MODULE 1

Introduction to Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

According to Mick Short, author of the book Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose,
"Stylistics is an approach to the analysis of (literary) texts using linguistic description. Stylistics
spans the borders of two subjects: literature and linguistics. As a result, stylistics can sometimes
look like either linguistics or literary criticism, depending upon where you are standing when
you are looking at it."

On Literary Criticism:

Short believes that the core task for the critic is the job of interpreting (explicating) literary texts
and judging them. Literary criticism can contain many other things; for example, some
specialists concern themselves almost entirely with the socio-cultural background against which
particular works were written, and others look at the lives of authors and how their experiences
led them to write in the way that they did. But this also should be of interest if the culture of
the particular work had decided that the writing concerned was valuable.

To reiterate, the essential core of criticism has three major parts:

1. Description
2. Interpretation
3. Evaluation

(where the description is mainly but not entirely linguistic)

At the end of the day, critics are interested in evaluating works of literature, such as saying that
work X is as good as, or better than work Y, and so on. But in order to decide that work X is
good, or bad, we must first be able to interpret it. Meaning, you should be able to understand it
before laying your evaluation. It then follows that the interpretation must be logically prior to
evaluation. Understanding logically precedes evaluation.

The concepts of interpretation and evaluation referred to in the last paragraph, and the logical
relations between them, are essentially post-processing concepts. This means that the kind of
interpretative and evaluative activities which critics publicly involve themselves in are activities
which take place after reading the whole text.

Important Note: Although interpretations are logically prior to evaluation in the post-processing
critical situations, we do not necessarily wait in our normal reading process until we get to the
end of the text before making judgments. We can make them as we go along, depending on
how we understand the text at that point, but we will alter our interpretation of the text. Also,
note that making hypotheses and guesses of this sort appears to be an essential part of the

1|Page
process of understanding as well as evaluation. However, when we reach the end of our
reading, our final, critical judgment will be dependent upon our final understanding.

If interpretation is logically prior to evaluation, it is also the case of what Short called
description (which in turn involves analysis) is logically prior to understanding.

Check the following example:

Mary pushed John over.

In order to know that this sentence means something like Mary did push John and not John
pushed Mary over, we must already know that Mary is the subject of the sentence and John is
the object. There may of course be more than one valid interpretation but again it is difficult to
decide in such matters without detailed and explicit analysis.

It is suggested then that stylistic analysis which attempts to relate linguistic description to
interpretation, is part of the essential core of good criticism as it constitutes a large part of what
is involved in supporting a particular view of a poem or arguing for one interpretation as against
another.

Of course, it is not all that is involved. For example, in understanding of a novel or a play we
might be involved in comparing one character or with another or noticing and analyzing a
parallel between the main plot and the sub-plot. Normally, we do not explicitly do a
grammatical analysis of the sentence to arrive at this knowledge; rather, we just know implicitly
or intuitively what the grammatical relations in the sentence are.

Another example in a more literary context

Come, we burn daylight, ho!

(William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, I, iv, 43)

Besides the basic kind of linguistic information of the sort seen above, this time we also have to
know that daylight cannot normally be the object of burn. The verb burn usually takes as its
object a word or phrase which refers to something which can be burnt, but daylight does not
fall into this category. It is only after deducing that what the line says cannot literally be true
that we can go on to construct a non-literal interpretation for it (e.g. we are wasting time).

Stylistics is thus concerned with relating linguistic facts (linguistic description) to meaning
(interpretation) in as explicit a way as possible.

When we read, we must intuitively analyze linguistic structure at various levels (e.g. grammar,
sounds, words, textual structure) in order (again intuitively) to understand the sentences of a
text and the relations between them. There may be more than one valid interpretation, but
again, it is difficult to decide on such matters without detailed and explicit analysis.

2|Page
Stylisticians do not by any means claim to have all the answers. They have suggested to make
their description and analyses as detailed, as systematic, and as thorough as possible. They try
to discover not just what a text means, but also how it comes to mean what it does. In spite of
these differences, there is a remarkable amount of agreement among readers over what
particular text means.

Going back to the previous example by Shakespeare, we can demonstrate this by constructing a
normal paradigm (set of possible substitution instances) for the verb with which to compare the
metaphorical construction.

Normal Paradigm Abnormal Paradigm

we burn paper we burn daylight
we burn wood
we burn coal
we burn fuel
etc

By comparing the abnormal paradigm, we can begin to see how the line gets its meaning. The
object of burn has to denote a concrete, combustible material or be a more general term for
such materials. When it is burnt, it is destroyed or used up. A likely possible meaning for the
phrase could be 'we are using up daylight'. We cannot physically use up daylight but of course
daylight is a medium which we use to do lots of things in, and if we do not use it properly, then
we may run out of time to do what needs to be done.

DEVIATION AND ITS KINDS

Kinds of deviation

As a result of this need to analyze and categorize explicitly, much of the structure will be a
description of different kinds of deviation which can produce foregrounding. The account to be
given will certainly not be exhaustive (though it may be exhausting). It should however give you
some idea of the different sorts of things you react to when you read, whether or not you are
conscious of doing so and you can use what is said in this chapter as a more detailed spelling of
what to look for in the activities later on.

