Stylistics
 Stylistics is the application of concepts from
Erly S. Parungao
Faculty of Arts and Languages
Philippine Normal University
Competencies:
 Apply the basic stylistic principles to arrive
at meaning of literary texts
 Demonstrate skills in a principled analysis
of literary texts to produce less
impressionistic or subjective interpretation
 Grasp the ‘grammar of literature’ through
various linguistic tools
linguistics and allied disciplines in the analysis and
interpretation of samples of communication through
language. (Otanes, ms)
 The linguistic study of different styles is called
stylistics (Chapman, 1973:11)
 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)
 Practical stylistics is the process of literary text analysis
which starts from a basic assumption that the prev ious
interpretative procedures used in the reading of a literary
text are linguistic procedures (Carter, 1991:4)
Three basic principles of a linguistic
approach to literary study and
criticism (Carter):
 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
 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
 Grid of Relationships with Other
Disciplines
 That because it will be rooted in a systematic
awareness of language, bits of language will not Linguistics
Lit erary
be merely spotted and evidence gathered Disciplines
Crit icism
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 St y listics
way. The conclusions can be attested and Subject s
retrieved by another analyst working on the
same data with the same method. There is also
less danger that we may overlook textual Language Lit erature
features crucial to the significance of the work.

Why is Practical Stylistics SO

1. Natasha came late because
important? ________.
 It can provide the means whereby the student of
literature can relate a piece literature to his own a. She was conscious of her clothes.
experience of language and so can extend that
experience. b. She was uncomfortable with the
 It can assist in the transfer of interpretative guests.
skills, on essential purpose of literary education.
 It can provide a procedure for demystifying c. The group was highly
literary texts. sophisticated.
 The focus of a literary text in itself provides a
context in which the learning of aspects of d. She hated attending birthday
language can be positively enjoyed.
parties.

Co-operative Principle
 a) A speaker may unostentatiously violate a
According to Grice, people can engage in
meaningful 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 conversation)
 The maxim of quality: make your
contributions as informative as is required –
don’t give to much or too little information.
 The maxim of quality: make your
contribution one that you believe to be true.
 The maxim of relation: be relevant
 The maxim of manner: avoid
unnecessary prolixity, obscurity of
expression and ambiguity, and be orderly.
Four cases when maxims are
often violated:
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 the maxim, so
that it is apparent to his interlocutors.
3. The statement that describes how Olga felt about
the amenities in the social celebration is _____.
a. Olga hated the guests and the company she was
with.
b. She considered them good, well trusted
company because of long years of friendship.
c. She felt superior over the rest, as she was the
teacher.
d. She felt bored, as she longs for new
acquaintances.
5. Chebutykin’s expressives hurt
Andrei’s sensibilites because
____.
a. By nature, his is a sensitive soul
b. His married life is a failure.
c. He is torn between his love for
Natasha and his sisters.
d. He is incapable of
demonstrating idealistic love.

4. Olga’s rework on Natasha’s 6. Judging Masha’s expressives,

inappropriate matching of color her view of life is ________.
in her outfit implies _____. a. Ephemeral
a. Olga’s tactless comment b. Pragmatic
b. Natasha’s peasant upbringing c. Ideal
c. Olga’s tastes in clothing d. Rosy
d. Natasha’s wish to belong to the
charmed circles
The Speech Act has three
conditions:
1. Introduction of context of 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 / felicitous ( utterance
worked ) 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).

Other speech acts include:

1. Commissives
Are statements that function as promise or refusals for action.
Like directives , commissives v ary 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, bring about a new state of being.
Ex . a.) I now pronounce y ou husband and wife!
b.) Y ou won the lotto!
c.) Here are y our walking papers!
 Pragmatic Stylistics 8. The foregrounding in the poem
Kind of Exchange Example Speech Act

1. Fact ual
Equivalent
The planedeparts at 7:30 Representative (judged
is achieved by _______.
a. Meaningful vocabulary
Information for truth, value, m ay
Identify, ask report, say, either be hedged or
think aggravated)
2. Int ellectual These arguments are Representative b. Constant repetition
Information correct

c. Contrasting elements
agree/disagree,
rem ember/forget,
certain/uncertain,
ask/give, accept/decline,
capable/incapable
d. Unusual collocations
3. Emot ional I’m worried about my Expressive
At t itudes term papers
surprise, hope, fear,
worry, preference,
gratitude, intention,
want, desire

