Chapter II Stylistic analysis

       
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

      Contents 

Introduction                                                                                                               3

Chapter I Theoretical assumptions of stylistics         

1.1. Definition of style in works of different linguists                                              5

1.2. The various approaches to the study of stylistics                                               7

1.2.1. Linguistic stylistics

1.2.2. Literary stylistics                                                                                                                                                                           

1.2.3. Functional stylistics                                                                                       22

1.3. Problem of image-creation in fiction texts

Conclusion on chapter 1                                                                                          33

Chapter II Stylistic analysis

2.1. The revelation of the ways of image-creation in fiction texts

2.1.1. The stylistic analysis of “The Selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde

2.1.2. Stylistic analysis of “Louise” by William Somerset Maugham                 49

2.2.

Conclusion on chapter 2                                                                                         53

General conclusion                                                                                                  54

Bibliography                                                                                                            55

Appendix                                                                                                               59 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

     Introduction

     Stylistics is the study of varieties of language whose properties position that language in context, and tries to establish principles capable of accounting for the particular choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of language. A variety, in this sense, is a situationally distinctive use of language. For example, the language of advertising, politics, religion, individual authors, etc., or the language of a period in time, all are used distinctively and belong in a particular situation. In other words, they all have ‘place’ or are said to use a particular 'style'.

     Stylistics is a branch of linguistics, which deals with the study of varieties of language, its properties, principles behind choice, dialogue, accent, length, and register. Stylistics also attempts to establish principles capable of explaining the particular choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of language, such as socialisation, the production and reception of meaning, critical discourse analysis and literary criticism.

     The diploma paper consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusion and the list of references. The introduction outlines the aim, the tasks, the topicality and the value of the present work. The chapter I presents the theoretical part, where the assumptions of stylistics, its sources and classification are presented. The chapter II is the practical part of our investigation. It includes the stylistic analyses of fiction texts and their interpretation. The conclusion describes the results of the investigation, presented in the previous parts of the work.

     The aim of this work is to describe and to classify the ways of image-creation in fiction texts.

     The tasks, set before the investigation, are the following:

     - to consider the structure of stylistics, its main branches and ways of their development;

     - to describe the theoretical approaches to the study of stylistics through the attentive analysis of the scientific literature, devoted to the stylistics;

     - to study the methods of the stylistic analysis, its forms and elements;

     - to analyze literary fiction texts and to define various ways of image-creation, used by the authors;

     - to describe and classify the methods of image-creation, defined in the fiction texts under analysis.

     Though the ways and methods of image-creation are widely-studied in the modern linguistic science, there are always new ways appear. The list of image-creation methods is constantly changing, and fixation and description of the new ones makes the topicality of the work.

     The topicality of the work is predetermined by the fact that a lot of questions connected with understandings of sense of different texts.

     The object of our research is the means of image-creation literature. The subject of this graduation paper the realization of methods of image creation in the English literature.

     The following tasks are to be solved in this paper:

     - to reveal and describe methods of image creation in the English literature

     - to define what role played by stylistic at creation of texts

     The theoretical value of the given work is that the materials, investigation and conclusion represented in it enter into scientific use the helpful information about stylistic devises.

     The practical value of the research is that its results may be used in lectures and practical courses English language, general linguistics, in special courses. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

     Chapter I Theoretical assumptions of stylistics

     1.1. Definition of style in works of different linguists                                             

     The word style is derived from the Latin word `stylos` which meant a short stick sharp at one end and flat at the other used by the Romans for writing on wax tablets. Now the word `style` is used in so many senses that it has become a breeding ground for ambiguity. The word is applied to the teaching of how to write a composition; it is also used to reveal the correspondence between thought and expression; it frequently denotes an individual manner of making use of language; it sometimes refers to more general, abstract notions thus inevitably becoming vague and obscure, as, for example, “Style is the man himself” (Buffon), “Style is depth” (Derbyshire); “Style is deviations” (Enkvist); “Style is choice” and the like. All these ideas directly or indirectly bear on issues in stylistics. Some of them become very useful by revealing the springs which make our utterance emphatic, effective and goal-directed. It will therefore not come amiss to quote certain interesting observations regarding style made by different writers from different angles. Some of these observations are dressed up as epigrams or sententious maxims like the ones quoted above [Bagget 2005, 243].

