STYLISTICS

AND
PRAGMATICS
B Y, Z A H R A A S A L E E M

Supervised by: Asst. Prof. Manal

Ni’met Abdulhadi (Ph.D.)
 DEFINITIONS
. Stylistics is concerned with the choices that are available to a writer and the reasons why
particular forms and expressions are used rather than others (Richards and Schmidt, 2012:
566).

. Huang (2017:2) defines pragmatics as “the systematic study of meaning by virtue of, or
dependent on, the use of language. The central topics of inquiry of pragmatics include
implicature, presupposition, speech act, deixis, and reference”.

• Pragmatics according to Soeparno (2002: 27) is a sub-discipline of linguistics that

studies the application or use of language in social communication that takes into
account the factors of the situation, the purpose of the conversation and the status of
the interlocutor.
• Hasan (1986: 6) defines context of situation as environment of the text including the
verbal and the situational environment in which the text is uttered. The context that
have been form involves not only the sound surrounding but also the whole of practices
that are engaging in.
 HISTORY
• Pragmatic stylistic has emerged as a prominent stylistic approach in the late 1980’s, when
Stylisticians have started to realize the importance of looking at “the linguistic features of texts
which arise from the real interpersonal relationships between author, text and reader in real
historical and sociocultural contexts” (Wales, 2011: 335-6).

• “Stylisticians noticed the correlation between core pragmatic principles and foundational theories
within stylistics such as Mikhail Bakhtin’s sociological poetics and Roger Fowler’s account of
literature as social discourse” (Warner, 2014: 363).

• Moving closer towards pragmatics, stylistics became better suited to provide a more adequate and
contextually enriched interpretation, not only description, of literary texts. This makes stylistics
more tenable and easily defendable against the criticisms often raised by literary critics , who often
accuse stylistic analysis of being uninformative linguistic description of literary texts (Wales, 2011:
335-6).
 .

Pragma-stylistics is a morphological blend of two disparate, yet related disciplines into a hybrid theory
for analysing a text that shares both features of the two units that make it up. Pragmatics is the study of
language in use. It is concerned with how language users interact, communicate and interpret linguistic
behaviour. Stylistics on the other hand is concerned with how paying close attention to language use
can contribute to and account for how texts are understood and evaluated. Despite the apparent
overlaps and commonalities of interest between these two disciplines, there has been relatively little
work that explores the interface between the two disciplines(Chapman&Clark2014).

Pragmatic stylistics takes on board the role of the context and that of the reader in text
interpretation. In this sense, the reader is perceived as an active interpreter rather than a mere
passive recipient (Black, 2006: 2).

