The philological circle (the circle of understanding) – l Spitzer

Seeking Aesthetic function

Literary appreciation Linguistic description

Seeking linguistic evidence

Stylistics is applied to:

1. A system of devices (SD) and expressive means in the language (EM);

2. Emotional colouring;

3. Synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea;

4. Aesthetic function of the language:

5. Functional styles;

6. The individual style of the writer.

Different Branches of Stylistics:

DECODING STYLISTICS::ENCODING STYLISTICS

STYLISTICS OF LANGUAGE::STYLISTICS OF SPEECH

LINGUOSTYLISTICS::LITERARY STYLISTICS

FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS::PRACTICAL STYLISTICS

Practical stylistics (практическая стилистика) is the stylistics, proceeding form the norms of language usage at a given period and teaching these norms to language speakers, especially the ones, dealing with the language professionally (editors, publishers, writers, journalists, teachers, etc.). (V.A.K)

In literary language the NORM is the invariant of the phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactic patterns in circulation during a given period in the development of the given language. The theory of NORM is based on the theory of OPPOSITION. STYLISTICALLY NEUTRAL words are opposed to STYLICTICALLY CHARGED (COLOURED) words.

Stylistic norm (стилистическая норма) is the invariant of the phonemic, morphological, lexical and syntactical patterns circulating in language-in-action at a given period of time (I.R.G.)

Stylistic function is characterized by accumulation of the mood (tonality) expressed by different EM, constituting convergence on the whole, it is based on implication and irradiation.

Seminar 1 General problems of stylistics Questions and tasks

Questions:

1. What is stylistics and what are the main trends in style study?

2. What are the main categories of stylistics?

3. What are the levels of linguistic analysis and which of them are relevant for stylistic analysis?

4. What is decoding / encoding stylistics?

5. What functional styles do you know?

6. What are the norm and foregrounding? How do they function in the text?

7. What is the ultimate goal of stylistic analysis of a speech product?

Task 1

Study the definitions of style and stylistics, single out the most essential and distinctive characteristics given. Present your own commentary and interpretation.

Comment on the definitions of stylistics. Suggest some other definitions and comment on their essential and distinctive features.

Task 2

Comment on the following examples and trace the stylistic elements in the semantic structure of polysemantic words.

A crocodile

• a river reptile

• leather (metonymy)

• a line of children (metaphor)

• a person crying hypocritically (metaphor).

A kid

• a young goat

• a child (metaphor)

• leather (made of its skin)(metonymy).

Task 3

Compare the following utterances and define the spheres of communication, the level of social and educational level, age and gender differences.

Retire, please!

Leave the room!

Clear out!

Beat it, lady!

I ain’t got nothing! :: I have got nothing!

Task 4

Explain the essence of each branch of stylistics (table 1) and trace some essential and distinctive features in the following oppositions:

Table 2

Stylistics

Stylistics of language

Stylistics of speech

Linguostylistics

Functional stylistics

Phonost-s

Literary stylistics

Morphost-s

Encoding stylistics

Lexicological stylistics

Stylistic grammar syntax

Stylistics

of the text

Task 5

Discuss the notion of the NORM in the language as a system and comment on the deviations from the NORM in the following examples:

He died on the 1^st of October.

He passed away.

He kicked the bucket.

He went to the forefathers.

He breathed his last. (CCED)

In the room

So loud to my own.

A grief ago;

Once below a time;

All the sun long;

Happy as the heart was long.

(D.Thomas)

Task 6

Comment on the definition of Expressive Means (EM) and Stylistic Devices (SD) using the examples given below:

“Sara was a menace and a tonic, my best enemy”.

“Rozzie was a disease, my worst friend” (J.C.).

Task 7

Comment on the essential features of stylistic function: convergence, accumulation, irradiation and implication.

“And heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the Black sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience” (H.Melville).

I’ve no great cause to love that spot of earth

Which holds what might have been the noblest nation.

But though I owe it little but my birth,

I feel a mixed regret and veneration

For its decaying fame and former worth

Seven years (the usual term of transportation)

of absence lay one’s old resentments level,

When a man’s country’s going to the devil. (Byron)

I thought her as chaste as unsunned snow (W.Shakespeare).

Task 8

Read (listen to) the poems “Twilight” by J.G.Byron and by H.W.Longfellow. Choose EM and SD used by these poets. Trace the differences in the language means on the phonetic, morphological, lexical, syntactical and text levels. Comment on the main features of stylistic function in these poems.

THE TWILIGHT

By J.G.Byron

It is the hour when from the boughs

The nightingales’ high note is heard;

It is the hour when lovers’ vows

Seem sweet in every whispered word,

And gentle winds and waters near,

Make music to the lovely ear.

Each flower the dews have lightly wet,

And in the sky the stars are met,

And on the leaf a browner hue,

And in the heaven that clear obscure,

So softly dark, and darkly pure,

Which follows the decline of day,

As twilight melts beneath the moon away.

THE TWILIGHT

By H.W.Longfellow

The twilight is sad and cloudy,

The wind blows wild and free,

And like the wings of the sea birds

Flash the white caps of the sea.

But in the fisherman’s cottage

There shines a radiant light,

And a little face at the window

Pierce out into the night.

Close, close it is pressed to the window,

As if those childish eyes

Were looking into the darkness

To see some form arise.

And women’s waving shadow

Is passing to and fro,

Now rising to the ceiling,

Now bowing and bending low.

What tale do the roaring ocean

And the night wind, bleak and wild,

As they beat at the crazy casement,

Tell to the little child?

And why do the roaring ocean

And the night wind wild and bleak

As they beat at the heart of the mother

Drive the colour from her cheek?