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Stylistic analysis of a text

1. Discourse. This category covers the sense-structure of a text, and its context.
• Is there an implied audience for the text? Is the audience immediate or remote? Is it
large or small? Which features of the text construct that sense of audience?
• Who is the narrator/author/speaker of the text? What are his/her attitudes and how
are they expressed?
• What is the context of the text? Is it public/private, official/informal,
factual/fictional, literary/non-literary, prose/poetry?
• Does it have an obvious function - to instruct, to persuade, to supplicate, to thank?
• What is the genre of the text? Is it a newspaper article, a letter, a gothic novel, a
romance, a legal report, an instruction manual?

• Does it draw on linguistic features from different genres? Does it subvert generic
expectations?
• How does the text relate to other texts or cultural artefacts? Is it a parody or an
imitation? How does this relationship reveal itself?
• What linguistic register does the text use? Is it archaic, formal, technical, casual,
colloquial? Does it draw on particular social, regional, occupational dialects?
• Does the text use figurative language such as metaphor, symbolism, imagery, or
rhetorical structuring? Are there examples of lexical or syntactical patterning?
2. Lexis
• Is the lexis formal or informal? Are there technical or subject-specific lexical sets?
• Are nouns concrete or abstract? Are verbs stative or dynamic?
• To what extent is modification used? Are adverbs and adjectives used prominently
or not?
• What lexical fields are evident? Are they ones you would expect to be applied to
the subject-matter?
• Does the text draw on the ambiguity of word-meanings? Does it include puns or
other ludic uses of language?
• Are any words repeated in the text?
• Are there any swear words or other words usually considered taboo? Does the text
use euphemisms?
3. Grammar
• Is the mood declarative, interrogative or imperative?
• Verbs - is the tense past, present, or a compound tense? Are modal verbs used?
• What use is made of co-ordination or subordination? What kinds of subordinate
clauses are used, and what role do they play in the sentence?
• Are marked themes or end-focusing used to draw attention to elements of the
clause?
• Is the grammar standard or non-standard?
• How do grammatical structures help to organise the text? Are sentence adverbials
(However, Nevertheless) used to express relationships between different parts of the
text?
4. Conclusion.

Analysis should be accompanied by examples.

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