Style

Stylistics

Stylistics and its tasks

The term style is also applied to the teaching of how to write clear­ly, simply and emphatically. This purely utilitarian approach to the problem of style stems from the practical necessity to achieve cor­rectness in writing and avoid ambiguity.

These heterogeneous applications of the word style in linguistics have given rise to different points of view as to what is the domain of stylistics.

There is a widely held view that style is the correspondence be­tween thought and its expression. The notion is based on the assumption that of the two functions of language, viz. communication and expres­sion of ideas,³ the latter finds its proper materialization in strings of sentences specially arranged to convey the ideas and also to get the desired response.

Even in linguistics the word style is used so widely that it needs interpretation. The majority of linguists who deal with the subject of style agree that the term applies to the following fields of investi­gation: 1) the aesthetic function of language, 2) expressive means in language, 3) synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea, 4) emotional coloring in language, 5) a system of special devices called stylistic devices, 6) the splitting of the literary language into separate subsystems called styles, 7) the interrelation between language and thought and 8) the individual manner of an author in making use of language.

. The subject of stylistics has so far not been definitely outlined. It will not be an exaggeration to say that among the various branches of General Linguistics the most obscure in content is un­doubtedly stylistics. This is due to a number of reasons.

First of all there is confusion between the terms s t y I c and s t y l i s t i c s. The first concept is so broad that it is hardly possible to regard it as a term. We speak of style in architecture, 'literature, behavior, linguistics, dress and in other fields of human activity.

A style of language is a system of interrelated lan­guage means which serves a definite aim in communication. Each style is recognized by the language community as an independent whole. The peculiar choice of language means is primarily dependent on the aim of the communication. One system of language means is set against other systems with other aims, and arising from this, another choice and arrangement of the language means is made.

Thus we may distinguish the following styles within the English literary language: 1) the belles-lettres style, 2) the publicistic style, 3) the newspaper style, 4) the scientific prose style, 5) the style of offi­cial documents, and presumably some others.

The subject of stylistics can be outlined as the study of the nature functions and structure of stylistic devices, on the one hand, and, оn the other, the study of each style of language as classified above, i. e. its aim, its structure, its characteristic features and the effect it pro­duces, as well as its interrelation with other styles of language. The task we set before ourselves is to make an attempt to single out such problems as are typically stylistic and cannot therefore be treated in any other branch of linguistic science.

Expressive means

The expressive means of English and the stylistic devices used in the literary language can only be understood (and made use of) when a thorough knowledge of the phonetic, grammatical and lexical data of the given language has been attained. Expressive means, stylistic means, stylistic devices and other terms are all used indiscriminately. For one purpose it is necessary to make a distinction between expressive means (EM) ,which are used in some specific way, and special devices called stylistic devices (SD).

The expressive means of a language are those phonetic means, morphological forms, means of word-building, and lexical, phrase logical and syntactical forms, all of which function in the language for emotional or logical intensification of the utterance. The most powerful expressive means of any language are phonetic. The human voice can indicate subtle nuances of meaning that no other means can attain. The expressive means of the language are studied respectively in manuals of phonetics, grammar, lexicology and stylistics.

Stylistic devices

It is a conscious and intentional literary use of some of the facts of the language (in­cluding expressive means) in which the most essential features (both structural and semantic) of the language forms are raised to a general­ized level and thereby present a generative model. Most stylistic devic­es may be regarded as aiming at the further intensification of the emo­tional or logical emphasis contained in the corresponding expressive means.

The birth of an SD is not accidental. Language means which are used with more or less definite aims of communication and in one and the same function in various passages of writing, begin gradually to develop new features, a wider range of functions and become a relative means of expressiveness alongside the already recognized expressive means of the language, like proverbs or sayings, diminutive suffixes and the like. These SD form a special group of language means which are more abstract in nature than the expressive means of the language. It would perhaps be more correct to say that unlike expressive means, stylistic devices are patterns of the language whereas the expressive means do not form patterns. They are just like words themselves, they are facts of the language, and as such are, or should be, registered in dictionaries.

The linguistic term-meaning

. A number of stylistic devices are based on the peculiar use of lexical meanings. Therefore it seems to be necessary to define with precision the types of meanings words may have which we meet in stylistic devices.

Words can be approached from multifarious aspects, some of which go beyond the boundaries of pure linguistics, though they are deeply rooted in the texture of the language. The most common and accept­able definition of a word is the following. A word is a language sign that expresses a concept by its forms and meanings. By concept is meant an abstract or general idea of some phenomenon of objective reality including the subjective feelings and emotions of human beings. The forms of a word show its relation to the other words in a sentence. The meaning of a word is the means by which the concept is material­ized. The meaning will always direct the mind to the object or ob­jects we think of. The forms of a word will direct the mind to the correlation between the words in a sentence.

The forms of a word are also said to have meanings. Therefore we distinguish between lexical meaning and grammatical meaning, the former referring to the phenomena of objective reality and the latter to the correlation between the words in a sentence.