Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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ABSTRACT
SinceHarryPotterandthePhilosopher'sStonewaspublishedin1997,HarryPotterseries
havepervadedthewholeworldquickly,settingoffPottermaniaandallupsurgeofstudy
overtheworld.Thisserieshaveeverbeenatthetopofthebestsellerlistsforseveral
timesandmadetheauthorJ.ICRowlingreceivenumerousawards.Itsauthor,theBritish
writerJ.KRowling,becamethefirstbillionairewomanwriterfromapoorsinglemother
onlybywritingandwasconferredtheBritishroyalfamilysaward.Rowlingtellsthe
magicstorylastingfor7yearsandusesabundantconversationstodepictcharactersand
weaveplotstoattractaudience.
Thisphenomenonhasattractedexpertsandscholarsattention,sotheystudiedtheseries
fromvariousaspects.ButtheresearchonthestylisticfeaturesofHarryPotterseriesisstillrare.
Literarystylisticsexploreshowtheauthorcreatedthethematicsignificanceandaesthetic
valuesofliteraryworksbyadoptingproperlanguageandappropriaterhetoricalmethods,
thusprovidingtheinterpretationandappreciationwithamoreobjectivemethodand
enablingreaderstohaveabetterunderstandingofliteraryworks.
Inthisthesis,thewriteranalyzedthestylisticfeaturesofHarryPotterseriesindetailwith
thecorpusbasedmethod,includinggeneralinformationofthelanguage,themainplots
andthemes,thedepictionofmaincharactersaswellassomerhetoricalmethods.
Therefore,theresearchfindingswerearrived.Firstly,intheserieslexicaldensityislow
andsentencesareshort,which,tosomeextent,illustratesthepopularityoftheseries.
Secondly,intermsofthetheme,theseriesnotonlyinherittheBritishliterarytradition,
butalsoreflectcontemporarysocialandculturalproblems.Thirdly,thedescriptionof
plotsandcharactersreflectschildrensnatureandsetsagoodexampletothewritingof
Chinesechildrensliterature.Finally,inordertomaketheimaginarywizardingworld
vivid,theauthorinventednumerousnewwordsandemployedalotofimpressive
similes.Inaddition,thisthesisalsoverifiestheimportantroleofthecorpusbased
methodinstylisticanalysis,especiallytheplotanalysis.Thecombinationofliterary
stylisticandcorpuslinguisticsnotonlystrengthensoursensitivitytothechoiceof
language,butalsohelpstoimproveourappreciativeabilitiesinliterarywork.The
applicationofsuchaanalysisandappreciationofliteraryworks.
Tosumup,throughtheanalysisbothfromthemacroandmicroperspectives,thisthesis
showsthatLiteraryPragmaticsiseffectivetointerpretutterancesandtext,andwhatis
moreimportantisthatitaimstodynamicallyrevealthethemeoftheliterarywork.In
addition,thisdiscussionalsodisplaysJ.K.Rowlingslanguageartandhervalueoflife.
KEYWORDS:StylisticAnalysis,HarryPotterandthePhilosopher'sStone
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
J.K.Rowling,astheauthorofHarryPotterseries,isregardedasthemostpopular
childrenwriternowadays.Sheisageniusatstorytelling,whichisexhibitedinher
accomplishmentofHarryPotterbestsellers.HarryPotterseriescreatedcountless
publishingandreadingmiraclesintheindustrializedage.Atthesametime,Pottermania
becomesaglobalphenomenonandanimportantmarkofpopularculture,whichhasa
significantimpactonchildrenandadults.
HarryPotterseriesareoriginaltherealbooksforchildren,whicharefullof
imagination,humorandsuspense.Likeachildrenpsychologicalanalyst,Rowling
narratesayearsexperienceofthecharactersineachbookandexploresthedevelopment
ofcharacterspersonalitiesineverchangingcircumstances,whichisrareinchildren
novels.Thefictionaluniversewithallintertwiningdetailedbackstoriesissobelievable
andappealing.Whowouldntwanttoreadthem?Aboveall,itgroundsontherealworld
buthasitsownsetofrulesandregulations,formingthemagicalworldwithmodem
civilization.Indescribingthesebigpictures,wehavetoadmitRowlingisanexcellent
writer.
