INTRODUCTION TO STYLISTICIS THE SUBJECT AND MAIN OBJECTIVES OF STYLISTICS

speeches and Poetics (process of artistic creation)
Aristotle “Poetics” 320

B.C. – epic drama and lyrics,
Socrates - Dialectics ( the art of creating a dialogue)
Poetics developed into Literary Criticism; Rhetoric and Dialectics – into Stylistics
In ancient Rome:

attractive) became a model way of public speaking
Influence of ancient

India – brevity of speech
Distinction between FORM and CONTENT
The language of science, culture, administration (Latin) was different from the language of common people
Romanticism: style referred to written form of language Nicolas Boileau L’Art poetique (1674) language and parole
1. stylus altus (works of art)
2. stylus mediocris (the style of high society)
3. stylus humilis (the style of low society and comedies)
19 century W.von Humboldt “ Uber die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues..” functional styles Prague Linguistic Circle (1926)

Structural and Functional Approaches.
Stylistics and Other Sciences. Theory of Information.

Major Scholars and Landmarks of Stylistics Development as a Science.
The Main Terms, Categories and Notions of Stylistics.
Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Expressiveness and Emotiveness.
Types of Meaning. Meaning and Sense. Meaning from a Stylistic Point of View
Functional styles and varieties of a language

M.: Higher School, 1977, p.1
Мороховский А.Н. Стилистика английского языка.-Киев: Вища

школа,1991
Арнольд И.В. Стилистика современного английского языка.- М.: Просвещение, 1990
Дубенко О. Ю. Порівняльна стилістика англійської та української мов. – Вінниця: Нова книга, 2005
Єфімов Л.П. Стилістика англійської мови. – Вінниця: Нова книга, 2004

special language media which secure the desirable effect of the

utterance – they are called stylistic devices(SD) and expressive means(EM). Stylistics studies the nature, functions and structure of SDs and EMs

The second field of investigation is concerned with certain types of texts which due to the choice and arrangement of language means are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of communication. These types are called functional styles of language.

principles and the results of selection and use of lexical,

grammatical, phonetic and other language means for the transfer of thoughts and emotions under di fferent circumstances of communication
Lat - stylus - a stick made of material for writing.
Stylistics - from French " Stylistique " -instrument for Writing.

linguistics” in 1954
Conference on Style - Indiana University , 1958

publication of its materials in 1960 under the editorship of Thomas Sebeok
Conference on Style , Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages in 1969
Symposium , Italy , Proceedings under the editorship of Prof. Chatman in 1971.
American journals , Illinois University “Style” and “Language and Style”.

psychoanalytical approach to language
French School of Charles Bally and F.

de Saussure (Geneva) – expressive stylistics STRUCTURALISM
The Prague Linguistic Circle – Jakobson, Trubetskoi, Mathesius and Copenhagen Structuralistic school – Hjelmslev, in the US – Sapir and Blooomfield
1920s Russia FORMALISM – the focus of the text analysis was on the form (HOW) not content (WHAT) Roman Jakobson, Tynianov and Vinogradov

stylistics - I.V.Arnold
Zhirmunsky(1921), Vinogradov (1923), Tynianov (1924) - literary trend

of formalism
Galperin, Lotman, Kukharenko, Morokhovsky
Darbyshire 1971 “A Grammar of Style”
Enkvist “Linguistic Stylistics” 1973

expression
An individual manner of making use of language
The set of

rules how to write a composition
The aesthetic function of language
Expressive means in language
Synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea
Emotional coloring in language
A system of special devices called stylistic devices
The splitting of the literary language into separate systems called styles
The individual manner of an author in making use of language

is deviation” Enkvist
“style is the result of an author’s success

in compelling language to conform to his mode of experience (Middleton Murry)
“Style is a contextually restricted linguistic variation” (Enkvist)
Style is a selection of non-distinctive features of language(Bloomfield)
Style is simply synonymous with form or expression(Benedetto Croce)
“structures, sequences and patterns which extend beyond the boundaries of individual sentences - style (Archibald Hill )

a writer’s individual manner of using language means to achieve

the effect he desires: components of individual style -
composition of phrasal units
rhythm and melody of utterances
system of imagery
preference for definite stylistic devices and their correlation with neutral language media
interdependence of the language means employed by the author and those characteristic to his personages.
The speech of any individual, which is characterized by particular elements, is called an idiolect that reveals his breeding and education

embrace all variable phonemic, morphological, lexical, and syntactic patterns with

their typical properties circulating in the language at a definite period of time.
language-as-a-system and language-in-action, language and speech (discourse), lange and parole.
Expressiveness – in etymological sense is a kind of intensification of the utterance (or a part of it).
Emotiveness - reveals emotions of the writer or a speaker by not directly manifesting their emotions but by echoing real feelings, designed to awaken co-experience on the part of the reader

