A Stylistic Analysis of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

摘要
    自1997年《哈利·波特与魔法石》出版发行到现在,《哈利·波特》系列小说迅速
风靡全世界,波特狂遍布了全世界,引发一股新的文学热潮。仅仅凭借这第一本《哈
利波特与魔法石》就多次排在了销售架的榜首, 还获得了很多奖项。 《哈利波特》作
者J.K.Rowling也凭借该系列小说的畅销从一个贫困的单亲母亲成为第一位仅仅凭
借写作就成为身价上亿的英国女作家,并受到英国皇室的好评和赞许。作家
J.K.Rowling以系列小说的形式，灵活运用对话刻画人物性格，完整交代故事背景,,
故事情节扣人心弦，吸引读者，叙述了长达7年的魔法爱情长篇故事。

这样出现一波狂热粉丝的现象引来了专家、学者的长期集中关注,并从多角度
多方面对小说进行了分析和学术探讨,然而却对文学作品自身的文体特征方面的研
究十分欠缺。

文体学的分析是为了进而研究探寻作者如何通过用恰当的语言和合适的修辞
来实现作品的文学意义和美学方面的效果的,这些也对说明和欣赏文学作品提供了
相对更加客观的方式,也使得读者能够更加充分的理解明白文学作品的主题意义和
思想蕴意。

本文以将选取其《哈利波特与魔法石》作为分析材料来探索小说的整体语言特
色、小说的主人公，主要角色，主要情节和主题、以及部分修辞手法等文体特征进
行了详细分析。通过分析表明:第一,该系列小说中句子较短,词语密度低,难度不高
部分说明小说受到全球各个年龄段人们喜爱的原因;第二,在主题方面,该系列小说
既映射了当代社会和文化中的现实问题，同时也继承了英国文学传统；第三,在情
节方面，许多反映了儿童本性，这些都是通过描写和人物刻画方面有所深刻,为中
国儿童文学作品的写作提供了优秀榜样;最后,作者更新了许多新鲜的词汇并使用
了对明喻大量的使用，形象生动。另外,本文在研究了《哈利·波特与魔法石》小说
的文体特征的同时也证实了英文文体语言学方法在帮助文体分析，情节分析方面
起到不小的用处。语言文体学的应用与结合,不仅可以能够提高我们对文学作品的
鉴赏能力，不仅如此，还能增强我们对语言选择的敏感度。如果能够将这种分析方
法运用于课堂中, 会使得学生更灵活得鉴赏、分析和理解文学作品。

关键字： 《哈利波特与魔法石》，语言文体学

ABSTRACT
Since Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in 1997,Harry Potter series

have pervaded the whole world quickly, setting off Potter­mania and all upsurge of study

over the world. This series have ever been at the top of the best­seller lists for several 

times and made the author J.IC Rowling receive numerous awards. Its author, the British 

writer J.K Rowling, became the first billionaire woman writer from a poor single mother 

only by writing and was conferred the British royal family’s award. Rowling tells the 

magic story lasting for 7 years and uses abundant conversations to depict characters and 

weave plots to attract audience.

This phenomenon has attracted experts and scholars’ attention, so they studied the series 

from various aspects. ButtheresearchonthestylisticfeaturesofHarryPotterseriesisstillrare.

Literary stylistics explores how the author created the thematic significance and aesthetic

values of literary works by adopting proper language and appropriate rhetorical methods, 

thus providing the interpretation and appreciation with a more objective method and 

enabling readers to have a better understanding of literary works. 

In this thesis, the writer analyzed the stylistic features of Harry Potter series in detail with

the corpus­based method, including general information of the language, the main plots 

and themes, the depiction of main characters as well as some rhetorical methods. 

Therefore, the research findings were arrived. Firstly, in the series lexical density is low 

and sentences are short, which, to some extent, illustrates the popularity of the series. 

Secondly, in terms of the theme, the series not only inherit the British literary tradition, 
but also reflect contemporary social and cultural problems. Thirdly, the description of 

plots and characters reflects children’s nature and sets a good example to the writing of 

Chinese children’s literature. Finally, in order to make the imaginary wizarding world 

vivid, the author invented numerous new words and employed a lot of impressive 

similes. In addition, this thesis also verifies the important role of the corpus­based 

method in stylistic analysis, especially the plot analysis. The combination of literary 

stylistic and corpus linguistics not only strengthens our sensitivity to the choice of 

language, but also helps to improve our appreciative abilities in literary work. The 

application of such a analysis and appreciation of literary works.

To sum up, through the analysis both from the macro and micro perspectives, this thesis 

shows that Literary Pragmatics is effective to interpret utterances and text, and what is 

more important is that it aims to dynamically reveal the theme of the literary work. In 

addition, this discussion also displays J.K.Rowling’s language art and her value of life.

KEY WORDS: Stylistic Analysis, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

INTRODUCTION
1.1Background

J.K.Rowling, as the author of Harry Potter series, is regarded as the most popular 

children writer nowadays. She is a genius at story telling, which is exhibited in her 

accomplishment of Harry Potter best sellers. Harry Potter series created countless 

publishing and reading miracles in the industrialized age. At the same time, Potter­mania 
becomes a global phenomenon and an important mark of popular culture, which has a 

significant impact on children and adults.

Harry Potter series are original­­­the real books for children, which are full of 

imagination, humor and suspense. Like a children psychological analyst, Rowling 

narrates a year’s experience of the characters in each book and explores the development 

of characters’ personalities in ever­changing circumstances, which is rare in children 

novels. The fictional universe with all intertwining detailed back stories is so believable 

and appealing. Who wouldn’t want to read them? Above all, it grounds on the real world 

but has its own set of rules and regulations, forming the magical world with modem 

civilization. In describing these big pictures, we have to admit Rowling is an excellent 

writer.

As the craze of Harry Potter series is sweeping the world, the movies adapted from the 

novels have smashed box office records and in the past ten years, Harry Potter series 

have released 325 million copies all over the globe in 64 languages, including nine 

million copies in China. Its brand has been assessed more than one billion dollars. Those 

figures strongly prove that the little Harry has succeeded spelling the world into a real 

Hogwarts where people have a crash on magic and the hero­ Harry Potter. However, 

most of the researches of Harry Potter series pay great attention to the conditions of 

commercial success neglect its literary value. Those mind­blowing books serve as a 

mirror of the society and deserve serious critical attention from the linguistic perspective.

Nowadays, more and more scholars found that the theory of Stylistic Analysis can 
combine literary theories with pragmatics for maximizing the interpretation and analysis 

of works. Therefore, in this thesis the theory of stylistic analysis will be applied into 

Harry Potter to explore the literary value of the series and find a comprehensive way of 

appreciating literature.

1.2The Significance of the Analysis

Generally speaking, there are two significances in the research. Firstly, the writer predicts

that this thesis will help readers analyze Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone  guided

by the discipline of Stylistic Analysis. Readers can understand the meaning of the magic 

novel from a new angle. Secondly, the writer expects the Stylistic Analysis can be widely

used to analyze a literary work. The view of author­reader­character dynamic relation 

from the Stylistic Analysis framework will open a new window for readers to chew a 

work in their own way.

