Stylistics of the English Language Пономарева Елена Юрьевна

Stylistics of the English Language Пономарева Елена Юрьевна, к. ф. н. , доцент кафедры английского языка, Институт гуманитарных наук, Тюменский государственный университет Каб. 213

Stylistics of the English Language RECOMMENDED LITERATURE: 1. Galperin I. R. Stylistics. M. , 1987. 2. Screbnev Y. M. Fundamentals of Stylistics, M. 1985. 3. Арнольд И. В. Стилистика современного английского языка (стилистика декодирования). – M. , 2001. 4. Znamenskaya Т. A. Stylistics of the English Language. Fundumentals of the Course, M. , 2004. 5. Кухаренко В. А. A Book of Practice in Stylistics– 2009. 6. Кухаренко В. А. Seminars in Style (exercise book)

n Lesley Jeffries, Dan Mc. Intyre Stylistics, 2010 n Paul Simpson Stylistics. A Resource Book for Students, 2004 n Geoffrey Leech Language in Literature: Style and Foregrounding (2008) n Dennis Freeborn Style. Text Analysis and Linguistic Criticism, 1996 n Geoffrey Leech, Michael Short Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose (1981; 2 nd edn. 2007)

Lecture 1. STYLISTICS AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS Outline 1. Stylistics as a branch of linguistics, 2. 3. 4. 5. its aims and tasks. Different branches of stylistics. The system of the language, the norm and theory of foregrounding in stylistics. The stylistic function. Functional styles, classifications and controversial moments.

Stylistics from Greek “stylus” (a writing stick). n Style is a way of using a language (average dictionary definition) n “Language expresses and style stresses” /M. Riffattere/ n “Style is the mystery of having been moved by words” /D. Thomas/ n Stylus virum arguit : “The style proclaims the man” /R. Burton/ n Style is the dress of thoughts; if your style is homely, coarse, and vulgar, they will appear to as much disadvantage” /Lord Chesterfield/

Style n “Style is a product of individual choices and patterns of choices among linguistic possibilities” /S. Chatman/ n “A style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication” /I. R. Galperin/.

Summing up: n Style can be understood as literary style – it focuses on the way language is used for artistic purposes. n Style can be viewed as a system of language means used for a certain communicative purpose. n Style can be seen as a product of individual choices or as an idiostyle having its own idiosyncrasies.

Among the founders of stylistics one can name: Charles Bally n Charles Bally (1865 -1947) (The Geneva School of Structural Linguistics) “Traité de stylistique française” (1909) n The formalist school of literary criticism that emerged in Russia in the 1920 s (R. Jakobson, V. Shklovsky, B. Tomashevsky) n The Prague Linguistic Circle (V. Mathesius, R. Jakobson, J. Vachek, B. Havranek)

Stylistics is a branch of linguistics which studies the principles of choice and the effect of choice of different language elements in rendering thought and emotion under different conditions of communication [Galperin 1977]. Stylistics is a sub-discipline of linguistics that is concerned with the systematic analysis of style in language and how this style can vary according to such factors as, for example, genre, context, historical period and author [Crystal and Davy 1969: 9 and Leech 2008: 54].

n The ultimate aim of stylistics is to establish the objective laws and practical rules of using proper linguistic forms in proper situations – to find out which form among the multitude of synonymous linguistic means conforms to the given extralinguistic circumstances.

Stylistics is applied to: 1. A system of stylistic devices (SD) 2. 3. 4. 5. and expressive means in the language (EM); theory of foregrounding; Emotional colouring; Synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea (Ch. Bally); Aesthetic function of the language; Functional styles (the Prague School);

n Expressive means and stylistic devices might be interpreted as tropes and figures of speech based on transference of meaning or unusual arrangement of words in a sentence or unusual graphic/phonetic arrangement of an utterance, which signal some additional information. n Stylistics studies not only the norm but also the VIOLATION of the norm (=foregrounding).