Pragmatic stylistics is defined as a branch of stylistics that combines approaches “to answer
questions about how (literary) language is used in context and how it contributes to the
characterization of the protagonists in a literary piece of art or how power structures are created
and so on” (Nørgaard, et al, 2010: 39).
 STYLISTICS AND PRAGMATICS
• Pragma-stylistic investigations have influenced general pragmatic approaches, methods and
theories on both a synchronic and a diachronic dimension, too. Especially in historical
pragmatic investigations, which include a pragma-philological and a diachronic pragmatic
analysis, literary texts have been a source frequently drawn on, because there is no spoken
data available for historical periods, and play texts constitute an important source to explore
‘the spoken’, although admittedly, this is the ‘constructed’ spoken language(Nørgaard, et al,
2010: 39).
• Other points of intersection between pragmatics and stylistics include the focus on context
and on the effects of the interactional strategies used in context. Furthermore, pragmatic
stylistics has stressed a comprehensive holistic approach to conversational interaction and
includes the complex interplay between norms and deviations as well as forms and meanings.
language(Nørgaard, et al, 2010: 39).
 Van Dijk (2008) states:
 Contexts are like other human experiences at each moment and in each situation such
experiences define how we see the current situation and how we act in it.
PRAGMATIC STYLISTICS
• Pragmatic stylistic approaches and multimodal stylistics have also drawn attention to the need for
including other semiotic modes in order to account for the interplay between language and the
visual, etc. in films, for example (Busse, 2006b; McIntyre, 2008). More recent approaches combine
pragma-stylistic investigations with corpus stylistic approaches and relate the identification of
linguistic patterns to interactive features.
• The pragma-stylistic focus on language as exchange and the contextual features of language also
embraces the analysis of fictional narrative passages, e.g., the relationship between narrative
passages and discourse presentation or a combination of pragma-stylistic and cognitive stylistic
considerations(Nørgaard, et al, 2010: 40).
• Major foci of the pragma-stylistic tool kit are on contextual features of language use and on
seeing conversation as exchange. The notion of context may of course include various aspects: for
example, what Schiffrin (1987) has described as the physical, personal and cognitive context, or
what we would generally understand as social, cultural, linguistic, authorial or editorial contexts of
production and reception (Nørgaard, et al, 2010: 40-41).
MULTIMODAL STYLISTICS
• Multimodal stylistics is a fairly new branch of stylistics which aims to broaden the modes and
media to which stylistic analyses can be applied. Thus, the (extended multimodal) stylistic
toolkit, in addition to being useful for the analysis of the printed word, can illuminate how other
semiotic modes such as typography, colour, layout, visual images, etc. do also construct meaning
(see e.g., Gibbons, 2010; Nørgaard, 2010b). From this stylistic perspective, all communication
and all texts are considered multimodal – even conventional literary narratives without special
visual effects, since written verbal language automatically and without exception involves both
wording and typography (or graphology) as well as realization in space in terms of layout.
Multimodal stylisticians furthermore broaden out the concept of, for instance, the novel to
include not only the narrative of the wording and possible visual images, typography and layout
but also the book cover, the paper quality and other aspects of the book’s material realization.
With its focus on meaning-making as a multi-semiotic phenomenon, multimodal stylistics thus
also allows for more comprehensive stylistics analyses of drama and film (see Simpson and
Montgomery, 1995; McIntyre, 2008; Montoro, 2010a; and entry on film stylistics)
• The aim of multimodal stylistics is to develop as systematic descriptive ‘grammars’ of all semiotic
modes as those already developed for the mode of wording (i.e., the lexical and grammatical
aspects of verbal language) (Nørgaard, et al, 2010: 30-31).
What is the connection between pragmatics and stylistics?

pragmatics, as Hickey (1881: 529) points out, coincides with stylistics in that both are
directly interested in speaker's choices from among a range of grammatically acceptable
linguistic forms. Yet, pragmatics looks at choice as the means chosen to perform actions
(request, inform, etc.), whereas stylistics studies choice within particular interest in the
consequences on the linguistic level and the effects produced on the hearer (aesthetic,
affective, etc.)

Pragmastylistics is, thus, stylistics but with a pragmatic component added to it (Hickey,
1881: 529). According to Davies, it is concerned with showing the extent to which
pragmatics contributes to the study of literature; it looks at the usefulness of pragmatic
theories to the interpretation of literary texts. pragmastylistics offers more complete
explanations for many unexplained phenomena than stylistics or pragmatics can do
alone. It is a branch of stylistics which applies ideas and concepts from linguistic
pragmatics to the analysis of literary texts and their interpretation.
 PRAGMATIC STYLISTICS

