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In philosophy the concept of measure and moral balance exists in various
#
FIELD OF INVESTIGATION
1
Individual manner of an author in making use of language.
2
Expressive means and stylistic devices.
3
Subsystems of the literary language.
4
Choice in similar ways of rendering one and the same idea.
5
Aesthetic function of the language.
forms, one of them is THE GOLDEN MEAN, which has virtue being between the
extreme and the lacking. Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle as well as the
Pythagoreans (which related moral excellence with mathematical perfection) applied
the principle to ethics as well as politics. Nothing in excess - was one of the three
phrases carved into the temple at Delphi
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_%28metaphysics%29, Retrieved 15.09.2011].
It is interesting, that the etymology of style itself comprises the notion of
measure (measure of time). The classical Greek noun for beauty was κάλλος, kallos,
and the adjective for beautiful was καλός, kalos. The Koine Greek word for beautiful
was ὡραῖος, hōraios, an adjective etymologically coming from the word ὥρα, hōra,
meant hour. So in Koine Greek, beauty was associated with being of one's hour.
A ripe fruit (of its time) was considered beautiful, whereas a young woman
trying to appear older or an older woman trying to appear younger would not be
considered beautiful. In Attic Greek, hōraios had many meanings, including youthful
and ripe old age [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty, Retrieved 08.07.2011].
Thus, in linguistics style may be applied to different fields of investigations:
Table 5 – Style in Linguistics
All these ideas directly or indirectly bear on issues of stylistics.
1.2. Stylistics
Stylistics is the study of style in written or spoken language [Longman
Dictionary of English Language and Culture, 1998]. On the one hand, stylistics
investigates everything creative, original, marked (i.e. beauty), on the other hand, it
provides information on pragmatic aspects of communicative situations, traditional,
organizing elements of style (i.e. utility). Thus, these forces bring to two trends in
stylistics: expressive and functional.
In a loose way it is possible to use the engineer‟s concept of INFORMATION as
the communicative weight of each linguistic choice, independent of what meaning is
conveyed. The amount of information in a piece of language is related to the
predictability of one linguistic choice from another. In ordinary communications (for
instance, in routine business letters), this predictability is high, and the amount of
information transmitted is comparatively small. In serious prose, on the other hand,
11
the selections made have on the average a low predictability, and the amount of
information conveyed is fairly large [Leech, 1969: 29].
Talking about functional stylistics, we mean the set of possibilities regularly
available in language. Studying expressive (literal) stylistics, we take into
consideration a special paradigm.
The complex of beauty and utility expressed in style finds its place in the
definition of stylistics given by Prof. Mick Short: „Stylistics looks at the language of
texts and tries to explain how that language creates meaning, style and effect‘. But in
a narrow sense the professor considers stylistics to be a systematic way of exploring
texts [http://www.lancs.ac.uk, Retrieved 18.09.2011].
In the tradition abroad stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts from a
linguistic perspective: „The preferred object of study in stylistics is literature, whether
that is institutionally sanctioned ‗Literature‘ as high art or more popular
‗noncanonical‘ forms of writing‘ [Simpson, 2004: 3]. Moreover, there is
DIALECTOLOGY, the study of how language varies according to its user, and REGISTER
STUDY, concerned with variations according to the function of language in society.
HISTORY OF STYLISTICS
Stylistics, or linguo-stylistics, is among the youngest linguistic sciences. This
branch was made active in the middle of the 20th century. And we are proud the 1st
discussion of the problem of style and stylistics was found in 1954 in Вопросы
языкознания.
Nevertheless, the analysis of literary style goes back to Classical rhetoric,
modern stylistics has its roots in Russian Formalism.
In 1909 Charles Bally's Traité de stylistique française had proposed stylistics
as a distinct academic discipline to complement Saussurean linguistics. For Bally,
Saussure's linguistics by itself couldn't fully describe the language of personal
expression [Taylor, 1992: 91]. Bally's program fitted well with the aims of the Prague
School [Ammon, 1989: 518].
Roman Jakobson brought together Russian Formalism and American New
Criticism in his Closing Statement at a conference on stylistics at Indiana University
in 1958 [Bradford, 1993: 8].
In British stylistics Michael Halliday is an important figure [Selden, 1989: 83].
