Stylistics
S.6

Rachid Acim

Academic Year: 2020-2021

Skills Targeted

1.acquire an understanding of the principles of stylistic theory

and analysis.
2.know about the history and evolution of stylistics.
3.do stylistic analysis on a variety of texts.
4.detect different stylistic devices such as metaphors, similes,
neologism, etc.
5.approach texts critically.
Readings

-Bradford, R. (1997) Stylistics. London: Routledge.

-Carter, R. and Nash, W. (1990) Seeing Through Language: A Guide to
Styles of English Writing. Oxford: Blackwell.
-Lecercle, JJ. (1993) “The Current State of Stylistics,” The European English
Messenger 2, 1, 14-18.
-Leech, G.N. and Short, M.H. (1981) Style in Fiction. The United States of
America: Longman Group Limited.
-Leech, G. (2013) Language in Literature: Style and Foregrounding. New
York: Pearson Education Limited.
-Nogaard, N., Montoro, R., & Busse, B. (2010) Key Terms in Stylistics.
London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
-Thornborrow, J., & Wareing, S. (1998) Patterns in Language: An
Introduction to Language and Literary Style. Great Britain: Biddles Lt.
-Simpson, P. (2004) Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students. London:
Routldge.
-Verdonk, P. (2002) Stylistics. New York: Oxford University Press.
-Elisabeth, B. (2006) Pragmatic Stylistics. United Kingdom:
Edinburgh University Press .
-Mills, S. (1995) Feminist Stylistics. London: Routledge.
Chapter 1: Definition of Stylistics
A branch of applied linguistics concerned with the study of
style in texts, especially (but not exclusively) in literary works.
Style is abstract and personal
- Buffon: «style is the man himself».
- Gibbon: «Style is the image of character».
- Lucas: «Style is a means by which a human being gains contact
with others; it is personality clothed in words».
- Emerson: «A man’ style in his mind’s voice».
- Murry: «Style is the flesh, bone and blood of the writer».
- Brooks and Warren: «Style is usually used with reference to a
poet’s manner of choosing, ordering, and arranging his words».
- Enkvist and Gregory: «Style is one of the areas where
linguistics, pragmatics and aesthetic reality overlap».
It is too difficult to determine the real components of syle. Where
does it start and end?
«It is difficult to tell what constitutes style and how one
cultivates style, is style a man or his work, his body, his heart, or
soul, or the words he uses, an embellishment, choice,
personality, psyche, deviation from norm, set of individual or
collective features, or the words he uses, or the way in which he
uses them» Enkvist and Gregory (Linguistics and Style, 1964, p.
13)
The well-known linguist Jean-Jacques Lecercle published a
short but damning critique of the aims, methods and rationale of
contemporary stylistics.
According to Lecercle, nobody has ever really known what the
term ‘stylistics’ means, and hardly anyone seems to care
(Lecercle, 1993, p. 14).
Stylistics is concerned with the study of style in language.
But what it is style in language? How is it produced? How can it
be recognized and described? Is it a general feature of language?
Style itself has been defined in various ways:
According to Verdonk (2002, p. 3), “the term style is one which
we use so commonly in our everyday conversation and writing
that it seems unproblematic: it occurs so naturally and
frequently that we are inclined to take it for granted without
enquiring just what we might mean by it.
We regularly use it with reference to the shape or design of
something (for example, ‘the elegant style of a house’), and
when talking about the way in which something is done or
presented (for example, ‘I don’t like his style of
management.’
When describing someone’s manner of writing, speaking, or
performing, we may say ‘She writes in a vigorous style’ or
‘She started off in fine style’.
We also talk about particular styles of architecture, painting,
dress, and furniture when describing the distinctive manner of an
artist, a school, or a period.
When we say that people or places have ‘style’, we are
expressing the opinion that they have fashionable elegance,
smartness, or a superior manner (for example, ‘They live in
grand style’ or ‘Here we can eat in style’).
For Leech and Short (1981, pp. 10-11), style “refers to the
way in which language is used in a given context, by a
given person, for a given purpose, and so on.”
We may adopt the Swiss linguist Saussure’s distinction between
langue and parole, langue being the code or system of
rules common to speakers of a language (such as English)
and parole being the particular uses of the system, or
selections from this system, that speakers or writers make
on this or that occasion.
One may say that certain English expressions belong to the
official style of weather forecasting (‘bright intervals’,
‘scattered showers’, etc.), while other expressions (‘lovely day’,
‘a bit chilly’, etc.) belong to the style of everyday
conversational remarks about the weather.
Style, then, pertains to parole: it is selection from a total
linguistic repertoire that constitutes a style.
Baker and Ellece (2011, pp. 141-142) define style as “the
manner of doing things. From a linguistic perspective, there
are views of style: the dualist view, the monist view and
the pluralist.
The dualist view sees form and meaning as separate and
define style as a dress of thought.
The monist view sees style (form) and meaning as inseparable
and that a choice of form is simultaneously a choice of meaning.
The pluralist view claims that ‘language performs a number of
different functions, and any piece of language is likely to be the
result of choices made on different functional levels.’
Carter and Nash (1990, p. 15), however, point out that style
‘cannot be explained by reference to only one level of language
such as grammar and vocabulary’.
Style’s function is pragmatic and purposive: we might admire
the lucid confidence of the car advertisement or the political
broadcast, but in the end we will look beyond the words to the
potential effect of their message upon our day to day
activities.
The style and language of poems, novels and plays will
frequently involve these purposive functions, but when we
look beyond their effect to their context we face a potentially
disorienting relation between what happens in the text and
what might happen outside it (Bradford, 1997, p. xii).
Crystal and Davy identify style with genre, and often with topic.
They assume that legal documents, sermons and other
discrete texts will have identifiable ‘styles’.
If we analyze the linguistic features of an example of the
genre in question, then the combination of these features will
give rise to the style of that discourse (Green and LeBihan,
1996, p. 21).
Forms of discourse such as journalism, popular songs, and
even casual conversations, often display a high degree of
stylistic dexterity, such that it would be wrong to view
dexterity in language use as exclusive to canonical literature.
 The term “literary canon” refers to a body of books,
narratives and other texts considered to be the most important
and influential of a particular time period or place.
Analysis of Headlines and Blurbs’ Style
Stylistic Features of Headlines