Much research on Harry Potter series can deepen readers’ understanding of the whole 

story a lot, but most is conducted with the traditional literature analysis. The following 

exploration on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the present thesis will be far 

different from the previous research since it is led by the literary pragmatic theory which 

analyzes literature in a more comprehensive and dynamic way.

What are the purposes why the writer conducts this research? The first goal is to analyze 

the conversations and narrations from the perspective of the literary pragmatic theory to 
reveal the theme of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The second goal is to 

inspire readers to study literature guided by this theory after understanding the whole 

framework of Stylistic Analysis theory from this research.

1.3Why choose Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Harry Potter series are conquering the whole world by the amazing magic power, ranging

from the miracle of the publishing sales to the birth of Harry Potter theme parks. As one 

of the most popular cultural phenomena, Harry Potter series create a milestone in cultural

industry which will never be copied. In China, besides Xinhua dictionary, there is no one 

book which can outrun the sale of Harry Potter series.

As the first book of the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone not only attract 

the readers attention to the novel's role, but also for preparing the next story. Rowling has

suffered ups and downs in her life, she looked out window when trains was having break 

off which produced story ideas of writing Harry Potter. It lasts six years until her first 

novel published to the public, which shows the first novel plays an important role 

throughout the series. We find that there are variety analysis of this first novel and many 

wonderful insights, but also some excessive user­centered, deviated from the works and 

the author's intentions. It is hardly convincing. There are a lot of articles do the 

archetypal criticism about the Harry Potter series, these articles suspected of the rote and 

deviated from the original intention of the structure of this story or plot traces. Some 

even say Harry Potter supposed to apply mechanically. To name an article, " There are 
plenty of characters have the myth archetype in the Harry Potter, such as Hogwarts 

headmaster Dumbledore is the prototype of the Almighty God", the article has not 

provided the evidence, yet people wonder why the "Almighty God" also died in the sixth 

book of the novel. We know that Rowling born as a British, French, taught herself Latin, 

and has a strong interest in literature. Rowling always obsessed with religion, mythology,

folklore and other imagined worlds. Author with a wide range of hobbies and family 

background is a strong support and prove to its amazing imagination. However in our 

criticism of literary works, which gives too many things. These empowerment is not so 

much the intention of authors and works, as it is the reader's experience and imagination. 

The desire to find out the end is the most important part for readers; however, in this 

book, as Harry’s adventure is moving on and all the mysteries are going to be clear, the 

messages beneath the controversies and conversations are showing the true value of 

analyzing, by which the underlying meanings of the novel can be grasped to deepen the 

understanding of the whole series. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone demonstrates

the most exciting plots in front of US led by the splendid and multi­meaning dialogues 

and narrations. The first book is loaded with the best answer which can be found through 

conversations between characters. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone can be 

viewed as the best material for exploring the theme of the whole series. Therefore, the 

argument of this paper will be based on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone which 

includes discourses of main characters and the design of prologue. All the extracts will be
served as exemplifications to demonstrate the dynamic relation among author, work and 

audience.

1.4 Structure of the Analysis

This research consists of four parts.

Chapter One gives  a  literature  review  on Harry Potter  series, the style and stylistics

which contains the definition and history of stylistic and concept of style, three views on

the   style,   approaches   of   stylistic   analysis.   Chapter   Two   contains   surface­structure

deviation   in   Harry   Potter   and   the   Philosopher's   Stone.   Also   the   comprehensive

introduction   of   the   theoretical   framework   of   stylistic   analysis,   including   the   basic

principles   and   methodologies,   such   as   phonological   deviation,   lexical   deviation,

grammatical   deviation,   graphological   deviation.   Chapter   Three   is   deep­structure

deviation in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It looks back on what the previous

researchers have achieved in the field, makes overview on Harry Potter series at home

and abroad and what research problems are still to be dealt with.

Chapter I Literature Review

As Potter mania has expanded to be a signified cultural phenomenon, the Harry Potter 

books have become ubiquitous early texts for children, and are a choice for many adults. 

During the few researches that devoted critical attention to the books, most put focuses 

on the commercial success of the series. Containing thought­provoking literary themes as
well as portrayals of social and cultural normalcy, the Potter books cumulatively serve as 

a powerful form of social text and deserve serious critical attention. As the first 

installment of the series, the research on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is 

provided particularly for the study. Since there are few essays on Harry Potter and the 

Philosopher's Stone in surface, researches on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 

abroad are mainly deep.

1. Style and Stylistics

To begin with, a brief introduction of Style and Stylistics will be given. Style, manner
indicating prominent linguistic features, devices or patterns, most (or least) frequently
occur in a particular text of a particular variety of language.

Stylistic is a discipline that studies the ways in which language is used; it is a discipline
that studies the styles of language in use. Stylistics is a branch of linguistics, which
applies the theory, and methodology of modern linguistics to the study of style. Stylistics
is a branch of linguistics which studies style in a scientific and systematic way
concerning the manners / linguistic features of different varieties of language at different
levels.

Style is an integral part of meaning. Without the sense of style we cannot arrive at a
better understanding of an utterance; Stylistics study helps cultivate a sense of
appropriateness. (Grammar: correctness; stylistics: appropriateness)

1.1 Definitions of Stylistics

In the words of Wales (1989), stylistics is simply defined as “the study of style’’. Due to
various definitions of “style'’, we could find that scholars defined stylistics in different
perspectives. In the book The Stylistics Reader: from Roman Jacobson to the Present
(1996), various schools are listed: formal stylistics, functional stylistics, affective
stylistics, pedagogical stylistics, pragmatic stylistics, critical stylistics, feminist stylistics
and cognitive stylistics. Each school has its own perspective and gives different
definition respectively.

Leo Spitzer, regarded as “father of literary stylistics” defined stylistics as a bridge over
linguistics and literary history. He proposed that the researcher should start from the
linguistic features deviating from regularnormsto study the psychology of the writer or
the reason why the culture changed when the literary works were written. (Shen
Dan,2000)
H.G Widdowson(1975), one of representatives of pedagogical stylistics, defined stylistics
as the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation. He also distinguished
stylistics from literary criticism and linguistics. It is the same with the suggestion of the
morphological make-up of stylistics: “sty-”relative to literary criticism.while“-istics”
relating to linguistics. Leech (1969)holds the same view that stylistics is “a meeting
ground of linguistics and literary study'’·

In the words of Crystal (1969), stylistics is ‘‘defined as a branch of linguistics which

studies the characteristics of situational-distinctive uses of language, with particular
reference to literary language, and tries to establish principles capable of accounting for
the particular choices made by individuals and social groupsin their use of language”,
Freeman(1981) defined stylistics as a branch of linguistics studying style with the
theories and methodology of modem linguistics.

