Stylistics Notes

 

Stylistics

The study of variation in language and the use of language in communication has led to new ways of studying literary texts and the nature of literary communication. The notion of the register is in fact a kind of ‘language’ that is considered appropriate for a particular subject matter, eg; the style of a religious sermon, the style of sports commentary. Similarly, we may use this notion to describe the style of a literary work. That is, we may describe its features at the levels of phonology, syntax, lexis, etc to distinguish it from other texts and to appreciate how it achieves some unique effects through the use of language. This kind of study is called literary stylistics.

Literary writers use the system of language in their own way, ie, they create a style. This is done by deliberate choice, sometimes by deviation from or violation of the rules of grammar. Poets and even prose writers may invert the normal order of items. By these and other devices, they can manipulate language so that it conveys some theme or meaning with great force and effectiveness.

In literary stylistics, we read the text closely with attention to the features of language used in it, identifying and listing the particular features under the heading of lexis, grammar, phonology, or sound patterns. When we have obtained a detailed account of all these features, we co-relate them or bring them together in an interpretation of the text. That is, we try to link ‘what is being said with ‘how it is being said since it is through the latter that writers can fully express the many complex ideas and feelings that they want to convey. The stylistic analysis also helps in a better understanding of how metaphor, irony, paradox, ambiguity, etc, operate in a literary text as these are all effects achieved through language and through the building up of a coherent linguistic structure.

Stylistics is different from literary criticism in the following way: It is a systematic study of features of style and variations in style at each level of language structure. Stylistics does indeed have something in common with traditional rhetoric. For example, the study of features such as rhyme scheme, meter, diction, figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, etc, was done by literary scholars even in ancient times. Particular attention was given to these devices in poetry, as these were considered as part of the aesthetic appreciation of poetry. 

The stylistic study of literature involves the following:

1. A detailed description of each linguistic feature at each level. The phonological level includes the combinations of individual sounds and the patterns of syllables that make up the meter. The level of syntax includes the ordering of items in the sentence, and the length and complexity of clauses and phrases. Diction studies the choice of particular words and of synonyms, antonyms, etc. At the semantic level, the extension and association of meaning through the use of ambiguity, substitution, etc, form the focus of attention.

2. A description of those features which are prominent in the text, because a. they are repeated, b. they are placed at prominent positions, or c. they depart from the given grammatical rules of the language.

3. Analysis of all these components enables the stylistician to reach some conclusion regarding the particular nature and qualities of the literary work and pinpoints the variations that make it different from other works.

Stylistics in modern times came up through the work of linguistics like Roman Jacobson, who applied the ideas of Saussure to the language of literature. Jacobson refers to the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships in language as explained by Saussure and shows that, in literary use of language, those items that are related at the paradigmatic level are shifted to the syntagmatic level. Literary language upsets the normal syntagmatic sequence in some way and thus becomes different from ordinary language. 

The shifts from ordinary language create parallelism and deviations. Both these devices function to create the effect of foregrounding. This is a term used by the linguists of the school of Russian Formalism. According to them, foregrounding is the effect of unique features in the text that are different in some way from the normal, and thus stand in contrast to the ordinary language. The style of a literary text is a totality of all such foregrounded elements.

Uses of Stylistic Study of Literature

One of the uses of the study of literature is in the interpretation and appreciation of literary texts. Often, judgments about literature have been made impressionistically or subjectively, without providing the evidence for such judgments in the text. The stylistic study provides clear evidence in the text, based on which judgments can be made. The evaluation of the greatness or otherwise of literary works can thus be made based on objective facts of language found in the text itself. 

Another use of stylistic study is to establish authorship in cases where it may be doubtful. Comparison of the styles of different authors, or of different texts by the same author, can reveal the particular characteristics of a genre or a period in literary history, eg; comparison of similar features in some poems can show that they all belong to a certain sub-class of poetry written in a specific age.

