1. The Object and Aims of Stylistics.

(From Arnold) Stylistics is a linguistic discipline which studies the principles and the effect of the choice of the lexical, grammatical, phonetic, and other linguistic means for communicating the thoughts and the emotions in different situations of communication. As the science, stylistics dates back to rhetoric, philology and linguistics. Originally stylistics is differentiated into: 1) genetic Ss (the origin of the text); 2) descriptive Ss (empirical); 3) functional Ss (studies the functional styles of the language). Descriptive Ss is regarded from the 2 points of view: literary criticism and linguistic Ss.

As a language discipline, Ss is divided into Ss of language ((lecture) examines the units of the language on every level (phonetic, lexical, grammatical) and the inventory of stylistic devices; (Arnold) on the one hand it studies functional styles (sublanguages) with all their specific vocabulary, phraseology, syntax, on the other hand it studies emotional, expressive, evaluative features of different linguistic means) and Ss of speech (studies the realization of the linguistic units( on the basis of their obedience to the language norms and their violation) in different kinds of texts.

The difference between linguistics and stylistics. Ls is interested in the units themselves and relations between the language units and the thought; how the language as a system works. Linguist is interested in every item solely and its part in the system of the language. Ss is interested in the comparing schemes, variations, potential of the language unit to realize certain speech function.

It is important to point out, that language is used differently in different situations. It depends on many factors: the age of the communicants, their level of education, the situation of communication, relations between the communicants, attitudes to each other and to the message and the situation, sphere of communication (official, casual so on).

Speaking about stylistics it is also important to bear in mind that there are 2 different types of information:

1. information that is not connected to the situation of the communication and presents the very content of the message;

2. additional information that is connected to the situation, conditions of the communication and the communicants.

Do not confuse!!! It is similar (but not the same, 2 types of information is wider!) to the denotation(the content) and connotation(emotiveness +expressiveness +evaluation +stylistic colouring), the parts of lexical meaning of the word.

2 types of information are connected to the language functions. The 1^st one refers to the referential function, the 2^nd (pragmatic type of information) –to the rest. Jakobson’s model of the functions of language distinguishes six elements, or factors of communication, that are necessary for communication to occur: (1) context, (2) addresser (sender), (3) addressee (receiver), (4) contact, (5) common code and (6) message. Each factor is the focal point of a relation, or function, that operates between the message and the factor.

Target factor and function no.	TARGET FACTOR	SOURCE FACTOR	FUNCTION
1	Context	Message	Referential
2	Addresser	Message	Emotive
3	Addressee	Message	Conative
4	Contact	Message	Phatic
5	Code	Message	Metalingual
6	Message	Message	Poetic

Briefly, these six functions can be described as follows:

"(1) the referential function is oriented toward the context (the dominant function in a message like 'Water boils at 100 degrees'); (2) the emotive function is oriented toward the addresser (as in the interjections 'Bah!' and 'Oh!'); (3) the conative function is oriented toward the addressee (imperatives and apostrophes); (4) the phatic function serves to establish, prolong or discontinue communication [or confirm whether the contact is still there] (as in 'Hello?'); (5) the metalingual function is used to establish mutual agreement on the code (for example, a definition); (6) the poetic function (e.g., 'Smurf'), puts 'the focus on the message for its own sake'

The task of the Ss is to study the relations between 2 types of information. It is important to point out that in any text there is no such division, there they (2 types of information) are combined and interdependent.

M. Riffater? defined Ss as a science that studies those peculiarities of the utterance that transfer the feelings and the thoughts of the person who codes the message to the person who decodes the message. According to this definition Ss can also be divided into Ss of coding and Ss of decoding.