CEL 20: STYLISTICS speech about past events and

Reviewer (Lesson 1-5) flashbacks.

Prof. John Michael Manjares o there is a predictable and necessary
‘surprise’ – recognition/discovery
(anagnorisis).
Lesson 1: Introduction to Stylistics
• Stylistics has its roots in the formalist school of
literary criticism that emerged in Russia in the early
Definitions years of the twentieth century, though the term
‘style’ goes back to classical rhetoric and poetics.
• a sub-discipline of linguistics that is concerned • The prime exponents of Russian formalism were
with the systematic analysis of style in language Roman Jakobson, Victor Shklovskii, and Boris
and how this can vary according to such factors Tomashevskii.
as, for example, genre, context, historical period • Literariness in this sense is not a quality of a text,
and author (Crystal and Davy 1969: 9 and Leech rather it is a concept belonging to a specific
2008: 54) genre. Similarly, the contextual (social and
• analyzing style means looking systematically at cultural) aspects of what makes a text literary
the formal features of a text and determining their have been increasingly recognized in stylistics as
functional significance for the interpretation of the elsewhere.
text in question (Wales 1989: 438). • Nevertheless, the impact of Russian formalism on
• the connection between stylistics and linguistics is the development of stylistics was of immense
that stylistics uses models of language, analytical importance, and its influence is seen particularly in
techniques and methodologies from linguistics to the psychological concept of foregrounding (see
facilitate the study of style in its widest sense. Mukaˇrovsky 1964, Leech 1969: 56–72, van Peer
• focuses not just with literary but also with non- 1980, 1986, Fowler 1986: 71 and Douthwaite 2000).
literary text.
Background
History
• the predominance of literary texts as the focus of
• the great classical period of rhetoric and poetics study within stylistics is reflected in some of the
began roughly in the fifth century BC with the alternative names that stylistics sometimes goes
beginnings of democracy in by. These include literary linguistics, critical
• Athens Greek lyric poets and playwrights before linguistics, literary semantics, literary pragmatics
Aristotle, including, Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and poetics.
Sappho, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and
Aristophanes. Background and Issues
• the main theoretical points that Aristotle focuses
on are mimesis (broadly translated as ‘imitation’, • it is not simply concerned with identifying formal
‘copying’ or ‘representing’), catharsis (a kind of features of style in language.
‘cleansing’ or ‘clearing away’) and plot structure. • literary and non-literary stylistics, and such a
• Aristotle was prescriptive with regard to which distinction usually refers to the kind of texts
elements the ideal plot should entail: commonly studied.
o should consist of a single issue (not a • literary stylistics is concerned with using linguistic
double one) and the representation of techniques to assist in the interpretation of texts,
action should be serious and complete whereas linguistic stylistics is about doing stylistic
(with a beginning, middle and end), and analysis in order to test or refine a linguistic model.
it should be represented in embellished
language where necessary. Literary Stylistics:
o can be simple or complex; in simple Example: In analyzing Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a literary
plots/actions the change of fortune stylist might examine how Shakespeare’s choice of
comes about without the elements of words and sentence structures enhances the themes of
reversal or recognition; however, madness and indecision.
complex plots/actions need reversal and
recognition. This approach uses language tools to help understand
o the hero’s change of fortune (peripeteia) what Shakespeare is trying to say.
has to be from happiness to misery (and
not the other way around). Linguistic Stylistics:
o the cause is not depravity or wickedness Example: A linguistic stylist might analyze several
but a character error/flaw (hamartia). modern novels to see if there’s a pattern in how authors
o the hero must be a relatively good man. use sentence length to create suspense, and then use
o the action of the play unfolds over one this analysis to refine theories about how suspense is
day, no longer, which means that a lot of conveyed in language.
the story has to have already taken place
when the play starts; this is reported in This approach studies texts to learn more about how
language works and to test language theories.
Purpose Examples:

• no systematic apparatus can claim to describe a o "He’s a real Romeo with the ladies."
language if it does not embrace the literature
also; and not as a freakish development, but as a Alludes to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, suggesting
natural specialization of categories which are someone is very romantic.
required in other parts of the descriptive system. o "She opened Pandora’s box."
(Sinclair 2004: 51)
• can be applied equally to non-literary texts. Refers to the Greek myth, meaning she started something
precision and detail; it has no settled view of the that unleashed trouble.
relationship between author, text and reader;
Stylistics draws upon theories and models from Grammatical Features
other fields more frequently than it develops its
own unique theories. Syntax
• the text is at the center of its concerns, whilst being - The arrangement of words in sentences, including
interested in the relationship between writer and the use of simple, compound, complex, or
text, and reader and text, as well as the wider fragmented sentences.
contexts of production and reception of texts.
• it has traditionally been concerned more with Examples:
written than spoken texts.
o S-V-O ("She is reading a book.")
In general terms, then, we have claimed that we
o O-S-V ("A book, she is reading.")
need stylistics to provide an angle on language
study which places the text at the center of its Tense and Aspect
concern.
- The use of different verb tenses to convey time,
mood, and narrative progression.

Examples:
Lesson 2: Language Features
o Tense (when an action happens):

Lexical Features - Past: "She walked home."

Word Choice (Diction) - Present: "She walks home."

- The selection of words and their connotations, - Future: "She will walk home."
including formal vs. informal language, jargon,
slang, and dialect. o Aspect (how an action happens over time):

Examples: - Simple: "She walks home." (habitual or

regular action)
o Fast vs Quick
- Progressive: "She is walking home."
o Speak vs Talk (ongoing action)

o Look vs See - Perfect: "She has walked home."

(completed action with relevance to
Repetition the present)
- The use of repeated words or phrases to create - Perfect Progressive: "She has been
emphasis, rhythm, or cohesion. walking home." (ongoing action that
started in the past and continues or
Example:
just finished).
o "I have a dream that one day this nation will
Voice
rise up and live out the true meaning of its
creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, - The use of active or passive voice to focus
that all men are created equal.' I have a attention on the subject or action.
dream that one day on the red hills of Example:
o Active Voice:
Georgia..." (Martin Luther King Jr., "I Have a
"The chef cooked the meal."
Dream")
(Subject performs the action)
Allusion o Passive Voice:
"The meal was cooked by the chef."
- Reference to other texts, historical events, or (Subject receives the action)
cultural artifacts.
 Phonological Features Ambiguity
Alliteration - The presence of multiple meanings in a word or
- The repetition of consonant sounds at the phrase.
beginning of words. Example:
Example: o "I saw her duck."
o "She sells sea shells by the sea shore" This sentence can mean either that the
Assonance speaker saw a woman’s pet duck or that the
woman was ducking (lowering her head or body).
- The repetition of vowel sounds within words.
Example:
o "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" Pragmatic Features
Rhyme and Rhythm Speech Acts
- The use of patterns of sounds, particularly in - The functions of language in communication,
poetry, to create musicality or emphasis. such as asserting, questioning, commanding, or
Example: promising.
o "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, - Focus on the intention behind the words spoken.
weak and weary"- The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe. Implicature
- The meaning implied by a speaker but not
Graphological Features explicitly stated.
Punctuation - Refers to what is suggested or implied in a
- The use of punctuation marks to structure text and conversation, beyond the literal meaning of the
create effects like pauses, emphasis, or tone. words.
Typography Politeness Strategies
- The use of fonts, sizes, and styles (e.g., italics, bold) - The ways in which language is used to show
to convey meaning or highlight certain parts of politeness, respect, or mitigate face-threatening
the text. acts.
Example: Example:
o In e.e. cummings' poem "i carry your heart with me(i o “Could you possibly help me with this?”
carry it in", the lack of capital letters and Instead of directly asking for help, this softens
unconventional punctuation contribute to a sense of the request.
intimacy and informality.
Layout Discourse Features
- The visual arrangement of text on a page, Coherence
including line breaks, spacing, and alignment. - Refers to the logical and consistent interrelation of
ideas.
Semantic Features - The content flows smoothly, making it easier for
Metaphor readers to understand and follow.
- The use of a word or phrase to imply a meaning - Achieved through the organized structure of
beyond its literal sense. ideas, clear connections between concepts, and
Example: the use of transitional words and phrases.
o "Time is a thief."
Cohesion
This metaphor suggests that time steals
moments from our lives, comparing time to a thief
- Refers to the force or action that brings elements
without using "like" or "as." together and keeps them united within a
o "All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and particular system or structure.
women merely players..." (William Shakespeare, As - The internal sticking or bonding, whether physical,
You Like It) social, or conceptual, that gives a substance or
Simile group its integrity.
- A comparison between two different things using - Involves using linguistic devices to connect
"like" or "as." sentences and ideas within a text.
Examples:
o "Her smile was like sunshine."
Stylistic Devices
This simile compares her smile to sunshine, using
Foregrounding
"like" to highlight the brightness and warmth it brings.
o "The night sky was as dark as coal." - The use of unusual or striking language to draw
Compares the darkness of the night sky to that attention to particular parts of a text.
of coal. Parallelism
- The repetition of similar grammatical structures for
Irony effect.
- The use of words to convey a meaning opposite o Example: “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
to their literal meaning. Intertextuality
Example: - The relationship between a text and other texts,
o Saying, "What a beautiful day!" during a storm. where meaning is shaped by references or
allusions.
 o Speculative/Science Fiction
Lesson 3: Literary Genres &
Elements • Short Story - brief fictional stories, with 6-10 pages.