• Huang (2012:19) defines Pragma-stylistics or pragmatic stylistics by

stating that it ''refers to the application of the findings and methodologies
of the theoretical pragmatics to the study of the concept of style in
language''.
• Stylistics has been proved to be a useful tool in the hands of an analyst
who wishes to analyze a text from any stand point. (Niazi and
Gautum ,2-10:12). This branch shows the purpose that relates stylistics
with pragmatics. That is to say the need for pragmatic theories to the
analysis of narrative texts.
• Stylistics and pragmatics have been moving closer to one another
in recent years. The value of pragmastylistics is that it can keep
clear the differences between stylistic effects (elegance, formality,
aesthetics etc.) and pragmatic effects( what is being done and
whether it is done politely, effectively etc.) while allowing each area
to enlighten the other. Hickey (1881,p. 584)
 STYLISTICS AND PRAGMATICS
• Pragmatic Stylistics is an approach developed by Elizabeth Black, in her
book Pragmatic Stylistics(2006), to unravel the contribution of
pragmatics in the interpretation of the language of literary texts, with a
special focus on the fictional works of art .(Al-sheikh &Lazim,2017,
p.243).
• In her argument of the notion of speech act, Black plainly unravels that
the term speech act does not refer simply to the act of speaking, but to
the whole communicative situation, including the context of the
utterance (that is the situation in which the discourse occurs, the
participants and any preceding verbal or physical interaction and
paralinguistic features which may contribute to the meaning of the
integration.
• In the onset of her introduction to the speech act theory maintains that the participants are engaged
in three types of speech acts: a locutionary act (i.e. the production of a well-formed utterance), the
illocutionary act (i.e. the meaning one wishes to communicate: the illocutionary force we attach to a
locutionary act- the meaning we intend to convey), and the perlocutionaryact (i.e. the effect of our
words). These acts are of two categories: direct and indirect speech acts. The first category occurs
when there is a direct correlation between the grammatical form of an utterance and its illcouctionary
force. The participants may use declarative, interrogative or imperative sentence structures to perform
certain functions such statement, question or command (request). Still, when the participants have
recourse to one specific speech act rather than another and leave the interpretation of the act to the
hearer or the addresses, they, in fact, use indirect speech acts. In an utterance like, Would you pass
the note?, the participant uses a kind of request in the syntactic form of a question.
• Both linguistic stylistics and pragmatics have as a starting point the spoken language. Linguistic
stylistics regards language from the perspective of the subjectivity that embellishes its use.
Pragmatics is, in its turn, concerned with subjectivity in language; in this case, however,
subjectivity is not reduced only to the mere expression of affectivity, but it also encloses all the
elements in a spoken language used by people to meet their specific activities. That is why the
research in the field of stylistics comprises all linguistic means of expression of subjectivity
(phonetic, morphological, syntactic, lexical, semantic means), while pragmatic research focuses on
the speakers' usage of language depending on their mood, on the time and place of the utterance
and on any other matters that may influence the process of communication. Deixis is one of the
pragmatic elements that help granting a meaning to the speakers' utterances in a given context,
indicating at the same time their position towards themselves, towards the message and the
interlocutor, from whom they require a certain action/expect a certain reaction (Galiţa, 2011).
 EXAMPLE
• For example, lady Macbeth says:
• (1) What is done is done. What is done can't be undone (taken from Cook, 2003).
• Here, we notice that the message can be achieved in a different way where it
denotes the same intended meaning. However, presenting her speech in this stylistic
way gives the meaning a more effective force upon the hearing audience.
• Pragmatics and stylistics meet in the sense that the stylistic choices and deviations
from the norms correlate with pragmatic theories (the cooperative principle,
conversational implicature and the politeness principle) where the speaker has to
observe related maxims throughout the process of communication.
• Stylistic choices and deviations are not arbitrary. For both stylistics and pragmatics
aim at persuasion. Arguers' styles can be recognized through "figures" ("ways of
speaking different than the others by a certain change .... that makes ... them ... more
