2. Types of stylistic research and branches of stylistics

According to the object of research and type of the research procedure at present there is also division of stylistics into lingua-stylistics (which is more our aspect) and stylistics of literature (literary stylistics). The former is interested in functional styles and expressive means in general, the latter studies concrete works of literature, authors` individual styles, the poetic structure of a literary text etc. Scholars often speak about functional stylistics as one of the trends of lingua-stylistics.

Comparative stylistics analyzes the stylistic resources within at least two languages or two literatures. It is linked to the theory of translation. 

Two more important aspects of stylistics are the so-called stylistics of decoding (decoding stylistics) and author`s stylistics. The second tries to interpret the text taking into consideration the point of view of the author, his biography, lifestyle and so on. A piece of literature here is a consequence, whose cause we should find. In some way the readers try to see what made the author write it this way. 

The ideas of Stylistics of decoding go back to the Prague linguistic circle. Among the scholars working on the theory the most important were R. Jackobson and M. Riffaterre, who was the founder of the branch.  Among the Russian scholars the most remarkable scholar was I. Arnold. 

Decoding stylistics uses results not only of linguistics but also of different branches of science such as cybernetics, theory of information, psychology. It helps the reader to decode (decipher) the information that is hidden in some special organization of the text, allusions etc. It recreates the author`s vision of the world by means of concrete text elements and their interaction in the text. This branch is concentrated on the impressions the reader gets. The main idea is that the reader can see something by themselves in the text.  It tries to get the aesthetic value of the text considering the interaction of textual elements and devices in delivering the author`s message. Any act of speech has the sender and the addressee of the message. The author (sender) encodes the information using certain means which are organized to certain rules. The addressee in their turn decodes it. Analyzing the text from the point of view of the reader, we deal only with the text itself (vocabulary, composition etc). One of the main notions of decoding stylistics is foregrounding (выдвижение) which was suggested within the Prague circle and from the point of view of Professor Arnold means a specific role that some language items play in a certain context when the reader's` attention is drawn to them. Among the techniques of foregrounding should be mentioned convergence of expressive means, defeated expectancy, coupling, semantic fields, semi-marked structures.

It developed in the 1970s.

Stylistics is obviously connected with various branches of linguistics, first of all phonetics, grammar and lexicology, as it uses their data and deals with the levels of linguistic research. 

• It is connected with phonetics as it studies the style-forming phonetic features of the text and describes the prosodic features of prose and poetry. 

• It is connected with grammar because it is interested in the stylistic potentials of specific grammar forms, word-order, utterance, supra-phrasal units. 

• Its links with lexicology are explained by the fact that it studies the meaning of the word and the change of meaning. 

• It is connected with semasiology, onomasiology and the theory of signs. 

Stylistics is also connected with the 

• theory of literature, 

• the history of art  

• the theory of information.

Scientists also traditionally distinguish functional stylistics which studies functional styles of the language.

Taking into consideration the level of linguistic units under review, we may also distinguish 

• phonetic, 

• lexical, 

• lexico-syntactical 

• syntactic stylistics.