His 1971 study Linguistic Function and Literary Style: An Inquiry into the Language
of William Golding's 'The Inheritors' is a key essay [Simpson, 2004: 75]. One of
Halliday's contributions has been the use of the term register to explain the
connections between language and its context [Leckie-Terry, 1995: 6]. For Halliday
register is distinct from dialect. Dialect refers to the habitual language of a particular
user in a specific geographical or social context. Register describes the choices made
by the user [Coupland, 2007: 12], choices which depend on three variables: FIELD
(„what the participants... are actually engaged in doing‟, for instance, discussing a
specific subject or topic) [Butler, 2003: 73], TENOR (who is taking part in the
12
exchange) and MODE (the use to which the language is being put)
№
TYPES
CRITERIA
1
Literary / Linguistic Stylistics
Text modes
2
Encoding / Decoding Stylistics
Information
3
Stylistics of Language / Speech
Language dichotomy
4
Phonetic / Grammatical / Lexical Stylistics
Language level
LITERARY STYLISTICS
LINGUISTIC STYLISTICS
OBJECT
Literary devices typical for a
certain author, for a certain
literary mode or work of
literature.
Sublanguages typical for
different spheres of
communication. The elements of
styles, their functions, their
structure, their capability to
express and stir emotions and
evaluations.
METHODS OF
INVESTIGATION
Describing lingual features at
different levels to describe the
writer‟s intention.
Comparing the stylistically
marked elements to their logical,
neutral counterparts.
CONNECTION
A part of poetics and general
theory of literature.
Linguistics.
SPHERE OF
INVESTIGATION
Fiction.
Every sphere of communication.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylistics_%28literature%29, Retrieved 07.07.2011].
TRENDS IN STYLE STUDY
Depending on the approach and the final aim, there can be observed several
trends in style study:
Table 6 - Style Study
Stylistics as the study and interpretation of texts links literary criticism and
linguistics, so traditionally it is divided into LITERARY and LINGUISTIC (FUNCTIONAL)
STYLISTICS.
Table 7 - Literary & Linguistic Stylistics
Linguistic foregrounding presupposes some motivation on the part of the writer
/ speaker and some explanation on the part of the reader / listener. A question-mark
accompanies each foregrounded feature „What is the point?‟ There may be no point at
all; but being appreciative by act of faith we assume that there is one [Leech, 1969:
58].
In terms of information theory the author‟s stylistics may be named ENCODING:
the language being viewed as the code the shape the information into the message,
and the supplier of the information, respectively as the encoder. The addressee in this
case plays the part of the decoder of the information contained in the message; and
13
the problems connected with adequate reception of the message without any
ASPECT
LANGUAGE LEVEL
OBJECT OF STUDY
BRANCH OF
STYLISTICS
MEANING
Intertextual features
More than one text.
Lexical stylistics
Pragmatics
Meaning in context.
Semantics
Sentence meaning.
Lexis
Word meaning.
GRAMMAR
Syntax
The order in which words
and phrases come in the
sentence.
Grammatical
(syntactic)
stylistics
Morphology
The building blocks of
meaning inside words.
Grammatical
(morphological)
stylistics
SOUNDS /
WRITING
SHAPES
Graphology
(writing)
The written equivalent to the
phonemic or phonological
level.
Graphological
stylistics
Phonology
(speech)
Distinctive speech sounds
(phonemes), making up
words.
Phonostylistics
informational losses or deformations, i.e. with adequate decoding, are the concern of
DECODING STYLISTICS [Кухаренко, 2009: 10].
Stylistics deals with one of the fundamental concepts of linguistics – the
dichotomy1 of 'language and speech' introduced by F. de Saussure. According to it,
language is mentally organized system of linguistic units. As distinct from language,
speech is not a purely mental phenomenon, not a system but a process of combining
these linguistic elements. Eventually this brings us to the notions of STYLISTICS OF
LANGUAGE and STYLISTICS OF SPEECH [Знаменская, 2008: 15].
The best way to find answers to most stylistic questions is to investigate
informational values and possibilities of language units, following the structural
hierarchy of language levels, suggested by a well-known Belgian linguist E.
Benveniste at the IX International Congress of Linguistics in 1962. The scheme of
analysis proceeds from the level of the phoneme – through the levels of the
morpheme and the word to the sentence [Кухаренко, 2009: 10].
