Unit

tended 1
Learninng Overview of Stylistics
Outcomes: At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to:
1.

Intended Learning Outcomes: At the end of this chapter, the students are
expected to:

1. Define stylistics, style, meaning, contexts, expressiveness and emotiveness in

relation to nature and goals of the study, history and influences.
2. Discuss and differentiate styles, meanings, contexts and devices and means in
language and literature.
3. Share one’s interest in stylistic research and study through appreciation of
author’s unique styles and literatures as an art form.

1.3 What is Style

Main terms:

STYLE – a selection of non-distinctive features of language

NORM – an assemblage of stable means objectively existing in the language and
systematically used
INDIVIDUAL STYLE – a unique combination of language units peculiar to a given writer
which makes his work’s easily recognizable
FUNCTION – role of the object in a certain system
STYLISTICS – a branch of linguistics investigating principles and the results of selection
and use of lexical, grammatical, phonetic and other language use for the transfer
of thoughts and emotions under different circumstances of communication

The term stylistics is a combination of two other terms: style and linguistics. They
interrelate to study the style of a writer. In other words, stylistics is the linguistic study
of a literary text, concerning the writer’s choice of words, techniques (device) motifs,
tone, mode, etc. Mainly, the analysis given by the stylisticians to a certain text focus on
the significance behind a particular device.

To define the limits of stylistics it is necessary to state what we mean under its
main term – style. This word is of Latin origin derived from the word stilus which meant
a short sharp stick used by the Romans for writing on wax tablets.

Now the word style is used in many senses that is why it has become a
permanent source of ambiguity. It may denote:

• The correspondence between thought and expression

• An individual manner of making use of language
• The set of rules how to write a composition – sometimes style is associated
with very simple notions like “style is the man himself (Buffon 18thc.)
 “Style – is depth,” said Darbyshire in 1971 “A Grammar of Style”; “style is
deviation”- considered Enkvist in his book Linguistic Stylistics published in the Hague in
1973.

All these definitions deal somehow with the essence of style that is summed up
by the following observations:

• Style is a quality of language which communicates precisely emotions or

thoughts or a system of them peculiar to the author
• A true idiosyncrasy of style is the result of an author’s success in compelling
language to conform to his mode of experience (Middleton Murry)
• Style is a contextually restricted linguistic variation (Enkvist)
• Style is a selection of non-distinctive features of language (Bloomfield)
• Style is simply synonymous with form or expression (Benedetto Croce)

In the broad sense we understand style as a feature adherent to music, clothes,

architecture, painting, historical epoch, etc.

Archibald Hill states “structures, sequences and patterns which extend or may
extend beyond the boundaries of individual sentences define style”.

The most frequently met definition of style belongs to Seymour Chatman: “Style
– is a product of individual choices and the patterns of choices among linguistic
possibilities”. Werner Winter continues this idea by claiming that the style may be
characterized by a pattern of recurrent selections from the inventory of optional
features of a language.

Summing up these numerous definitions we may single out the traits upon which
most of the scholars agree:

• Style – is a set of characteristics by which we distinguish one author from

another
• Style is regarded as something that belongs exclusively to the plane of
expression and not to the plane of content

Since stylistics is the borderline discipline between language and literature, it

focuses on language use in both literary and non-literary texts. It takes into account
many disciplines such as literature, sociology, psychology, philosophy and so on.
Stylistics looks at style from the following perspectives:
1. Style as Choice: In this, the writer makes certain choices of the words an
expression to describe the situations or the characters. The poets make use of
certain words or expressions to highlight his or her intensely felt emotions.
2. Style as Deviation: Here, the writer/poet avoids the standard form of writing and
makes use of deviations to sound stylistically significant. In other words, the
writer does not conform to the standard form of writing. Thus, we can say that
the writer has a poetic license to break the rules of grammar.