Overall, the stylistic study of literature is of interest to the linguist as it reveals variation in language that takes place within certain contextual parameters. It reveals much about the creative and open-ended aspects of language use. Many coinages and expressions used by poets and writers pass into the conventions of the language and may themselves become the norm. Thus, deviation, patterning, etc are not to be found only in literary texts but also in other areas of language use, eg; advertising, journalism, political language, and popular songs. This opens up a wide area of language variation and language use which is an interesting object of study for understanding more about language and its role in society.

Semantics

 

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in language. We know that language is used to express meanings that can be understood by others. But meanings exist in our minds and we can express what is in our minds through the spoken and written forms of language as well as through gestures, action, etc. The sound patterns of language are studied at the level of phonology and the organization of words and sentences is studied at the level of morphology and syntax. These are in turn organized in such a way that we can convey meaningful messages or receive and understand messages.

Semantics is that level of linguistic analysis where meaning is analyzed. It is the most abstract level of linguistic analysis since we cannot see or observe meaning as we can observe and record sounds.

We can discuss the different aspects of the meaning of a word as follows:

1. The logical or denotative meaning

This is the literal meaning of a word indicating the idea or concept to which it refers. 

2. The connotative meaning

This is the additional meaning that a concept carries. That is apart from its logical or essential attributes, there is a further meaning attached to a word, which comes from its reference to other things in the real world. 

3. The social meaning

This is the meaning that a word or a phrase conveys about the circumstances of its use. That is the meaning of a word is understood according to the different styles and situations in which the word is used. Social meaning derives from an awareness of the style in which something is written and spoken and of the relationship between the speaker and hearer- whether that relationship is formal, official, casual, polite, or friendly.

4. Thematic meaning

This is the meaning which is communicated by how a speaker or writer organizes the message in terms of the order, focus and emphasis. It is often felt, for example, that an active sentence has a different meaning from its passive equivalent although its conceptual meaning seems to be the same.

Distinctions in Semantics

Lexical and Phrasal Semantics

Lexical semantics is concerned with the meanings of words and the meaning of relationships among words, while phrasal semantics is concerned with the meaning of syntactic units larger than the word. Semantic properties are the components of the meanings of words. For example, the semantic property "human" can be found in many words such as a parent, doctor, baby, professor, widow, and aunt. Other semantic properties include animate objects, male, female, countable items, and non-countable items.

Sense and Reference

The -nyms

Homonyms: different words that are pronounced the same, but may or may not be spelled the same (to, two, and too)

Polysemous: the word that has multiple meanings that are related conceptually or historically (bear can mean to tolerate or to carry or to support)

Homograph: different words that are spelled identically and possibly pronounced the same; if they are pronounced the same, they are also homonyms (pen can mean writing utensil or cage)

Heteronym: homographs that are pronounced differently (dove the bird and dove the past tense of dive)

Synonym: words that mean the same but sound different (couch and sofa)

Antonym: words that are opposite in meaning

Complementary pairs: alive and dead

Gradable pairs: big and small (no absolute scale)

Hyponym: a set of related words (red, white, yellow, blue are all hyponyms of "color")

Metonym: a word used in place of another to convey the same meaning (jock used for athlete, Washington used for the American government, the crown used for the monarchy)

Retronym: expressions that are no longer redundant (silent movies used to be redundant because a long time ago, all movies were silent, but this is no longer true or redundant)

Thematic Roles

Thematic roles are the semantic relationships between the verbs and noun phrases of sentences. 