o Flash Fiction
POETRY
2. Non-fiction - a literary genre that is based on facts
Poetry is a genre of literature that uses stanzas, lines, or scientific investigation; the purpose of this genre
rhythm, and meter to creatively express one’s ideas or is to provide information or educate the readers.
emotions.

1. Poem • Books
• a piece of writing that partakes of the nature of
both speech and song that is nearly always o Encyclopedia
rhythmical, usually metaphorical, and often o Reference Books
exhibits such formal elements as meter, rhyme, o Textbooks
and stanzaic structure. o Dictionaries
o Atlas
• Types of Poems o Biographies
o Autobiographies
o Riddles o Documentaries
o Proverbs o Research Papers
o Tanaga
o Epic • Essay
o Free Verse
o Pickup Lines o Argumentative
o Spoken Poetry o Informative
o Reverse Spoken Poetry o Persuasive
2. Song o Entertaining
o Demonstrative
• It is a short poem or story set to music with a
melody and vocals. • Articles
Types of Song o Research Journals
o News Articles
o Lyrical Song
o Magazine Articles
o Rap
o Fliptop
Elements of Fiction
Elements of Poetry
• Character (protagonist, antagonist, supporting
characters)
• Lines
• Stanzas • Setting (when and where did the story happen or
• Rhyming Pattern take place)
• Meter
• Figures of Speech • Conflict (Man vs. Man, Man vs. Himself, Man vs.
• Symbolism Nature, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Supernatural,
• Imagery and Man vs. Technology)

• Plot (Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling

PROSE Action, and Resolution)

Prose is a literary genre that applies a natural flow of • Theme (central idea of the story)
speech, and ordinary grammatical structure of language.
Elements of Nonfiction
1. Fiction - a genre of literature that is produced by
the imagination of an author.
• Introduction
• Body
• Novel • Conclusion

o Romance
o Comedy
o Drama
o Suspense
o Horror
 DRAMA 2. Lexical Deviation

A genre of literature that is presented through • Using non-standard or coined words that break
performance of written dialogue and stage action. established vocabulary norms.

• Types of Drama Example: “Truthiness” (A word coined by comedian Stephen

Colbert, meaning the quality of seeming or being felt to be true,
o Comedy even if not necessarily true.)
o Tragedy
3. Phonological Deviation
o Melodrama
o Opera • Deviation in the sound patterns of a word or
phrase, often used in poetry.
• Elements of Drama
Example: “Eye rhyme” where words look like they should
o Characters rhyme but don't, e.g., "love" and "move."
o Setting
o Conflict 4. Semantic Deviation
o Plot • Deviation from the usual meanings of words or
o Theme phrases.
o Dialogue
Example: “I heard the wind scream.” (Personification – attributing
MEDIA human qualities to something non-human.)
Media is the newest genre of literature that merely relies
5. Textual Deviation
on technology.
• Breaking the norms of text structure or coherence.
Text-talk Novel (textserye)
- a story told through dialogues on social media. Example: A story that jumps abruptly between different points of
Textula view or time periods without clear transitions.
- a tanaga delivered via mobile phone. 6. Graphological Deviation
Hyperpoetry
- a form of digital poetry that uses links using • Breaking conventional rules of writing such as
hypertext mark-up like #. capitalization, punctuation, or typography.
Blogs
- vlogs, radio programs, TV shows, film/movies. Example: E.E Cummings’ poetry, where standard capitalization
and punctuation are often ignored:

“i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)”

Lesson 4: Development in Stylistics
7. Dialectal Deviation
FOREGROUNDING • Using a non-standard dialect or regional variety of
a language.
• a technique used to make certain elements of a
text stand out by using linguistic deviation or Example: “We ain’t done nothin’ wrong!” instead of the standard
repetition; draws attention to specific features, “We haven’t done anything wrong.”
disrupting normal expectations of language use.
8. Register Deviation
- Deviation: Breaking conventional language rules,
such as unusual syntax, word choices, or • Using a level of formality or type of language that
grammar. is inappropriate to the situation or context.

