Introduction to stylistics

1. INTRODUCTION TO STYLISTICIS
Yaxyoyev Ahmadullo
Checked by: Kutbiddinova Sh. F

2. ROOTS AND PREDECESSORS
•Ancient time: Rhetoric - the art of creating speeches and Poetics (pr
ocess 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 – int
o Stylistics
In ancient Rome:
CAESAR and analogists CICERO and anomalists
•Stressed regularity and system r
ules
•Focused on facts and data
•Their aim was to create simple c
lear and straightforward speech
es
•Seneca and Tacituts
•Aimed at creation of flowery language
•Used unnatural syntactic patterns, artif
icial sentence structures
•Created anomalies on all language level
s
•Their true message was secondary to th
e form of presentation

3. MIDDLE AGES AND THE NEW AGE
•Anomalistic rhetoric of Cicero (aesthetically 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 differe
nt from the language of common people
•Romanticism: style referred to written form of language Nicolas B
oileau 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 menschli
chen Sprachbaues..” functional styles Prague Linguistic Circle
(1926)

4. PLAN
1.The Object, Objectives and Units of Stylistics, its Methodological B
asis. Structural and Functional Approaches.
2.Stylistics and Other Sciences. Theory of Information. Major Scholar
s and Landmarks of Stylistics Development as a Science.
3.The Main Terms, Categories and Notions of Stylistics.
4.Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Expressiveness and Emotiv
eness.
5.Types of Meaning. Meaning and Sense. Meaning from a Stylistic Po
int of View
6.Functional styles and varieties of a language

5. Stylistics – is a branch of general linguistics

6. DEFINITION
stylistics - is a science, a branch of linguistics, investi
gating principles and the results of selection and u
se of lexical, grammatical, phonetic and other lang
uage means for the transfer of thoughts and emoti
ons under di
Lat - stylus - a stick made of material for writing.
Stylistics - from French " Stylistique " -instrument for
Writing.fferent circumstances of communication

7. Landmarks
1.The first discussion on the problems of style “Issues of li
nguistics” in 1954
2.Conference on Style - Indiana University , 1958 publicati
on of its materials in 1960 under the editorship of Thomas
Sebeok
3.Conference on Style , Moscow State Pedagogical Institut
e of Foreign Languages in 1969
4.Symposium , Italy , Proceedings under the editorship of
Prof. Chatman in 1971.
5.American journals , Illinois University “Style” and “Langu
age and Style”.

8. XX century
•Germany New Idealists: B.Croce, K.Vossler etc. develope
d individualistic and psychoanalytical approach to langua
ge
•French School of Charles Bally and F. de Saussure (Geneva
) – expressive stylistics STRUCTURALISM
•The Prague Linguistic Circle – Jakobson, Trubetskoi, Math
esius and Copenhagen Structuralistic school – Hjelmslev, i
n the US – Sapir and Blooomfield
•1920s Russia FORMALISM – the focus of the text analysis
was on the form (HOW) not content (WHAT) Roman Jako
bson, Tynianov and Vinogradov

9. Main representatives
Michael Riffatere - theory of information:
Denotative and Connotative Meaning
Decoding stylistics - I.V.Arnold
Zhirmunsky(1921), Vinogradov (1923), Tynianov (192
4) - literary trend of formalism
Galperin, Lotman, Kukharenko, Morokhovsky
Darbyshire 1971 “A Grammar of Style”
Enkvist “Linguistic Stylistics” 1973

10. Main Terms, Categories and Notions
STYLE
•The correspondence between thought and language 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 st
yles
•The individual manner of an author in making use of language

11. STYLE
•“style is the man himself “(Buffon 18thc.)
•“Style is depth” Darbyshire
•“style 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(Bloomfiel
d)
•Style is simply synonymous with form or expression(Benedetto Croc
e)
•“structures, sequences and patterns which extend beyond the boun
daries of individual sentences - style (Archibald Hill )