The following are the kinds of deviation:

1. Discoursal Deviation - media res is a very common style in writing, whilst the usual opening of
a discourse starts at the beginning of a sentence

2. Semantic Deviation - Leech states that they are classified in three sections 1/ Semantic
oddity; 2/ Transfer of Meaning; and 3/ Honest Deception

3|Page
3. Lexical Deviation - usually happens when a writer makes up a word that doesn't actually exist

4. Grammatical Deviation - rules in grammar isn't followed for some aesthetic reasons

5. Morphological Deviation - intentional alter in the spelling, formation, construction or

application of words

6. Phonological and Graphological Deviation - irregularities in pronunciation, punctuation,

paragraphing of words, also applies in text spacing

7. Internal and External Deviation

a. External Deviation - deviation in primary norms such as in culture, language, society, among
others
b. Internal Deviation - deviation from secondary norms that is specific to an individual, such as
his own particular writing style. It is thus based on some sort of parallelism/repetition.

TWO MAJOR TYPES OF STYLISTICS

Linguistic Stylistics is focus on pointing out the linguistic choices a writer or speaker made as
well as the effects of these choices. It is interested in describing forms and functions of a text
but it does not ignore the meaning. Thus, concentrates on how a piece of text expresses the
language system (linguistic features: syntax, graphology, lexico semantic).

Literary Stylistics attention is directed to the underlying message which the interpretation of
the language signals reveal. It looks into the figurative use of language and its beauty, and how
the language captures reality. "Interpretation" is the aim of literary stylistics .

Various Perspectives on Style

1. Style as Choice
2. Style as the Man
3. Style as Deviation
4. Style as Conformity
5. Style as Period/Time
6. Style as Situation

LEVELS OF LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS: PHONOLOGICAL, GRAPHOLOGICAL AND LEXICO-SEMANTIC

LEVEL

Phonological and Graphological Level

The Systemic Functional Grammar developed by M.A.K Halliday recognizes the phonology and
graphology as the levels of language substance. According to him, substance is the material of
language: "phonic" (audible noises; language is spoken) or "graphic" (visible marks; language is
written). Hence, he also popularized the term phono-graphology which refers to the

4|Page
organization of substance into meaningful events. According to Leech and Short (1981)
graphology is the alternative form of realization to phonology.
PHONOLOGICAL
Phonology deals with phonic substance
(segmental and suprasegmental). It is
concerned with how sounds are organized to
mean. Sound patterning seems to be evident
in poetry to show a poet's purpose or
concern in a work. There are different forms
of sound patterning such as in the work of
Dasylva "Songs of Odamolugbe":
⮚ Their stanzas of stifling scandals
⮚ Cause of the masses to curse
Those are examples of alliteration. The
choice of words is deliberate which allows
the writer to emphasize the words which
carry the meaning of the text. The selection
provides readers a sense of understanding of
how corrupt and insincere the Nigerian
society is; thus the term stanzas scandals,
cause - curse.
The analysis of this level involves the basic
sound units such as the combination of
sounds, stress, tone, and patterns of
intonation. We also consider the possible
syllable structure of a particular language and
the different ways in which syllables can be
combined. We can also use this in identifying
and studying differences in languages..
Segmentals
The segmental units of English consist of at
least twenty vowels which are made up of
twelve pure vowels and eight diphthongs and
twenty-four consonants which are composed
of fifteen voiced and nine voiceless
GRAPHOLOGICAL
Graphology deals with graphic substance and
the arrangement of words based on their
meanings. If a writer breaks the word
"Forever" into "For - ever" the writer has
interfered with the morphology of the word
which therefore affecting its meaning as well.
Now, let us consider the example below:
On the wrinkled face of the hills
I see my shortening shadow
as my sun creeps towards the west
hills gently, gently, gently
like afternoon's flame l
o
w
e
r
i
n
g
to ash in the evening.
Hill Songs by Joe Ushie (P.35)
The poem describes birth and death. While
the previous lines of the poem explicitly point
to aging, "lowering" (the graphological
symbolism) shows entombment. Thus, it
describes the process of burial.
Thus, graphological level considers and
analyzes the spelling, punctuation, space
management, underlining, use of pictures,
coloring and so on of a text. The pattern of
writing can also tell the variety of language
involved in a text. For example, words such
as "behavior" and "center" are classified as
5|Page
consonants. Thus, writers can take advantage American English based on their spellings,
of the sounds and their structures to attain but if they are spelled as "behaviour" and
special effects through the use of assonance, "centre", they are regarded as British English.
alliteration and more.
Suprasegmentals According to Ayo Ogunsiji (2013),
graphological elements are usually used to
The suprasegmentals are the units which are achieve foregrounding in a text. So, what is
larger than the segmentals. It refers to the foregrounding?
degree of force or loudness with which a
syllable is pronounced. It can also indicate a
word class (stress) as 1record (noun), re1cord It is a way of making certain elements in a
(verb) or the rising and falling pitch of a word text prominent in order to attract the
or sentence (intonation) to indicate a reader's attention. This topic will be further
statement (falling intonation) or a question discussed in the coming modules.
(rising intonation). For example;

You are late. (falling intonation)

You are late? (rising intonation)

Writers, especially poets, would use this

feature of the language heavily to create and
achieve certain effects in their writings

6|Page