Stylistics and other Linguistic Disciplines.
As it is obvious from the review of the brunches of stylistics, linguistics is closely connected with other linguistic disciplines, such us phonetics, lexicology, grammar, due to the common study source. It is also connected with semasiology whose sphere of study is that of meaning. It is also connected with omonosiology in creating such stylistic devices as metaphor and metonymy. Literary stylistics inevitably overlaps with areas of literary studies, such us literary genres, the art of composition etc. Decoding stylistics in many ways borders cultural studies including the history of art, aesthetic trends and even information theory.
The Basic Notions of Stylistics.
The Notion of Context.
Contextual analysis is based on the assumption that difference in meaning of linguistic units is indicated by difference in environment. Amosova suggests the following definition of a context: CONTEXT is a combination of an indicator and the dependant. The dependant is the word whose meaning is to be rendered in a given utterance. According to Arnold there are the following types of context:
The lexical context (the indicating power belongs to different lexemes) e.g. black - denotes colour when used with material or things, it denotes a feeling which is sad/gloomy when used with the nouns denoting emotions or thoughts.
Syntactical context (the indicating power belongs to the syntactic pattern which is made of words) e.g. make(v) - means to cause when followed by a complex object
Mixed context e.g. late(adj) - when used attributively with words denoting periods of time means towards the end of the period - late summer
The definition of context pre-supposes some other classifications. Eugene Nida distinguishes linguistic and practical contexts by the latter he means the circumstances of communication that is the motive, the participants, the relations between them, the situation.
Kolshansky point out to a broader context and the narrower.
The context is a set of circumstances and conditions accompanying word usage. The peculiarity of the stylistic context is that functions to enrich the semantic structure of words, to add to their meanings so it os contrary to the functions of lexical and syntactical contexts.
The Notion of the Norm.
Most scholars define style as deviation from lingual norm. The notion of norm presupposes a reccognized standard, that is the given national language - the literary norm. But other scholars(Skrebnev) claims that there are as many norms as there are sub-languages within the national language. In terms of stylistics it would be more appropriate to use the notion of neutrality for denoting the norm. The units belonging to all sub-languages are stylistically neutral. So. we observe stylistically colored and stylistically neutral words.
The Notion of Foreground.
The notion was put forward by Czech linguists. It is the ability of a verbal element to obtain extra significance to say more in a definite context. A contextually foregrounded element carries more information than when taken an isolation. In context it is loaded with same basic information inherent plus additional adherent. Stylistic analysis involves procedures of finding foregrounded element and indicating the chemistry of its contextual changes.