STYLISTICS

A simple definition of style states that ‘’roughly speaking, two utterances in the same language
which convey approximately the same information, but which are different in their linguistic
structure, can be said to differ in style’’. Style is used in linguistics to describe the choices which
language makes available to a user for the simple expression of meaning. It is also called literally
linguistics, stylistics focus on the figures, tropes and other rhetorical devices to provide variety
and a unique voice in writing. The goal of most stylistics is not simply to describe the formal
features of texts for their own sake, but in order to show their functional significance for the
interpretation of the text; or in order to relate literary effects of linguistic ‘causes’ where these
are felt to be relevant.

For example the sentence ‘’Toby chased kes onto the television set’’ encodes a specific meaning,
involving a specific kind of past event with two participants playing specific roles relative to a
location. The same event could be encoded in other ways such as ‘’kes got chased by Toby and
ended up on the television set’’ and a choice of which way to encode it is a stylistic choice.
Stylistic choices are designed to have effects on the reader or listener.

Stylistic analysis; refers to the identification of patterns of usage in speech and writing.
Example;

A stylistic analysis of a road sign which reads NO LEFT TURN might make the
following observations.

 The statement is a command

 It is in the imperative mode
 The statement lacks a subject and a verb
 The statement is unpunctuated
 Capitals have been used for emphasis
 Simple vocabulary to suit wide audience.

SEMANTICS
Semantics is the study of meaning of word, sign as well as sentences. Anyone who speaks a
language has a truly amazing capacity to reason about the meanings of texts. For example;

I cant untie the knot with one hand.

Even though someone hasn’t probably seen this sentence, one can easily see things like the
following;

1. The sentence is about the abilities of whoever spoke or wrote it.(call this person a
speaker)
2. Its also about a knot, maybe one that the speaker is pointing at.
3. The sentence denies that the speaker has a certain ability. (this is the contribution of the
word ‘cant’.)
4. Untying is a way of making something not tied.
5. The sentence doesn’t mean that the knot has one hand: it has to do with how many hands
are used to do the untying.

The meaning of a sentence is not just an unordered heap of the meanings of its words. If that
were true, then ‘cowboys ride horses’ and ‘Horses ride cowboys’ would mean the same
thing. So we need to think about the arrangements of meanings. A semantic rule for English
might say that a simple sentence involving the word ‘cant’ always corresponds to a meaning
arrangement. for instance; ‘I can’t dance’ means that I’m unable to dance; it doesn’t mean
that I’m able not to dance. to assign meanings to the sentences of a language, you need to
know what they are. It is the job of ‘syntax’ as another area of linguistics to provide rules that
show hoe sentences and other expressions are built up out of smaller parts, and eventually out
of words.