In 1989, Wales gave more information about the definition of stylistics in A Dictionary of
Stylistics. He pointed owing to the main influences of linguistics and literary criticism,
there were several different stylistic approaches. The goal of stylistics should describe the
formal features and linguistic features to interpret the functional significance and the
literary effects. And he also thought that researchers should turn to linguistics for the
needed models and terminology.

In An Introduction to Literary Quranic Stylistics, one definition that “Stylistics is an area

of study where the linguist combines with the critic so as to achieve a better or fuller
understanding and appreciation of literature'’ was given. It emphasized that Stylistics
could help readers realize linguistic features of the text and appreciate the literature
better. Mick Short (1996) regarded stylistics as “a linguistic approach to the study of
literary texts”, that is, stylistics is a tool which analyses literary texts by describing
linguistic features.

According to various definitions above, we may have the same conclusion with Wang
Shouyuan (2000) that “stylistics is an area of study which straddles two disciplines:
literary criticism and linguistics. It takes literary discourse (text) as its object of study and
uses linguistics as a means to an end.

1.2 History of Stylistics

1.2.1 First half of the 20th century: the Growth of Stylistics
Study on Western style can be traced back to ancient Greece, Rome’s rhetoric studies.
Demetris’ Style of Literature appeared as early as 100 and it focus on stylistic issues. But
before the 20th century, comments on the General style discussion are more than
subjective impressions, and usually occur in rhetorical studies, literature studies and
grammatical analysis. Stylistic studies do not have its own independent status. Since the
beginning of 20th century, the use of stylistic analysis help out of the limitations of the
traditional perception of intuitive analysis, and even gradually deepen and systematize
and scientism. European history, Linguistics and General Linguistics in the early 20th
century became more influential and independent subjects, combined with linguistic
stylistics. They have gradually become a certain independence of interdisciplinary.

Founder of modern stylistics is C. Bally. (C.Bally,1865—1947)。He borrowed Saussure's

structural linguistics to rethink traditional rhetoric, trying to set up as a branch of
Linguistics more scientifically and systematically. C. Bally was in the object of spoken
style. He believes that when a person speaks objectively express, a variety of emotions
will come at the same time. Stylistics’ task is to investigate the language means, and the
interrelationship between them. While C. Bally didn’t pay special attention to literary
texts, but his "General stylistics" has a direct role in promoting literary stylistics.
Germany stylist L. Spitzer (L. Spitzer, 1887-1960) who came after C. Bally is generally
revered as the father of the stylistics. L. Spitzer object is not speaking, but literature. L.
Spitzer thought the literary value of the work was mainly reflected in the language, so his
detailed analysis of the effect of specific language, which is different from the traditional
perception of intuitive criticism. In addition, he proposed a method called " philological
circle" which was suitable for analysis traditional novel, namely to look for the work that
appears frequently in the deviation from the normal language features. Then, to explain
psychological roots, in order to examine the relevant factors and confirmed or amended
(Spitzer, 1948). L. Spitzer saw stylistics as the connection between Linguistics and
literature.

Before the late 50th century, development of stylistic was weak, mainly in continental
Europe. In Britain and the United States, along with the gradual decline of new criticism,
a growing number of scholars have realized the importance of linguistic theory in literary
studies. In 1958 in the United States a major international conference was held at Indiana
University---"stylistics Symposium", this was a milestone in history of stylistics. This
Conference marked the birth of Style as an interdisciplinary learning in Britain and the
United States; As far as the West, it marks Stylistic study in a flourish period.

1.2.2 60-70th century: the Rise of Stylistics

In the 60th century and 70th century, Western scientism was very popular. Structuralism
and Linguistics developed fast, contributing to the development of stylistic. Flourish of
stylistic performed in different categories, such as "stylistics", " word stylistics", "socio-
historical/cultural stylistics" and "linguistic stylistics". These categories of distinction are
based on two different standards. “Stylistics and" Word stylistics "distinction was based
on the linguistic models used by the stylist. Stylistics is based on modern linguistic
theories and methods to study the style of discipline, in another sense, it is a very close
relationship between linguistics and stylistics. So development of new linguistic theories
tends to give birth to new stylistic school.

Rise of the stylistics is the date when new criticism declined. New criticism has strong
relationship with stylistics. The reason why stylistics flourished will be list below,
perhaps two main reasons. Firstly, the Stylistics armed themselves with modern
linguistics. Secondly, some stylist use a more flexible position than the new critics.
Although they opposed the work as social documents or historical documents, and does
not get rid of background knowledge of the work. Leech has made it clear "If you want
effective analysis each instance, it is necessary to understand the background of each
poem, including the author's life, cultural background, social background, etc. ”
Compared with new criticism, stylist always focus on text, but not focus on the author,
sometimes can consider for reader's perspective.

In addition, stylistics as intuitive impression of amending and supplementing in the

traditional criticisms, it can fill the gap which left by the decline of new criticism and
even played a large role in the teaching of language and literature. Stylistics is the
connection between linguistics and literary criticism, it focuses on how to express and
enhance the theme and aesthetic through the choice of language. Linguistic theory and
method generally be seen as a help tool to analyze the factions. They are not limited to
the use a particular linguistic models, but according to the actual needs and select one or
more of the applicable linguistic patterns.

Because their purpose is to help the literary criticism but not contribute to the
development of linguistic theory. They only concerned with thematic significance and
aesthetic effects of characteristics, so that the language which describes the system tend
to be weak. Many linguists or linguist-turned-stylist think that this style is impure, in
their view, the purpose should be to help to develop the linguistic stylistics. So it is easy
to see, stylistics is more acceptable to the traditional critics. Most of the literary works
combine interpretation with linguistic description very well. They tend to read works to
identify language characteristics associated with thematic significance and aesthetic
effects, even use appropriate language structures related to the linguistic tools to analyze
descriptions to clarify their literary significance. In this style of study, description and
interpretation of processes are often inseparable: the description is found as linguistic
phenomena associated with the literary significance and reading, linguistic analysis
process can often strengthen or amend the interpretation of results.

Since the early 70th century, functional stylistic flourished. “functional stylistic "is
abbreviation of " systemic-functional ", especially one stylistics that based on Halliday's
systemic functional Linguistics. Halliday was one of the founder of functional stylistics.
In 1969 Italy, he presented an influential paper "the function of language and literary
style" (Halliday, 1971) on a literary seminar. In this paper, "theory of language features"
is a good tool for stylistic research. The so-called "theory of language features", Halliday
said, is "languages play a role in our lives, to serve several common need that perspective
to explain the phenomenon of language structure and language." Halliday distinguishes
language has three functions: "interpersonal" and organizational discourse of "textual
function" which to experience the speaker’s "concept features", expressing the attitude,
evaluation as well as relations between the communicative role. The three functions are
interlinked, constitutes the semantic layer or "meaning potential" into three parts.