     Style is a quality of language which communicates precisely emotions or thoughts, or a system of emotions or thoughts, peculiar to the author”. (J Middleton Murry) “… a true idiosyncrasy of style is the result of an author’s success in compelling language to conform to his mode of experience”. (J. Middleton Murry). “Style is a contextually restricted linguistic variation”. (Enkvist).  “Style is a selection of non-distinctive features of language”. (L. Bloomfield). “Style is simple synonymous with form or expression and hence a superfluous term”. (Benedetto Croce)[ Riffaterre 1964, 316]. “Style is essentially a citational process, a body of formulae, a memory (almost in the cybernetic sense of the word). A cultural and not an expressive inheritance”. (Roland Barthes) [Chatman 1967,30]. Some linguists consider that the word `style` and the subject of linguistic stylistics is confined to the study of the effects of the message, i.e. its impact on the reader. Thus Michael Riffaterre writes that “Stylistics will be linguistics of the effects of the message, of the output of the act of communication, of its attention –compelling function”. This point of view has clearly been reached under the influence of recent developments in the general theory of information. Language being one of the means of communication or, to be exact, the most important mans of communication, is regarded in the above quotation from a pragmatic point of view.

            Stylistics in that case is regarded as a language science which deals with the results of the act of communication. To a very considerable degree this is true. Stylistic must take into consideration the “output of the act of communication”. But stylistics must also investigate the ontological, i.e. natural, inherent, and functional peculiarities of the means of communication. Which may ensure the effect sought? Archibald A. Hill states that “A current definition of style and stylistics is that structures, sequences, and patterns which extend, or may extend, beyond the boundaries of individual sentences define style, and that the study of them is stylistics ”The truth of this approach to style and stylistics lies in the fact that the author concentrates on such phenomena in language as present a system, in other words, on facts which are not confined to individual choices and patterns of choices (emphasis added) among linguistic possibilities.” [ Archibald 1978,54] This definition indirectly deals with the idiosyncrasies peculiar to a given writer. Somehow it fails to embrace such phenomena in text structure where the `individual` is reduced to the minimum or even done away with entirely (giving preferences to non-individualistic forms in using language means). However, this definition is acceptable when applied to the ways men-of-letters use language when they seek to make it conform to their immediate aims and support. A somewhat broader view of style is expressed by Werner winter who maintains that “A style may be said to be characterized by a pattern of recurrent selections from the inventory of optional features of a language. Various types of selection can be found; complete exclusion of an optional element, obligatory inclusion of a feature optional else where, varying degrees of inclusion of a specific variant without complete elimination of competing features.” [Werner 1967,324].

            The idea of taking various types of selection as criteria for distinguishing styles seems to be a sound one. It places the whole problem on a solid foundation of objective criteria, namely, the interdependence of optional and obligatory features. There is no point in quoting other definitions of style. They are too many and heterogeneous to fall under one more or less satisfactory unified notion. Undoubtedly all these diversities in the understanding of the word `style` stem from its ambiguity. But still all these various definitions leave an impression that by and large they all have something in common. All of them point to some integral significance, namely that style is a set of characteristics by which we distinguish one author from another or members of one subclass from members of the same general class.What are these sets of characteristics typical of a writer or of a subclass of the literary language will be seen in the analysis of the language means of a given writer and of the subclasses of the general literary standard. 

1.2. The various approaches to the study of stylistics 

         Stylistics refers to stylistic study specially. The aim of the stylistic study is to interpret the literary meaning and aesthetic effect of literature texts linguistically. There are many definitions on the stylistics. N. Leech and R. Short defined that “Compared with many other studies, literary stylistics is a new science, a linguistic approach towards literature works. It applies theories of modern linguistics to the study of literature and attempts to relate the critic’s concern with aesthetic appreciation and the readers’ intuition with the linguist’s concern with linguistic description”. A. Thornborrow defined that “By far the most common kind of material studied by stylistics is literature.The stylistics we are discussing here is modern stylistics, a discipline that applies concepts and techniques of modern linguistics to the study of styles of language use. It has two subdivisions: general stylistics and literary stylistics, with the latter concentrating solely on unique features of various literary works, and the former on the general features of various types of language use.” That is to say, stylistics goes beyond the linguistic description of the literature texts; its final purpose is to relate literary effects to relevant linguistic causes. It is the most explored section in the stylistic domain.

