Chapter 9Language and Literature.ppt

Chapter 9Language and Literature What is style? It is notoriously difficult to give a satisfactory definition of “style”. Simply put, a style is the sum of linguistic features associated with texts defined by a set of contextual parameters. What is stylistics? Stylistics is the study of style. It is a branch of linguistics which studies the features of situationally distinctive uses (varieties) of language, and tries to establish principles capable of accounting for the particular choices made by individual and social groups in their use of language. Stylistics has a broad and a narrow sense. In its broad sense, it studies the use of language in all kinds of contexts and how language use varies in accordance with varying circumstances. In its narrow sense, it studies literary discourse from a linguistic orientation. The “styl” component relates stylistics to literary criticism, and the “istics” component to linguistics. Procedures for stylistic analyses (accurate) description (reasonable) interpretation (fair) evaluation Some Examples Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi’ the sun I will love thee still, my dear, While the sands o’ life shall run. — “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns a’=all; wi’=with; o’=of My opinion of the coal trade on that river is, that it may require talent, but it certainly requires capital. Talent Mr. Micawber has, capital Mr. Micawber has not. —David Copperfield by Charles Dichens The mayor again pressed to his blue eyes the tips of the fingers that were disposed on the edge of the wheeled chair with careful carelessness, after the Cleopatra model and Mr. Dombey bowed. — Dombey and Son How affected the mayor was! What seems to distinguish literary from non-literary usage may be the extent to which the phonological, grammatical and semantic features of the language are salient or foregrounded in some way. What is ‘foregrounding’? In a purely linguistic sense, the term 'foregrounding' is used to refer to n