Thematic Role: Agent

Description: the one who performs an action

Example: Maria ran

Sentential Meaning

The meaning of sentences is built from the meaning of noun phrases and verbs. Sentences contain truth conditions if the circumstances in the sentence are true. Paraphrases are two sentences with the same truth conditions, despite subtle differences in structure and emphasis. The ball was kicked by the boy is a paraphrase of the sentence the boy kicked the ball, but they have the same truth conditions - that a boy kicked a ball. Sometimes the truth of one sentence entails or implies the truth of another sentence. This is called entailment and the opposite of this is called contradiction, where one sentence implies the falseness of another. He was assassinated entails that he is dead. He was assassinated contradicts the statement he is alive. A sentence may presuppose other sentences, eg: the sentence ‘Shiva’s son is named Ganesh’ presupposes the sentence ‘Shiva has a son’. PresuppositionThe presupposition is the previously known meaning which is implied in the sentence. While entailment is a logical meaning inherent in the sentence, presupposition may depend on the knowledge of facts, shared by the speaker and the hearer.

Pragmatics- Notes

 

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of how context affects meaning, such as how sentences are interpreted in certain situations (or the interpretation of linguistic meaning in context). Linguistic context is a discourse that precedes a sentence to be interpreted and Situational context is knowledge about the world. In the following sentences, the kids have eaten already, and surprisingly, they are hungry, the linguistic context helps to interpret the second sentence depending on what the first sentence says. The Situational context helps to interpret the second sentence because it is common knowledge that humans are not usually hungry after eating.

Maxims of Conversation

Grice's maxims for conversation are conventions of speech such as the maxim of quantity that states a speaker should be as informative as is required and neither more nor less. The maxim of relevance essentially states a speaker should stay on the topic, and the maxim of manner states the speaker should be brief and orderly and avoid ambiguity. The fourth maxim, the maxim of quality, states that a speaker should not lie or make any unsupported claims.

Performative Sentences

In these types of sentences, the speaker is the subject who, by uttering the sentence, is accomplishing some additional action, such as daring, resigning, or nominating. These sentences are all affirmative, declarative, and present tense. An informal test to see whether a sentence is performative or not is to insert the words I hereby before the verb. I hereby challenge you to a match or I hereby fine you $500 are both performative, but I hereby know that girl, is not. Other performative verbs are bet, promise, pronounce, bequeath, swear, testify, and dismiss.

Presuppositions

These are implicit assumptions required to make a sentence meaningful. Sentences that contain presuppositions are not allowed in court because accepting the validity of the statement means accepting the presuppositions as well. Have you stopped stealing cars? is not admissible in court because no matter how the defendant answers, the presupposition that he steals cars already will be acknowledged. Have you stopped smoking? implies that you smoke already, and Would you like another piece? implies that you've already had one piece.

Deixis

Deixis is a reference to a person, object, or event which relies on the Situational context. First and second-person pronouns such as my, mine, you, your, yours, we, ours, and us are always deictic because their reference is entirely dependent on context. Demonstrative articles like this, that, these and those and expressions of time and place are always deictic as well. To understand what specific times or places such expressions refer to, we also need to know when or where the utterance was said. If someone says "I'm over here!" you would need to know who "I" referred to, as well as where "here" is. Deixis marks one of the boundaries of semantics and pragmatics.

Context and Meaning

We distinguish several types of contextual information:

1. Physical context – this encompasses what is physically present around the

speakers/hearers at the time of communication. What objects are visible, where

the communication is taking place, what is going on around, etc?

 a. I want that book.

(accompanied by pointing)

b. Be here at 9:00 tonight.

(place/time reference)

2. Linguistic context – what has been said before in the conversation. The “history” of things said so far.

 a. I can’t believe you said that!

b. If my mom heard you talk like that, she’d wash your mouth out with soap!

3. Social context – the social relations of the people involved in communication.

 a. # Mr. President, stop bugging me and go home.

(You can’t talk like this to the President.)

b. # I do hereby humbly request that you might endeavor to telephone me with

news of your arrival at your domicile when such arrival occurs.

(A bizarre sentence if said to a friend instead of “call me when you get

home”.)

Note: # commonly used to mark a sentence that is inappropriate for a given context.

4. Epistemic – knowledge, and beliefs of the speaker/hearer.

Speech Acts

Whenever we use language to accomplish something, we are performing a speech act.