12. Individual style and idiolect
Individual style implies the peculiarities of a writer’s individual manne
r of using language means to achieve the effect he desires: compon
ents of individual style -
•composition of phrasal units
•rhythm and melody of utterances
•system of imagery
•preference for definite stylistic devices and their correlation with ne
utral language media
•interdependence of the language means employed by the author an
d those characteristic to his personages.
The speech of any individual, which is characterized by particular ele
ments, is called an idiolect that reveals his breeding and education

13. NORM, expressiveness and emotiveness
Norm – is an invariant, which should embrace all variable phonemic, m
orphological, lexical, and syntactic patterns with their typical prope
rties circulating in the language at a definite period of time.
language-as-a-system and language-in-action, language and speech (di
scourse), lange and parole.
Expressiveness – in etymological sense is a kind of intensification of th
e utterance (or a part of it).
Emotiveness - reveals emotions of the writer or a speaker by not direct
ly manifesting their emotions but by echoing real feelings, designed
to awaken co-experience on the part of the reader

14. Emotional synonyms
• BIG – enormous, huge, large, gigantic, great, immense, mo
nstrous, macroscopic, mammoth, tremendous
• SMALL – little, tiny, minute, miniature, miniscule, undersiz
ed, diminutive, lilliputian, midget, petite
• BEAUTIFUL - fair, fine, good-looking, handsome, splendid,
gorgeous, lovely, picturesque, pretty, scenic, stunning
• UGLY – disfigured, evil-looking, grotesque, monstrous, hid
eous, repulsive, unsightly
• INTERESTING - absorbing, engrossing, fascinating, grippin
g, riveting, entertaining, amusing, intriguing
• BORING - boring, deadening, dull, irksome, slow, tedious, t
iresome, wearisome, uninteresting

15. Expressiveness vs emotiveness

16. Expressive means
Expressive means are those phonetic, morphological, word-building, l
exical, phraseological, 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, whisperi
ng and sing-song manner
Morphological EM - number, Historical Present, “shall” in the 2 or 3 p
erson, demonstrative pronouns, verbals
Lexical EM - different affixes: e.g. diminutive suffixes – dearie, sonny,
auntie, streamlet. At the lexical level expressiveness can also be re
ndered by the words possessing inner expressive charge - interjecti
ons, epithets, slang and vulgar, poetic or archaic words, set phrase
s, idioms, catchwords, proverbs and sayings

17. If you can keep your head when all about
you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men do
ubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting t
oo:
If you can wait and not be tired by waitin
g,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too
wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams
your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts
your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disast
er
And treat those two impostors just the sa
me:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've s
poken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fool
s,
If you can make one heap of all your win
nings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginni
ngs,
And never breathe a word about your los
s:
If you can force your heart and nerve and
sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gon
e,
And so hold on when there is nothing in
you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hol
d on!“
If you can talk with crowds and keep you
r virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the commo
n touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hur
t you,
If all men count with you, but none too
much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance ru

18. Stylistic devices
Stylistic device is a conscious and intentional intensification of some
typical structural and/or semantic property of a language unit (ne
utral or expressive) promoted to a generalized status thus becomi
ng 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 t
he unit by the author (or content), a meaning, which appears in la
nguage-in-action
Stylistic devices (tropes, figures of speech) unlike expressive means are not langu
age 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 grou
ped into phonetic, lexico-semantic and syntactic types. Stylistic devices are the
result of revaluation of neutral words, word-combinations and syntactic struct
ures. Stylistic devices are studied by stylistic semasiology.