AsthecrazeofHarryPotterseriesissweepingtheworld,themoviesadaptedfromthe
novelshavesmashedboxofficerecordsandinthepasttenyears,HarryPotterseries
havereleased325millioncopiesallovertheglobein64languages,includingnine
millioncopiesinChina.Itsbrandhasbeenassessedmorethanonebilliondollars.Those
figuresstronglyprovethatthelittleHarryhassucceededspellingtheworldintoareal
HogwartswherepeoplehaveacrashonmagicandtheheroHarryPotter.However,
mostoftheresearchesofHarryPotterseriespaygreatattentiontotheconditionsof
commercialsuccessneglectitsliteraryvalue.Thosemindblowingbooksserveasa
mirrorofthesocietyanddeserveseriouscriticalattentionfromthelinguisticperspective.
Nowadays,moreandmorescholarsfoundthatthetheoryofStylisticAnalysiscan
combineliterarytheorieswithpragmaticsformaximizingtheinterpretationandanalysis
ofworks.Therefore,inthisthesisthetheoryofstylisticanalysiswillbeappliedinto
HarryPottertoexploretheliteraryvalueoftheseriesandfindacomprehensivewayof
appreciatingliterature.
inspirereaderstostudyliteratureguidedbythistheoryafterunderstandingthewhole
frameworkofStylisticAnalysistheoryfromthisresearch.
headmasterDumbledoreistheprototypeoftheAlmightyGod",thearticlehasnot
providedtheevidence,yetpeoplewonderwhythe"AlmightyGod"alsodiedinthesixth
bookofthenovel.WeknowthatRowlingbornasaBritish,French,taughtherselfLatin,
andhasastronginterestinliterature.Rowlingalwaysobsessedwithreligion,mythology,
folkloreandotherimaginedworlds.Authorwithawiderangeofhobbiesandfamily
backgroundisastrongsupportandprovetoitsamazingimagination.Howeverinour
criticismofliteraryworks,whichgivestoomanythings.Theseempowermentisnotso
muchtheintentionofauthorsandworks,asitisthereader'sexperienceandimagination.
Thedesiretofindouttheendisthemostimportantpartforreaders;however,inthis
book,asHarrysadventureismovingonandallthemysteriesaregoingtobeclear,the
messagesbeneaththecontroversiesandconversationsareshowingthetruevalueof
analyzing,bywhichtheunderlyingmeaningsofthenovelcanbegraspedtodeepenthe
understandingofthewholeseries.HarryPotterandthePhilosopher'sStonedemonstrates
themostexcitingplotsinfrontofUSledbythesplendidandmultimeaningdialogues
andnarrations.Thefirstbookisloadedwiththebestanswerwhichcanbefoundthrough
conversationsbetweencharacters.HarryPotterandthePhilosopher'sStonecanbe
viewedasthebestmaterialforexploringthethemeofthewholeseries.Therefore,the
argumentofthispaperwillbebasedonHarryPotterandthePhilosopher'sStonewhich
includesdiscoursesofmaincharactersandthedesignofprologue.Alltheextractswillbe
servedasexemplificationstodemonstratethedynamicrelationamongauthor,workand
audience.
1.4StructureoftheAnalysis
Thisresearchconsistsoffourparts.
