MAJORSHIP

Area: ENGLISH

Focus: Introduction to Stylistics

LET Competencies:

1. apply the basic stylistic principles to arrive at meaning of literary texts

2. demonstrate skills in a principled analysis of literary texts to produce less impressionistic or subjective
interpretation
3. grasp the ‘grammar of literature’ through various linguistic tools

A. Definition of Stylistics
1. Some of the more common definitions of stylistics follow.
1.1. Stylistics is the application of concepts from linguistics and allied disciplines in the analysis and interpretation of
samples of communication through language (Otanes, ms.).
1.2. The linguistic study of different styles is called stylistics (Chapman, 1973:11).
1.3. Stylistics is a linguistic approach to the study of literary text (Brumfit and Carter, 1997:93).
1.4. Stylistics is the study of literary discourse from a linguistics orientation. What distinguishes it from literary
criticism… is that it is a means of linking the two (Widdowson, 1975).
1.5. Practical stylistics is the process of literary text analysis which starts from a basic assumption that the previous
interpretative procedures used in the reading of a literary text are linguistic procedures (Carter, 1991:4).
2. Three basic principles of a linguistic approach to literary study and criticism (Carter):
2.1. That the greater our detailed knowledge of the working of the language system, the greater our capacity for
insightful awareness of the effects produced by the literary texts
2.2. That a principled analysis of language can be used to make our commentary on the effects produced in a literary
work less impressionistic and subjective
2.3. That because it will be rooted in a systematic awareness of language, bits of language will not merely be spotted
and evidence gathered casually and haphazardly. Analysis of one linguistic pattern requires checking against
related patterns across the text. Evidence for the text will be provided in an overt or principled way. The
conclusions can be attested and retrieved by another analyst working on the same data with the same method.
There is also less danger that we may overlook textual features crucial to the significance of the work.
3. Importance of practical stylistics:
3.1. It can provide the means whereby the student of literature can relate a piece of literary writings to his own
experience of language and so can extend that experience.
3.2. It can assist in the transfer of interpretative skills, on essential purpose of literary education.
3.3. It can provide a procedure for demystifying literary texts.
3.4. The focus of a literary text in itself provides a context in which the learning of aspects of language can be
positively enjoyed.

4. Grid of Relationships of Stylistics with other Disciplines

Disciplines: Linguistics Literary Criticism

Stylistics

Subjects: Language Literature

5. Some Useful Concepts in Stylistics:

Foregrounding – emphasis on a textual feature; may be achieved through unusual or strange collocations,
meaningful repetitions, contrast, deliberate deviation from the norms/ rules/ conventions.

Collocation – the co-occurrence of certain words

Reference vs. Representation – Reference is the indexical function of language, pointing to different aspects of
reality. Representation is manipulating language to stand for an experience/ situation.

Diegesis and Mimesis – Diegesis is telling/ narrating; mimesis is showing.

 Co-operative Principle – According to Grice, people can engage in meaningful extended conversation because,
under normal conditions, the interlocutors observe certain principles, which he calls the four conversational maxims.
The maxim of Quality upholds the value of truth/ sincerity; the maxim of Manner refers to the avoidance of
obscurity of expression and ambiguity, and to be orderly (Pratt, 1977, pp. 129-130, in Weber, 1996).

Four convention maxims in carrying out a conversation

(The co-operative principle and its regulative conventions)

1. The maxim of quantity: make your contribution as informative as is required – don’t give too much or too little
information.
2. The maxim of quality: make your contribution one that you believe to be true.
3. The maxim of relation: be relevant
4. The maxim of manner: avoid unnecessary prolixity, obscurity of expression and ambiguity, and be orderly.

Four cases when maxims are often violated:

a) A speaker may unostentatiously violate a maxim; this accounts for lies and deceits.
b) He may opt out of the co-operative principle, e.g., government officials’ refusal to answer questions requiring
classified information.
c) Faced with clash, he may break one maxim or another.
d) He may ostentatiously flout a maxim, so that it is apparent to his interlocutors.