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 3. Style as Situation: Here, the situation is the context in which the text comes to
life. The situation could be social, cultural, political or pragmatic. We come to
know the situation in a literary text via the style of the writer.
4. Style as the Temporal Phenomenon: Here, the time factor plays an important
role. When the writer wants to write a text, he/she has to consider the time
factor. For example, Shakespeare wrote the plays and used the language that
was relevant to his period. The modern playwrights do not write the same way
as Shakespeare did. Therefore, there is a marked difference between Old English
and Modern English.
5. Style as Individual: It is often said that man is known by his style. Every individual
is unique in his style of speech and writing. There are some specific characteristic
features associated with particular individuals.

Norm

All said brings up the problem of the norm from which the writer deviates in
order to create his individual style. There are different norms – only special kinds of
them are called stylistic norms, like oral and written, norms of emotive prose and official
language. Even within one functional style there exist different norms – those of poetry,
prose and drama.

Norm – is an invariant, which should embrace all variable phonemic, morphological,

lexical, and syntactic patterns with their typical properties circulating in the language
at a definite period of time.

Norm is a regulator that controls the set of variants (Makayev). Its most
characteristic and essential property is flexibility. Though it is very hard to draw a line of
demarcation between the norm and its violation (director, творог; e.cummings:”
footsteps on the sand of war”, “below a time”, but “the ors and ifs”) – is quite
acceptable.

Some people think that one has to possess what is called “a feeling for the
language” in order to be able to understand its norms and variations. But this feeling is
deeply rooted in the knowledge (often unconscious) of the language laws and history.
As soon as the feeling of the norm is instilled in the mind one begins to appreciate its
talented fluctuations.

The norm may be perceived and established only when there are deviations
from it, it happens so to say against their background.

While studying style we come across the problem of language-as-a-system and

language-inaction, that actually reflects the opposition of language and speech
(discourse), lange and parole.

All rules and patterns of language collected in the textbooks on grammar,

phonetics and lexicology first appear in language–in-action where they are generalized,
then framed as rules and patterns of language-as-a-system. The same happens with SDs.
Born in speech they gradually become recognized facts of language-as-a-system.

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 The notion of norm
Norm is the invariant of the phonemic, lexical and syntactical pattern
circulating in language in action at a certain period of time. It is a set of language
rules which are considered to be the most standard and correct. It is practically
impossible to work out universal language norms because each functional style has
its own regularities. The sentence I ain’t got any news from nowbody should be
treated as nongrammatical from the point of view of the literary grammar though it
is in full accordance with the special colloquial grammar rules. The possibility of
variations within the boundaries of traditionally stable, culturally and historically
acknowledged norm resulted in its heterogeneity. Thus, the notion of norm can be
differentiated into:
- language norm
- literary norm
- norm of a certain style
- stylistic norm
Language norm includes all language elements and rules of their organization
that have communicative value for native speakers irrespective of the functional
style. Elements that are obsolete or non-understandable for a number of speakers
exist outside the language norm.
Literary norm is the most correct, elaborated, cultivated variant of language
norm that serves as an example of the written and oral communication. Literary
norm takes socially high position that general language norm and is implemented
into social usage though educational institutions, mess media and art. It has
obligatory character and regulative function.
Norm of a style, compared with the language and literary norm is a narrower
notion and is restricted to a certain functional style or to a written or oral form of
communication. For example, such Ukrainian structures as порушити клопотання,
порядок денний, це дає підстави вважати, відповідальний
директор and привіт, бувай, лікарка, спортсменка are absolutely acceptable
from the point of view of language norm but inappropriate from the point of view of
a specific sphere of application: the usage of the word combinations of the first
group is possible within the domain of official and scientific styles; the usage of the
word combinations of the second group is restricted to colloquial style only.
Stylistic norm correlates with literary norm and exists within its boundaries.
But it aims not only at the correctness of expression but also at its appropriateness in
a certain communicative act and its perfection. The ability of a speaker to express his
or her thoughts not only in accordance with the language or literary norm but in
accordance with the stylistic norm is the highest stage in a good command of
language and is a summit of linguistic culture. Stylistic norm incorporates those
language means that possess certain expressive or emotional coloring and which
traditionally belong to special types of speech: styles, substyles, genres or types of
texts.

