WEEK 12 - PRINCIPLES OF STYLISTICS
Purpose – To enable learners grasp principles of analyzing texts linguistically
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the lesson, learners should be able to;
i) Describe principles of linguistic stylistics
ii) Explain stylistics analysis and textual analysis
How do we analyze texts linguistically?
Principles of Stylistics
•Systematic: The stylistic method involves th e application of a particular linguistic framework or
exploration a defined set of features, in a way that is rational and logical.
•Rigorous: The analysis of the literary text has to be precise and accurate Transparent: The
account or explanation of the analysis should be as full, clear and open as possible .
•Replicable: it should be possible to understand how the account of the text and its reading could
also be held by another reader of the same text. These principles owe more to the scientific method than
to the usual chatter of art criticism, though it is important to recognize that stylistics cannot be a natural
science, like physics or biology.
STYLISTICS AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
Everyone who can speak and read can say something interesting and analytical about any piece o f
language. Every text in the world that you come across is the product of choices made by someone: which
words to select, which order to put them in, where and when to say or write them; who is implicitly
addressed, what effect or purpose seems to be intended, and so on. For most people, such observations
tend to be highly intuitive and impressionistic. People observe things about texts and utterances like,
1.That sounded rude
2.That makes me laugh
3.The language there sounds fowery and fancy
Sometimes, such impressions can also be a little more technical:
1.That instruction was too direct; there was no ‘please’ or ‘thanks’
2.That joke sends you in one direction, and then fools you with a double-meaning
There are too many fowery and overly-poetic adjectives .These impressions can begin to be considered as
being analytical, though we might say they are examples of sensitive language-awareness, or close-
reading. If the person making the comments also possessed a little technical knowledge of how language
really works, then their observations are likely to be far less impressionistic:
The politeness markers there are entirely self-oriented
The ambivalence of that word at the beginning of the joke triggers the release
The frequent pre-modification with archaic lexis creates a self-consciously poetic effect
These sorts of analytical comments are more precise; they draw on a systematic description of language
from the discipline of linguistics; they account for an initial intuitive response: they are examples
of stylistics.
Stylistics is the application of language study to the choices that are made in texts. Stylisticians tend to
explore the language of literary and highly creative texts such as interesting advertising, song lyrics,
poetry, prose and drama, though there is also a strong tradition of the stylistic analysis of non-literary
texts (political speeches and documents, media articles, television and web broadcasting, and so on). This
latter form tends to be called critical discourse analysis or even simply text analysis with stylistics
now largely being reserved for what is also sometimes called literary linguistics
It ought to be obvious and self-evident that, since literature is composed of language, it makes sense that
its primary form of study should involve some proper understanding of linguistics. However, much literary
criticism in the world foregrounds literary history, literary biography, or cultural studies over the textual
reality of the literary work. While such studies are interesting, I would argue that only stylistics is directly
aimed at the literary text itself. The beauty of stylistics is that you only need to know a little of how
language works in order to begin to explore how literary texts work. You can start to see how a piece of
literature creates its particular effects in a reader, because you can see the workings of those features of
language in yourself. You don’t need a particular sensitivity, or inexplicable moment of magical revelation.
You don’t have to become adept in the mysterious practices of a private club: you simply need a little training in
language study. Then you will pretty much understand the workings of any literary text from any historical
period by any writer, within a very short period of time. In other words, stylistics offers you a toolkit for
textual analysis, which is open to anyone who cares to take it up, and it is always enormously empowering.
Stylistics is a discipline: this means that it has particular principles and customary methods that you need
to understand from the beginning.
We can now go ahead and analyze a text.
Look for a written text and analyze it using the principles we have covered
Course Textbook and Journal
1.Vaughn, S. (2007).The Study Of English Language. Anmol Publications Pvt Ltd
2.Dwight, W. (2009). Language And The Study Of Language; Bibliolife
3.Yule, G. (2008).The Study of Language 2/ed : (clpe); Cambridge University Press
Recommended Textbooks and Journal for Further Reading
1.Fromkin, V. and Rodman, R. (1993). An Introduction to language 5th Edition Holt, Rinehart and Weiston – New York
2.Oden, D. (2005). Introduction to Phonology CUP. 2005.
3.Crystal, D. (1996). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics.Blackwell –Oxford.