Example: “Dear Sir or Madam” in a text message.

- Parallelism: Repetition of structures, sounds, or
words to create rhythm or highlight contrast. 9. Historical Period Deviation
Types of Deviation • Using archaic or obsolete language or expressions
from another historical period.
• the types of deviation are grammatical, lexical,
phonological, semantic, textual, graphological, Example: “Thou art” (instead of “You are”) or “methinks” (instead
dialectal, and also register and historical period. of “I think”).
• this can also be categorized into internal or
external deviation. • Internal Deviation

1. Grammatical Deviation the break from an author’s pattern which has been set up
in their work.
• Breaking the rules of standard grammar, such as
syntax (sentence structure) or morphology (word • External Deviation
formation).
when the author or poet breaks from the normal
conventions of language use.
 • Syntactic Foregrounding MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

occurs when an author breaks the typical rules of 1. Bühler’s Tripartite

sentence structure or word order, deliberately bending the
norms of syntax.

o Parallelism is a rhetorical device where similar ADDRESSER MESSAGE ADDRESSEE

structures are repeated to create balance,

rhythm, and emphasis.

How can we pinpoint foregrounding in poetry? 2. Jakobson’s Six Basic Functions of Any Communicative
Act
• We can spot foregrounding in poetry by looking
for what naturally stands out.
CONTEXT,

INTERTEXTUALITY
MESSAGE,
ADDRESSER ADDRESSEE
CONTACT,
CODE

Intertextuality refers to the ways in which texts refer to or

echo other texts, enriching meaning through these
references. This can involve direct allusions, thematic 3. Jakobson’s Six Associative Functions of Language
parallels, or stylistic echoes.

o Direct Allusions REFERENTIAL,

POETIC,
EMOTIVE CONATIVE
PHATIC,

These are straightforward references to another well-

METALINGUAL

known text, character, or event.

o Thematic Parallels Jakobson’s Model of Communication and Functions of

Language:
These occur when two stories share similar themes, even if [Link] (context)
the details are different. [Link] (addresser)
[Link] (addressee)
o Stylistic Echoes
[Link] (channel)
These occur when one text’s style or tone mirrors that of [Link] (code)
another text, creating a link between them. [Link] (message)

POETIC FUNCTION
• A text will usually have one dominant function, but
The poetic function focuses on the form and aesthetic more functions can be at work at the same time.
qualities of language, making the expression itself a key • Jakobson argued that literary texts and other
element of meaning. This is particularly prominent in poetry verbal arts often focus on the message of the text:
but can also appear in prose. the poetic function.
• The poetic function is not only limited to literary
o Example: “Do not go gentle into that good night. texts, and not all literary texts are restricted to only
Rage, rage against the dying of the Light.” From: Do
having a dominant poetic function.
Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan
Thomas (1951) • He also noted that factual texts such as history
books are not like poetic texts, because they are
focused on the context: the referential function.
• ‘the poetic function projects the principle of
Lesson 5: Formalism equivalence from the axis of selection into the axis
of combination’ (p. 358 in Sebeok 1960).
Roman Jakobson and the Poetic Function of • What Jakobson essentially means here is that
Language poetic language is all about the selection and
combination of words in sentences.
- If any one person may be referred to as ‘the father
of modern stylistics’, then it is Roman Jakobson. • Rhyme and Rhythm
• Parallelism
Roman Jakobson • Figurative Language
• Foregrounding Form
• Co-found the Prague Linguistic Circle, also known
as the Prague School.
• He was particularly interested in the poetic
function of language.
 Victor Shklovsky's Concept of Defamiliarization in order to draw attention to them, disrupting the
usual expectations of language. This can be done
- refers to the technique of presenting familiar through deviation (breaking the norms of
things in an unfamiliar or strange way in order to standard language) or parallelism (repetition or
make readers see them anew, encouraging a patterned structures).
fresh perception of ordinary objects and • Foregrounding makes readers more aware of the
experiences. form and structure of the text itself, encouraging a
deeper engagement with its meaning and
• The function of literary texts, and all other arts, to aesthetic effects.
make people perceive the world from new and • The idea of foregrounding was extensively
different perspectives. developed by Jan Mukařovský, a key figure in the
• Poetic language has the power to de-automatise; Prague School, who believed that the language
to shake us out of our everyday visual and of literature is distinct because it draws attention
cognitive lethargy. These he saw as linguistic to itself, encouraging readers to focus not just on
devices. what is said but on how it is said.
• If something in literature seems familiar, then one • The word Mukařovský used for foregrounding was
should look at it with a renewed sense of vision. actualisation. It was Garvin who came up with the
o Example: Daffodils of Wordsworth term ‘foregrounding’ in his 1964 translation of the
works of the Prague School scholars.
• Fabula refers to the chronological order of events
in a story, while sjužet refers to the order of the Foregrounding highlights the poetic function of
events as they were narrated; for example, this language, in particular its ability to deviate from the
might involve things like flashbacks or gaps in the linguistic norm and to create textual patterns based on
narration. either parallelism, repetition or deviation from a norm.
o Example: The Woman Who Had Two Navel