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Individual Style

Individual style implies the peculiarities of a writer’s individual manner of using

language means to achieve the effect he desires. The speech of any individual, which is
characterized by particular elements, is called an idiolect that reveals his breeding and
education. A writer will try to avoid showing his idiolect, instead he would leave room
for genuine. SD. Alexander Block once said that the style of a writer is so closely
connected with the content of his soul that the “experienced eye can see the soul
through his style.”

The components of individual style are the following:

• composition of phrasal units

• rhythm and melody of utterances
• system of imagery
• preference for definite stylistic devices and their correlation with neutral
language media
• interdependence of the language means employed by the author and those
characteristic to his personages

In discussing the problem of the individual style one should make it clear from
the outset that this problem constitutes the common ground for literature and literary
stylistics the latter being the part of poetics (the science of the composition of literary
works and the system of aesthetic means used in them).

The peculiarities of using expressive means (EMs) and stylistic devices (SDs) in
poetry and emotive prose have given rise to such interpretation of style as Deviation –
but from what? In XXth century Saintsbury stated that the belles-lettres style is always a
reaction against the common language, to some extent it is a jargon, a literary jargon.
This idea was the motto of the literary trend of formalism, which appeared in 1920s.
The result of this school was all kinds of innovations introduce into the language which
principally depart from the established norms (Severianin, Mandelshtam and
e.cummings) and inability of the reader to perceive the message.

Functional Styles and Varieties

We have defined the object of linguostylistics as the study of the nature,

functions and structure of SDs and EMs and the study of the functional styles of
language.

Functional style (FS) may be defined as a system of interrelated language means

which serves a definite aim of communication. FSs appear mainly in the literary
standard of a language as the product of its development.

FSs are sometimes called registers or discourses. In the English literary standard
we distinguish:

• the language of belles-lettres (embracing numerous and versatile genres of

imaginative writings)

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 • the language of publicistic literature (covering such genres as essays, feature
article, public speeches, etc)
• the language of press/media (observed in the majority of information materials
printed in newspapers)
• the language of scientific prose (found in articles, monographs and other
scientific and academic publication)
• the language of official documents

Each FS may be characterized by a number of distinctive features though at the

same time each FS is perceived as a single whole. FSs are subdivided into a number of
substyles/varieties of language each of which has a peculiar set of features of its own.
The major FSs and substyles of English will be studied in a separate lecture. As far as
varieties are concerned they are differentiated according to the actual situation of
communication.

Basically, it is common to differentiate between the spoken and the written

variety of English language. Spoken variety of language is used in the presence of an
interlocutor, usually it is maintained in the form of a dialogue. The written variety
presupposes the absence of an interlocutor and exists in the form of a monologue.
Spoken variety is remarkable for the extensive use of the potential hidden in the human
voice. Written language has to seek means to compensate this disadvantage. That is
why it is more diffuse, explanatory, characterized by careful organization and deliberate
choice of words and constructions.

Nevertheless, it should be borne in mind that in the belles-letters style there

might appear elements of colloquial language though it will always be stylized by a
writer. The spoken language is by its very nature spontaneous, momentary and fleeting.
It cannot be detached from the users of the language. The written language, on the
contrary, can be detached from the writer and thus be preserved in time.

• May watch the video with the link below, to further understand stylistics, style
and stylistic analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRStHtdzJ1M

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Module (Eng Ed 325) Name: ____________________________________________
Activity No. 1.3 Program/Year: ____________Date Submitted: ___________

Direction: Answer the following questions and consider the criteria below.

1 – 8 sentences 3 points
Content 12 points
Total 15 points/number

1. What is/are the difference/s between a functional style and individual

style?

2. With the statements below, identify the speaker and who is the person
spoken to.

Statement Speaker Spoken to

He’s passed away.
He’s sleeping with the fishes.
He died.
He’s gone to meet his Maker.
He kicked the bucket.

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