Speech Act – The theory that “many utterances are significant not so much in terms of what they say, but rather in
terms of what they do” (Sullivan, et al., 1994, p. 293).

The speech act has three conditions:

1. Introduction of context or the preparatory and sincerity conditions.
Ex. I promise to return the book next week.

2. Marking of clear social relationships.

Ex. Normally, a servant cannot threaten a master.

3. Observance of felicity conditions before and post speech event.

Ex. “From Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett
Vladimir: Well, shall we go?
Estrogen: Yes, let’s go.
(They do not move).

B. Some Common Ways of Interpreting (Literary Texts) in Stylistics

1. Systematic Grammar in Literary Analysis (Halliday, 1970 in Carter, 1991).
Halliday sees language in terms of three functions: (1) The ideational (2) The interpersonal, and (3) the
textual. The ideational function is concerned with cognitive meaning, the interpersonal with describing the
relations between persons (hence, questions and answers, positive and negative forms, are part of this function),
and the textual with process enabling the speaker or writer to construct texts as a logical sequence of units.
One possible option with the ideational function, Halliday goes on to say, is the transitivity function, to
illustrate how stylistics may profit from applying a grammatical model to analyze a literary text. The transitivity
function has three elements:
(a) the process represented by the verb. Ex.: Alex watered the plants.
(b) the participants – the roles of persons and objects. In the above sentence, Alex is the actor, the
plants object/goal.
(c) circumstantial function - in English typically the adverbials of time, place, and manner.
Roles come in the form of (a) actor, (b) goal or object of result, (c) beneficiary or recipient as in Rykel gave his
brother Shen some cookies, and (d) instrument of force as “The tree was hit by a lightning.”

In dealing with clause types, Halliday distinguishes three types: those of (a) action, (b) mental process, and
(c) relation. The mental process verbs are further divided into verbs of perception, reaction, cognition, and
verbalization, all having a processor and phenomenon, rather than having actor and goal as participant roles.

Ex. Shen heard his younger brother (person)

the reason (abstraction)
the singing of the anthem (event) bracketed words
the radio (object) are phenomena
 Relational clauses are those in which the process describes or states a relation between two roles.
Ex.: 1. Arnel Pineda acts as the lead singer. (attributive type)
2. The Journey band is as popular as the Jonas. (equative type)

Halliday also classifies action clauses and mental process clauses in terms of the ergative function in which
an affected participant has an inherent role associated with action clauses and which is the goal in a transitive
clause and the action in an intransitive clause.
Ex..: 1. Raskolnikov fell ill. (the affected participant)
2. The theory consumes him. (‘causer’ of the process)

2. Meaning Beyond The Sentence

The kernels of meaning in long-winding sentences, particularly in the stream-of-consciousness technique,
may be derived by listing them down to create a discourse or arrive at meaning.
In this regard Chapman (1973) enumerates 9 of the most frequently used connectives, as among the
essential features of discourse.

a. Conjunctions and conjunctive adjectives (e.g., however, but, furthermore, nevertheless).

Ex. In Dapitan, Rizal engaged in farming, sculpture, poetry-writing and other useful activities, but
life there proved routine until Josephine Bracken came to his life.

b. Pronominal linkage with a preceding noun.

Ex. “For an hour and a half he wondered aimlessly up and down side streets, immersed in solving
some problem – chess, of course – the meaning of which suddenly had become the meaning
of his whole existence on earth.”

Leonid Leonov’s “The Wooden Queen”

c. Repetition of a keyword or proper name, either identically or in a different grammatical form:

Ex. “He was a formidable player; few dared play with him for his stakes were so high and
reckless.”

Hesse’s Siddhartha

d. Use of synonyms or related word or phrase:

Ex. “For they sometimes, perhaps even on the majority of occasions, waited for their squires to
grow old, and then when they were cloyed with service, having endured bad days and worse
nights, they conferred upon them some title, such as count, or at least marquis.