There are many different types of speech acts, such as

– stating/asserting

– questioning

– ordering

– threatening

– confirming

– promising

– requesting

– advising

Sentence Types and their typical usage

Each of the three different sentence types has a typical usage:

1. Declarative sentences are typically used in assertions. They serve to convey

information about what is true and what is false.

 a. The dog ate the bone.

b. John slept until 11 and missed his first two classes.

c. If I don’t get this paper in by 5:00, I’ll lose a letter grade.

2. Interrogative sentences are typically used in questions. They serve to elicit (bring

out) information from the hearer.

a. Is it raining today?

b. Did you put the cat out?

c. How many times have you been to Cleveland?

3. Imperative sentences are typically used in orders and requests. They are meant to

affect the behavior of the hearer.

 a. Go to the end of the line.

b. Don’t even think of trying to cheat on this test.

c. Tell me what happened.

Performative Verbs

There is a special class of verbs that are special in that they name speech acts, and when they are uttered they perform the speech acts they name.

Thus they are a direct indication of the power of language to perform various tasks.

 a. I request that you stop that.

b. I order you to go to your room.

c. I bet you five dollars the Yankees win.

d. I fine you $100 for possession of oregano.

e. I nominate Batman for mayor of Gotham City.

f. I promise to improve.

g. I pronounce you man and wife.

Discourse Analysis

 

Discourse Analysis---Notes

Discourse analysis is sometimes defined as the analysis of language 'beyond the sentence'. This contrasts with types of analysis more typical of modern linguistics, which are chiefly concerned with the study of grammar: the study of smaller bits of language, such as sounds (phonetics and phonology), parts of words (morphology), meaning (semantics), and the order of words in sentences (syntax). Discourse analysts study larger chunks of language as they flow together.

Some discourse analysts consider the larger discourse context in order to understand how it affects the meaning of the sentence. For example, Charles Fillmore points out that two sentences taken together as a single discourse can have meanings different from each one taken separately. To illustrate, he asks you to imagine two independent signs at a swimming pool: "Please use the toilet, not the pool," says one. The other announces, "Pool for members only." If you regard each sign independently, they seem quite reasonable. But taking them together as a single discourse makes you go back and revise your interpretation of the first sentence after you've read the second.

Discourse and Frames

'Reframing' is a way to talk about going back and re-interpreting the meaning of the first sentence. Frame analysis is a type of discourse analysis that asks, What activity are speakers engaged in when they say this? What do they think they are doing by talking in this way at this time? Consider how hard it is to make sense of what you are hearing or reading if you don't know who's talking or what the general topic is. When you read a newspaper, you need to know whether you are reading a news story, an editorial, or an advertisement in order to properly interpret the text you are reading.

Turn-taking

Conversation is an enterprise in which one person speaks, and another listens. Discourse analysts who study conversation note that speakers have systems for determining when one person's turn is over and the next person's turn begins. This exchange of turns or 'floors' is signaled by such linguistic means as intonation, pausing, and phrasing. Some people await a clear pause before beginning to speak, but others assume that 'winding down' is an invitation to someone else to take the floor. When speakers have different assumptions about how turn exchanges are signaled, they may inadvertently interrupt or feel interrupted. On the other hand, speakers also frequently take the floor even though they know the other speaker has not invited them to do so.

Discourse Markers

'Discourse markers' is the term linguists give to the little words like 'well', 'oh', 'but', and 'and' that break our speech up into parts and show the relation between parts. 'Oh' prepares the hearer for a surprising or just-remembered item, and 'but' indicates that sentence to follow is in opposition to the one before. However, these markers don't necessarily mean what the dictionary says they mean. Some people use 'and' just to start a new thought, and some people put 'but' at the end of their sentences, as a way of trailing off gently. Realizing that these words can function as discourse markers is important to prevent the frustration that can be experienced if you expect every word to have its dictionary meaning every time it's used.