THE NORM In literary language the NORM is the invariant of the n phonetic, n morphological, n lexical and n syntactic patterns in circulation during a given period in the language development.

n The norm constitutes the background of any text. Professor I. V. Arnold calls it automatization. n Jan Mukařovský, a representative of the Prague School introduced the term “foregrounding” or “actualization”. n Foregrounding is the ability of a verbal element to obtain extra significance, to say more in a definite context.

Come, we burn daylight, ho! (Romeo and Juliet, I, 4, 43) n Deviation from linguistic norms: linguistic phenomenon which has an important psychological effect: if a part of a text is deviant, it becomes foregrounded n Foreground vs background: in art criticism, the items in the foreground will usually appear larger than those in the background n Foreground vs background: in stylistics, the background is what is linguistically normal, the foreground is the portions of text which do not conform to expectations n We burn paper, wood, coal, oil, fuel: normal paradigm, vs n We burn daylight: abnormal paradigm

Foregrounding n Semantic deviation (figurative meaning) n Lexical deviation (occasionalisms) n Grammatical deviation (deviant word order) n Morphological deviation (highlighting single morphemes) n Graphological deviation: the written equivalent of phonological deviation n Discoursal deviation (when the reader is placed in the middle of a conversation in order to increase the sense of energy in the argument and to create a conversational tone)

Discourse deviation= in medias res n In medias res or medias in res (into the middle of things) is a Latin phrase for the literary and artistic narrative technique where the relating of a story begins at the midpoint, rather than at the beginning (cf. ab ovo, ab initio), establishing setting, character, and conflict via flashback or expository conversations relating the pertinent past. n The main advantage of in medias res is to open the story with dramatic action rather than exposition which sets up the characters and situation. n E. g. : E. Bronte’s Wuthering Heights M. Shelley Frankenstein

A grief ago In the room So loud to my own. A grief ago; Once below a time; All the sun long; Happy as the heart was long. /Dylan. Thomas/.

n Retire, please! n Leave the room! n Clear out! n Beat it, lady! n I have got nothing! n I ain’t got nothing! n He was heavily drunk. n He was in an advanced state of inebriation.

n The old man is dead. n The old bean has kicked the bucket. n The gentleman well advanced in years has attained the termination of his terrestrial existence.

Decoding stylistics Stylistics of language Stylistics of speech Linguostylistics Functional stylistics Literary stylistics Phonostylistics Morphostylistics Lexicological stylistics Stylistic syntax Stylistics of the text Encoding stylistics

DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS n DECODING STYLISTICS vs ENCODING STYLISTICS n STYLISTICS OF LANGUAGE vs STYLISTICS OF SPEECH n LINGUOSTYLISTICS vs LITERARY STYLISTICS n FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS.

R. Jakobson's Communicative Model: Context referential Message poetic Addressee (decoder) conative/ voluntative Addresser (encoder) emotive contact phatic code metalinguistic

The Functions n The referential function (референтивная/ информативная) n The poetic function (поэтическая) n The emotive or expressive function (экспрессивная) n The phatic function (фатическая) n The metalinguistic function (метаязыковая) n The conative function (апеллятивная/ волеизъявительная)

n The referential function is what is being spoken of, what is n n n being referred to. The poetic function is the focus on the message (beauty of the message) The emotive or expressive function refers to the attitude of the addresser towards that of which (or to whom) he speaks: through emphasis, intonation, loudness, pace, etc. The phatic function is the use of language to keep people in contact with each other. The metalinguistic function is that use of language, by which people check out with each other whether they are 'on the same page', using the same codes in the same contexts. The conative function refers to those aspects of language that aim to create a certain response in the addressee.

Roland Barthes (12 November, 1915 – 25 March, 1980) n “The Death of the Author” is an essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes. n Barthes's essay argues against traditional literary criticism's practice of incorporating the intentions and biographical context of an author in an interpretation of a text, and instead argues that writing and creator are unrelated.