Halliday's thesis of systemic functional stylistics laid an important role. It has two main
features. One is the "theory of language features" broke the boundaries of traditional
style and content. Every language has its specific language features. Halliday made it
clear that " language styles exist in any field." "Ideational" he distincted belongs to the
literary stylistics. The stylistic research is expanded to help reveal the nature of the
survival activities in this field and the particular way of observing the world. Another
feature that it to analysis of system performance. Halliday detailed analysis and precise
statistics and chart diagram of system analysis in the form of statistical results to of
transitivity in type and number, type and number of participants as well as the type and
amount of environmental components. This systematic is based on the analysis of the
linguistic model.

After Halliday, there are many functional stylistics transitivity patterns systematically to
analysis of the text. When comes to interpersonal functions, functional stylistics do
analysis from tone, mood, adjectives and adverbs in order to express attitudes and
explore the text which reflected the relationship between the sender and receiver
(author/Narrator in the novel, the characters, the relationship between readers), as well as
their value judgment to the content. Early functional stylistics focuses on a specific
functional areas: focus on authors choice of the physical system, or to focus on the
authors’ choice of personal pronouns, or focus on the author's choice of the textual
function of thematic structure. But in recent years, more and more functional stylistics
analysis pay more attention on several layers at the same time, pay attention on how they
interact to form the overall characteristics and to express and enhance the theme and
character. Functional stylistics has another notable feature, which emphasizes the
relationship of language, discourse and social context. System functional stylistics
believes that language is a social symbol, textual subject to situational context. Because
the emphasized function of system stylistics, since the 80th century, it has been given
rapid development.

1.2.3 The 90th century: Flourish development of socio-historical and

cultural stylistic
In 90th century, the functional stylistics and discourse stylistics remained relatively
strong development. Although literary stylistics still plays an active role in the teaching
of language and literature, it has strong impact of cultural criticism. As far as the stylistic
history of 90th century, social and historical/cultural stylistic flourished. Since the early
80th, the Frankfurt School, Marx, structuralism, especially the influence of Foucault's
thoughts, more and more the stylist no longer see neutral language as a carrier, but as the
physical carrier of ideology; No longer take text as a simple mirror of the ideology, but as
a product of ideology and social structure in turn. They think it is a kind of dialectical
relations, language and social context mutually restricted, towards each other, mutually
constructed, exacerbating inequalities and injustices in our society. From this point of
view, the task of stylistics is to reveal ideologies and power relations that involved.

United Kingdom stylist Burton is the founder of social historical/cultural stylistics. In

1982, she published an article at that time was considered fairly radical article, presented
that Western people were living in a society where class oppression, racial
discrimination, gender discrimination. Burton call stylist to look at their own research to
find out whether it is served for the oppressive nature of rule consciousness or is to
challenge this domination. She thinks that stylistic analysis is to understand the language
constructed out of a variety of "reality" of methods, is a tool for transforming society. Her
stylistic analysis is clearly different from the traditional style of analysis, because its
focus on how the text construct its own (fictional) reality structure. Burton's position has
a considerable degree of representativeness in the stylistics of social history/culture.
Some scholars believe that this school has two branches. One for the CDA, led by
Fowler, another for C. MacCabe , who advocated of history and Philology .

Critical Linguistics emerged in the late 70th in United Kingdom University of East
Anglia. In 1979, Fowler and his colleagues, G.Kress and R.Hodge, at the University of
the KLAIS, have published two books of this Declaration: Language and Control and
Language as Ideology, first time presented "criticism of Linguistics" in the book, and sets
out the basic positions of the factions and methods. Criticized linguists believe that
language has a close correlation between structure and social structure, they saw
language as social semiotic and discourse as a socio-political phenomenon, see literature
as social discourse. They analysis the text, especially in the news media structure
contains class idea, power relations and gender discrimination of various ideologies.
They used Halliday's functional grammar system as analysis tool. Critical linguistics
developed rapidly in the 90th, in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and Australia,
and Germany, and Spain, and Austria and other countries. Macaulay’s primary historical
literature has little effect. He stressed the importance of semantic research in the social
and historical context, paying attention to certain key words in the historical
developments. This focus on historical literature of individual words has a certain
distance with analysis modern stylistic language model, and has close relationship with
the United Kingdom's practical criticisms. Its influence is limited, but in a strict sense, it
does not belong to the stylistics.

In fact, some stylist circled the stylistic categories. But, as previously mentioned, more
than one standard can distinguish style. Who circles into socio-historical/cultural
Stylistics, based on the standards for analytical purposes; People who circle the Stylistics,
Linguistics and criticism, is based on the criteria for analysis. Although many stylist no
longer insist on the distinction between literary and non-literary, they still treat literary
texts as stylistics study. In my opinion, it is best to study here as a distinguishing criterion
because people who engage in social and historical/cultural stylistics have rejected the
distinction between literary and non-literary or aesthetic value of literature. In this case,
the line between literary and non-literary as the distinguishing criterion is rather far-
fetched. Contrasted with other stylistic School of scholars, there are few stylist claim that
they are dealing with social or socio-cultural stylistics. Such a name often appears only in
summarized overview of the works, it covers several different stylistic analysis of critical
theory and linguistic tools. But in the "social and historical/cultural stylistics", analysts
have a common objective, namely reveal ideologies and power relations.
1.3 Concept of Style
What is stylistics? Qin Xiubai (1988), Gu Yueguo (1990), Liu Shisheng
(1992,1994,1998) and Gu Yulan (1993) hold the same view that to give stylistics an
accurate definition, the most important thing is to definite the term “style” accurately. But
what is style? We could get various definitions given by scholars in differentperspectives
and with difficult focuses. Liu Shisheng (1997) listed as many as 31 definitions, for
example style as rhetoric by Gorgias, as form by Aristotle, as proper words in proper
places by Swift, as meaning potential by Halliday, as function by the Prague School and
so forth. On internet, a number of definitions are given, for example, the mode of
expressing thought in writing or speaking by selecting and arranging words, considered
with respect to clearness, effectiveness, euphony, or the like, that is the characteristic of a
group, period, person, personality, etc.; those components or features of a literary
composition that have to do with the form of expression rather than the content of the
thought expressed; a particular, distinctive, or characteristic mode or form of construction
or execution in any art or work1,the combination of distinctive features of literary or
artistic expression, execution, or performance characterizing a particular person, group,
school, or era, and so on.

In Investigating English style, Crystal and Davy (1969) gave at least four commonly
occurring senses of the term “style’’: some or all of the language habits of one person,
such as Shakespeare’s style, the style of Mark Twain and Hemingway’s uniqueness; some
or all of the language habits shared by a group of peopleatone time or over a period of
time, for example, the style of Old English “heroic” poetry; saying the fighting in the
most effective way or as good manner, such as “clear” or “refined style”, and the focus of
literary critic’s attention used to appreciate or describe and evaluate literary language,
such as “good” ,“effective” or “beautiful writing”.

The Finnish scholar N. E. Enkvist (1964) has ever summarized several definitions of
style, for example:

Style is the very thought itself.

