Various Aspects of Stylistics

Or

Major Topics of Study in Stylistics

Introduction

Stylistics is the study of varieties of language whose properties position that

language in context. For example, the language of advertising, politics,
religion, individual authors, etc., or the language of a period in time, all
belong in a particular situation. In other words, they all have ’place’.

Stylistics also attempts to establish principles capable of explaining the

particular choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of
language, such as socialisation, the production and reception of meaning,
critical discourse analysis and literary criticism.

Other features of Stylistics include the use of dialogue, including regional

accents and people’s dialects, descriptive language, the use of grammar,
such as the active voice or passive voice, the distribution of sentence
lengths, the use of particular language registers, etc.

Many linguists do not like the term ’Stylistics1. The word ’style’, itself, has
several connotations that make it difficult for the term to be defined
accurately. However, in Linguistic Criticism, Roger Fowler makes the point
that, in non-theoretical usage, the word Stylistics makes sense and is useful
in referring to an enormous range of literary contexts, such as John Milton’s
’grand style’, the ’prose style’ of Henry James, the ’epic’ and ’ballad style’ of
classical Greek literature, etc. In addition, Stylistics is a distinctive term that
may be used to determine the connections between the form and effects
within a particular variety of language. Therefore, Stylistics looks at what is
’going on’ within the language; what the linguistic associations are that the
style of language reveals.

The situation in which a type of language is found can usually be seen as

appropriate or inappropriate to the style of language used. A personal love
letter would probably not be a suitable location for the language. However,
within the language of a romantic correspondence there may be a
relationship between the letter’s style and its context. It may be the author’s
intention to include a particular word, phrase or sentence that not only
conveys their sentiments of affection, but also reflects the unique
environment of a lover’s romantic composition. Even so, by using so-called
conventional and seemingly appropriate language within a specific context
(apparently fitting words that correspond to the situation in which they
appear) there exists the possibility that this language may lack exact
meaning and fail to accurately convey the intended message from author to
reader, thereby rendering such language obsolete precisely because of its
conventionality. In addition, any writer wishing to convey their opinion in a
variety of language that they feel is proper to its context could find
themselves unwittingly conforming to a particular style, which then
overshadows the content of their writing.
1. Register

In linguistic analysis, different styles of language are technically called

register. Register refers . to properties within a language variety that
associates that language with a given situation. This is
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

distinct from, say, professional terminology that might only be found, for
example, in a legal document or medical journal. The linguist Michael Halliday
defines register by emphasising its semantic patterns and context. For
Halliday, register is determined by what is taking place, who is taking part
and what part the language is playing. In Context and Language, Helen
Leckie-Tarry suggests that Halliday’s theory of register aims to propose
relationships between language function, determined by situational or social
factors, and language form. The linguist William Downes makes the point that
the principal characteristic of register, no matter how peculiar or diverse, is
that it is obvious and immediately recognisable.

In linguistics, a register is a subset of a language used for a particular

purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may
adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing
with a velar nasal (e.g. ”walking”, not ”walkin”’) and refrain from using the
word ”ain’t” when speaking in a formal setting, but the same person could
violate all of these prescriptions in an informal setting. The term was first
used by the linguist Thomas Bertram Reid in 1956, and brought into general
currency in the 1960s by a group of linguists who wanted to distinguish
between variations in language according to the user (defined by variables
such as social background, geography, sex and age), and variations
according to use, ”in the sense that each speaker has a range of varieties
and chooses between them at different times” (Halliday). The focus is on the
way language is used in particular situations, such as legalese or motherese,
the language of a biology research lab, of a news report or of the bedroom.

Halliday places great emphasis on the social context of register and

distinguishes register from dialect, which is a variety according to user, in the
sense that each speaker uses one variety and uses it all the time, and not, as
is register, a variety according to use, in the sense that each speaker has a
range of varieties and chooses between them at different times. For example,
Cockney is a dialect of English that relates to a particular region of the United
Kingdom, however, Cockney rhyming slang bears a relationship between its
variety and the situation in which it appears, i.e. the ironic definitions of the
parlance within the distinctive tones of the East-End London patois.
Subsequently, register is associated with language situation and not
geographic location.

Halliday identifies three variables that determine register: field (the subject
matter of the discourse), tenor (the participants and their relationships) and
mode (the channel of communication, e.g. spoken or written). Any or all of
the elements of language may vary in different registers vocabulary, syntax,
phonology, morphology, pragmatic rules or different paralinguistic features
such as pitch, volume and intonation in spoken English, or size and speed of
sign production in a sign language. Registers often also have non-linguistic
prescriptions such as appropriate dress codes, body language, and proximity
of speakers to one another. As with other types of language variation, we
tend to find register continua rather than discrete varieties - there is an
endless number of registers we could identify, with no clear boundaries.
Discourse categorisation is a complex problem, and even in the general
definition of ”register” given above (language variation defined by use not
user), there are cases where other kinds of language variation, such as
regional or age dialect, overlap. As a result of this complexity, there is far
from consensus about the meanings of terms like ”register”,”field” or
”tenor”; different writers’ definitions of these terms are often in direct
contradiction of each other. Additional terms such as diatype, genre, text
type, style, acrolect, mesolect and basilect among many others may be used
to cover the same or similar ground. Some prefer to restrict the domain of the
term ”register” to a specific vocabulary (Wardhaugh) (which one might
commonly call jargon), while others argue against the use of the term
altogether. These various approaches with their own ”register” or set of terms
and meanings fall under disciplines such as sociolinguistics, stylistics,
pragmatics or systemic functional grammar.
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF STYLISTICS