Decoding stylistics (M. Riffaterre, R. Jakobson, Y. Lotman, I. V. Arnold and others) n Decoding stylistics makes an attempt to regard the aesthetic value of a text based on the interaction of specific textual elements, stylistic devices and compositional structure in delivering the author's message. n Decoding stylistics helps the reader in his or her understanding of a literary work by explaining or decoding the information that may be hidden from immediate view in specific allusions, cultural or political parallels, peculiar use of irony or euphemy, etc.

Table 1. The philological circle (the circle of understanding) – L. Spitzer. Literary appreciation Seeking Aesthetic function Seeking linguistic evidence Linguistic description

Stylistics uses achievements of other disciplines: n The descriptive apparatus of context-free linguistics (structuralism) n Pragmatics n Sociolinguistics n Cognitive approach n Corpus linguistics

Newly developed branches of stylistics n Corpus stylistics Language corpora: Øthe British National Corpus (BNC), ØThe International Corpus of English (ICE); ØCorpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Concordance programs for stylistic analysis ØWord. Smith http: //www. lexically. net/wordsmith/; ØAnt. Conc http: //www. antlab. sci. waseda. ac. jp/software. html ØDialing Concordance http: //www. aot. ru n Cognitive stylistics (refers to the branch of linguistics that interprets language in terms of the concepts, sometimes universal, sometimes specific to a particular tongue, which underlie its forms) n CDA/critical stylistics (an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice and focuses on the ways social and political domination are reproduced in text and talk) n Multimodal stylistics (the happy marriage of stylistics and semiotics, or intersemiotic translation from verbal texts to theatrical productions, films etc)

Expressive Means EM of the language are presented by a choice of words, clauses, sentences, combination of sounds, which signal additional information (emotive, expressive, evaluative, stylistic).

EM on different levels of language exposition n Phonetic EM (pitch, melody, stress, pausation etc. ) n Morphological EM (the historic present, emphatic “shall”, emphatic demonstrative pronouns) n Lexical EM (interjections, words with connotations (love, hate), slang, poetic, archaic words) n Syntactical EM (emphatic structures)

Stylistic Device A STYLISTIC DEVICE is a conscious and intentional intensification of some typical structural and/or semantic property of a lg unit, promoted to a generalized status and thus becoming a generative model (I. R. Galperin).

EM and SD n“Sara was a menace and a tonic, my best enemy”. n. Rozzie was a disease, my worst friend”.

Stylistics does not study or describe separate linguistic Stylistics units like phonemes or words or clauses as such. It studies their stylistic function. Stylistics is interested in the expressive potential of these units and their interaction in a text. The stylistic function is an expressive realization of interrelated lg means in the text to convey not only logical (denotative), but expressive, emotive, evaluative and aesthetic information.

Stylistic Function The stylistic function is characterized by accumulation of the mood (tonality) expressed by different EM, constituting convergence on the whole, it is based on implication and irradiation.

n Accumulation is the transition of the mood, feeling or motifs by means of several EM and SD whose aim is to attract the reader's attention. n Convergence (Michael Riffaterre) is the combination of different SD fulfilling the same stylistic function. n Implication is the ability of a text to contain additional implicit information. n Irradiation is the ability of a single word (or phrase) to influence the whole text, e. g. a single vulgar word can mar the high flown tonality of a large piece of text and vice versa.

Example “And heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the Black sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience”. /Melville/.

Functional styles 1. The Official style, represented in all kinds of official documents and papers; 2. The Scientific style, found in articles, brochures, monographs and other scientific and academic publications; 3. The Publicist style, covering such genres as essays, feature articles, most writings of "new journalism", public speeches, etc. ; 4. The Newspaper style, observed in the majority of information materials printed in newspapers; 5. The Belles-lettres style, embracing numerous and versatile genres of imaginative writing.

Controversial FS n The Belles-lettres Style (recognized by prof. Galperin, the Moscow School of stylistics) n The Colloquial Style n The Style of Oratory n The Poetic Style (recognized by prof, Arnold, the St. Petersburg (former Leningrad) School of Stylistics)

Questions Give definitions to the following notions: 1. Style (3 definitions) 2. Stylistics 3. Norm 4. Foregrounding and its types 5. Decoding stylistics 6. Stylistic function