ChapterOnegives a literature review onHarryPotter series,thestyleandstylistics
whichcontainsthedefinitionandhistoryofstylisticandconceptofstyle,threeviewson
the style, approaches of stylistic analysis. Chapter Two contains surfacestructure
deviation in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Also the comprehensive
introduction of the theoretical framework of stylistic analysis, including the basic
principles and methodologies, such as phonological deviation, lexical deviation,
grammatical deviation, graphological deviation. Chapter Three is deepstructure
deviationinHarryPotterandthePhilosopher'sStone.Itlooksbackonwhattheprevious
researchershaveachievedinthefield,makesoverviewonHarryPotterseriesathome
andabroadandwhatresearchproblemsarestilltobedealtwith.
providedparticularlyforthestudy.SincetherearefewessaysonHarryPotterandthe
Philosopher'sStoneinsurface,researchesonHarryPotterandthePhilosopher'sStone
abroadaremainlydeep.
relating to linguistics. Leech (1969)holds the same view that stylistics is a meeting
ground of linguistics and literary study'
In the words of Crystal (1969), stylistics is defined as a branch of linguistics which
studies the characteristics of situational-distinctive uses of language, with particular
reference to literary language, and tries to establish principles capable of accounting for
the particular choices made by individuals and social groupsin their use of language,
Freeman(1981) defined stylistics as a branch of linguistics studying style with the
theories and methodology of modem linguistics.
In 1989, Wales gave more information about the definition of stylistics in A Dictionary of
Stylistics. He pointed owing to the main influences of linguistics and literary criticism,
there were several different stylistic approaches. The goal of stylistics should describe the
formal features and linguistic features to interpret the functional significance and the
literary effects. And he also thought that researchers should turn to linguistics for the
needed models and terminology.
In An Introduction to Literary Quranic Stylistics, one definition that Stylistics is an area
of study where the linguist combines with the critic so as to achieve a better or fuller
understanding and appreciation of literature' was given. It emphasized that Stylistics
could help readers realize linguistic features of the text and appreciate the literature
better. Mick Short (1996) regarded stylistics as a linguistic approach to the study of
literary texts, that is, stylistics is a tool which analyses literary texts by describing
linguistic features.
According to various definitions above, we may have the same conclusion with Wang
Shouyuan (2000) that stylistics is an area of study which straddles two disciplines:
literary criticism and linguistics. It takes literary discourse (text) as its object of study and
uses linguistics as a means to an end.
Linguistics more scientifically and systematically. C. Bally was in the object of spoken
style. He believes that when a person speaks objectively express, a variety of emotions
will come at the same time. Stylistics task is to investigate the language means, and the
interrelationship between them. While C. Bally didnt pay special attention to literary
texts, but his "General stylistics" has a direct role in promoting literary stylistics.
Germany stylist L. Spitzer (L. Spitzer, 1887-1960) who came after C. Bally is generally
revered as the father of the stylistics. L. Spitzer object is not speaking, but literature. L.
Spitzer thought the literary value of the work was mainly reflected in the language, so his
detailed analysis of the effect of specific language, which is different from the traditional
perception of intuitive criticism. In addition, he proposed a method called " philological
circle" which was suitable for analysis traditional novel, namely to look for the work that
appears frequently in the deviation from the normal language features. Then, to explain
psychological roots, in order to examine the relevant factors and confirmed or amended
(Spitzer, 1948). L. Spitzer saw stylistics as the connection between Linguistics and
literature.
Before the late 50th century, development of stylistic was weak, mainly in continental
Europe. In Britain and the United States, along with the gradual decline of new criticism,
a growing number of scholars have realized the importance of linguistic theory in literary
studies. In 1958 in the United States a major international conference was held at Indiana
University---"stylistics Symposium", this was a milestone in history of stylistics. This
Conference marked the birth of Style as an interdisciplinary learning in Britain and the
United States; As far as the West, it marks Stylistic study in a flourish period.
Halliday's thesis of systemic functional stylistics laid an important role. It has two main
features. One is the "theory of language features" broke the boundaries of traditional
style and content. Every language has its specific language features. Halliday made it
clear that " language styles exist in any field." "Ideational" he distincted belongs to the
literary stylistics. The stylistic research is expanded to help reveal the nature of the
survival activities in this field and the particular way of observing the world. Another
feature that it to analysis of system performance. Halliday detailed analysis and precise
statistics and chart diagram of system analysis in the form of statistical results to of
transitivity in type and number, type and number of participants as well as the type and
amount of environmental components. This systematic is based on the analysis of the
linguistic model.