Style is ingratiation. It involves saying the right thing in the most effective way.

Style is a shell surrounding a pre-existing core of thought. It is a regarded as an addition

to central core of thought or expression.

Style is a set of individual characteristics. It is the man himself.

Style is a set of collective characteristics.

Style is the relation among linguistic entities that are stable in terms of wider spans of
text than the sentence.

Style is choice. It is the choice between alternative expressions,

Style is deviation from a norm.

According to the words of Thomas S. Kane and Leonard J. Peters in Writing prose:
techniques and purposes (1969): style is a pattern of linguistic features distinguishing
one piece of writing from another, or one category of writing from another.

Leech and Short (1981) also made a conclusion of “style”:

Style is a way in which language is used.

Therefore style consists in choices made from the repertoire of the language.

Stylistic choice is limited to those aspects of linguistic choice, which concern alternative
ways of rendering the same subject matter.

A style is defined in terms of a domain of language use.

When G H. Widdowson (1975) defined “stylistics”, he argued that the term “style”
should include two layers of meaning, relating to literary criticism and linguistics
separately. This definition emphasizes that style involves those two disciplines.

Although there are so many different definitions about the term “style”, we still could
slim up the features of the term “style”, that is, style encompasses the linguistic choices
of the writing presented by the writer for a particular purpose and the ways that the writer
chose to express his thought and feeling effectively. It not only is an ornament, but also
includes the thought, attitude, presumption and standpoint of the writer. Therefore, style
refers to the ways that language is chosen and used by a given person or a given group
for a particular purpose in a given context in a given period. Maybe it is just like what
Leech and Short (1981) pointed in Style in Fiction: it is selection from a total linguistic
repertoire that constitutes a style.

2. Three Views on Style

To carry out a stylistic analysis, it is necessary to first of all be clear about what it is in a
literary text that should be described. However, this question of what style is an issue that
has caused heated dispute among stylistic theorists and great confusion among students
of literature. Liu Shisheng (1998) speaks of the difficulties in defining style and lists 31
definitions. A dozen of these definitions have been listed above.

The above-listed definitions express important views on style, though there is some
overlap among them. In the following sections, we will consider three of these views,
namely style as deviance, style as choice, and style as foregrounding.
2.1 Style as choice
By style as choice meant that style "results from a tendency of a speaker or writer to
consistently choose typical structures over others available in the language" (Traugott
and Pratt, 1980: 29). "With this view", Traugott and Pratt say, "we can distinguish
between 'style' and 'language' by saying that language is the sum total of the structures
available to the speaker, while style concerns the characteristic choices in a given
context".

To say that style is choice is not the same as saying that it is always conscious choice.
The effect of conscious choice-making is no doubt more apparent in literature than in
other types of discourse, yet a sense of the 'best way of putting something' in any type of
discourse can be purely intuitive or even habitual. If a writer had to make choice
consciously all the time at different linguistic levels, it is not difficult to imagine how
long it would take to produce anything at all and, consequently, how little literature we
would have in today's literature storehouse.

Style as choice is often considered to be a matter of form or expression, i. e. as choice

among different ways of expressing a predetermined content. However, it only takes a
moment or two to reflect that writers also choose content. In the discussion of Enkvist's
paper, 'On the place of style in some linguistic theories', it is pointed out that
"Hemingway elects to write about men of action - bull fighters, deep-sea fishermen,
soldiers, big-game hunters - is as much a stylistic fact as his habit of writing in short,
simple sentences, preferring the 'dramatic' to the 'interior monologue' point of view in
narration, etc." (Chatman, 1971: 64).

The evidence of choice-making can be found in authors' manuscripts. Here we will cite
an interesting case which was once considered by Short (1984). In writing The Eve of St.
Agnes, Keats first produced the line, 'As though a rose should close and be a bud again'.
But when he re-read the line, he substituted the word shut for close: 'As though a rose
should shut and be a bud again'. On a first casual reading we may get the impression that
since close and shut are synonyms, the replacement of one with the other does not make
much difference, and is therefore not necessary. But when we scrutinize the two versions,
we may decide that shut is a much better choice. The word close in the first version
connects backwards to rose to form an internal rhyme, which adds some poetic quality to
the line, since internal rhyme is one of those features associated traditionally and
typically with poetry. However, this connection is made only within the first part of the
line. Furthermore, the connection does not in any way reinforce the meaning of the
connected words, nor indeed that of the entire line. Therefore, we may say that it is
rhyme for rhyme's sake.

In contrast with close, the choice of shut is more appropriate and significant in three
respects: a) It connects forward phonetically and supraclausally to bud, thus forming a
semi-rhyme or assonance. It also connects backward to should phonetically and visually
and to rose with which it forms the next immediate constituent. Because the above
connections run across both parts of the line instead of just one, the unity of the line is
greatly strengthened. b) The phonetic connection it forms with bud underlies the
semantic connection between the two words, for shut semantically relates to bud in terms
of the shape of the flower, while close does not have this relation. c) When we compare
the choice of shut with the choice of close phonetically, there is another interesting point
to be made. Notice that the vowel /a/ before a voiceless consonant /t/ in the word shut
takes a much shorter duration to produce than the diphthong /au/ before a voiced
consonant /z/ in the word close. Notice also that the consonant /t/ is a plosive which is
produced with a rapid release of compressed air leading to short and sharp explosion,
while the consonant /z/ is a sibilant which is produced with the blade of the tongue
making almost complete contact with the alveolar ridge but leaving a narrow groove
along its median line. Therefore, the production of the word shut may produce a sense of
'suddenness' and 'abruptness' in contrast with the production of the word close. This
greatly reinforces the meaning of the line.

The view that style is choice is a broader view. It may in some way subsume the view of
style as deviance, for deviance is only one aspect of the language of literature (Traugott
and Pratt, 1980). However, like the view of style as deviance, it also has limitations. For
example, it implies that every linguistic element in a text is a choice of the writer and
therefore should be included in a discussion of the style of the text it is in. But this is
obviously not the case. Our experience and intuition tell us that in interpreting a text,
only a certain number of elements are interesting and relevant to the interpretation. The
stylistician must select those features that are most relevant to his discussion and ignore
the irrelevant ones in order to make a coherent and convincing interpretation.

2.2 Style as deviance

One of the views is implied in Widdowson's remarks quoted previously in Section 1.4.
That is, the distinctiveness of a literary text resides in its departure from the
characteristics of what is communicatively normal. This has led to approaches to style as
deviance. One of the chief proponents of the concept of style as deviance was Jan
Mukarovsky, a leading linguist and literary critic of the Prague School in the 1930's. His
famous essay "Standard language and poetic language" has been regarded as a classic in
stylistics. In this essay, he speaks of style as "foregrounding", stating that "the violation
of the norm of standard, its systematic violation is what makes possible the poetic
utilization of language; without this possibility there would be no poetry" (1970: 42).
According to Mukarovsky, normal uses of language "automatize" language to such an
extent that its speakers no longer see its expressive or aesthetic power; poetry must "de-
automatize" or "foreground" language by breaking the rules of everyday language.

