Intro to

stylistics
ENG 3223d STYLISTICS AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Bryan Paul Espinosa, M.Ed.

Course Facilitator
 MEETING PAPER
Kennings
= a type of metaphor
= two words replace one noun
= preferably concrete nouns
= very visual
Example:
whale road = sea
TASK:
Write a couplet using a Kenning.
Define your kenning.
Example:
I gazed upon the star bed
wishing for diamond tears.
Star bed = space
Diamond tears = rain (for drought)
 One scenario but two different ways of seeing it…
Her heart raced faster as he inched Panic painted the face of Alice as
closer next to her. Just then, the Julio took the empty seat. “Should I
bench felt small, small enough for his talk to him?” she asked herself. She
scent to engulf her thoughts. How she had been waiting for this moment but
longed to feel his soft skin brushing her nerves were taking control of her.
against hers. She couldn’t even open her mouth!
Whenever we use language to talk or write, we are always – consciously
and unconsciously – making choices about the words we use (lexical
choices) and the order in which we use them (syntactic structure). These
choices form a particular style and changing the choices changes the style.
This is what stylistics explores: how authors create effects through
their linguistic styles and how readers interpret those effects.
 Stylistics is the study of style; a discipline within the field of linguistics
that examines how every linguistic choice can influence the overall
effect of a text.
Stylistics, as the name suggests, is interested in style in spoken and
written language.

Stylistics is a discipline within the field of linguistics. This means that it is

a particular application (stylistics) of knowledge about language
(linguistics).
 Stylistics is the application of concepts from linguistics and allied disciplines in the
analysis and interpretation of samples of communication through language (Otanes).

Stylistics is a linguistic approach to the study of literary text (Brumfit & Carter, 1997).

The linguistic study of different styles is called stylistics (Chapman, 1973:11).

Stylistics is the study of literary discourse from a linguistics orientation. What

distinguishes it from literary criticism… is that it is a means of linking the two
(Widdowson, 1975).

Practical stylistics is the process of literary text analysis which starts from a basic
assumption that the previous interpretative procedures used in the reading of a literary
text are linguistic procedures (Carter, 1991:4)
Stylistics has its roots in rhetoric.
rhetoric: the art and study of effective
or persuasive speaking or writing

Rhetoric was centrally concerned with

exploring and examining the effects of
language and how particular choices
could make a speech more, or less,
persuasive and compelling.
Today, stylistics mirrors this
focus on examining the effects of
language.
Stylistics inherited something else from the rhetorical
tradition too: a central focus on the use of metalanguage.
Metalanguage is best defined as terms we
use to describe language itself, especially
particular linguistic features such as nouns,
verbs, similes, metaphors, and so on.

Stylisticians believe clear, consistent and precise use of

metalanguage must be a fundamental part of any text
analysis.
 Three basic principles of a stylistic or linguistic
approach to literary study and criticism (Carter):

That the greater our detailed knowledge of the working of the language
system, the greater our capacity for insightful awareness of the effects
produced by the literary texts. (High-level linguistic competence is necessary.)

That a principled analysis of language can be used to make our

commentary on the effects produced in a literary work less impressionistic
and subjective. (Less subjective analysis is preferred.)

That because it will be rooted in a systematic awareness of language, bits of

language will not merely be spotted and evidence gathered casually and
haphazardly. Analysis of one linguistic pattern requires checking against
related patterns across the text. Evidence for the text will be provided in an
overt or principled way. The conclusions can be attested and retrieved by
another analyst working on the same data with the same method. There is
also less danger that we may overlook textual features crucial to the
significance of the work. (Results can be duplicated and retrieved.)
Paul Simpson explains that stylistics can be thought about
as conforming to the following three basic principles, cast
mnemonically as three
‘Rs’. The three Rs stipulate that:

Stylistic analysis should be rigorous. based on an explicit analytical framework

Stylistic analysis should be retrievable. regulated through criteria and terms agreed
on consensus by stylisticians
Stylistic analysis should be replicable. method must be transparent to allow
verification.
Importance of practical stylistics:
1.It can provide the means whereby the student of literature
can relate a piece of literary writings to his own
experience of language and so can extend that
experience.
2.It can assist in the transfer of interpretative skills, on
essential purpose of literary education.
3.It can provide a procedure for demystifying literary texts.
4.The focus of a literary text in itself provides a context in
which the learning of aspects of language can be
positively enjoyed.
Stylistics bridges linguistics and literary criticism, using our
understanding of the language (linguistics) to evaluate the
text that uses such language (literary criticism).
Both literary criticism and stylistics attempt to commend
and expose a work of arts. The only difference between
the two approaches is that in the former, a critic
expresses his own opinion of what the text means,
whereas, a stylistician offers structural evidence to
support his interpretation of the meaning
(Abdulmughni, 2018).
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/stylistics/sa1/example.htm#:~:text=Analysing%20a%20text%20stylistic
ally%20is,get%20when%20we%20read%20them.

https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/stylistics/sa1/general.htm

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1128146.pdf

http://rhetoric.byu.edu/

http://repository.unpas.ac.id/46211/4/11.%20Chapter%202.pdf

https://www.slideshare.net/elgs/step-by-step-stylistic-analysis