with the rest
of the novel) of seeing things from Edwin’s point of view, even though there are a
number of references to what is going on in his sisters’ minds:.

[10] His fancy had a strange tendency to wander to the river, which he knew was flowing
through the great city; and now he thought how black it was, and how deep it would look,
reflecting the host of stars – and more than all – how steadily it rolled away to meet
the sea. When the graphic units are set out like this, in the manner of poetry, we
notice that they follow a pattern of decreasing length, bringing the effect of an
increase of tempo towards a climax, until the last unit, being longer, relaxes the
tension towards a ‘dying fall’. (‘Rhythm’ is more strictly applied, however, to the pattern
formed by the sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables

If we are told, for instance, that a husband gets drunk every night and beats his wife, we
cannot help disapproving of him. When Mr and Mrs Dashwood after their introduction in
[2] go on to deprive Mr Dashwood’s mother of her intended share of her husband’s
inheritance, our poor opinion of them is confirmed

[17] He said he must persuade Billy-Boy to build a pool in the hotel compound one day
when old Ma Bhoolaboy was out playing bridge so that when her tonga brought her back at
night the whole thing would tip in with a bloody great splash. [Chapter 11]. Here
subordination is present, but the selection of colloquial lexical forms like ‘old Ma
Bhoolaboy’ and ‘with a bloody great splash’ indicate that in the subordinate clause
itself we are getting not just an indirect report of the statement which the retired
colonel, Tusker, uttered, but also some indication of the form of words which he used

But one general feature deserves comment – a tendency to archaism. We notice this in a
number of words and expressions that strike the twenty-first-century reader, and would
have struck even the reader of Powys’s day, as somewhat quaint, old-fashioned and literary:
for example, ‘purchased’ [13], ‘the folk’ [16] ‘our master’ [24], ‘a winning gait’ [28], ‘a merry
jest’ [29], ‘we became acquainted’ [31], ‘tarry’, ‘droll story’, ‘awalking’

Counterpoint to earlier claims

Predictably, the terse prose of Hemingway is found to lack the transformational
complexities typical of Faulkner: which is not to say that Hemingway is innocent of
transformations, only that he tends to use transformations of a different kind. Although we
cannot go into the technicalities of Ohmann’s method, it is worth mentioning that the
apparatus he used was that of an earlier version of transformational grammar, one
which subsequently underwent profound modifications.14 The assumption that
transformations represent paraphrase relations has been undermined, for example, by
consideration of cases in which the passive and deletion transformations illustrated in [4]
and [7] do not preserve the same ‘logical content’: Many arrows did not hit the target ≠ The
target was not hit by many arrows

[12] The bushes twitched again. It is important to notice that the contrast lies primarily in
the function of language which Halliday calls ideational: that is, the way in which language
conveys and organises the cognitive realities of experience, roughly corresponding to
what we have earlier called ‘sense’:.

[1] That way nothing is accomplished, he thought. The contrast can only be appreciated if
we first quote a more characteristic passage from the same episode:.
[9] His hands looked hard, with broad fingers and nails which seemed as thick as.
Immediately the description becomes much less ‘objective’; it appears that we are getting a
more personal and therefore incomplete and possibly inaccurate description:
whereas Steinbeck’s original appears to us as obvious unmitigated fact

Here too we have a sequence of impressions, but they are integrated in a single complex
awareness of a number of things which must be going on in the mind of Yvonne, beginning
with the voice (the immediate object of perception), moving on to the attendant
circumstances of that perception (expressed in subordinate clauses), then to the impression
the voice made (‘unmistakable . . . familiar . . . unreal’), and finally to the perceiver herself,
Yvonne. The two passages contrast in ordering: [14] working from the person (‘She’) to
the percept (‘the gallows’), and [15] working from percept (‘the . . . voice’) to person
(‘Yvonne’)

is easily understood as being a positive thing (success in what a farmer is meant to do), even
though it is not a straightforwardly evaluative term. We might now expect some more
direct information about the dead man, but in the rest of this initial section of third-person
narrative we move instead to the shared mental world of the bucket and the rope, and their
wish to understand Mr Dendy, their master, as part of their more general desire to ‘study
men’ [6]

Study subjects
9 Prepositions Pronouns Determiners

4 Nouns 5 (Main) verbs 6 Adjectives 7 Adverbs total. Minor word classes 9 Prepositions
Pronouns Determiners Conjunctions (coordinating) Conjunctions (subordinating)
Auxiliaries Negative (not/n’t) Others total total no. of words(a). (per 100 wds) 24.6 8.9
12.2 6.8 (52.4)

Statistics and tests

Halliday’s model
We shall take a part of his analysis of the language of William Golding’s novel The Inheritors
to illustrate the relation of pluralism to dualism and monism.30 (We shall also take
Halliday’s model as our example of pluralism, because its application to language, and in
particular to grammar, has been worked out in considerable detail.)

chi-square test
The asterisked entries are those which show significant differences between the passages
according to the chi-square test of statistical significance.10

Welch
The following extract shows Welch intervening with unusual vigour, in an attempt to defuse
an altercation between his objectionable son Bertrand and Jim Dixon (the Lucky Jim of the
title); Dixon has committed the faux pas of mistaking Bertrand’s present girlfriend for his
previous one:
Fiction model
We would particularly want to take account of the findings of the Lancaster speech, writing
and thought presentation research projects, which have taken the original Style in Fiction
model and applied it systematically and exhaustively not only to a corpus of written
fictional and nonfictional narratives, but to a corpus of spoken English, in order to see how
well it stands up to rigorous application to a wide range of data

Pearson
birch, d. (1991) The Language of Drama: critical theory and practice, Macmillan. carter, r.
(1996) English as Language: discourse, stylistics and the curriculum, Routledge. carter, r.
and simpson, p., eds (1995 [1989]) Language, Discourse and Literature: an introductory
reader in discourse stylistics, Routledge. (Quite a lot on prose, conversation in fiction, etc.)
fairclough, n. (1996) ‘A reply to Henry Widdowson’s “Discourse analysis: a critical view” ’,
Language and Literature 5(1), 49–56. fairclough, n. (2001 [1992]) Language and Power,
Harlow, Pearson Education. fairclough, n. (2003) Analysing Discourse: textual analysis for
social research, Longman. fowler, r. (1981) Literature as Social Discourse: the practice of
linguistic criticism, Batsford. fowler, r. (1991) Language in the News: Discourse and
Ideology in the press, Routledge. hunston, s. and thompson, g., eds (2000) Evaluation in
Text: authorial stance and the construction of discourse, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
mills, s. (1995) Feminist Stylistics, Routledge. o’halloran, k. (2004) Critical Discourse
Analysis and Language Cognition, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. weber, j.j. (1992)
Critical Analysis of Fiction: essays in discourse stylistics, Amsterdam, Rodopi. (Deals with a
range of fictional classics.) widdowson, h.g. (1996) Discourse analysis: a critical view,
Language and Literature 4(3), 157–172. widdowson, h.g. (1998) ‘The theory and practice of
critical discourse analysis’, Applied Linguistics 19(1), 136–151

Bibliography
1. to English Fictional Prose, A. L. I.. (2011). Style in Fiction second edition A Linguistic
Introduction to English Fictional Prose Geoffrey Leech and Mick Short i. Pearson
Education Limited.