Linguistic Competence and Communicative Competence

Linguistic Competence is defined as the ability of a speaker-hearer to speak and understand language in a grammatically correct manner. The emphasis is put on grammar. Eg: A linguistically competent person would know which structure is acceptable in their native language or they would know the correct use of tenses in their language, though they may not be able to explain the grammatical rules. The focus of the attention is upon questions such as which among grammatical sentences are most likely to be produced, easily understood, less clumsy, more natural.

Communicative Competence

Hymes (1971) criticizes the notion of linguistic competence based on the fact that real communication, which involves the use of language in society, is not taken into consideration. He proclaims that there is nothing like a homogenous speech community or an ideal native speaker- listener. All we have is diversity in communities, differential competence and a repertoire of codes/varieties/styles. Therefore, Hymes came up with a theory which takes into consideration such factors which he called “communicative competence”. 

The theory of communicative competence is based on four points:

1. Whether and to what degree something is formally possible.

By being “formally possible” we mean how far the sentence is grammatically possible.

Eg: You is my friend is formally not possible in English and it is grammatically incorrect.

2. Whether and to what degree something is feasible

This denotes how far something is acceptable keeping in view the psychological constraints.

Eg: Colourless green ideas sleep furiously. Though this sentence is grammatically perfect, it is not acceptable since it doesn’t have any meaning.

3. Whether and to what degree something is appropriate in relation to context

Eg: If somebody asks you “How are you?” and your reply is “Linguistics is a good subject”, the answer is not appropriate in the context.

4. Whether and to what degree something is actually performed.

This denotes the kind of sentences we usually use in our daily communication.

Eg: If we say John kicked the bucket not many non native speakers will understand the meaning of this sentence which is John died but if we say John died or John passed away, most of us will understand what it means. 

This theory takes into account both the grammaticality as well as the usability of language.

Psycholinguistics

Psycholinguistics

 Since language is a mental phenomenon, mental processes are articulated in language behaviour. Psycholinguistics studies these mental processes, processes of thought, and concept formation and their articulation in language, which reveal a great deal about the structures of both human psychology and of language. 

Cognitive psychology is the area which explores how meanings are understood by the human brain, how syntax and memory are linked, how messages are decoded and stored. 

Psycholinguistics also studies the influence of psychological factors such as intelligence, motivation, anxiety etc. on the kind of language that is understood and produced. For instance, in the case of errors made by a speaker, there may be psychological reasons which influence comprehension or production that are responsible for the occurrence of an error. Our perception of speech sounds or graphic symbols (in writing) is influenced by the state of our mind. One kind of mental disability, for eg, results in the mistakes made by children in reading when they mistake one letter for another (Dyslexia). Psycholinguistics can offer some insights and corrective measures for this condition.

Psycholinguistics is concerned with the learning of language at various stages: the early acquisition of a first language by children and later stages in acquisition of first and other languages. Psycholinguists attempt to answer questions such as whether the human brain has an inborn language ability structured in such a way that certain grammatical and semantic patterns are embedded in it, which can explain how all human beings are capable of learning a language. This exploration may lead us to determining whether all the languages in the world have some ‘universal’ grammar that lies in the mind of every human being and is transformed in particular situations to produce different languages.

Psycholinguistic studies in language acquisition are very useful in the area of language teaching because they help teachers to understand error production and individual differences among learners and thus devise appropriate syllabi and materials for them.

One specialized area within psycholinguistics is neurolinguistics that studies the physiological basis of language and language disorders such as aphasia, loss of memory, etc.

Another relation of language with mind is that of logic. It was held by some ancient philosophers that the human mind is rational and capable of thinking logically and, therefore, language too is logically ordered and rational. Others held that, just as irrationality is present in the mind, irregularity or anomaly is present in human language. Since then there has been a debate about the nature of language and the relation between language and logic. One of the problems discussed by philosophers of language is whether language can be an adequate medium for philosophical inquiry. Since all our thoughts are known to us through language, we must examine the kind of language we use when we approach philosophical issues and analysis.