1. Imagining Refugia
2. They adopted Refugee Families for 12 Months. Then Came ‘Month 13’
3. Exodus within Borders: The Uprooted who Never Left Home
4. The Great Divide in the Global Village
5. Borders Beyond Control
6. Lives Uprooted by War
7. Ignoring Risk, Afghan Refugees Rush Home
8. Where Refugees Come From?
9. Imagine Yourself as a Refugee. That’s What Nudges Americans to Take Action on
Refugees’ Behalf
10. I’m Pro-Life, and Pro-Refugees
11. Wave of Albanians Flees From Pristina; Largest in Weeks
12. Refugees Flee One Nightmare, Find Another
A blurb is a text that publishers print on the jacket or cover of
a book to give the potential reader an idea of what it is about,
though obviously its primary purpose is to stimulate sales
(Verdonk, 2002, p. 8).
Stylistic Features of Blurbs

Poem in Your Pocket enables you to select a poem you love,

tear it out neatly from this book, and carry it with you all day to
read, be inspired by, and share with others – or keep to
yourself. This innovative format features 200 classic and
contemporary poems by more than 100 poets, from
Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath, cleverly organized by theme. If
you’re feeling wistful, if you want to romance your lover, if
you’re celebrating the seasons, or if you just need a poem to
get you through the day, this wonderful selection will help you
spread the power of poetry or treasure it in private.
 Poem in Your Pocket enables (1) you to select a poem (2)
you love, tear it out neatly from this book, and carry it with
you all day to read, be inspired by, and share with others – or
keep to (3) yourself. This innovative format features 200
classic and contemporary poems by more than 100 poets, from
Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath, cleverly organized by theme. (1)
If (4) you’re feeling wistful, (2) if you want to romance your
lover, (3) if (5) you’re celebrating the seasons, or (4) if (6)
you just need a poem to get (7) you through the day, this
wonderful selection will help (8) you spread the power of
poetry or treasure it in private.
 No single book has captured the range of Edward Said’s
knowledge like Power, Politics and Culture. In these twenty-
nine interviews collected over the last three decades, Said
addresses everything from Palestine to Pavarotti, from his
nomadic upbringing under colonial rule to his politically active
and often controversial life in America. Said’s passion for
literature, music, history and politics is everywhere apparent,
confirming his status as one of the most though-provoking and
engaging thinkers of our time.
 No single book has captured the range of Edward Said’s
knowledge like Power, Politics and Culture. In these twenty-
nine interviews collected over the last three decades, Said
addresses everything from Palestine to Pavarotti, from
his nomadic upbringing under colonial rule to his
politically active and often controversial life in America. Said’s
passion for literature, music, history and politics is everywhere
apparent, confirming his status as one of the most though-
provoking and engaging thinkers of our time.
 The text is brief, concise, with catchy phrases, a high
proportion of complimentary words and phrases. Other words
and images are rather emotive. These loaded vocabulary
choices reveal the writer’s motive, which is to persuade the
reader of the book’s excellence. This persuasive technique is
supported by the rhetorical structure of the text as a whole.
As a result, there is no sentence linkers like « therefore »,
«because», or «seeing that», which normally structure an
argument.
 The blurb becomes a mere list of assertive statements
without any reasoning. At the structural level, sentences
contain a list of items, either linked by commas or by the
coordinating conjunction ‘and’ and ‘or’. Indeed the
persuasion works by dramatic effect rather than rational
argument.
Thank you for your attention