After Halliday, there are many functional stylistics transitivity patterns systematically to
analysis of the text. When comes to interpersonal functions, functional stylistics do
analysis from tone, mood, adjectives and adverbs in order to express attitudes and
explore the text which reflected the relationship between the sender and receiver
(author/Narrator in the novel, the characters, the relationship between readers), as well as
their value judgment to the content. Early functional stylistics focuses on a specific
functional areas: focus on authors choice of the physical system, or to focus on the
authors choice of personal pronouns, or focus on the author's choice of the textual
function of thematic structure. But in recent years, more and more functional stylistics
analysis pay more attention on several layers at the same time, pay attention on how they
interact to form the overall characteristics and to express and enhance the theme and
character. Functional stylistics has another notable feature, which emphasizes the
relationship of language, discourse and social context. System functional stylistics
believes that language is a social symbol, textual subject to situational context. Because
the emphasized function of system stylistics, since the 80th century, it has been given
rapid development.
constructed out of a variety of "reality" of methods, is a tool for transforming society. Her
stylistic analysis is clearly different from the traditional style of analysis, because its
focus on how the text construct its own (fictional) reality structure. Burton's position has
a considerable degree of representativeness in the stylistics of social history/culture.
Some scholars believe that this school has two branches. One for the CDA, led by
Fowler, another for C. MacCabe , who advocated of history and Philology .
Critical Linguistics emerged in the late 70th in United Kingdom University of East
Anglia. In 1979, Fowler and his colleagues, G.Kress and R.Hodge, at the University of
the KLAIS, have published two books of this Declaration: Language and Control and
Language as Ideology, first time presented "criticism of Linguistics" in the book, and sets
out the basic positions of the factions and methods. Criticized linguists believe that
language has a close correlation between structure and social structure, they saw
language as social semiotic and discourse as a socio-political phenomenon, see literature
as social discourse. They analysis the text, especially in the news media structure
contains class idea, power relations and gender discrimination of various ideologies.
They used Halliday's functional grammar system as analysis tool. Critical linguistics
developed rapidly in the 90th, in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and Australia,
and Germany, and Spain, and Austria and other countries. Macaulays primary historical
literature has little effect. He stressed the importance of semantic research in the social
and historical context, paying attention to certain key words in the historical
developments. This focus on historical literature of individual words has a certain
distance with analysis modern stylistic language model, and has close relationship with
the United Kingdom's practical criticisms. Its influence is limited, but in a strict sense, it
does not belong to the stylistics.
In fact, some stylist circled the stylistic categories. But, as previously mentioned, more
than one standard can distinguish style. Who circles into socio-historical/cultural
Stylistics, based on the standards for analytical purposes; People who circle the Stylistics,
Linguistics and criticism, is based on the criteria for analysis. Although many stylist no
longer insist on the distinction between literary and non-literary, they still treat literary
texts as stylistics study. In my opinion, it is best to study here as a distinguishing criterion
because people who engage in social and historical/cultural stylistics have rejected the
distinction between literary and non-literary or aesthetic value of literature. In this case,
the line between literary and non-literary as the distinguishing criterion is rather farfetched. Contrasted with other stylistic School of scholars, there are few stylist claim that
they are dealing with social or socio-cultural stylistics. Such a name often appears only in
summarized overview of the works, it covers several different stylistic analysis of critical
theory and linguistic tools. But in the "social and historical/cultural stylistics", analysts
have a common objective, namely reveal ideologies and power relations.
accurate definition, the most important thing is to definite the term style accurately. But
what is style? We could get various definitions given by scholars in differentperspectives
and with difficult focuses. Liu Shisheng (1997) listed as many as 31 definitions, for
example style as rhetoric by Gorgias, as form by Aristotle, as proper words in proper
places by Swift, as meaning potential by Halliday, as function by the Prague School and
so forth. On internet, a number of definitions are given, for example, the mode of
expressing thought in writing or speaking by selecting and arranging words, considered
with respect to clearness, effectiveness, euphony, or the like, that is the characteristic of a
group, period, person, personality, etc.; those components or features of a literary
composition that have to do with the form of expression rather than the content of the
thought expressed; a particular, distinctive, or characteristic mode or form of construction
or execution in any art or work1,the combination of distinctive features of literary or
artistic expression, execution, or performance characterizing a particular person, group,
school, or era, and so on.