syntactical forms, which exist in language-as-a-system for the purpose of

logical or emotional intensification of the utterance.
Phonetic EM - pitch, melody, stress, pausation, drawling out, whispering and sing-song manner
Morphological EM - number, Historical Present, “shall” in the 2 or 3 person, demonstrative pronouns, verbals
Lexical EM - different affixes: e.g. diminutive suffixes – dearie, sonny, auntie, streamlet. At the lexical level expressiveness can also be rendered by the words possessing inner expressive charge - interjections, epithets, slang and vulgar, poetic or archaic words, set phrases, idioms, catchwords, proverbs and sayings

some typical structural and/or semantic property of a language unit

(neutral or expressive) promoted to a generalized status thus becoming a generative model.
SDs display an application of 2 meanings: the ordinary one (already established in language-as-a-system) and a special – imposed on the unit by the author (or content), a meaning, which appears in language-in-action
Stylistic devices (tropes, figures of speech) unlike expressive means are not language phenomena. They are formed in speech and most of them do not exist out of context. According to principles of their formation, stylistic devices are grouped into phonetic, lexico-semantic and syntactic types. Stylistic devices are the result of revaluation of neutral words, word-combinations and syntactic structures. Stylistic devices are studied by stylistic semasiology.

unit by other language units in speech. Such encirclement makes

the meaning of the unit clear and unambiguous. It is especially important in case with polysemantic words. Microcontext is the context of a single utterance (sentence). Macrocontext is the context of a paragraph in a text. Megacontext is the context of a book chapter, a story or the whole book.

An extralingual (situational) context is formed by extralingual conditions in which communication takes place : physical context and abstract context. Temporal or chronological context , psychological context

normally a continuous stream of sound. Conversations are often accompanied

by other sign systems which aid understanding. These might be physical gestures, facial expressions, even bodily posture. Meaning in speech is commonly conveyed by tone and other non-verbal means such as irony. Speech quite commonly includes false starts, repetition, hesitation

Writing is the use of visual symbols which act as a code for communication between individuals or groups. The code of written language consists of letter-forms (the alphabet) used to form a visual image of spoken words. Words are formed in accordance with the conventions of spelling, then combined according to the rules of syntax to form meaningful statements.

and emotive planes
Connotative meaning may be of 4 types:
1.functional (reflecting

the sphere of usage of the word)
2.evaluative (positive, negative or neutral)
3.emotive (rendering the attitude of the speaker) Denotative meaning
4.expressive (containing an image of pragmatic value)

stylistic meaning as distinguished from lexical one, which is representing primary information, is based on the secondary (additional) information.

is always implied. Lexical meaning is relatively stable, and stylistic

meaning is liable to change
Grammatical meaning reflects the relations between words or some forms of words or constructions, it can also be called structural meaning. All the words have grammatical meaning simply because they belong to some language and have their place in it
Logical, emotive and nominal meaning
Logical meaning (synonymously called referential or direct) is the precise naming of a feature, an idea, a phenomenon or an object. There can be primary and secondary logical meanings. All the meanings fixed by the dictionaries comprise what is called the semantic structure of a word

word but it has reference to the feelings and emotions

of a speaker towards the thing. It names the object by evaluating it.
Usually we deal with contextual emotive meaning. But some classes of words – interjections, exclamations, and swearwords – are direct carriers of emotive meaning. Interjections have even lost completely their logical meaning: e.g. alas, oh, ah, pooh, darn, gosh.
Nominal meaning steps in when we deal with the words serving the purpose of singling out one definite and singular object of a whole class of similar objects. These words are classified by grammarians as proper nouns as different from common nouns

of the nature, functions and structure of SDs and EMs

and the study of the functional styles of language.
Functional style (FS) may be defined as a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim of communication
FSs are sometimes called registers or discourses:
the language of belles-lettres
the language of publicistic literature
the language of press/media
the language of scientific prose
the language of official documents
I.V. Arnold mentions four styles: poetic style, scientific style, newspaper style, colloquial style.

Старик умер.
The gentleman well advanced in years attained the termination

of his terrestrial existence. Старец скончался
The ole bean kicked the bucket. Старый хрыч подох

Linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics are two separate and at the same time interconnected branches of stylistics
Linguistic stylistics studies functional styles of a language and the elements of language from the point of view of their ability to express and cause emotions
Literary stylistics studies expressive means and stylistic devices characteristic for a definite work of art, man of letter, literary movement, trend or epoch, and factors influencing the expressiveness of language.
 

syntax
Connection of stylistics with other branches of linguistics
Stylistics and

phonetics: Phonetics studies sounds, articulation, rhythmics and intonation. Stylistics concentrates on expressive sound combinations, intonational and rhythmic patterns. Stylistics and lexicology: Lexicology describes words, their origin, development, semantic and structural features. Stylistics also deals with words, but only those which are expressive in language or in speech. Stylistics and grammar: Grammar describes regularities of building words, word-combinations, sentences and texts. Stylistics restricts itself to those grammar regularities, which make language units expressive.