29

One of the most analysed areas where the use of language is determined by
the situation is the formality scale. Writers (especially in language teaching)
have often used the term ”register” as shorthand for formal/informal style,
although this is an aging definition. Linguistics textbooks may use the term
”tenor” instead (Halliday), but increasingly prefer the term ”style” - Ve
characterise styles as varieties of language viewed from the point of view of
formality” (Trudgill) - while defining ”registers” more narrowly as specialist
language use related to a particular activity, such as academic jargon. There
is very little agreement as to how the spectrum of formality should be
divided.

This diagram is from Quirk (1!

Formality scale

Very formal, Frozen, Rigid

985), who use FORMAL

! the term attitude Neutral

’rather than styl INFORMAL

e or register

Very informal, fft^iiaij Familiar

2. Field, Tenor and Mode

In systemic functional linguistics, the term tenor refers to the participants in a

discourse, their relationships to each other, and their purposes. In examining
how context affects language use, linguists refer to the context-specific
variety of language as a register. The three aspects of the context are known
as field, tenor and mode. Field refers the subject matter or content being
discussed. Mode refers to the channel (such as writing, or video-conference)
of the communication. By understanding these three variables, the kind of
language likely to be used in a particular setting can be predicted - and,
Michael Halliday suggests,’ this is exactly what we do, unconsciously, as
language users.

In analysing the parts of a metaphor, ”tenor” has another meaning, unrelated

to the meaning above. According to I. A. Richards, the two parts of a
metaphor are the tenor and vehicle. The tenor f is the subject to which
attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the subject from which the attributes
are derived.
Halliday classifies the semiotic structure of situation as ’field’, ’tenor1 and
’mode’, which, he suggests, tends to determine the selection of options in a
corresponding component of the semantics. The linguist David Crystal points
out that Halliday’s ’tenor’ stands as a roughly equivalent term for ’style’,
which is a more specific alternative used by linguists to avoid ambiguity.

For an example on which to comment, here is a familiar sentence:

I swear by almighty Cod that the evidence I will give shall be the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth.

For Halliday, the field is the activity associated with the language used, in this
case a religious oath tailored to the environment of a legal proceeding. Fowler
comments that different fields produce different language, most obviously at
the level of vocabulary. The words ’swear* and ’almighty’ are used instead of
perhaps ’pledge’ or ’supreme’. In addition, there is the repetition of the word
’truth’, which evidently triples and thereby emphasises the seriousness of the
vow taken. The tenor of this sentence would refer to the specific role of the
participants between whom the statement is made, in this case the person in
the witness box proclaiming their intention to be honest before the court and
those in attendance, but most importantly God. Fowler also comments that
within the category of tenor there is a power relationship, which is
determined by the tenor and the intention of the speaker to persuade, inform,
etc. In this case, the tenor is an affirmation to speak
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

the truth before the court by recognising the court’s legal supremacy and at
the risk of retribution for not doing’go. from this secular court and a spiritual
higher authority. This, of course, is not directly stated within the sentence but
only implied.

HaUiday*s teird category, mode, is what he refers to as the symbolic

organisation of the situation. Downes recognises two distinct aspects within
the category of mode and suggests that not only does it describe the relation
to the medium: written, spoken, and so on, but also describes the genre of
the text. HalJiday refers to genre as pre-coded language, language that has
not simply been used before, but that predetermines the selection of textural
meanings. For instance, in the sentence above the phrase ’the evidence I
shall give’ is preferable to the possible alternatives ’the testimony I will offer’
or even ’the facts that I am going to talk about’.

As well as recognising different registers of language that appear to be

suitable for a particular situation, stylistics also examines language that is
specifically modified for its setting, an example being the alteration in tenor
from informal to formal, or vice versa.

Consider the quotation below:

’/ was proceeding on my beat when I accosted the suspect whom I had

reason to .., believe might wish to come down to the station and help with
enquiries in hand.’

This language only belongs in a UK policeman’s notebook and may be read

out in a court of law. The sentence is not only formal but highly conventional
for the location in which it is found. In addition, it is also extremely
ambiguous (a common feature of so-called conventunal language). Why
’accosted’, for example, and not ’arrested’, ’collared’, ’nabbed’, ’nicked’ or
even ’pinched’? Either of which would express more accurately what occurred
in language more suitable for the typical British ’bobby’, rather than the pre-
scripted text that is simply being recited parrot fashion.