Table 8 – Level-Oriented Stylistics
The resources of each language level become evident in action, i.e. in speech,
so the attention of the learners is drawn to the behavior of each language element in
functioning, to its aptitude to convey various kind of information.
Three aspects of language (sound, grammar, meaning) go in concord with the
space dimensions. Three-dimensional space is a geometric model of the physical
11
whole is divided into two parts, or in half. It is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets) that are: (1)
jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and (2) mutually exclusive: nothing can belong
simultaneously to both parts [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichotomy, Retrieved 12.07.2011].
A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts, meaning it is a procedure in which a
14
universe in which we live. The three dimensions are commonly called length, width,
ASPECT
OF STYLE
FUNCTION
OBJECT OF STUDY
SUBJECT OF
STUDY
Variant
To make
expressive
The inventory of special language media
which by their ontological features
secure the desirable effect of the
utterance.
Expressive means
and stylistic
devices.
Invariant
To
organize a
system
Certain types of texts which due to the
choice and arrangement of language
means are distinguished by the
pragmatic aspect of the communication.
Functional styles
of speech
(language
registers).
and depth (or height) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-dimensional_space,
Retrieved 27.07.2011], although any three directions can be chosen, provided that
they do not lie in the same plane as well as the language aspects.
Phonemes are put together in words, words in sentences, sentences in texts and
spoken discourse, so it is important to realize that the notion of linguistic levels is
really only a metaphor for what might be better thought of as different aspects of
language and that it is necessary to consider as many aspects of linguistic
organization as possible
[http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/stylistics/topic1a/1linguisticlevels.htm,
Retrieved 11.07.2011].
TASKS OF STYLISTICS
The object of stylistics is style, so the subject covers different aspects:
expressive language media of different levels (style as originality),
the language invariant, performing a definite function (style as
tradition).
Particular means, by which utterances are foregrounded (made more
conspicuous, more effective) are EXPRESSIVE MEANS and STYLISTIC DEVICES. The
patterned varieties of texts are called FUNCTIONAL STYLES. The conspicuous media of
language make the utterance more effective. That is a kind of balance between utility
and beauty.
Table 9 - Tasks of Stylistics
Thus, there are two main aspects style may be studied. On the one hand,
stylistics analyzes deviations (expressive stylistics); on the other hand, it deals with
the sets of rules (functional stylistics). Keeping in mind both of them, we hold the
balance, i.e. beauty.
1.3. Stylistic Analysis
Stylistic analysis is a kind of text interpretation including serious linguistic
argumentation. There should be clear logic of narration, justifying the text concept.
The manner of narration is objective. The functional style is scientific.
15
There is a question about strict logical argumentation while describing a work
of art. Objective methods should describe subjective moments. Two contradicting
forces create style.
On the one hand, magic of the literature style is un-analyzable. But on the
other, the reality of the writing process is actually rather different: lot of evidence
exists to suggest that writers work rather hard at their masterpieces, struggling
through successive drafts to achieve the complex of meanings and effects they are
striving for.
So as far as the process of creation includes genius and diligence, the process
of stylistic analysis presupposes to keep its balance on beauty and utility. Thus,
describing impressions we use statistic methods. The well-known phrase „There are
three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics‘ told by prime minister of Great
Britain Benjamin Disraeli seems to be true. Nevertheless, statistic data make any
investigations more objective though no doubt „Beauty is the eye of beholder‘
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/59100.html, Retrieved 13.07.2011].
The problem of interpretative subjectivity deals with the question „When is a
linguistic deviation significant?‟ There are three possible ways to answer:
1. When it communicates something. According to this standpoint, even the
most trivial and unmotivated deviation may communicate information of a kind. In
the example Like you plays? the ungrammaticality probably suggests that its author is
a foreigner with an imperfect command of English.
2. When it communicates what was intended by its author. This point
insists that a deviation is significant only when deliberate. But the main difficulty
about this answer is that the intention of the author is in practice inaccessible.
3. When it is judged or felt by the reader to be significant. This answer is
on the face of it the most satisfactory of all [Leech, 1969: 61]. Looking for
compromise between all the possible interpretations, we come to mathematics: the
more proofs the viewpoint has, the more objective it is.
