Lecture 1 Scientific fundamentals of stylistics

1. The purpose and object of stylistics

2. Developments of stylistics

3. Types of stylistics

4. Stylistics and other disciplines

I. The purpose and object of stylistics

Language in its broadest conceptualisation is not a disorganised mass of sounds and symbols, but is instead an intricate web of levels, layers and links. Thus, any utterance or piece of text is organised through several distinct levels of language. Units of language on different levels are studied by traditional branches of linguistics. Nearly every traditional branch of linguistics has definitely outlined objects and aims of research.

To start us off, here is a list of the major levels of language and their related tech­nical terms in language study, along with a brief description of what each level covers:

Level of language	Branch of language study
The sound of spoken language; the way words are pronounced.	phonology; phonetics
The patterns of written language; the shape of language on the page.	graphology
The way words are constructed; words and their constituent structure.	morphology
The way words combine with other words to form phrases and sentences.	syntax; grammar
The words we use; the vocabulary of a language.	Lexicology
The meaning of words and sentences	semantics
The way words and sentences are used in everyday situations; the meaning of language in context.	pragmatics; discourse analysis

Thus the subject matter and the material under study of these linguistic disciplines are more or less clear-cut.

This is not the case with stylistics. No one knows for sure what it is. Some scholars claim that this is a comparatively new branch of linguistics, which has only a few decades of intense linguistic interest behind it. The term stylistics really came into existence not too long ago.

When we speak of the stylistic value of a text we cannot proceed from the level-biased approach that is so logically described through the hierarchical system of sounds, words and clauses. Not only may each of these linguistic units be charged with a certain stylistic meaning but the interaction of these elements, as well as the structure and composition of the whole text are stylistically pertinent.

Thus stylistics is a bridge discipline

It investigates diverse ways of creating expressive effects of different language units

Expressiveness is achieved due to the possibility of choice:

He rushed in.

In he rushed.

With the change of wording a change in meaning (however slight it might be) takes place inevitably.

The structuralist and poetician Roman Jakobson states that apart from other functions of language (referen­tial, emotive, pragmatic, etc.) there is one function that stands out in respect of its particular appeal to stylisticians. This is the poetic function, which Jakobson defines thus: 'the poetic function projects the principle of equivalence from the axis of selection into the axis of combination'.

equivalence = connection between language units;

axis of selection = the choice from the pool of possible language units;

axis of combination = combination of language units across the line

W. H. Auden ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’

He_____in the dead of winter.