Vladimir Propp and the Morphology of Folktale • The Prague School may have started as a formalist
movement, where the emphasis in meaning
- identify recurring patterns and structures within folk making was mainly on the logical and semantic
narratives by breaking them down into their message/text, but the school and its members
component parts or functions. quickly became functionalists.

• What attracted him to investigate these tales is Like formalism, functionalism is concerned with the text,
their apparent similarity in plot, the question of but it is also interested in the role that context plays in
universality, and he essentially wanted to come the process of meaning making.
up with a description of the fairy tale in itself.
• His framework of analysis can be applied to other
stories as well, as other scholars have shown since. • With the advent of functionalism in the Prague
• Propp limited his data collection to one hundred School there was a gradual move from text to
tales. He argued that this was the right amount of context, from form to function, from semantics to
material for two reasons. pragmatics and from logic to rhetoric.
1. First, there is no use in researching more tales Mick Short (Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and
that represent the same components every Prose,1996)
time. Repetition is prominent in the tales.
2. Second, the research would otherwise simply - A Stylistician who has argued that deviations can be
become too unwieldy. made on seven levels: discoursal, semantic, lexical,
- Propp decided to take the fairytales with numbers grammatical, morphological, phonological and
50 to 151, or, using the enumeration system of the graphological.
fifth and sixth editions, numbers 93 to 270. This - He also claimed that: Internal deviations are
gave him a relatively random sample. foregrounded by the norms and expectations of the
- After gathering this data, he set out to compare text itself, while external deviations rely on the norms
the tales by creating a so-called ‘morphology’ and expectations of language (or the main literary
genre) in general.
o Example: an external discoursal deviation is when a
The Prague Structuralist School and text begins in medias res or when a poem is
Foregrounding presented in a non-poetic, unexpected form, such
as, for example, a newspaper article or shopping
- founded in the 1920s, was a group of linguists and literary list.
theorists based in Prague who were influential in the
development of structuralist approaches to language and
literature.

FOREGROUNDING
• Foregrounding refers to the way certain elements
of a text are highlighted or made more prominent
 FORMALISM: RECENT APPROACHES & CRITICISMS
UG CHOMSKY PRAGS
One such formal Thought Stylisticians had
view of language underpinned discovered the
was that proposed the generation of importance of
by the celebrated grammatical context and
academic and sentences. pragmatics, and
intellectual Noam as a result the
Chomsky (1957, Chomsky also idea of only
1965, 1966). wrote on looking at the
generative form of a literary
phonology and text seemed like a
metrics. step backwards

JONATHAN CUTLER INFLUENCES LC

formal view of ideas on the sign: Culler introduced
literature; he the two the term ‘literary
termed intertwined competence’,
‘structuralist notions of the which he defined
poetics.’ signifier (form) and according to the
the signified idea that the
(concept). reader’s
knowledge of the
literary
conventions is
important for the
interpretation of
the literary text.