Lecture 1. Stylistics introduction

1. Stylistics of the English Language

INTRODUCTION

2. Stylistics (by Collins English Dictionary) [staɪ’lɪstɪks]

a branch of linguistics concerned with
the study of characteristic choices in
use of language, esp. literary
language, as regards sound, form,
or
vocabulary,
made
by
different individuals or social groups in
different situations of use

3. Stylistics in American

Stylistics in American
the study of style as a means of analyzing
works of literature and their effect.
A branch of applied linguistics, the study
and interpretation of texts in regard to
their linguistic and tonal style.
As
a discipline, it
criticism to linguistics
links
literary

4.

Stylistics studies the devices in languages (such
as rhetorical figures and syntactical patterns) that
are considered to produce expressive or literary
style.
Style has been an object of study from ancient
times. Aristotle, Cicero, Demetrius, and
Quintilian treated style as the proper adornment
of thought. The essayist or orator is expected to
frame his ideas with the help of model sentences
and prescribed kinds of “figures” suitable to his
mode of discourse.

5.

The analysis of literary style goes back to the
study of classical rhetoric, though modern
stylistics has its roots in Russian Formalism
and the related Prague School of the early
twentieth century.
In 1909, Charles Bally's Traité de stylistique
française had proposed stylistics as a distinct
academic discipline to
complement Saussurean linguistics. For Bally,
Saussure's linguistics by itself couldn't fully
describe the language of personal expression.
Deviation from the accepted norm

6.

Style in language arises from the
possibility of choice among
alternative forms of expression
(children = kids = youngsters =
youths)

7.

Modern stylistics goes back to ancient rhetoric and
poetics
The scope of problems stylistics is to solve, its very
object and its tasks are open to discussion up to the
present day
Stylistics is called the branch of linguistics that investigates the principles
and the effect of selection and use of lexical, grammatical, phonetic and
general linguistic resources for the transmission of thoughts and emotions
in different contexts of communication.

8. Stylistics as a branche of applied linguistics

develops the skills of thoughtful reading;
provides a basis for the development of artistic taste,
develop emotional sensitivity and aesthetic sense;
helps to normalize the language and to develop good
and expressive speaking and writing;
help
to learn to read with deep understanding of the
text development of independent critical thought;
allows future teachers to learn better methods of
teaching reading.

9. The main focus – on the style of perception

Develops the
skills of active
proficiency in
fact the most
important in the
field of cultural
communication
How to
understand
correctly the
content of the
text
be able to
transfer my
experience to
another
Creates a clear
understanding
of the contexts
and situations
that may be
encountered in
the text used
for their new
language units.

10.

Stylistics touches upon such disciplines as
Statistics
Theory of
information
Logic
Literature
STYLISTICS
Psychology
Grammar
Lexicology

11. Y. M. Screbnev’s attempts to formulate a ‘universal’ definition of stylistics

Stylistics viewed in its relation to language as a system
is based on the theory of sub-languages (a sublanguage is the set of lingual units actually used in a
given sphere ).
Viewed in its relation to language as a set of signs
(words ) and their sequence patterns stylistics may be
regarded as a linguistic discipline concentrating on
connotations.
Viewed in search for a general evaluation of the
character of its object, stylistics studies information
often unaccounted for by an ordinary language user.

12. Y. M. Screbnev’s attempts to formulate a ‘universal’ definition of stylistics

Viewed as a linguistic branch stylistics appears as a description
of specific lingual elements and combinations of elements – a
description creating the system of concepts to be used in analysis
of material.
Viewed with the aim of establishing its ultimate goals or
prospects, stylistics maybe defined as a branch of linguistics
elaborating a system of tests to ensure correct text attribution
Viewed pragmatically, i.e. as reflecting the interrelation between
language and its user’s behaviour, stylistics investigates the
highest stages of linguistic competence, i.e. the ability to
differentiate subsystems (sub-languages) in the general structure
of language.
Viewed as regards its place among other branches of linguistics
(describing a national language in terms of phonetics,
morphology, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics), stylistics turns
out to be the most reliable description of the linguistic object.

13.

The
stylistics
of
language explores, on
the one hand, the
specificity of language
subsystems,
called
functional styles and
sublanguage
and
characterized by peculiar
vocabulary, phraseology
and syntax, and, on the
other hand, - expressive,
emotional and evaluative
properties of the various
linguistic means.
The stylistics of speech
is studying some real
texts, considering how
they convey the content,
not just following the
rules of known grammar
and
style
of
the
language, but also on the
basis
of
significant
deviations from these
norms
(What makes the tone of
the speech?)

14. Compare the following utterances referring to the same situation:

Never seen the chap, not I!
Me, I never clapped eyes on this here
guy.
I deny the fact of ever having seen this
person.
I have no association with the
appearance of the individual I behold.
I have certainly never seen the man.