Kind of Exchange Example Speech Act Equivalent Some useful concepts on stylistics
4. Moral at titudes I appreciate you help Expressive (states joy,
apology, approval, disappointment, likes,
appreciation, regret, dislikes, etc.)  Foregrounding- emphasis on a
indifference
textual feature may be achieved
through unusual or strange
5. Suasion
suggest, request, invite,
Hand in you assignment Direct ive (makes a
request to be im plied collocations, meaningful repetitions,
instruct, advice, warn,
offer
with)
contrast, deliberate deviation from
6. Socializing Hi, Larry, how are you? Direct ive (i.e., Tell me the norms/ rules/ conventions
greet, take leave, how are you)
introduce, propose,
congratulate, etc.
1 . Sillitoe’s text
Now y ou’d think, and I’d think, and
ev erybody with a bit of imagination
Foregrounding in Sillitoe’s t ext
 Collocation- ( a form of lexical
would think, that we’d done as clean a
job as could ever be done, that with
(α1) Now you’d think, and I’d think,
and ev erybody with a bit of
cohesion ) the co-occurrence of certain
the baker’s shop being at least a mile
from where we lived, and with not a
imagination would think, that we’d
done as clean a job as could ever be
words , for ex.
soul having seen us, and what with
the fog and the fact that we weren’t
done, that (β1) with the baker’s shop
being at least a m ile from where
A little fat man of Bombay
m ore than five
minutes in the place, that the coppers
we lived, (β2) and with not a soul Was smoking one very hot day.
having seen us, (β3) and what with
should never have been able to trace
us. But then, you’d be wrong, I’d be
the fog and the fact that we weren’t But a bird called a snipe
m ore than five minutes in the place,
wrong and everybody else would be
wrong, no matter how much
that the coppers should never have Flew away with his pipe,
been able to trace us. (α2) But then,
imagination was diced out between
us.
you’d be wrong, (α3 ) I’d be wrong Which vexed the fat man of Bombay.
(α4 ) and everybody else would be
wrong, (β4) no matter how much
imagination was diced out between
us.

a.)The recursion of clauses, mainly through co-ordination,

with similar or identical structure;  Reference vs. Representation
b) The distribution of clauses in groups of threes, producing a
striking pattern of parallelisms: Reference- is the indexical function of
language pointing to different aspects of reality
⎡ Now y ou’d think ⎤
α1 ⎢ and I’d think ⎟ Representation- is the manipulating language
⎣ and ev erybody…would think ⎦ to stand for an experience/situation.
that we’d done…as ev er could ever be done that
β1 ⎡ with the baker’s…lived⎤
β2 ⎢ and with not…seen us ⎟ β3 ⎣ and what with the fog ⎦
and the fact that…place
 Diegesis and Mimesis
that the coppers should never…trace us Diegesis – telling of the story by a narrator /
But then
α2 ⎡ Y ou’d be wrong ⎤
narrating as in epic poetry
α3 ⎢ I’d be wrong ⎟ Mimesis - showing /imitation or
α4 ⎣ and ev erybody…wrong ⎦
β4 No matter…between us
representation as in drama
9. The recurrent patterns used in 11. The change in the number of the
the poem is ________. dropping plums from 7 to 3,
a. the coming of the lover both archetypal numbers for
b. the waiting for a lover
perfection, may mean ______.
a. Reference
c. the dropping of plums
b. Representation
d. the time element
c. Emphasis
d. Diegesis

Meaning Beyond The

10. The temporal cohesive devices
Sentence
now, while, yet, and still
indicate ________. The kernels of meaning in long-winding
sentences, particularly in the stream-of-
a. Impatience conciousness technique, may be derived by listing
them down to create a discourse or arrive at
meaning.
b. Insistence In this regard Chapman (1973) enumerates 9 of
the most frequently used connectives, as among the
c. Longing essential features of discourse.

d. Despair
 9 of the most frequently used
connectives (Chapman 1973)
a.) Conjunctions and conjunctive adjectives
(e.g., however, but, further more, 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 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 on 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, as such
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 gentlemen home? That was
a nasty hit for Eleseus; he turned red…” – Hamsun’s Growth of
the Soil
f. Repetition of the 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 Emperor to do with us?
-Shih Shing (Book of Song)
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
needed the the other, each feared the other, each felt
this and knew this every 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 Dei ty, while I was what
is loosely called an Agnostic” –Graham Greene’s “The
Hint of an Explanation”
 13. The second line in the third stanza,
i. Clear sequence of events “I lay them in a shallow basket”
seems to suggest that ____.
Ex. “Those were the happiest years of my life, my
friendship with Loizik and stamp-collecting. Then I a. The person does not want the ripe plum
had scarlet fever and they wouldn’t let him come to spoiled.
see me, but he used to stand in the passage and b. She is conscious of the departing ripe
whistle so that I could see him.” –Karel Capek, “The plums.
Stamp Collection”
c. She is hopeful that she can make up for
the lost time
d. She has lowered her standard for
choosing a lover.