In Investigating English style, Crystal and Davy (1969) gave at least four commonly
occurring senses of the term style: some or all of the language habits of one person,
such as Shakespeares style, the style of Mark Twain and Hemingways uniqueness; some
or all of the language habits shared by a group of peopleatone time or over a period of
time, for example, the style of Old English heroic poetry; saying the fighting in the
most effective way or as good manner, such as clear or refined style, and the focus of
literary critics attention used to appreciate or describe and evaluate literary language,
such as good ,effective or beautiful writing.
The Finnish scholar N. E. Enkvist (1964) has ever summarized several definitions of
style, for example:
Style is the very thought itself.
Style is ingratiation. It involves saying the right thing in the most effective way.
Style is a shell surrounding a pre-existing core of thought. It is a regarded as an addition
to central core of thought or expression.
Style is a set of individual characteristics. It is the man himself.
Style is a set of collective characteristics.
Style is the relation among linguistic entities that are stable in terms of wider spans of
text than the sentence.
Style is choice. It is the choice between alternative expressions,
Style is deviation from a norm.
According to the words of Thomas S. Kane and Leonard J. Peters in Writing prose:
techniques and purposes (1969): style is a pattern of linguistic features distinguishing
one piece of writing from another, or one category of writing from another.
Leech and Short (1981) also made a conclusion of style:
Style is a way in which language is used.
Therefore style consists in choices made from the repertoire of the language.
Stylistic choice is limited to those aspects of linguistic choice, which concern alternative
ways of rendering the same subject matter.
A style is defined in terms of a domain of language use.
When G H. Widdowson (1975) defined stylistics, he argued that the term style
should include two layers of meaning, relating to literary criticism and linguistics
separately. This definition emphasizes that style involves those two disciplines.
Although there are so many different definitions about the term style, we still could
slim up the features of the term style, that is, style encompasses the linguistic choices
of the writing presented by the writer for a particular purpose and the ways that the writer
chose to express his thought and feeling effectively. It not only is an ornament, but also
includes the thought, attitude, presumption and standpoint of the writer. Therefore, style
refers to the ways that language is chosen and used by a given person or a given group
for a particular purpose in a given context in a given period. Maybe it is just like what
Leech and Short (1981) pointed in Style in Fiction: it is selection from a total linguistic
repertoire that constitutes a style.
By style as choice meant that style "results from a tendency of a speaker or writer to
consistently choose typical structures over others available in the language" (Traugott
and Pratt, 1980: 29). "With this view", Traugott and Pratt say, "we can distinguish
between 'style' and 'language' by saying that language is the sum total of the structures
available to the speaker, while style concerns the characteristic choices in a given
context".
To say that style is choice is not the same as saying that it is always conscious choice.
The effect of conscious choice-making is no doubt more apparent in literature than in
other types of discourse, yet a sense of the 'best way of putting something' in any type of
discourse can be purely intuitive or even habitual. If a writer had to make choice
consciously all the time at different linguistic levels, it is not difficult to imagine how
long it would take to produce anything at all and, consequently, how little literature we
would have in today's literature storehouse.
Style as choice is often considered to be a matter of form or expression, i. e. as choice
among different ways of expressing a predetermined content. However, it only takes a
moment or two to reflect that writers also choose content. In the discussion of Enkvist's
paper, 'On the place of style in some linguistic theories', it is pointed out that
"Hemingway elects to write about men of action - bull fighters, deep-sea fishermen,
soldiers, big-game hunters - is as much a stylistic fact as his habit of writing in short,
simple sentences, preferring the 'dramatic' to the 'interior monologue' point of view in
narration, etc." (Chatman, 1971: 64).
