NOTES IN STYLISTICS AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
NATURE AND GOALS OF STYLISTICSB
Stylistics is the study of the ways in which meaning is created throughlanguage, literature and non-
literature. Stylistics uses linguistic models, theories, and frameworks as analytical tools. It describes and
explains theworking of a text, and how meaning is created from the words on the page. The analysis
focuses qualitatively or quantitatively on the levels of languagesuch as phonological, lexical,
grammatical, semantic, pragmatic or discoursefeatures (e.g. ways of taking turns) of text and cognitive
aspects involved inthe processing of those features by the reader. Stylistics is often regarded as linguistic
approach to literature, as it ismainly devoted to literary test. However, stylistics is recently engaged
invarious fields, and expanded to include within its scope non-fictional formssuch as advertising,
academic writing, news reports as well as non-printedforms such as TV, pictorial advertising, film and
multimodal publications
What is Stylistics?
Stylistics is defined as the study of style used in literary and verballanguage and the effect writer or
speaker intends to convey to the reader orhearer. It aims at establishing principles which can explain the
particularchoices made by individual and social groups in their use of language, suchas socialization, the
production or reception of meaning, literary criticism andcritical discourse analysis. Crystal and Davy
point out:
Stylistics has been defined as a "Sub-discipline of linguistics that isconcerned with the systematic analysis
of style in language and how this canvary according to such factors as, genre, context, historical period
andauthor.
Stylistics can also be defined as the study of language of literature whichmakes use of various tools of
linguistic analysis. According to Simpson,
Stylistics emerged as discipline of serious study in the twentieth [Link], literary critics focused on
the nuances of language used by the writersrather than discussing literature from the point of view of their
feelings, orthe writer's presumed intentions, or abstract aesthetic qualities, or meremoral judgments. Thus,
the study of language became part of literary education. I.A. Richards, in his book, Practical Criticism
(1929)3, emphasizedthat close attention should be paid to the evidence being offered by the text.
Thus, stylistics is mainly concerned with the idea of "style" and theanalysis of literary texts. The
application of linguistics to the literary textsand the "style" is usually understood within