Cervantes’s Don Quixote

e. Deictic words – ‘pointers’ like the, this, that – either governing a noun or referring back to the whole
sentence.
Ex. “Is that the way they do things where you’ve been,” he asked. “– for the ladies to escort the
gentleman home?”
That was a nasty hit for Eleseus; he turned red…”
Hamsun’s Growth of the Soil
f. Repetition of opening structure
Ex. We work when the sun rises,
We rest when the sun sets.
We dig wells for drink,
We plow the land for food.
What has the power of the Emperor
to do with us?

Shih Shing (Book of Songs)

g. Class-member relationships, or relationships of the parts of referent to the whole

Ex. “They were friends, yet enemies; he was master, she was mistress; each cheated the other,
each feared the other, each felt this and knew this enemy time they touched hands…”
 Virginia Woolf’s “Duchess and the Jeweler”

h. Loosen semantic connection without repetition of items.

Ex. I had soon realized I was speaking to a Catholic, to someone who believed – how do they put
it? – in an omnipotent and omniscient Deity, while I was what is loosely called an Agnostic.”

Graham Greene’s “The Hint of an Explanation”

i. Clear sequence of events

Ex. “Those were the happiest years of my life, my friendship with Lojzik and stamp-collecting. Then
I had scarlet fever and wouldn’t let him come to see me, but he used to stand in the passage
and whistle so that I could see him.”

Karel Capek, “The Stamp Collection”

3. Pedagogical Stylistics
Carter (in Weber, 1996) bats for a more extensive and integrated study of language and literature
which are better given as pre-literary, linguistic activities.

3.1 Predicting how the narrative will develop after omitting the title, or after reading the first paragraph.
This can be done by paired group.
 Lyric poems or texts which evoke descriptive states do not benefit from this activity.
 Texts with a strong plot component do
 Even the best narrative could make students read back and project forward.
3.2 Use of cloze procedure
 Focus on individual words/sequence of words, rather than on stretches of texts.
 Do some lexical prediction during the act of reading/ after a story is read.
 Show careful/close reading.
 Do reasonable and supportable predictions to be alerted to the over-all pattern of the story.
3.3 Summarizing strategies
 Limit the summary, from 25-40 words to: (a) re-structure, delete, re-shape their word to meet the
word limit, (b) focus on structure and shape of the narrative.
 Compare and criticize alternative summaries.
3.4 Forum: Debating opposing viewpoints
 Mobilize discussion and debate.
 Do small-group activity.
 Provide counter-examples from other groups to listen.
 Use their prior knowledge and the text in question.
3.5 Guided re-writing
 Recognize the broader discourse patterns of texts and styles appropriate to them.
 Re-write stretches of discourse to change its communicative value.
 Rewrite a set of instructions, as a description, or turning a lecture transcript into academic
discourse.
 Specify clearly information about audiences/purpose.
 Rewrite one style into another to explore connections between styles and meaning, particularly
juxtaposing literary and non-literary texts.
 Focus on varied ways in instructing information for readers in different texts.
 Infer more on semantic overlaps, degrees of information supplied to a reader, even the omission
of certain expected propositions assigned thematic significance.

E. Pragmatic Stylistics
Below is a grid showing six major speech act functions and sub-functions, (cited in Hatch, 1992):
Kind of Exchange Examples Speech Act Equivalent

1. Factual Information a)The IIRC report inflicts many. Representative (judged for
identify, ask, report, say, b)The plane departs at 7:10. truth value, may either be
think c)Is Sunshine Corazon a threat hedged or aggravated)
to Lea Michelle?
2. Intellectual Information
agree/disagree,
remember/forget,
certain/uncertain, ask/give,
accept/decline,
capable/incapable
a)These arguments are correct. Representative
b)Sorry, I can’t attend the
meeting!
c)Global warming melts the Artic.

3. Emotional attitudes a) I’m worried about my term Expressive

surprise, hope, fear, worry, papers.
preference, gratitude, b) Usec Puno intends to resign.
intention, want, desire c) Make my coffee black.

4. Moral attitudes a)I appreciate your help. Expressive (states joy,

apology, approval, b)He regretted his decision. disappointment, likes,
appreciation, regret, c)The mother abandons the dislikes, etc.)
indifference baby.

