Types of Stylistics

TYPES OF STYLISTICS
1. General Stylistics or Stylistics.

viewed from the broad notion of the linguistic study of all types of linguistic events from
different domains of life
used as a cover term for the analysis of non-literary varieties of language, or registers.
2. Literary Stylistics.
focuses on literary texts I
in the broad sense, such a study may be linguistic or non-linguistic, but in the more
specialized sense, it is essentially linguistic
the terms linguistic stylistics or lingo stylistics are sometimes employed to denote the
linguistic analysis or interpretation of literary events.
 Other types of stylistics below are largely subtypes of these linguistic literary stylistics.
3. Textualist Stylistics (Textlinguistics)
 engaged in an “empty technology” of a text
 it merely identifies the raw linguistic patterns of a (literary) text such as the phonological,
grammatical, lexical and semantic patterns without attempting to relate these patterns to the
message in the text
4. Interpretative Stylistics
 the practice engaged in by most stylisticians nowadays
 involves the analysis of the linguistic data in a (literary) text, the unraveling of the content or
artistic value of the text and the marrying of these two. The interpretative stylistician relates
linguistic description to literary appreciation by seeking artistic function and relating it to the
linguistic evidence or first seeking the linguistic features in the text and relating it to the artistic
motivation. The belief is that the linguistic patterns are chosen deliberately to express certain
artistic or literary goals and that the two can hardly be divorced. Interpretative stylisticians see
themselves as both linguists and literary critics and integrate the roles of the two scholars
5. Formalist and Functional Stylistics
 these terms may be viewed as alternatives for textualist stylistics and interpretative stylistics
respectively as discussed above
 Formalist Stylistics concentrates on the linguistic forms in the texts, paying little attention to the
function of these forms in relation to the overall content of the text
 functional stylistics emphasizes the contextual function that the linguistic elements are used to
perform.
6. Evaluative Stylistics
 this is a term used to designate the type of analysis which uses linguistic tools to assess or
measure the worth or merits and demerits of a text.
 assumes that the quality of a text is revealed in the quality of language patterns it employs. Such
analyses may involve the juxtaposition of two or more texts for comparative evaluation.
7. Discourse Stylistics
 stylistic approach which employs the procedures and terminology of discourse analysis in the explication of literary
language use.
 operates under the direct influence of work in pragmatics, discourse analysis and text linguistics, and this work
continues to provide the field of stylistics with increasingly sophisticated means of discussing both longer stretches
of text and, indeed, longer texts
 in the basic elementary definition, it is the application of discourse analysis to literature.
8. Contextualist Stylistics
 this has various factions that are united in their emphasis on the ways in which literary style is formed and
influenced by its contexts. These involve (1) the competence and disposition of the reader; (2) the prevailing
sociocultural forces that dominate all linguistic discourse, including literature; and (3) the systems of signification
through which we process an interpret all phenomena, linguistic and non-linguistic, literary and nonliterary.
9. Sociostylistics
 a subject which studies the language of writers considered as social groups. The emphasis is on how the language
identifies particular socio-literary movements such as the metaphysicals, the romanticists, African writers, imagists,
expressionists, modernists etc.
10. Phonostylistics
 the study of the expressive function of sounds
 in practice, phonostylistics may not be considered as a distinct type of stylistics but rather as one of the
phonological levels at which a stylistician could analyze a text, (other levels of linguistic analysis being the
grammatical, the syntactic and the morphological, the lexical (vocabulary), the semantic and the contextual.
11. Feminist Stylistics

 in the introductory pages of Sara Mills’ Feminist Stylistics, she describes the phrase feminist stylistics as one
which best sums up her concern “first and foremost with an analysis which identifies itself as feminist and which
uses linguistic or language analysis to examine texts”
 So, the concern of feminist stylistics, according to Mills, is beyond only describing sexism in texts but is
broadened to “analyze the way that point of view, agency, metaphor or transitivity are unexpectedly related to
matters of gender, to discover whether women’s writing practices can be described and so on”.
 Bradford sees feminist stylistics as having a view of “discourse as something which transmits social and
institutionalized prejudices and ideologies, specifically the respective roles, the mental and behavioral
characteristics of men and women”. It is apparent from the two viewpoints that feminist stylistics cannot be
divorced from sexism and gender-oriented issues.
12. Computational Stylistics
 It evolved in the 1960s and involves the use of statistics and other data that are readily generated by the
computer to treat different problems of style. In the area of “stylometry,” the computer is used to generate data
on the types, number and length of words and sentences which aid the stylistician in his study of texts, ensuring
the objectivity required. Such data from different texts may even be used for comparative purposes as well as for
the authentification of authorship
13. Expressive Stylistics
 this approach is often considered “old-fashioned” in seemingly
 emphasizes an identification of how the style, the linguistic elements, reveal the personality or “soul” of the
author
 it pursues the belief that the artists employ language to express their inner selves. Thus, there is the concept of
style as idiolect, that each language user has some linguistic traits that not only mark him/her out but also
expresses his/her personality.
 the obvious weakness of this approach is the probability that writers change their personality and language over
time and text and that a change in one does not necessarily accompany a change in the other.
14. Pedagogical Stylistics
 refers to the employment of stylistic analysis for teaching and learning purposes. Literary texts may
sometimes be difficult for learners to appreciate. Hence, a teacher may analyze the linguistic patterns in
the text, breaking down complex linguistic units to smaller ones, converting excerpts in verse form prosaic
form, hyper-baton to regular forms in the belief that such will help the learner to grasp the message
therein. However, since the aim of teaching and learning is to make things clearer or simpler than they
seem, pedagogical stylistics would be considered a positive development.
15. Radical Stylistics

 a term introduced by D. Burton in 1982 to designate a Stylistic approach which tends to go beyond the
identification of the artistic effects of language use to analyze how language is used to express different
ideologies of world views
 the radical stylistician is interested in the choice of linguistic patterns to reflect such ideological slants as
communism, socialism, capitalism, welfarism, etc. Thus, the stylistician attempts to discover in the text
certain jargons associated with such ideologies.
16. New Stylistics

 rather vague term used to denote some fresh models of stylistic analysis.
 such models cease to be “new” as soon as “newer” models evolve.
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING!
RIZZA S. BALDONADO, Ed.D.

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TYPES OF STYLISTICS

1. General Stylistics or Stylistics.

11. Feminist Stylistics

15. Radical Stylistics

16. New Stylistics

RIZZA S. BALDONADO, Ed.D.

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