To demonstrate what Mukarovsky's statements mean, let us first quote a classic example,
the phrase "a grief ago" from a poem of that name by Dylan Thomas. The phrase violates
two rules of English: a) the indefinite article a clashes syntactically with the uncountable
noun grief, because it normally modifies a countable one; b) the postmodifying adverb
ago clashes semantically with the head word grief, for it usually is able to modify a noun
to do with time. But grief is a word which expresses emotion. The highly deviant nature
of the phrase attracts much attention from the reader to itself, and thus makes it possible
for the poet to express what cannot be expressed through the normal use of language.
Thomas here seems to be measuring time in terms of emotion. It is not unreasonable,
therefore, to suggest that the speaker of the poem may have experienced grief repeatedly
so that he can measure time in terms of it.

Another frequently quoted example is E. E. Cummings' poem anyone lived in a pretty

how town. This poem shows not only the extremity of rule violations in poetry, but also
the systematicity of violations. Here is part of the poem:

(1) anyone lived in a pretty how town

(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did
Women and men (both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

To avoid complications let us limit our discussion here only to the use of auxiliaries in
the poem fragment. There are three auxiliaries in this part of the poem: didn't, did and
isn't. They are all used in positions where we normally employ common nouns and,
therefore, they obviously violate a syntactic rule. Each of these auxiliaries on its own, we
may find, does not seem to make much sense. However, because they are used
systematically, i.e. in the same way, we are able to impose some kind of interpretation
upon them. Here didn't and did can be taken as antonyms. A possible interpretation we
could construct for the last two lines of the first stanza, therefore, may go as follows: all
the year round, he greeted with equal happiness things, acts or actions of opposite
consequences that came to him.

The approach of style as deviance as introduced above has the advantage of helping us to
see and keep in mind that there is a difference between everyday language and the
language of literature. It also helps us realize that deviant features provide important
clues for interpretation. However, this approach also has a number of disadvantages. The
chief disadvantage, which is a much debated problem, is that it is difficult to define the
nature and the status of the norm from which style of a text deviates. Bloch, for example,
considers the basis of norm to be statistical. He defines style as "the message carried by
the frequency distributions and transitional probabilities of linguistic features, especially
as they differ from those of the same feature in the language as a whole" (1953: 42). But
this position has been challenged. Freeman points out: "The 'frequency distributions and
transitional probabilities' are not known, and never will be, and even if they could be
ascertained, they would constitute no particularly revealing insight into either natural
language or style".

Another disadvantage of this approach, as Traugott and Pratt point out, is that of
"encouraging the linguist to look at the language of grammatically highly deviant authors
like E. E. Cummings at the expense of the relatively non-deviant ones such as T. S. Eliot
and Wallace Stevens. More generally it tends to undervalue all non-deviant language,
both within literature and without" (1980: 33). The theoretical assumption that aesthetic
effects can only be achieved through deviance needs to be questioned.
2.2 Style as foregrounding

We have examined two views of style at some length. Each view, as we have found, has
its own strengths and weaknesses. There is a further view of style which appears to be a
compromise between the two views discussed so far. This is the view of style as
foregrounding. The term foregrounding is a concept of pictorial arts, referring to that part
of the composition that appears to be closest to the view (Mayer, 1969). The concept was
applied to literature first by the pre-war Prague School linguists and literary critics, such
as Mukarovsky, to refer to the unexpected departures from the accepted norms. This was
discussed above when we examined the view of style as deviance. The proponents of the
view of style as foregrounding extended the concept to include both the deviant features
and those linguistic phenomena which are not deviant, but nevertheless striking. The
latter are what Leech refers to as "the opposite circumstance, in which a writer
temporarily renounces his permitted freedom of choice, introducing uniformity where
there would normally be diversity" (1971: 122). Consider the following parallel structure
for example:

(1) When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,

And when he cried the little children died in the streets.
(W. H. Auden, Epitaph on a Tyrant)

Auden could have chosen a different structure for each line, yet he limited himself to the
same option. The parallel structure here draws the attention of the reader and makes him
see the semantic connection between the two lines. This, therefore, is a type of
foregrounding.

The view of style as foregrounding is explained in Short's article "Who is stylistics":

A. When a writer writes he is constantly involved in making linguistic choices -

choices between one word and another, one structure and another, and so on.
B. Examination of the choices that he makes (as opposed to the ones that he rejects)
can help us to understand more fully the meaning he is trying to create and the effects he
is striving to achieve.
 C. He can make choices both inside and outside the language system. Choices outside
the language system are deviant and thus produce foregrounding.
D. Overregularity of a particular choice within the system (e.g. parallelism) also
produces foregrounding.
(Short, 1984: 21)

We can see from the above statement that importance is attached to the concept of choice.
However, the most weight is given to two major types of choices, i.e. choices that are
deviant and those that are over regular, for they both produce foregrounding. This is to
say that it is foregrounded features that are stylistically relevant and merit consideration
in a stylistic analysis. In other words, style is foregrounding.

The notion of style as foregrounding, which seems to be an integration of the two views
already discussed, may theoretically raise problems similar to those that the other
approaches have. However, it has two obvious advantages over the other approaches: a)
It can account for certain aspects of non-deviant language in literature which the
approach of style as deviance fails to do. In other words, it is a broader view than the
view of style as deviance. b) Compared with the view of style as choice, the view of style
as foregrounding leaves much less to personal judgment, i.e. the identification and
selection of stylistically relevant features for analysis are less of a problem for those
taking the view of style as foregrounding.

Leech points out: "Foregrounding is a useful, even crucial, concept in stylistics,

providing a bridge between the relative objectivity of linguistic description and the
relative subjectivity of literary judgment. It is a criterion by which we may select, from a
mass of linguistic detail, those features relevant to literary effects" (1973: 75). Therefore,
it seems necessary for us to have a closer examination of it. There is also a pedagogic
reason for a further consideration of foregrounding. Short informs us "the overseas
student is unlikely to have a sufficient grasp of the norms of the language to be able to
determine what is deviant, foregrounded, and hence crucial to understanding" (Short,
1983: 72). Thus, the next four chapters will be devoted to an in-depth discussion of the
various aspects of foregrounding.

It can be noticed from Short's statement that foregrounding is achieved either through
deviation or through overregularity in language use. Deviation can be investigated and
classified according to its linguistic level. In his book A Linguistic Guide to English
Poetry (1969), Leech, for example, considers phonological, graphological, grammatical,
lexical, semantic and dialectal deviation. He also discusses deviation of register and
deviation of historical period. In this book, we will consider phonological, graphological,
syntactic, lexical and semantic deviation.