The evidence of choice-making can be found in authors' manuscripts. Here we will cite
an interesting case which was once considered by Short (1984). In writing The Eve of St.
Agnes, Keats first produced the line, 'As though a rose should close and be a bud again'.
But when he re-read the line, he substituted the word shut for close: 'As though a rose
should shut and be a bud again'. On a first casual reading we may get the impression that
since close and shut are synonyms, the replacement of one with the other does not make
much difference, and is therefore not necessary. But when we scrutinize the two versions,
we may decide that shut is a much better choice. The word close in the first version
connects backwards to rose to form an internal rhyme, which adds some poetic quality to
the line, since internal rhyme is one of those features associated traditionally and
typically with poetry. However, this connection is made only within the first part of the
line. Furthermore, the connection does not in any way reinforce the meaning of the
connected words, nor indeed that of the entire line. Therefore, we may say that it is
rhyme for rhyme's sake.
In contrast with close, the choice of shut is more appropriate and significant in three
respects: a) It connects forward phonetically and supraclausally to bud, thus forming a
semi-rhyme or assonance. It also connects backward to should phonetically and visually
and to rose with which it forms the next immediate constituent. Because the above
connections run across both parts of the line instead of just one, the unity of the line is
greatly strengthened. b) The phonetic connection it forms with bud underlies the
semantic connection between the two words, for shut semantically relates to bud in terms
of the shape of the flower, while close does not have this relation. c) When we compare
the choice of shut with the choice of close phonetically, there is another interesting point
to be made. Notice that the vowel /a/ before a voiceless consonant /t/ in the word shut
takes a much shorter duration to produce than the diphthong /au/ before a voiced
consonant /z/ in the word close. Notice also that the consonant /t/ is a plosive which is
produced with a rapid release of compressed air leading to short and sharp explosion,
while the consonant /z/ is a sibilant which is produced with the blade of the tongue
making almost complete contact with the alveolar ridge but leaving a narrow groove
along its median line. Therefore, the production of the word shut may produce a sense of
'suddenness' and 'abruptness' in contrast with the production of the word close. This
greatly reinforces the meaning of the line.
The view that style is choice is a broader view. It may in some way subsume the view of
style as deviance, for deviance is only one aspect of the language of literature (Traugott
and Pratt, 1980). However, like the view of style as deviance, it also has limitations. For
example, it implies that every linguistic element in a text is a choice of the writer and
therefore should be included in a discussion of the style of the text it is in. But this is
obviously not the case. Our experience and intuition tell us that in interpreting a text,
only a certain number of elements are interesting and relevant to the interpretation. The
stylistician must select those features that are most relevant to his discussion and ignore
the irrelevant ones in order to make a coherent and convincing interpretation.
To demonstrate what Mukarovsky's statements mean, let us first quote a classic example,
the phrase "a grief ago" from a poem of that name by Dylan Thomas. The phrase violates
two rules of English: a) the indefinite article a clashes syntactically with the uncountable
noun grief, because it normally modifies a countable one; b) the postmodifying adverb
ago clashes semantically with the head word grief, for it usually is able to modify a noun
to do with time. But grief is a word which expresses emotion. The highly deviant nature
of the phrase attracts much attention from the reader to itself, and thus makes it possible
for the poet to express what cannot be expressed through the normal use of language.
Thomas here seems to be measuring time in terms of emotion. It is not unreasonable,
therefore, to suggest that the speaker of the poem may have experienced grief repeatedly
so that he can measure time in terms of it.
ascertained, they would constitute no particularly revealing insight into either natural
language or style".
Another disadvantage of this approach, as Traugott and Pratt point out, is that of
"encouraging the linguist to look at the language of grammatically highly deviant authors
like E. E. Cummings at the expense of the relatively non-deviant ones such as T. S. Eliot
and Wallace Stevens. More generally it tends to undervalue all non-deviant language,
both within literature and without" (1980: 33). The theoretical assumption that aesthetic
effects can only be achieved through deviance needs to be questioned.
consistency and relative frequency. The linguistic features are reflected by style markers,
which are linguistic items that only appear, or are most or least frequent, in a text,
representing a particular variety of language or literary genre. Leech and Short (1981) list
four linguistic and stylistic categories when they expound the methods of stylistic
analysis of fiction: lexical categories, grammatical categories, figures of speech, and
cohesion and context. There is also a checklist of linguistic description for stylistic
analysis.
