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CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS V

STYLISTICS

From Lat. stilos (a sharp stick used for writing on wax tablets).

Stylistics is a branch of applied linguistics concerned with the study of style in texts.
The term 'style' is used in linguistics to describe the choices which language makes available to a user
Stylistics, in other words, is the study of style used in literary and verbal language and the effect writer or speaker
wishes to communicate to the reader or hearer.
It attempts to establish principles capable of explaining the particular choices made by individual and social groups in
their use of language, such as socialization, the production or reception of meaning, literary criticism and critical
discourse analysis.
Features of Linguistic Stylistics
Stylistics refers to the identification of the patterns of usage in speech and writing (Widdowson, Stylistics) linguistic
features for in-depth stylistic analysis.

1. Phonological level.
(Sounds) Phonology is organized in units (tone group which carries contrasts of intonation, the foot which carries the
rhythm, syllable which carries contrasts of stress, and phoneme which is the smallest phonological unit), some of the
features which are signaled out to contribute the totality of stylistic construction that makes up a writer's style are:
1. Repetition of certain constants (nasal, sibilants, emphatic )
2. Nature of syllables (open or closed)
3. Quantity of syllable (short, long)
4. The position, nature and quantity of the prominent syllable)
5. Elision, alliteration, liaison
6. Prosodic features of stress, length of intonation and their relation to rhythm.
Example:
Alliteration: Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers
Assonance: "Try to light the fire
Onomatopeia: Cuckoo; Boom

2. Graphological Level.
Graphology means the arrangement of words, the appearance of the text on a page .E.g. use of capitalization, or
avoiding it, over emphasis on punctuation
Example:
Emily Dickinson : Use of punctuationDashes
e e cummings : ignores capitalization
3. Lexico-Semantic level
Semantics deals with the level of meaning in language.
Synonyms or similar words may be used
Hyponymy, metonymy, irony, hyperbole.
Tries to give account of both word and sentence meaning
Example:
Metonymy: The White House declared (White House = US government / President)
Irony: The food was so delicious that I took it home for my dog.
Hyperbole: Ive told you a thousand times.
But tomorrow cannot be consoled
She is fishing in troubled waters.

4. Syntactic Level
Concerned with the arrangement of the words in a sentence. It also attempts to describe how these elements function
in the sentence.
Studies description of rules of positioning of words in a sentence.
Involves rules of positioning of elements in a sentence, such as nouns, verbs, adverbs etc
Example:
Home he went (home occurs in the beginning of the sentence to foreground it.)
Victory is what we need. Victory is what we expect.
Not a look, not a wink, said Mr. Tupman. Not a syllables, Not a whisper.

5. Morphological level
What their grammatical forms are, how the system of gender, number, plural etc. function and why the words forms
change.
Example:
unloves the heavenless hell unlove unhate manunkind (e e cummings)
The clamour of waters, snows, winds, rains... (Hemingway)
Darkness eats a distance birdfully

6. Discourse Level
Inter-sentencial links that form a coherent and cohesive text.
Discourse and stylistics aim to show why and how the text means what it means.
DA: What is communicated.
STYLISTICS: How its communicated
Example:
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodgd with me useless through my soul more bent.

Connotative meaning
Emotive connotation:
Feelings or emotions
Evaluative components:
Conveys the speakers attitude in relation to the object of the speech.
Expressive connotation:
Intention of the message
Intensifiers (really, quite, absolutely)
Stylistic connotation:
Belong to a functional style or specific layer of vocabulary

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