3. Approaches of Stylistic Analysis

Approaches of stylistic analysis contains three parts, linguistic description, textual
analysis, contextual factors analysis. Linguistic description refers to the exploration and
classification of linguistic features of a given text. A linguistic feature is shown by its
consistency and relative frequency. The linguistic features are reflected by style markers,
which are linguistic items that only appear, or are most or least frequent, in a text,
representing a particular variety of language or literary genre. Leech and Short (1981) list
four linguistic and stylistic categories when they expound the methods of stylistic
analysis of fiction: lexical categories, grammatical categories, figures of speech, and
cohesion and context. There is also a checklist of linguistic description for stylistic
analysis.
Textual analysis is The definition of "Text". Etymologically, the word "text" comes from
a metaphorical use of the Latin verb "textere"(weave), suggesting a sequence of
sentences or utterances "interwoven" structually and semantically. It is possible for a text
to consist of only one sentence or utterances, e.g. a notice or road sign (Exit; Stop),
which is semantically complete in itself, and pragmatically tied to a specific situation.
The text includes the following aspects:
• a. Text layout (general frame work of the text)
• b. Reference (personal, demonstrative, comparative, etc.)
• c. Substitution (nominal, verbal, clausal, etc.)
• d. Ellipsis (nominal, verbal, clausal, etc.)
• e. Logical connectors (additive, adversative, causal, temporal, and other logical
connections, e.g. reiteration, classification, division, exemplification, etc.)
• f. Collocation (words typically associated with one another)
• g. Inter-sentence relationship (coordination, homology, sequence, separation,
hyponymy, reiteration, adversative and contrast, explanation, cause and effect,
etc.).

Contextual Factors Analysis is the definition of "Context". Context consists of two

aspects: One is "linguistic context", referring to the linguistic units preceding and/or
following a particular linguistic unit in a text. The other is "extra-linguistic context",
referring to the relevant features of the situation in which a text has meaning.

So that, major topics will be discussed of the approaches of stylistic analysis will be
listed below.
1. What are the three steps of stylistic analysis?
2. Substantiate the four items: rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and consonance.
3. Define the terms: phonology, graphology, lexis, syntax, and semantics.
4. What is a text? Explain the aspects of textual analysis.
5. What is context? Explain the three types of contextual factors according to Functional
Stylistics.

The goal of stylistic inquiry should have two points. The first goal of stylistics is to help
readers understand a text better. In other words, it provides insights into the meaning of
the text. The second goal is to explain why and how one text is better than another one.
That is to say, stylistics is more directly concerned with interpretation of a text.
One thing that has to be attended to is the task and aim of stylistics. As discussed in the
previous Chapter, the task of stylistics does not focus on listing items or categories of
various styles. Instead, it lies in observing and describing the language features of
principal styles, that is, the features of pronunciation, sentence, words and discourse of
each style. In so doing, the aim of stylistics of enabling leaners to know the expression
contents and use them is maintained. So besides the description of stylistic features of
language, the stylistic effects must be emphasized in order to inform the learners of their
expressive force.

3.1 Pronunciation Level

With respect to pronunciation, the first point to explain is phonetic symbolization. “Some
phonetics or phonetic clusters are regarded as capable of playing the role of semantics or
as appropriate expression to the semantics to a certain extent.”(Liu Shisheng, 2006:75)
According to Liu Shisheng, the phonetic symbolization includes Seven constituents for
consideration.

Besides phonetic symbolization, there are also some special phonetic patterns, including
alliteration, assonance and consonance, and rhyme. Alliteration, assonance and
consonance are the contrived use of voices, which often connect the effects of emphasis,
prominence and other special stylistic effect. Rhyme is a markedness which is often
related to poems, aiming to provide Senses of balance aesthetics.

Established phonetic patterns of stress and rhythm are also included under pronunciation
item. Stress appears in words as well as sentences, while rhythm is a term bearing close
relation to poems and proses. Each poem, generally, consist of some stanzas in which are
some verses. In succession, each verse is composed by foots of different stress or non-
stress patterns. Finally, rhythms are engendered by these patterns to give a sense of
music.

All in all, it is believed that a good command of these pronunciation features and their
stylistic effects will improve students’ recognition of these sounds, and further, prepares
them to communicate more effectively and appropriately.

3.2 Vocabulary Level

English words can be classified into different categories according to different criteria.
From the perspective of part of speech, there are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
prepositions, conjunctions, articles, interjections and determiners. In such categories, the
last five belong to grammatical words or functional words. While the fist four are lexical
words which reveal more styles with the variation of use. Generally, texts with
extraordinary use of nouns are called noun style, and texts with extraordinary use of
verbs are called verb style, so there are also adjective style and adverb style, the last of
which rarely occurs since adverbs are more attached to grammar. On the basis of
Ellegard’s analysis (Elllegard, A. 1978), the average portion of noun use is 27%, and the
average portions of verb and adjective are respectively 12.1% and 7.4%. The excessive
use of certain class of words is often for the special stylistic effects in certain contexts.
For instance, a paragraph of speech in noun style may indicate the content speaker wants
to express is much, but this phenomenon is in line with incorrect or even nonexistent
noun words, which just tell the readers the speaker in fact is in a blank of mind or his
mind is narrowed in a cabined situation.

Another perspective is to divide words based on its origin. With different origins, English
words can be divided into Angle. Saxon words, Latin words, Greek words and French
words. Except for the Angle. Saxon words, most of which are monosyllabic words in
daily life, the following kinds often fall into the group of polysyllabic words. In addition,
those words are commonly more formal, thus appearing mainly in the legal documents
and other formal occasions.

According to the degree of standard, English words consist of standard and non-standard
words like dialects. It is largely accepted that standard English instead of non-standard
English is a sign of good education and social status.

3.3 Sentence Level

Stylistics knowledge of at sentence level is no simpler than that of pronunciation, since
there are a number of variations for sentences. One element of sentence is verb, which
changes in line with the tenses. Generally speaking, in literary works it is past tense,
which dominates the passage. However, some works may instead prefer present tense to
recurrence of the situation for authenticity.

Another grammatical element relating to sentence is voice, including active voice and
passive voice. Each of these two has its own features. Active voice emphasizes the
performerof action whose foreshow has a strong control of the action, thus active voice
exhibits the subjectivity of narration as well as the absoluteness of power. On the
contrary, passive voice embodies its objectivity and abstract, implying the action receiver
is passive and powerless. Because of that, passive voice is commonly used in the styles
which should avoid the subjectivity and regard objectivityor reasoning .Such voice
accounts for a large portion in the fields of science and technology as well as law.
Besides, it is estimated by foreign linguists that in physics, chemistry, engineering
textbooks, verbs of passive voice mounts to more than 1/3 of the total finite verbs.

