Stylistics by Tanveer Raza Khan

2. A brief introduction into the
Historical background
Stylistics can trace its roots to the formalist
tradition that developed in Russian literary
criticism at the turn of the twentieth‐century,
particularly in the work of the Moscow Linguistic
Circle. I

3. Roman Jacobson moved from Moscow to
Prague and joined the Prague Structuralist
Circle who were interested and affected by his
views. Later he moved to the USA where he
carried his approach with him, which is now
called STYLISTICS.

4. Perhaps the most influential article is:
(Closing statement: Linguistics and poetics)
By Roman Jacobson who is an important figure
who contributed in the development of
Stylistics.

5. The development of
Stylistics
The development of Stylistics, given that it
combines the use of linguistic analysis with
the psychological processes involved in
reading.

6. Stylistics, then, is a sub-discipline which
grew up in the second half of the
twentieth century: It’s beginnings in
Anglo-American criticism are usually
traced back to the publication of the
books listed below:
Flower,Roger, Essays on Style in
Language.

7. Freeman, Donald, Linguistics and
Literary Style.
Leech, Geoffrey, A Linguistic Guide to
English Poetry.
Sebeok, Thomas , Style in Language.

8. These books are collections of articles,
some of which were either:
1_ Conference papers
OR
2_Articles published in journals.

9. What Is Stylistics?
Stylisticsis the branch of linguistics which is
concerned with the study of style in text.
 style was also divided into three types, high, middle,
and low. The high style was dedicated to literature and
poetry. The low style was dedicated to more
common performances of discourse communication.
The middle style was a mixture of both styles and was
dedicated to average situations.
 Stylistics uses the scientific methods of linguistics in
analysis of literary
text.
 Stylistics is the science which explores how readers
interact with the language of (mainly literary) texts in
order to explain how we understand, and are affected
by texts when we read them.

10. purpose of stylistic is to
analyze literary works .
And to to recognize and categorize the
constituents of language in a certain
text.
Its aim is to show the technical
linguistics features of a literary work,
such as the grammatical structure of
its sentences contribute to its overall
meanings and effects

11. Russian Formalism was a literary movement and
primarily a school of literary criticism/theory which
developed in Russia in the early 20th century.
 Its main strongholds were the Moscow Linguistic
Circle founded in and the Petrograd « Society for the
Study of Poetic Language» (OPOYAZ) formed in The
initial statement of the Formalist position is found in
the symposium, Poetics. Studies in the Theory of Poetic
Language (1919), and in Modern Russian Poetry (1921)
by Roman Jakobson.

13.  Concepts of Foregrounding in Linguistics term – Foregrounding refers to a
form of textual patterning which is motivated specifically for literary-
aesthetic purposes’ (Simpson 2004, p. 50). – Talking about aesthetic
purpose, concept of ‘defamiliarization is also linked to foregrounding in
this regard as the purpose of all art is to force our attention to the very
artfulness of things. – Literary text can generate foregrounding… an
artistic tone by violating text, world (social norms), language (linguistic
norms) and schematic expectations. – ‘Schematic expectations refers to
the ‘conventional ways of viewing the world.’ – ‘Schematic refreshment’ is
the process whereby conventional ways of viewing the world becomes
disturbed and accordingly refreshed. Moreover, schemata vary
individually. – Text schematic violations are ‘generic’ violations.
 6. ‘Figure’ and ‘Ground’ – The term ‘figure’ refers to: – Self-contained –
Well-defined – Distinctive from ‘ground’ – Moveable in relation of ‘ground’
– Detailed and of sharper focus – This ‘figure’ is what we call ‘fictional
characters’ that are foregrounded on contrary to the ‘ground’ (background)
 7. Forms of Linguistic Foregrounding – Linguistic foregrounding can take
following forms: – Deviation: – Refers to an encounter with something
different from what is expected or different from regulations of some kind.
– Parallelism: – Refers to some sort of linguistic repetition

14. For example, the boldfaced clause in the text fragment below
conveys foregrounded information while the italicized clauses
convey background. (5) A text fragment: written edited 010:32​​
The smaller fish is now in an air bubble
spinning
and turning
and making its way upward
This fragment was produced by an individual recalling action she witnessed
in a brief animated film (Tomlin 1985).
 Clause 1 conveys foregrounded information because it relates the critical
proposition for the discourse at this point: the location of the 'smaller fish.
' The state of the air bubble and its motion are less central to that description
so that the other clauses seem merely to elaborate or develop a part of the
proposition contained in clause 1."

16. Stylistics & liberal
humanism
 Stylistics uses linguistic terminology and analysis to interpret
literature as well as other instances of text . Close reading emphasizes
the differences between literary language and everyday language.
stylistics emphasizes connections and similarities between the two.
Stylistics’ approach is more scientific, with attention to methods,
procedures and data—it aims to provide a concrete and specific set of
procedures that can be learned and executed by anyone in the interest
of analyzing a text.Traditional close reading takes a more abstract
approach—it can’t be taught or learned step-by-step.

18. Thanks