19. Types of context
Linguistic context is the encirclement of a language unit by other langu
age units in speech. Such encirclement makes the meaning of the u
nit clear and unambiguous. It is especially important in case with po
lysemantic words. Microcontext is the context of a single utterance
(sentence). Macrocontext is the context of a paragraph in a text. M
egacontext is the context of a book chapter, a story or the whole bo
ok.
An extralingual (situational) context is formed by extralingual conditio
ns in which communication takes place : physical context and abstr
act context. Temporal or chronological context , psychological conte
xt

20. Linguistic micro context

21. Speech and writing (oral and written language varieties)
Speech is normally a continuous
stream of sound. Conversations a
re often accompanied by other si
gn systems which aid understandi
ng. These might be physical gestu
res, facial expressions, even bodil
y posture. Meaning in speech is c
ommonly conveyed by tone and o
ther non-verbal means such as iro
ny. Speech quite commonly inclu
des false starts, repetition, hesita
tion
Writing is the use of visual symbo
ls which act as a code for com
munication between individual
s or groups. The code of writte
n language consists of letter-fo
rms (the alphabet) used to for
m a visual image of spoken wo
rds. Words are formed in accor
dance with the conventions of
spelling, then combined accord
ing to the rules of syntax to for
m meaningful statements.

22. Types of Meaning
primary (denotative) meaning and additional (connotative) meaning/
objective and emotive planes
Connotative meaning may be of 4 types:
1.functional (reflecting the sphere of usage of the word) – formal/infor
mal – dear Sir/ Hey, dude
2.evaluative (positive, negative or neutral) – ambitious/pushy/goal-ori
ented
3.emotive (rendering the attitude of the speaker) – It’s fabulous! Disgu
sting! Oh boy! Tut tut!
4.expressive (containing an image of pragmatic value) – to express wh
at is really meant
stylistic meaning as distinguished from lexical one, which is representi
ng primary information, is based on the secondary (additional) infor
mation.

23. Types of Meaning
Lexical meaning is given explicitly while stylistic meaning is always imp
lied. Lexical meaning is relatively stable, and stylistic meaning is liab
le to change
Grammatical meaning reflects the relations between words or some f
orms of words or constructions, it can also be called structural mea
ning. 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 preci
se naming of a feature, an idea, a phenomenon or an object. There
can be primary and secondary logical meanings. All the meanings fix
ed by the dictionaries comprise what is called the semantic structur
e of a word

24. Types of Meaning
Emotive meaning also materializes the concept of a word but it has ref
erence 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 ca
rriers of emotive meaning. Interjections have even lost completely t
heir logical meaning: e.g. alas, oh, ah, pooh, darn, gosh.
Nominal meaning steps in when we deal with the words serving the p
urpose of singling out one definite and singular object of a whole cl
ass of similar objects. These words are classified by grammarians as
proper nouns as different from common nouns

25. Functional styles of language
The object of linguostylistics as the study of the nature, functions and s
tructure of SDs and EMs and the study of the functional styles of lan
guage.
Functional style (FS) may be defined as a system of interrelated langu
age 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, newspap
er style, colloquial style.

26. Linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics
The old man is dead. 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 sa
me time interconnected branches of stylistics
Linguistic stylistics studies functional styles of a language and the elem
ents of language from the point of view of their ability to express an
d cause emotions
Literary stylistics studies expressive means and stylistic devices charac
teristic for a definite work of art, man of letter, literary movement,
trend or epoch, and factors influencing the expressiveness of langua
ge.

27. Structure of Stylistics
Phoneme
Morpheme
Lexeme
Sentence
Paragraph
Text
Stylistic phonetics
Stylistic morphology
Stylistic lexicology
Stylistic syntax
Connection of stylistics with other branches of linguistics
Stylistics and phonetics: Phonetics studies sounds, articulation, rhyth
mics and intonation. Stylistics concentrates on expressive sound combi
nations, intonational and rhythmic patterns. Stylistics and lexicology:
Lexicology describes words, their origin, development, semantic and str
uctural features. Stylistics also deals with words, but only those which ar
e expressive in language or in speech. Stylistics and grammar: Gramm
ar describes regularities of building words, word-combinations, sentenc
es and texts. Stylistics restricts itself to those grammar regularities, whic
h make language units expressive.