Almost without exception, students study English from the simple sentence to the
extended sentence. It is common that experienced or advanced English learners are
capable of writing long or complex sentences. Such sentences are extended sentences
which are formed by means of linking, listing or nesting. Linking refers to the link of two
or more than two sentence elements by conjunctions. The sentence formed by linking is
called the compound sentence. In addition, the simple sentence and the compound
sentence are concise and vivid, so a bunch use of them formulates the style of simplicity
and concision which connects inadequate education, young age or blankness. Compared
with linking, the tempo of listing is more fast and tight. For example, “One World, One
Dream”(the 2008 Olympics Slogan) being a list without conjunction is tight and vivid.
The third means nesting normally accompanies the complex sentence. Different from the
other two, the sentence with nesting always expresses complicated thoughts or ideals that
are laborious to comprehend. So it is generally applied in legal documents that need strict
reasoning. In a word, the extending means of sentences is closely related to the style
demanded, linking and listing correlate to concise and simple style in whir listing is
tighter and closer, while nesting always functions in complicated ways to increase the
complexity of style.

In the use of English, a large number of sentences are formulated out of normal English
habits for some special purposes; such usage variations include ellipsis, inversion,
periodic sentence, loose sentence, climax, anticlimax, repetition, parallelism and
antithesis. Most forms of these usage variations can be deduced from the name of
themselves. For example, “ellipsis’’ refers to the omission of certain sentence element;
‘‘parallelism’’ means the repetition of phrases or clauses of similar structure. For the
stylistic effects, these usage variations function a lot. Ellipsis brings about compactness
and simplicity; inversion aims for structure balance or element emphasis; periodic
sentence is in contrast with loose sentence in which the main contents expressed in the
beginning, periodic sentence puts the main part in the end, which produces suspense or
emphasis; climax and anticlimax are two opposite means in which the former increases
force of affection and persuasion while the latter creates ironic or humorous effect;
repetition is for emphasis or the expression of strong emotions; parallelism intends to
make the text emphatic and improve expressive force; antithesis purposes brilliance and
interest by mutual reflection.

Except for traditional grammar, the contemporary linguist Chomsky’s theory of

Transformational—generative grammar is very significant for stylistics since it makes a
differentiation between surface structure and deep structure. Such a division seems very
consistent with the dualism of stylistics: deep structure is the semantic resource, while
surface structure is all optional style.

3.4 Discourse Level

Besides the above discussions, the largest grammatical element discourse-related
stylistics knowledge should also be analyzed. Discourse is engendered by one or more
than one sentences which are linked together with cohesive devices. A series of randomly
combined sentences is not a discourse. Cohesive devices in English are in the forms of
reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion. Some language
elements are meaning incomprehensible without concomitant of some others, that is, they
have to be comprehended by considering the meanings of some other elements. All these
elements together form the reference, for instance, it is impossible to figure out “it” in the
discourse “The paint is still tacky! Don’t touch it!’’ if without the sentence “The paint is
still tacky!’’ The two elements ‘‘the paint'’ and ‘‘it'’ form a reference which connects the
two sentences. Reference occurs in the semantic level, while substitution and ellipsis take
place in syntax level concerning words. Ellipsis and substitution not only enhance the
structure relation but also bring about language variation, novelty, concision and vivacity.
Conjunctions show semantic relations other than grammatical relations. Generally
speaking, some conjunctions are more used in spoken English, such as and, so, yet, then;
while others are more commonly used in written English, such as however, nevertheless,
consequently; in addition, conjunctions are comparatively more applied in spoken
English than written English. Based on the functions of conjunctions, cause and effect
conjunctions and transition conjunctions appear more frequently in articles of reasoning
or arguing. Lexical cohesion occurs when related words are capable of connecting
sentences by the means of collocation and reiteration, the latter of which is realized
through repetition, synonym, near-synonym, superordinate or general word. One
significant advantage of lexical cohesion lies in its function of avoiding blankness with
the use of different words expressing the similar meanings.

Discourse cohesion regarding sentence is one aspect, another larger element is sentence
group which forms by a few sentences of a single idea. Generally,s everal sentence
groups together compose a paragraph, each of the group owns a single ideal, however,
and all the sentence groups serve for the same paragraph focus. The arrangement of
sentence groups differs according to article type. Article of argumentation prefer sentence
groups of layers in which some sentences groups explain for some others or some
dominate others. Different from the arrangement of argumentation article, those groups
in novels are often more loosely arranged with temporal order.

Whatever the discourse is, it falls into a certain pattern which forms in the long run of
language 1lse.The similar discourses are of the same discourse pattern which is
distinguished from other ones. The pattern of conversation generally is salutation, body
part and valediction, the conjoint two of which are always with obvious language signals,
such as Now, You see. The pattern of news report naturally has its own characteristic: the
crucial part comes first in the report beginning followed by the related process or details.
In addition, the latter parts of news basically are cause, process, result and affect.
Exposition’s discourse pattern, likewise, is comparatively orderly' from thesis to further
explanation. Distinct from the above patterns, argumentation pattern basically is
constituted by three parts which are launching a issue, retort and reasoning, conclusion.
The last one for introduction is novel’s discourse pattern. With seemingly protean
structures, novel has a most common pattern which includes the elements of setting,
participants, events, conclusion and evaluation.

The stylistic analysis of at the discourse level enriches learners’ knowledge of style,
which should help improve their ability of recognizing and applying the discourse
stylistic characteristics into practice. If learners are equipped with such knowledge, they
are sure able to communicate appropriately in accordance with style.

3.5 The Notion of Context

If the application of stylistics as well as its function of improving communicative
competence are expected, the concept “context” should be studied.

“Context is divided into linguistic context and non-linguistic context. Linguistic context
refers to the inner-linguistic factors which influence the meaning of language while

non--linguistic context refers to the extra--linguistic factors which affect the practical use
of language in the particular context, including cultural context and situational context.”
Among the three sub-divisions, situational context is the mostcomplicatedone since it has
sub-divisions for its own.Situational context, as Halliday puts forward, include three
constituents: field of discourse, mode of discourse and tenor of discourse.(Zhu
Yongsheng,2004:1 82-1 86) Field of discourse, referring to the whole event in language
communication, is tightly related to topic or subject matter which is the instance
symbolizing field of discourse. Different topics al e still possible to indicate the same
field of discourse. Mode of discourse primarily concerns spoken mode and written mode
which are the two existing patterns of language. Tenor of discourse refers to the degree of
familiarity between the speakers and the roles they play in a language activity. Discourse
tenor affects the linguistic style chosen in communication.

According to Martin Joos (1990), linguistic style is grouped into five levels: frozen
linguistic style, formal linguistic style, consultative linguistic style, casual linguistic style
and intimate linguistic style. Such a division is generally accepted by linguistic and
language learners. The five linguistic styles perform very differently in communication
activities. Language in frozen style is elegant, precise even stiff, which is mostly adopted
in official documents, legal iterns and other grave or serious occasions, especially in
written form. Formal style bears the characteristics of coherent organization and
elaborate expression, which is commonly envisaged by one person facing a number of
people, such as meeting, business negotiation, foreign diplomacy and so on. Sometimes
the speakers are formally polite to each other because they are unacquainted and need
more language to make themselves understood. Style of such a situation is consult ative
style.