     Stylistics, sometimes called lingvo-stylistics, is a branch of general linguistics. It has now been more or less definitely outlined. It deals mainly with two interdependent tasks:

     a) the investigation of the inventory of special language media which by their ontological features secure the desirable effect of the utterance and

     b) certain types of texts (discourse) which due to the choice and arrangement of language means are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of the communication.

     The two objectives of stylistics are clearly discernible as two separate fields of investigation. The inventory of special language media can be analyzed and their ontological features revealed if presented in a system in which the co-relation between the media becomes evident.

     The types of texts can be analyzed if their linguistic components are presented in their interaction, thus revealing the unbreakable unity and transparency of constructions of a given type. The types of texts that are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of the communication are called functional styles of language (FS); the special media of language which secure the desirable effect of the utterance are called stylistic devices (SD) and expressive means (EM).

     The first field of investigation, i.e. SDs and EMs, necessarily touches upon such general language problems as the aesthetic function of language, synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea, emotional colouring in language, the interrelation between language and thought, the individual manner of an author in making use of language and a number of other issues.

     The second field, i.e. functional styles, cannot avoid discussion of such most general linguistic issues as oral and written varieties of language, the notion of the literary (standard) language, the constituents of texts larger than the sentence, the generative aspect of literary texts, and some others.

     In dealing with the objectives of stylistics, certain pronouncements of adjacent disciplines such as theory of information, literature, psychology, logic and to some extent statistics must be touched upon. This is indispensable; for nowadays no science is entirely isolated from other domains of human knowledge; and linguistics, particularly its branch stylistics, cannot avoid references to the above mentioned disciplines because it is confronted with certain overlapping issues.

     The branching off of stylistics in language science was indirectly the result of a long-established tendency of grammarians to confine their investigations to sentences, clauses and word-combinations which are "well-formed", to use a dubious term, neglecting anything that did not fall under the recognized and received standards. This tendency became particularly strong in what is called descriptive linguistics. The generative grammars, which appeared as a reaction against descriptive linguistics, have confirmed that the task of any grammar is to limit the scope of investigation of language data to sentences which are considered well-formed. Everything that fails to meet this requirement should be excluded from linguistics.

     But language studies cannot avoid subjecting to observation any language data whatever, so where grammar refuses to tread stylistics steps in. Stylistics has acquired its own status with its own inventory of tools (SDs and EMs), with its own object of investigation and with its own methods of research.

     The stylistics of a highly developed language like English or Russian has brought into the science of language a separate body of media, thus widening the range of observation of phenomena in language. The significance of this branch of linguistics can hardly be over-estimated. A number of events in the development of stylistics must be mentioned here as landmarks.A great number of monographs, textbooks, articles, and dissertation papers are now at the disposal of a scholar in stylistics. The stream of information grows larger every month. Two American journals appear regularly, which may keep the student informed as to trends in the theory of stylistics. They are Style issued at the Arkansas University (U.S.A.) and Language and Style published in Southern Illinois University (U.S.A.).

     It is in view of the ever-growing significance of the exploration of language potentialities that so much attention is paid in lingvo-stylistics to the analysis of expressive means (EMs) and stylistic devices (SDs), to their nature and functions, to their classification and to possible interpretations of additional meanings they may carry in a message as well as their aesthetic value.

     In order to ascertain the borders of stylistics it is necessary to go at some length into the question of what is style.

     The word stуle is derived from the Latin word 'stylus' which meant a short stick sharp at one end and flat at the other used by the Romans for writing on wax tablets.

     Now the word 'style is used in so many senses that it has become a breeding ground for ambiguity. The word is applied to the teaching of how to write a composition (see below); it is also used to reveal the correspondence between thought and expression; it frequently denotes an individual manner of making use of language; it sometimes refers to more general, abstract notions thus inevitably becoming vague and obscure, as, for example, "Style is the man himself" (Buffon), "Style is depth" (Derbyshire);* "Style is deviations" (Enkvist); "Style is choice", and the like.

     All these ideas directly or indirectly bear on issues in stylistics. Some of them become very useful by revealing the springs which make our utterances emphatic, effective and goal-directed. It will therefore not come amiss to quote certain interesting observations regarding style made by different writers from different angles. Some of these observations are dressed up as epigrams or sententious maxims like the ones quoted above. Here are some more of them.