5. Suasion a)Hand in your assignments.

suggest, request, invite,
instruct, advice, warn, offer
6. Socializing
greet, take leave, introduce,
propose, congratulate, etc.
b)Watch out for falling debris!
c)The doctor suggests that Ana
lessen her sugar intake.
a)Hi, Larry, how are you?
b)You made it! I’m happy for you.
c)See you tomorrow!
Directive (makes a request
to be complied with
Directive (i.e., Tell me how
you are.)

Other speech acts include:

1. Commissives are statements that function as promise or refusals for action. Like directives,
commissives vary in strength – either strong or highly hedged in either positive or negative directions.
Ex. Don’t worry, I’ll be there.

2. Declaratives (To Austin, declaratives are performatives). When uttered, they bring about a new state of
being.
Ex. a) I now pronounce you husband and wife!
b) You won the lotto!
c) Here are your walking papers!

F. Recent Trends in Stylistics

Structural Stylistics

Objectivist Affective

Formalist Functionalist

1. As viewed by Taylor and Toolan (in Weber, 1996), structural stylistics is split into Objectivist and Affective theories.
While the Objectivist stylisticians hold that style is an inherent property of the text itself, if not an utterance, Affective
stylisticians consider “unarbitrary cultural myths and tastes, if not renewed awareness of the provisionality of
interpretations” (Toolan), both ‘limiting and enabling’ (Armstrong, 1983).

2. Within the objectivist camp, the two factions of formalists and the functional exist. The functionalists, “take the stylistic
system of a language to be bi-planar linking formal stylistic features with specific stylistic functions (or ‘effects’ or
‘values)” as in comparing the synonyms of an expression, for their stylistic potential. By contrast, the formalists prefer
purely formal criteria in identifying stylistic patterns and features.

3. The “Achilles heel” of functional stylistics, to Toolan, is the problem of criterial perspective, other than an eclecticism of
methods, ideas and techniques derived from: (a) Griceian pragmatics, (b) generative syntax, (c) Prague school of
 functionalism, (d) quantitative stylistics, (e) speech-act theory, (f) structuralist poetics, (g) discourse analysis, and (h)
French semiotics.

4. Applying Halliday’s two notions on function used in describing language – (a) in the sense of ‘grammatical’ (or
“syntactic’) function to refer to elements of linguistic structures such as actor and goal or subject and object or theme
and rheme, as roles occupied by classes of words phrases, and the like in the higher structural units; (b) to the
generalized notion of ‘functions of language’ – ideational, interpersonal, and textual.

5.

IDEATIONAL INTERPERSONAL TEXTUAL

function: Experiential Logical

rank:
TRANSITIVITY condition MOOD THEME
types of process addition types of speech types of message
CLAUSE participants and report function (identity as text
circumstances modality relation)
(identity clauses) (the WH- (identification,
(things, facts, and function) predication,
reports) POLARITY reference,
substitution)
Verbal GROUP TENSE
PARATACTIC COMPLEXES (all ranks) coordination apposition
HYPOTACTIC COMPLEXES OF CLAUSE, GROUP, AND WORD

reference; substitution & ellipsis; conjunction; lexical cohesion

(verb classes) catenation PERSON VOICE

COHESION (“above the sentence”: non-structural relations)

secondary tense (“marked” (“contrastive”
options) options)
MODIFICATION
Nominal epithet function classification ATTITUDE DEIXIS
GROUP enumeration sub-modification attitudinal determiners
(noun classes) modifiers “phoric” elements
(adjective classes) intensifiers (qualifiers)
(definite article)

Adverbial “MINOR narrowing sub- COMMENT CONJUNCTION

(incl. PROCESSES” modification (classes of (classes of
prepositional prepositional comment discourse adjunct)
GROUP) relations (classes adjunct)
of circumstantial
adjunct)

WORD LEXICAL compounding LEXICAL COLLOCATION

(incl. lexical “CONTENT” “REGISTER” (collocational
item) (taxonomic derivation (expressive organization of
organization of words) vocabulary
vocabulary) (stylistic
organization of
vocabulary)

INFORMATION TONE INFORMATION

UNIT intonation distribution and
systems focus