Textual analysis is The definition of "Text". Etymologically, the word "text" comes from
a metaphorical use of the Latin verb "textere"(weave), suggesting a sequence of
sentences or utterances "interwoven" structually and semantically. It is possible for a text
to consist of only one sentence or utterances, e.g. a notice or road sign (Exit; Stop),
which is semantically complete in itself, and pragmatically tied to a specific situation.
The text includes the following aspects:
a. Text layout (general frame work of the text)
b. Reference (personal, demonstrative, comparative, etc.)
c. Substitution (nominal, verbal, clausal, etc.)
d. Ellipsis (nominal, verbal, clausal, etc.)
e. Logical connectors (additive, adversative, causal, temporal, and other logical
connections, e.g. reiteration, classification, division, exemplification, etc.)
f. Collocation (words typically associated with one another)
g. Inter-sentence relationship (coordination, homology, sequence, separation,
hyponymy, reiteration, adversative and contrast, explanation, cause and effect,
etc.).
Contextual Factors Analysis is the definition of "Context". Context consists of two
aspects: One is "linguistic context", referring to the linguistic units preceding and/or
following a particular linguistic unit in a text. The other is "extra-linguistic context",
referring to the relevant features of the situation in which a text has meaning.
So that, major topics will be discussed of the approaches of stylistic analysis will be
listed below.
1. What are the three steps of stylistic analysis?
2. Substantiate the four items: rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and consonance.
3. Define the terms: phonology, graphology, lexis, syntax, and semantics.
4. What is a text? Explain the aspects of textual analysis.
5. What is context? Explain the three types of contextual factors according to Functional
Stylistics.
The goal of stylistic inquiry should have two points. The first goal of stylistics is to help
readers understand a text better. In other words, it provides insights into the meaning of
the text. The second goal is to explain why and how one text is better than another one.
That is to say, stylistics is more directly concerned with interpretation of a text.
One thing that has to be attended to is the task and aim of stylistics. As discussed in the
previous Chapter, the task of stylistics does not focus on listing items or categories of
various styles. Instead, it lies in observing and describing the language features of
principal styles, that is, the features of pronunciation, sentence, words and discourse of
each style. In so doing, the aim of stylistics of enabling leaners to know the expression
contents and use them is maintained. So besides the description of stylistic features of
language, the stylistic effects must be emphasized in order to inform the learners of their
expressive force.
average portions of verb and adjective are respectively 12.1% and 7.4%. The excessive
use of certain class of words is often for the special stylistic effects in certain contexts.
For instance, a paragraph of speech in noun style may indicate the content speaker wants
to express is much, but this phenomenon is in line with incorrect or even nonexistent
noun words, which just tell the readers the speaker in fact is in a blank of mind or his
mind is narrowed in a cabined situation.
Another perspective is to divide words based on its origin. With different origins, English
words can be divided into Angle. Saxon words, Latin words, Greek words and French
words. Except for the Angle. Saxon words, most of which are monosyllabic words in
daily life, the following kinds often fall into the group of polysyllabic words. In addition,
those words are commonly more formal, thus appearing mainly in the legal documents
and other formal occasions.
According to the degree of standard, English words consist of standard and non-standard
words like dialects. It is largely accepted that standard English instead of non-standard
English is a sign of good education and social status.
with linking, the tempo of listing is more fast and tight. For example, One World, One
Dream(the 2008 Olympics Slogan) being a list without conjunction is tight and vivid.