12. The imagery of the ripe plums 14. Despite the translation, the Chinese
may represent ______. poem has retained its _____.
a. A country maiden awaiting a. Proper tone
someone b. Corresponding vocabulary
b. A choosy, idealistic woman in love c. Perfect meter and rhyme
c. A bachelor girl despairing, if not d. Thematic significance
afraid of being left out
d. A woman so practical that she
would marry anyone
15. One notable feature of this poem 16. There are ___ verbs referring to the
lies in its _______. I-narrator, a participant in the role
a. Simplicity of actor.
b. Ambiguity a. 10

c. Depth b. 9

d. Spontaneity c. 8
d. 7

1. Systemic Grammar in Literary Analysis (Halliday,

1970 in Carter, 1991)

Halliday sees language in terms of three functions:

a. The Ideational -concerned with cognitive

meaning
The Outsider b. The Interpersonal -describes the relationship between person
(hence, questions and answers, positive and
negativ e forms, are part of this function)

-enabling the speaker or writer to construct texts as a

c. The Textual
logical sequence of units.
Transitivity function
illustrates how stylistics way profit from grammar from -Halliday
applying a grammatical model to analyze the literary text.

Three elements: Three types:

(a) the process represented by the verb.
Ex. Alex watered the plants (a)Action
(b)Mental process
(b) the participants- the roles of persons and objects.
*in the above sentence* (c) Relation
Ex. Alex is the actor, the plants object/goal
(c) circumstantial function – in English typically
the adverbials of time , place and manner.

Roles come in form of the

following: (b) Mental process
(a) Actor -further divided into verbs of perception,
(b) Goal or object of result reaction, cognition and verbalization, all
(c) Beneficiary or recipient having a processor and phenomenon,
rather then having actor and goal as
Ex. Rykel gave his brother Shen some cookies. participant roles.
(d) Instrument of forces Ex. Shen heard his younger brother
(person)
Ex. “The tree was hit by a lightning.”
the reason (abstraction) Bracket ed
words are
phenomena
the singing of the anthem (event)

the radio (object)

(c) Relation 17. Of these verbs, ____ describe the
ideational function (of cognition,
-are those in which the process describes perception, process, and related
or states a relation between two roles.
matters).
a. 7
Ex.: 1. Arnel Pineda acts as the lead singer. (attributive type)
b. 8
2. The band Journey is as popular as the Jonas. ( equative
type)
c. 9
d. 10

Action clause and mental 18. The number of intransitive verbs used,
process as the ergative function: with a goal is ______.
-an affected participant has an inherent a. 2
role associated with action clauses and which b. 3
is the goal in a transitive and the action in an
intransitive clause. c. 4
d. 8
Ex.: 1. Raskolnikov fell ill. (the affected participant)

2. The theory consumes him. (‘causer’ of the

process)
19. The non-finite verbs in the text cant
explicitly express the participant, hence, 21. The role of instrument of force in the
considered negation is _____. excerpted text is intensely shown in
____.
a. Can’t be sure
a. The Home for the Aged
b. Should get there
b. The lack of date in the telegram received
c. Be back here
c. The two-day leave of absence
d. Had no reason
d. The bus to take the narrator

20. Of the many transitive verbs of

perception used, the verb that expresses
the I-narration role as a passive
observer of an act/event beyond his
control is ______.
a. Died
b. Said
c. Keeping vigil
d. Get there
23. The power relationship between the 25. Overall, the text can be analyzed
narrator and his superior is revealed in philosophically by making use of ____.
the text through _____. a. Deconstruction
a. Open dialogue b. Marxism
b. Unsaid statements c. Existentialism
c. Question and answer d. Structuralism
d. Function of the mood

24. The undisturbed mental state of the 1. Judging the discourse level of this
narrator is part of the ____ function. poem, it has a deliberate mixing of
a. Ideational _____.
b. Interpersonal a. Setting
c. Textual b. Utterance
d. transitivity c. Registers
d. Characters
 To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,

3. Admittedly, the actor or the persona

We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts. referred to is _____.
a. Army instructor
This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.
b. PE instructor
This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me c. Mechanical engineer
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy

d. Sharp shooter
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy

If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.

2. The beneficiary, recipient or addresse of 4. Besides shifting, the poem uses ____
the poem must be a _____. function of the language.
a. Poet a. Ideational
b. Recruit b. Taboo
c. Reader c. Textual
d. anyone d. interpersonal
6. Thematically, the poem contrasts ____.

a. The innocence of youth and the

corruption of adults
b. The economics of war and the poverty of
want
c. The rigidity of rules and the looseness of
lawlessness
d. The destructiveness of war and the
natural life-force

7. Structurally, this poem is 9. The critical approach or literary theory

characteristically ______. that best fits the poem is ______.
a. Deconstruction
a. Haiku-like b. Formalism
b. Imagistic c. Marxism
c. Philosophical d. structuralism
d. Terza rima
10. The temporal phrase, ‘and suddenly’, 12. Pedagogically, the most sensibly, fittingly
suggests _____. prepared cloze test for the selection
below is _____.
a. Ambiguity a. Delete the 5th or 6th word in every

b. Shift in time sentence.

b. Give enough practice before giving the
c. Recurrence of pain
students this test.
d. Temporary respite
c. Consider the students’ linguistic
competence.
d. Have them choose from a list of words
that resonate in the story.