elevating or more pleasant than the speech that expresses the same ideas but
without any significant change") Du Marsais cited in Bonta (2008: 227).
 T H E A N A LY T I C M O D E L F O R T H E A N A LY S I S O F P R A G M AT I C S T Y L I S T I C S
( M A M M O O D I , 2 0 2 2 , P. 2 1 9 )
 CONTEXT-ORIENTED STYLISTICS
• A. Pragmatic
• Pragmatic, communicative behaviour begins to be privileged. Pragmatic-oriented stylisticians look at
everyday conversation as a means to understand literary discourse. According to Leech (1983), it is
the tendency to consider the text from an interactive point of view.
• "At a more 'superficial' end of linguistics, illocutionary or pragmatic theory leads us to study explicitly
manipulative constructions such as imperatives, interrogatives, responses, etc. At a more abstract
level, implicature, presupposition, and other assumptions are highly promising for literary theory and
analysis" Fowler (1979, p. 15).
B. Radical
• It was Burton in 1982 who coined the term radical stylistics. The distinctive element of this approach
is the critics' search for the ideological imprint of the text. Like pragmatic stylisticians, ideologically-
oriented analysts go beyond text level into the social and historical forces which influence its
production and reception.
 CONTEXT-ORIENTED STYLISTICS
• c. Empirical
• What I here call empirical stylistics is the approach that I believe best accommodates
developments in linguistic, literary and cultural theory. It results from advances in what has been
known as the Empirical Study of Literature (ESL). As a movement, ESL began in Germany in 1973
with the NIKOL research group at Bielefeld University (S.J. Schmidt, P. Finke, W. Kindt, J. Wirrer, R.
Zobel). In 1980, research continued with a new NIKOL group at Siegen University (S.J. Schmidt, A.
Barsh. H. Hautmeier, D. Meutsch, G. Rusch, and R. Viehoff). In 1987, the International Society for
the Empirical Study of Literature (IGEL) was founded. One of their main tenets was that text-
meaning is not an intrinsic property of the physical text and that meaning is created in the process
of response. They propose a shift of interest from text to text-focusing activities; from structures to
functions and processes; from the literary object to the literary system. Hene, LITERATURE is more
than a collection of texts. It is an event requiring participation of several elements involved in the
process. Differing from radical stylisticians, they specify these elements. ESL proposes a "new"
paradigm where the literary work is seen in the entire field of social interactions.
STYLISTICS AND PRAGMATICS
• There are mutual areas of knowledge shared by both pragmatic and stylistic studies, one of these
significant areas of concern is the metaphorical modes of meaning. Whether in literary non-literary
texts, metaphors are used as devices of communication by and through which humans exchange
their feelings and world views. the possible points of connection with pragmatics pave the path to
the emergence of a new hybrid term Pragmatic Stylistics.(Al-sheikh &Lazim,2017, p.243)
• Metaphor is viewed as a figure of style which is characterized by “variation in the expression of
meaning” Metaphor is “ a word used for something resembling that which it usually refers to; for
example, flood . . . poured in , “ A flood of protests poured in the announcement in ] a large
quantity . . Camein. (Halliday, 1985: 319- 320).
• Lakoff and Johnson are on the belief that metaphors are not merely stylistic devices, nor they are
part of highly evaluated examples of literature; they are a crucial part of everyday communication.
• Lakoff and Johnson proceed on the assumption that “most of our ordinary conceptual system is
metaphorical in nature” (2003:4).
References

SLIDE TITE
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Crystal, D. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics

Black, E. (2006) Pragmatic stylistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press

Galiţa, 2011. A PRAGMA-STYLISTIC APPROACH ON DEIXIS

Hickey, L. (1993) Stylistics, Pragmatics and Pragma-Stylistics. On: Revue belge de

philologie et d'histoire.

FOWLER, R. (1979), "Linguistic theory and the study of literature", in Essays on Style and Language, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul.

LEECH, G. (1990), Principies of Pragmatics, London, Longman.

Niazi and Gautum(2010) How To Study Literature: Stylistic and Pragmatic

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Wales, K. (2011) A Dictionary of Stylistics. London: Routledge

Huang, Yan (2007) Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Warner, C. (2014) Literary Pragmatics and Stylistics. In Burke, M. (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Styli stics. London: Routledge.