The third means nesting normally accompanies the complex sentence. Different from the
other two, the sentence with nesting always expresses complicated thoughts or ideals that
are laborious to comprehend. So it is generally applied in legal documents that need strict
reasoning. In a word, the extending means of sentences is closely related to the style
demanded, linking and listing correlate to concise and simple style in whir listing is
tighter and closer, while nesting always functions in complicated ways to increase the
complexity of style.
In the use of English, a large number of sentences are formulated out of normal English
habits for some special purposes; such usage variations include ellipsis, inversion,
periodic sentence, loose sentence, climax, anticlimax, repetition, parallelism and
antithesis. Most forms of these usage variations can be deduced from the name of
themselves. For example, ellipsis refers to the omission of certain sentence element;
parallelism means the repetition of phrases or clauses of similar structure. For the
stylistic effects, these usage variations function a lot. Ellipsis brings about compactness
and simplicity; inversion aims for structure balance or element emphasis; periodic
sentence is in contrast with loose sentence in which the main contents expressed in the
beginning, periodic sentence puts the main part in the end, which produces suspense or
emphasis; climax and anticlimax are two opposite means in which the former increases
force of affection and persuasion while the latter creates ironic or humorous effect;
repetition is for emphasis or the expression of strong emotions; parallelism intends to
make the text emphatic and improve expressive force; antithesis purposes brilliance and
interest by mutual reflection.
Except for traditional grammar, the contemporary linguist Chomskys theory of
Transformationalgenerative grammar is very significant for stylistics since it makes a
differentiation between surface structure and deep structure. Such a division seems very
consistent with the dualism of stylistics: deep structure is the semantic resource, while
surface structure is all optional style.
two sentences. Reference occurs in the semantic level, while substitution and ellipsis take
place in syntax level concerning words. Ellipsis and substitution not only enhance the
structure relation but also bring about language variation, novelty, concision and vivacity.
Conjunctions show semantic relations other than grammatical relations. Generally
speaking, some conjunctions are more used in spoken English, such as and, so, yet, then;
while others are more commonly used in written English, such as however, nevertheless,
consequently; in addition, conjunctions are comparatively more applied in spoken
English than written English. Based on the functions of conjunctions, cause and effect
conjunctions and transition conjunctions appear more frequently in articles of reasoning
or arguing. Lexical cohesion occurs when related words are capable of connecting
sentences by the means of collocation and reiteration, the latter of which is realized
through repetition, synonym, near-synonym, superordinate or general word. One
significant advantage of lexical cohesion lies in its function of avoiding blankness with
the use of different words expressing the similar meanings.
Discourse cohesion regarding sentence is one aspect, another larger element is sentence
group which forms by a few sentences of a single idea. Generally,s everal sentence
groups together compose a paragraph, each of the group owns a single ideal, however,
and all the sentence groups serve for the same paragraph focus. The arrangement of
sentence groups differs according to article type. Article of argumentation prefer sentence
groups of layers in which some sentences groups explain for some others or some
dominate others. Different from the arrangement of argumentation article, those groups
in novels are often more loosely arranged with temporal order.
Whatever the discourse is, it falls into a certain pattern which forms in the long run of
language 1lse.The similar discourses are of the same discourse pattern which is
distinguished from other ones. The pattern of conversation generally is salutation, body
part and valediction, the conjoint two of which are always with obvious language signals,
such as Now, You see. The pattern of news report naturally has its own characteristic: the
crucial part comes first in the report beginning followed by the related process or details.
In addition, the latter parts of news basically are cause, process, result and affect.
Expositions discourse pattern, likewise, is comparatively orderly' from thesis to further
explanation. Distinct from the above patterns, argumentation pattern basically is
constituted by three parts which are launching a issue, retort and reasoning, conclusion.
The last one for introduction is novels discourse pattern. With seemingly protean
structures, novel has a most common pattern which includes the elements of setting,
participants, events, conclusion and evaluation.
The stylistic analysis of at the discourse level enriches learners knowledge of style,
which should help improve their ability of recognizing and applying the discourse
stylistic characteristics into practice. If learners are equipped with such knowledge, they
are sure able to communicate appropriately in accordance with style.