Lesson 1 RHETORIC AND STYLISTICS

STIMULATING ACTIVITY

Try this out first before going to the next section. Form a cluster by writing as many words or
phrases that relate to the given concept. Then, briefly answer the questions that follow.

Choice Word Structure Informal

Jargon

s
LANGUAGE STYLES
Way

Write
Author Abbreviation Thoughts
Formal Expression

1. Using the words and phrases from the clustering, discuss your insights or thoughts about
language styles.
Language style is defined as a language choice of an author for instance jargon and
abbreviation is a language style. It is the author’s way of expressing her/his thoughts; it can be
formal or informal. Language style has different structures depending on the author’s way.

2. As an English major, what do you think you need to learn different language styles?
As an English major, you are developing a heightened awareness of the power
of language. You have to understand the different language styles as it will help you to
understand and evaluate different literature. Language style is important to be learned by an
English major since you are choosing the field of language.

3. Do you think tracing the roots of language styles will bring significance in the present
language situation? Why do you think so?
Yes, because looking back as what, where and when it started gives us full understanding
about language style. Looking back on the past allows us to study or know the nature of language
style. It gives us more knowledge and appreciation of how it was viewed by the people today.

FOLLOW-UP TASK
To reinforce your understanding of the lesson, do the following task. Create an infographic
timeline (either by drawing it here or printing and pasting it here) of the development of rhetoric
going towards stylistics. Samples of infographic timeline can be browsed online or will be sent
via Messenger. (Be guided with the rubric for this task in Appendix A.) (45 pts)

Rhetoric towards Stylistics

5th Century BC

-The beginning of democracy in

Athens Ancient
-Stylistics originated.
-The ancient Greeks used to
teach rhetoric, poetics and
dialects.
- Poetics is an artistic creation
of language and how
language is expressed.
15th Century AD

-the Roman tradition of

rhetoric schools and their
progymnasmata program of
learning continued right up
until the fall of the Byzantine
Ancient
Empire.
-After the fall of -distinction between
Constantinople, rhetoric analogist (Caesar) and
continued to grow in anomalist (Cicero)
status in the west and
become part of the
European trivium, which -grammar
was the “academic core” -logic
-rhetoric
 Early Modern

-The system lasted more or less Middle Ages

in the same form in this period.
-Cicero’s anomalist
became a model for
public speaking,
speeches and helping
other speakers develop
their individual styles.

19th Century

-The system disappeared in

Europe.

1930’s

-Russian Formalism
eventually faded away but
appeared in Prague under
the name “Structuralism”
1966

-Stylistics became influence by

Russian Formalism and Czech Era of Modern
Structuralism. Stylistics
-Prague school shifted from -the heart of modern
formalism to functionalism. stylistics now is the
-Foregrounding is a poetic function of text, the context and
language. the reader
 New Criticism (20th
Century)

-20th century literary 2008

criticism focused on
studying writings instead of
writers
-Stylistics has mutual
relationship with pragmatics
and discourse analysis.

2015

-Stylistics, cognitive
analysis and critical
discourse analysis match
together as a theoretical
approach that analyzes
text.
Today

-stylistic is concern in both

language and literary
studies.
EVALUATION

Directions: Answer the following questions/prompts to evaluate your understanding of the

lessons.
1. What is the relationship of stylistics and rhetoric in terms of language and style? (4 pts)
Stylistics is a branch of applied linguistics, it is the study and interpretation of texts of all
types and/or spoken language in regard to their linguistic and tonal style, where style is the
particular variety of language used by different individuals and/or in different situations or
settings. Wherein rhetoric is to study the capacities of writers or speakers needed to inform,
persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations

2. Explain briefly the five canons of rhetoric and their components and their implications to the
study of stylistics. (10 pts)
First stage, the Discovery or invention stage is arguably the most important of the five.
Every argumentative piece of written or spoken discourse that needs a standpoint. This can be
you thesis statement. Second, arrangement stage is concerned with ordering or arranging the text
or text elements. Third, Stylization stage simply deals with style and has had the greatest
influence on the structuring and development of modern day stylistics. This stage deals with the
notion of style itself, grammar and clarity, levels of style in low, high, middle style, style figures
and imitation. Style figures can usually be divided into categories of schemes and tropes. Finally,
memorization stage and delivery stage, the fourth and fifth cannons set out the performative
aspects of rhetoric and concern mainly oral rather than written production. Delivery places focus
on intonation, voice, gestures and other oratorical performances made to become an art. The
visuals are also important in the delivery and performance of the discourse.
With the five canons of rhetoric it will be our guide in the process of producing a
persuasive discourse.

3. Name known Filipino personalities exemplifying each of the three genres of rhetoric. Justify
your choice of personality per genre. (10 pts)
For Forensic Oratory, I choose Ramon Mitra Jr. The 16th speaker of the Philippines
House of the Representatives because of him major bills were passed into laws of the country
and instituted policies,

For Deliberative oratory is President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. He is the most humble
president the Philippines had. He is a strong and has the passion to protect his people.

For the Epideictic Oratory is former President Benigno Aquino III for his speech of the
Mamasapano incident. I choose him because despite of all the blames that people point at him,
he still remains strong and honored the death of the Filipino soldiers and give them what they
deserved as a hero to our country.

4. Compare and contrast the influences: analogists (Caesar) and anomalists (Cicero) through a
comprehensive Venn diagram. (6 pts) Draw here…

Anomalist (Cicero)
-aimed at the creation and development
of Ornate Dicere, that is, a flowery
-both are from ancient

language
speech presentation
-both are style for a

Analogist (Caesar)
-used unnatural syntactic patterns, sought
for innovative often artificial sentence
-they stressed regularity and system rules structures
Rome

-true message and communicated content

-they focused on facts and data were secondary to the form of
presentation, called rhetoric the 'mother
of lies
-their aim was to create simple, clear and -built their theory of rhetoric on the
straight forward speeches distinction between three
styles:high,middle and low
-become a model of public speaking.
5. How is stylistics viewed from each period or school of thought? Give one to two liner
descriptions for each. (15 pts)
In Ancient Greeks, stylistic is about artistic creation of language and how language is
express.
In Ancient Rome, stylistic about speech presentation.
For Russian Formalism, stylistics is mostly dedicated to poetry.
For Prague School, stylistic is viewed as a process that deviates the linguistic norm and
textual patterns that are based on parallelism, deviations, or repetition.
For the New American Criticism, stylistic is viewed as a legitimate expansion of moves
within literary criticism to focus on studying writings instead of writers.

6. Based on different definitions from various schools of thought, provide your own definition
stylistics and a short justification why you choose to define stylistics that way. (5 pts)
Stylistics in my own point of view is broad because it has different point of views in
different school of thoughts and stylistic needs deeper understanding for both language and
literary studies.