26/10/2011

Unit 2
Stylistics, Discourse analysis
& Conversation Analysis.
A survey

Stylistics
2.1. Definitions
a) Stylistics is a method of textual interpretation in
which primacy of place is assigned to language
(Simpson 2004:2).
b) . . . three key aspects of stylistics. These are:
1. The use of linguistics (the study of language) to
approach literary texts;
2. The discussion of texts according to objective
criteria rather than [...] purely subjective and
impressionistic values;
3. An emphasis on the aesthetic properties of
language (Thornborrow & Wareign, 1998:4, in
McRae & Clark 2004).

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Thornborrow & Wareign’s approach to stylistics

CANNOT be unconditionally accepted because...

a) The meaning of a text does not entirely depend

upon the language choices of its author. It also
depends on the processes of interpretation
undertaken by the reader/listener and a range
of contextual factors (cultural background,
circumstances in which the text is read, etc.).

b) Its claims on objectivity cannot be held, if only

because the actual decision of which elements
(of the text) are chosen for analysis is a
subjective one.

c) Because of the wide range of texts with which

Stylistics concerns itself nowadays, the
aesthetic properties of a text are not the
primary focus of analysis.

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2.2. Interdisciplinarity
- Linguistics
- Pragmatics
- Literary Theory (particulary, reception theory;
reader-response criticism)
- Psychology
- Social Theory
-...
2.3. Object of study
- Originally: literary texts
- Nowadays, any text, literary (e.g. a poem) or
otherwise (an advert, an E-text, etc.), written or
spoken.

2.4. Purpose of study

- Initially:

. . . to explain how meaning in a text was created

through a writer’s linguistic choices.

 Underlying linguistic theory: Saussurean

structuralism, which considered the text as a
monologic, stable, self-referential entity.

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- Currently:

. . . to explain the relationship between the text and the

context in which it is both PRODUCED and RECEIVED.

. . . MEANING IS NOT stable and absolute: it depends

on the linguistic structures used in the text AND on the
PROCESSES OF INTERPRETATION UNDERTAKEN BY
THER READER OR LISTENER.

2.5. Method of study:

The 3 Rs of stylistic analysis (Simpson 2004:3):

1st R: Rigorous: i.e. based on structured models of
language, not on impressionistic comments.
2nd R: Retrievable: i.e. the method of analysis is
retrievable if it is based on explicit criteria, so that
other analysts can test them and find out how the
analysis reached its conclusions.
3rd R: Replicable: i.e. other analysts should be able to
apply the same criteria on the same text and obtain the
same results, or on similar texts, obtaining comparable
results.

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D.A. & C.A

1 Greet
2 Listen to the
news
3 Read newspaper
4 Discuss ideas at
job meeting
5 Write essay
6 Medical
consultation
7 Order food at
restaurant
8 Job interview
9 Chat/Instant
messaging, etc.

What do discourse analysist do?

 Study texts, whether written or spoken, whether

long or short, paying particular attention to the
relationship between texts and the contexts in which
they are created and used.

 DAs work at text level, NOT at sentence level (as

grammarians do) or word level (as lexicologists do),
for instance.

 DAs are concerned with utterances or sequences

of words written or spoken in specific contexts.

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 DAs focus their analysis on the following:

Who are the participants (writer, speaker(s),

reader(s), listener(s))?
What is their relationship (Equals or power /
knowledge difference?
What are their goals in engaging in discourse?
How do we know what writers / speakers mean?

What does this piece of language What does the speaker/writer mean by
mean in this context? this piece of language?

What factors enable us to interpret the text?

What do we need to know about the context and what clues
are there in the surrounding context that help us understand
the text?

 DAs do what regular language users do, but they do it…

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 DAs focus on …
… spoken discourse

&
… written discourse
Informal spoken E Formal written E

Casual Letter to an Written academic

Job interview
conversation: acquaintance article
cosy chat with
a close friend

E-mail to a Conversation with Public speech

friend manager at work

How can DA be defined, then?

DA is the study of language viewed communicatively
and/or the study of communication viewed from the
linguistic point of view.

language in language
use beyond the
sentence

language as language in
meaning in situational and
interaction cultural context

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What is CA?
 The study of spoken discourse has been
approached from different disciplinary areas.
 One such area is having an important impact on
applied linguistics at large and on language
education in particular: Sociology.
 The study of SPOKEN DISCOURSE from the point
of view of Sociology is known as

CONVERSATION ANALYSIS (CA)

 CA is concerned with the detailed organization of

everyday interaction, particulary with dialogic,
spoken discourse of a fairly informal character.

 CA focuses on conversation because it offers an

appropriate and accessible resource for
sociological enquiry. It favors fine-grain analyses,
often of quite short stretches of conversation. Key
questions for CAs are:

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How do people
launch new topics,
close old ones,
shift topics, etc.?

How do people take

turns in
conversation?
How is it that conversation
generally progresses
satisfactorily from one
How do people
utterance to the next? open and close
conversations?

2.6. References:
Davies, A. & Elder, C. 2004. The Handbook of Applied
Linguistics. Blackwell Publishing. [Chapter 13:
Stylistics,]
Simpson, P. 2004. Stylistics. A Resource Book for
Students. Routledge.
2.7. Further reading:
Simpson, J. 2011. The Routledge Handbook of Applied
Linguistics. Routledge. [Chapter 38: Stylistics,]
Wright, L. & Hope, J. 1996. Stylistics. A Practical
Coursebook. Routledge.
Bradford, R. 1997. Stylistics. Routledge.