Moreover, cross-cultural research has found a variety of commonalities in
people's perception of beauty. The earliest Western theory of beauty can be found in
the works of early Greek philosophers from the pre-Socratic period, such as
Pythagoras. The Pythagorean School saw a strong connection between mathematics
and beauty. In particular, they noted that objects proportioned according to the golden
ratio2 seemed more attractive. Ancient Greek architecture is based on this view of
2
In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger
quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical
constant, approximately 1.6180339887. The golden ratio can be derived by the quadratic formula, by starting with the
first number as 1, then solving for 2nd number x, where the ratios (x + 1)/x = x/1 or (multiplying by x) yields: x + 1 = x2,
or thus a quadratic equation: x2 − x − 1 = 0. Then, by the quadratic formula, for positive x = (−b + √(b2 − 4ac))/(2a) with
a = 1, b = −1, c = −1, the solution for x is: (−(−1) + √((−1)2 − 4·1·(−1)))/(2·1) or (1 + √(5))/2
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio, Retrieved 13.07.2011].
16
symmetry and proportion [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty, Retrieved
№
TYPE
CONDITIONS
1
Idea (Topic) => EMs
Expressive means support the hypothesis.
Otherwise the analysis restarts.
2
EMs => Idea (Topic)
Used when some details attract the attention greatly.
13.07.2011].
Such symmetry should present in any stylistic analysis, broadcasting the
integrity of form and content. Moreover, a number of different linguistic levels can be
manipulated simultaneously in the service of meaning and effect. So the common
scheme of the text analysis is IDEA-EXPRESSION-EFFECT.
Table 10 - Stylistic Analysis
The aim of the stylistic analysis of a text is to find and interpret language
phenomena of different levels of the language structure, which carry some additional
information of the emotive, logical and evaluative types, all serving to enrich,
deepen, and clarify the text [Кухаренко, 2009: 5].
Usually the stylistic analysis includes:
1. The functional style the text belongs to and the extra-linguistic factors
predetermined the system of language means (historical background, communicative
aim and situation).
2. The idea of the text.
3. The analysis of the language means (phonetic, graphical, grammatical,
lexical) employed.
4. The text concept through foregrounding.
Some major twentieth century appeals to the category of style in mathematics
have done so in reference to the arts. This is especially true of those authors who
were motivated by accounting in a unified way for the cultural production of mankind
and who saw thus a uniformity in the processes of scientific and artistic production.
It was in such context that Oswald Spengler in The Decline of the West
attempted a morphology of world history and claimed that the history of mathematics
was characterized by different stylistic epochs which depended on the culture that
produced it: „The Style of any mathematics which comes into being, depends wholly
on the Culture in which it is rooted, the sort of mankind it is that ponders it. The soul
can bring its inherent possibilities to scientific development, can manage them
practically, can attain the highest levels in its treatment of them—but is quite
impotent to alter them. The idea of the Euclidean geometry is actualized in the
earliest forms of Classical ornament, and that of the Infinitesimal Calculus in the
earliest forms of Gothic architecture, centuries before the first learned
mathematicians of the respective Cultures were born‘ [Spengler, 1919: 59].
17
Not only are there parallels between mathematics and other artistic productions
#
CONTENT
TASKS
I
Structuring
your work
1) refer to line or sentence numbers to save time and space,
2) use (sub)headings,
II
Producing
material
and
planning
your work
3) note down your major reactions and responses to the text as
you read,
4) decide which bits of your text are foregrounded or
obviously deviant,
5) find out what language levels the foregrounding operates
on,
III
Drafting
your work
6) compare your collection of analytical data with the first
impressions,
7) specify closely all these aspects of the analytical data to
explain clearly how they relate to meaning,
8) make them into a coherent plan,
IV
Writing up
9) produce interesting comments as well as accurate analysis,
10) make additional notes of relevant terminological language
to relate closely to what you are about to say,
11) mind your aim at producing a specialized piece of academic
linguistic writing, not a literary essay.
of a culture. Relying on Goethe's statement that the complete mathematician „feels
within himself the beauty of the true‟ and on Weierstrass's pronouncement that „who
is not at the same time a bit of a poet will never be a true mathematician‟, Spengler
went on to characterize mathematics itself as an art [Spengler, 1919: 62].
Prof. Mick Short provides four steps of doing stylistic analysis
[http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/stylistics/sa1/general.htm, Retrieved
10.07.2011]:
Table 11 - Procedure of Stylistic Analysis
Great writing flows in an almost magical and un-analyzable way: the problem
of beauty measure is out of mind. The short poem by Ф. И. Тютчев is about Russia,
i.e. about beauty. So what‟s about measure, if even an arshin can‟t help?