15. During interpretation of the text, it is important to remember that the information in speech can be of two types

Denotative meaning
Information
that is not
related to the situation
of
the
act
of
communication, but it is
the very component, the
subject of the message
refer to the subject
of speech
Connotative meaning
(connotation)
Additional
information
related to the terms and
participants
of
the
communication act
composed of
emotional, expressive,
and evaluation of
functional-stylistic
components

16. Denotative vs. Connotative Meaning

girl,
maiden,
lass,
lassie,
chick,
baby,
young lady
girl

17. The task of the stylistic descriptions and stylistic analysis is …

to examine the interaction of subject-logical content of
the communication, i.e. information of the first kind
with the information of the second kind, i.e. with the
manifestations of emotional, volitional, aesthetic and
other functions of language, with the expression of the
subjective attitude of the speaker to the subject of the
statements, the interlocutor and the situation of
communication.
Stylistic
description
requires
consideration of the text in all the richness of text,
linguistic and extra-linguistic ties, studying the
interaction of connotative and denotative meanings of
words and structures, their relationships and their role
in the artistic whole.

18. It is necessary to make a distinction between expressive means and stylistic devices

Expressive means of a
language are those phonetic
means, morphological forms,
means of word-building and
lexical, phraseological and
syntactical forms, all of which
function in the language for
emotional
or
logical
intensification of the utterance.
These intensifying forms have
been fixed in grammar books
and dictionaries. e.g. The use of
shall in the second and third
person may be regarded as an
expressive means.
He shall do it = I shall make
him do it.
What is a stylistic device? It
is
a
conscious
and
intentional, literary use of
some of the facts of the
language
(excluding
expressive means) in which
the most essential features
(both
structural
and
semantic) of the language
forms are raised to a
generalized level and thereby
present a generative model.

19. Lexical stylistics with two subgroups

Lexicological stylistics
Semasiological stylistics
Lexical stylistics studies
different components of
contextual meanings of
words in particular the
expressive, evaluative and
emotive potential of words
belonging to different
layers of the vocabulary:
dialect
words,
terms,
colloquial words, slang,
foreign words, neologisms
etc. They are all studied
with the view of their
interaction with different
tasks of the context.
Semasiological
stylistics
studies functions of the
transferred meanings of
words
and
wordcombinations (metaphor,
simile, metonymy etc.)

20. Grammatical stylistics falls into

Morphological
stylistics
studies
stylistic
possibilities
within
different
grammatical categories
adherent to this or that
part of speech.
Syntactical
stylistics
investigates expressive
possibilities of wordorder, types of sentences,
types
of
syntactical
constructions. The first
place is given here to
Figures of Speech i.e. a
deliberate
deviation
from the syntactical
norm.

21. Phono-stylistics

studies
peculiarities of the sound
organization of speech: rhythm, alliteration,
onomatopoeia etc if they are used in a
stylistic function.
It also studies the use of non-standard
pronunciation.

22. Stylistics is subdivided into linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics

Linguistic stylistics, the foundations of which were laid by Sharle
Balli, compares the national norm with special characteristic of
the different spheres of communication subsystems, called
functional styles and dialects (linguistic stylistics in this narrow
sense is called functional stylistics) and examines the elements
of language in terms of their ability to express and cause
emotions, associations and additional assessment. Sh. Bally
suggested an identification method, which means comparing
the investigated element of the text with its logical equivalent,
but stylistically and emotionally neutral element. Sh. Bally,
however, used this method only for linguistic stylistics and he
was rather sceptical about literary stylistics.
Rapidly developing branch of stylistics is comparative
stylistics, parallelly considering the stylistic features of two or
more languages. Since comparative stylistics is inextricably
linked with literary translation, it as well as the style of
perception, can not be isolated from the literary stylistics.

23. Literary stylistics

studies set of
means of artistic expressionness that
characterize a literary work, the author, literary
movement or of an era, and the factors that affect the
artistic expression. There are many works of Russian
and foreign literary stylistic on the system and the
language of Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Byron,
Keats, and others. Since much of the analysis is
devoted to the stylistic analysis of literary texts, then
this part of stylistics is connected with poetics and
literary theory.

24. Poetics

Poetics is the science that studies the structure of literary
works and the system of aesthetic means used in them.
There is a more narrow understanding of poetics as a
science that studies the poetic language. In this case, not
the stylistics is a part of poetics, but rather the poetics is
part of style, which deals with the specifics of language
used in different areas of communication, including the
specifics of the language of scientists works, newspapers,
advertising, etc.
Many scientific works are dedicated to the literary study of
such problems of poetic language, as the ratio of writers to
the mother tongue, the convergence of poetic speech with
live folk speech, aesthetic views of writers, tradition and
innovation in language writers, the problem of imagery,
language, image of the author-narrator, how to voice
characters.

25. Linguo-stylistics vs. Stylistics of speech

The stylistics of speech considers not only the art, but
in general, any speech work. The relation between
lingua-stylistics and style of speech is one of the main
problems of the famous book on stylistics edited by
O.S. Akhmanova.
The major difference between these two types of
stylistics is that of linguistic stylistics explores the
expressive possibilities of language and literary style especially the use of these features in one way or
another by the author.

26.

Thank you for your
attention!