11. The version of the rewritten text of “The Pedagogical Stylistics

Wolf and the Seven Kids” that is likely
to appeal more to children is _____. 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.
1. Predicting how the narrative will develop
after omitting the title, or rather reading the
first paragraph, what the story is all about.
Those can be done by paired group
1.1 Lyric poems or texts which evoke descriptive states do
not benefit from this activity
1.2 Texts with a strong plot component do
1.3 Even best narrative could make students read back
and project forward
2. Use of close procedure
2.1 Focus on individual words/sequence of words, rather
than on stretches of texts
2.2 Do some lexical prediction during the act of reading/
after a story is read.
2.3 Ask students to show careful/close reading.
2.4 Let them do reasonable and supportable predictions
to make them alert to over-all pattern of the story.
3. Summarizing Strategies
3.1 Impose a word limit for a summary, from 25-40
words to: (a) make them re-structure, delete, re-shape to
meet the word limit, (b) stress question on structure and
shape of the narrative.
3.2 Make them compare and criticize alternative
summaries.
4. Forum: Debating opposing viewpoints.
4.1 Literature can mobilize student discussion and
debate.
4.2 It lends itself to small-group activity.
4.3 Provide counter –examples from other groups who
4.4 Let them use their prior knowledge and the text in
listen
question.
5. Guided re-writing
5.1 It helps students recognize the broader discourse
patterns of texts and styles appropriate to them.
5.2 It involves them in re-writing stretches of discourse
to change its communicative value.
5.3 Let them rewrite a set of instructions, as a
description, or turning a lecture transcript into academic
discourse
5.4 Specify clearly information about audiences/purpose
5.5 Rewrite one style into another to explore connections
between styles and meaning, particularly juxtaposing
literary and non-literary texts.
5.6 Sensitize students to varied ways in instructing
information for readers in different texts.
5.7Make them infer ore on semantic overlaps, degrees of
information supplies to a reader, even the omission of
certain expected propositions assigned thematic
significance.
13. Which of these topics matters most in a 15. Given the summary of The Bet, the best
debate about Ibsen’s An Enemy of the alternative summary is _____.
People”?
a. Traditional Politicians Stagnate a
Country, Province, Village
b. The majority vs. The Minority Rule in
Governance
c. Man’s Idealism Is Difficult to maintain
in this Age of Materialism
d. Alternative, Positive Ways of Solving the
Polluted Baths

14. In an open-ended story as O. Henry’s
“After Twenty Years,” the predicted
event that is most likely to happen is
____.
a. The cop caught his most wanted friend.
b. He set free his close friend before the
police came.
c. He felt hurt betraying his friend to the
authorities.
d. Although torn between loyalty to his
friend and adherence to the law, the
policeman chose the latter.
16. Maurya’s last statement “No man at all
can be living forever, and we must be
satisfied” means ______.
a. All living things including mankind will
die.
b. Her total resignation to the inevitably of
death.
c. Man cannot question this universal
truth.
d. The natural law of life ends in death.
17. Cathleen’s remark to the effect that “It’s 19. Thematically, the tragedy reinforces the
getting old she is, and broken” follows idea of ______.
the maxim of _______. a. The pathos of old age and the terror of
a. Quantity death
b. Quality b. Man’s constant battle with the forces of
c. Manner nature
d. Relation c. The natural anguish of parents over
their children’s death
d. Maternal instinct of tenderness and
affection

18. The tragic vision hinted at in the excerpt 20. Symbolically, the sea stands for ____.
is ______.
a. The daily struggle to live a. Means of livelihood
b. The inevitability of danger b. Life and death
c. Maurya’s lacking bitterness c. Fatalism
d. The daughter’s indifference d. stoicism
22. The poem above achieves wholeness and
effectiveness because of the presence of
______.
a. Alliteration and assonance
b. Consonance and rhyme
c. Repetition and symbolism
d. All of the above

23. The main symbol used in the poem is

____.

a. Nature
b. Gold
c. Eden
d. Leaf
24. In the final line, gold may stand for
_____.
a. Treasure
b. Wealth
c. Measure of happiness
d. Standard of permanence

25. The repeated word so in the 6th and 7th

lines functions as _____
a. Adverb of time
b. Adjective to mean factual
c. Conjunction to mean with result
d. Interjection used to express surprise