Умом Россию не понять,
Аршином общим не измерить:
У ней особенная стать —
В Россию можно только верить.
But in stylistic analysis we are trying to discover a kind of arshin, a measure of
beauty, a golden ratio. Again and again.
18
Seminar 1. Main Issues of Stylistic Analysis
(Adapted from http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/stylistics/contents.htm)
The material for a seminar is divided into two sections where the student is
invited to redress the balance for himself by putting the chapter content to work on
texts. In the descriptive aspect of style studies the emphasis falls more on the detailed
explication of texts. The self-expression gives some hints for literary composition.
We hope such a cooperation of the description and prescription functions will be
rather fruitful.
Section 1.1. Description
In this section, we are comparing three short descriptions of people by three
different novelists: John Steinbeck, Jane Austen and D.H. Lawrence. The comparison
will help us to understand what is involved in the characterization of styles.
Text 1.1.1 - From The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Ch.1)
(1) His eyes were very dark brown and there was a hint of brown pigment in his
eyeballs. (2) His cheek-bones were high and wide, and strong deep lines cut down his
cheeks, in curves beside his mouth. (3) His lower lip was long, and since his teeth
protruded, the lips stretched to cover them, for this man kept his lips closed. (4) His
hands were hard, with broad fingers and nails as thick and ridged as little clam
shells. (5) The space between thumb and forefinger and the hams of his hands were
shiny with callus.
Text 1.1.2 - From Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
(1) Mr Bingley was good-looking and gentleman-like; he had a pleasant
countenance, and easy, unaffected manners. (2) His sisters were fine women, with an
air of decided fashion. (3) His brother-in-law, Mr Hurst, merely looked the
gentleman; but his friend Mr Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine,
tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report, which was in general
circulation within six minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year.
(4) The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared
he was much handsomer than Mr Bingley, and he was looked at with great
admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned
the tide of his popularity: for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his
company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could
then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being
unworthy to be compared with his friend.
Text 1.1.3 - From The Virgin and the Gypsy by D. H. Lawrence (Ch.1)
(1) But Granny held her in her power. (2) And Aunt Cissie's one object in life was to
look after the Mater.
3) Aunt Cissie's green flares of hellish hate would go up against all young things,
sometimes. (4) Poor thing, she prayed and tried to obtain forgiveness from heaven.
19
(5) But what had been done to her, she could not forgive, and the vitriol would spurt
#
ASPECT
CHARACTERISTICS
1
Writing style
Simple. Objective. Complex. Rhetorical. Dynamic. Heavily ironic. Poetic.
Prosaic.
2
Description
External. Internal. Neutral. Photographic. Simple. Straightforward.
Objective. Biased.
3
Information
Social. Psychological. About the attitudes of people to one another.
4
Impression
Conflicting. Strength of emotions.
TEXT
PHONEMES
SOUND COMBINATIONS
[ ]
effect
[ ]
effect
STEINBECK
AUSTEN
LAWRENCE
in her veins sometimes.
(6) It was not as if Mater were a warm, kindly soul. (7) She wasn't. (8) She only
seemed it, cunningly. (9) And the fact dawned gradually on the girls. (10) Under her
old-fashioned lace cap, under her silver hair, this old woman had a cunning heart,
seeking for ever her own female power. (11) And through the weakness of the
unfresh, stagnant men she had bred, she kept her power, as the years rolled on, from
seventy to eighty, and from eighty on the new lap, towards ninety.
Task A - Initial Impressions
1. Read each of the texts above a few times, until you feel that you
understand them well. As you do so, begin to compare the passages with one another
- it is easiest to 'see' the characteristics of a text if you compare it with other, roughly
equivalent texts.
2. Write down the initial impressions you have about the style in which
each passage is written, compared with the other two. Can you think up intuitive
descriptive labels which characterize the styles of the three texts?
Table 12 - Useful Phrases
Task B – Phonetic Analysis
Clearly, part of the analysis of style must involve statistical comparisons. This
is the only way we can sensibly display style tendencies.
1. To hear the melodic accompaniment of the text, find out the most
common phonemes. What effect do they create?
2. What sound combinations do attract the reader‟s attention? What for?
Table 13 - Sound Statistics
20
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