3. Symbolism

Symbolism is the applied use of symbols: iconic representations that carry

particular conventional meanings. The term ”symbolism” is often limited to
use in contrast to ”representationalism”; defining the general dijfections of a
linear spectnim wherein all symbolic concepts can be viewed in relation, and
where changes in context may imply systemic changes to individual and
collective definitions of symbols. ”Symbolism” may refer to a way of choosing
representative symbols in line with abstract rather than literal properties,
allowing for the broader interpretation of a carried meaning than more literal
concept-representations allow. A religion can be described as a language of
concepts related to human spirituality. Symbolism hence is an important
aspect of most religions.

All forms of language are innately symbolic, and any system of symbols can
form a ”language”; at the binary system. Human oral language is based in
the use of written forms are typically deferential to the phoneme. The written
word is therefore symbolically representative of both the symbolic phoneme
and directly to the cognitive concept which it represents. The field of
cognitive linguistics explores the cognitive process and relationships between
different systems of phonetic symbols to indicate deeper processes of
symbolic cognition. Many cultures have developed complex symbolic
systems, often referred to as a symbolic system which assign certain
attributes to specific things, such as types of animals, plants, humans, or
dogs.

The interpretation of abstract symbols has had an important role in religion

and psychoanalysis. As envisioned by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, symbols
are not the creations of mind, but rather are distinct capacities within the
mind to hold a distinct piece of information. In the mind, the symbol can find
free association with any number of other symbols, can be organized in any
number of ways, and can hold the connected meanings between symbols as
symbols in themselves. Jung and Freud diverged on the issue of common
cognitive symbol systems and
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF STYUSTICS

31

whether they could exist only within the individual mind or among other
minds; whether any cognitive symbolism was defined by innate symbolism or
by the influence of the environment around them.

In literature, ”symbolism” may refer to the use of abstract concepts, as a way

to obfuscate any literal interpretation, or to allow for the broader applicability
of the prose to meanings beyond what may be literally described. Many
writers-in fact, most or all authors of fiction-make the symbolic use of
concepts and objects as rhetorical devices central to the meaning of their
works. Brielle Gibson and James Joyce, for example, used symbolism
extensively, to represent themes that applied to greater contexts in their
contemporary politics and society.

4. Speech Acts

The notion speech act is a technical term in linguistics and the philosophy of
language. There are several different conceptions of what exactly ”speech
acts” are. Following the usage of, for example, P. F. Strawson and John R.
Searle, ”speech act” is often meant to refer just to the same thing as the
term illocutionary act, which John L. Austin had originally introduced in How
to Do Things with Words.

According to Austin’s preliminary informal description, the idea of an

”illocutionary act” can be captured by emphasising that ”in saying
something, we do something”, as when a minister joins two people in
marriage saying, ”I now pronounce you husband and wife.” (Austin would
eventually define the ”illocutionary act” in a more exact manner.)

1. Greeting (in saying, ”Hi John!”, for instance), apologizing (”Sorry for
that!”), describing something (”It is snowing”), asking a question (”Is it
snowing?”), making a request and giving an order (”Could you pass the salt?”
and ”Drop your weapon or I’ll shoot you!”), or making a promise (”I promise
I’ll give it back”) are typical examples of ”speech acts” or ”illocutionary acts”.

2. In saying, ”Watch out, the ground is slippery”, Peter performs the speech
act of warning Mary to be careful.

3. In saying, ”I will try my best to be at home for dinner”, Peter performs the
speech act of promising to be at home in time.

4. In saying, ”Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please?”,

Peter requests the audience to be quiet.

5. In saying, ”Can you race with me to that building over there?”, Peter
challenges Mary. History
For much of the history of linguistics and the philosophy of language,
language was viewed primarily as a way of making factual assertions, and
the other uses of language tended to be ignored. The work of J. L. Austin,
particularly his How to Do Things with Words, led philosophers to pay more
attention to the non-declarative uses of language. The terminology he
introduced, especially the notions ”locutionary act”, ”illocutionary act”, and
”perlocutionary act”, occupied an important role in what was then to become
the ”study of speech acts”. All of these three acts, but especially the
”illocutionary act”, are nowadays commonly classified as ”speech acts”. .

Austin was by no means the first one to deal with what one could call ”speech
acts” in a wider sense. Earlier treatments may be found in the works of some
church fathers and scholastic philosophers, in the context of sacramental
theology, as well as Thomas Reid, and C. S. Peirce.

Adolf Reinach has been credited with a fairly comprehensive account of social
acts as performative utterances dating to 1913, long before Austin and
Searle. His work had little influence,
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

however, perhaps due to his untimely death at 33 (having immediately

enlisted in the German Army at the onset of war in 1914).

Austin distinguishes between illocutionary and perlocutionary speech acts. An

interesting type of illocutionary speech act is that performed in the utterance
of what Austin calls performatives, typical instances of which are ”I nominate
John to be President”, ”I sentence you to ten years’ imprisonment”, or ”I
promise to pay you back.” In these typical, rather explicit cases of
performative sentences, the action that the sentence describes (nominating,
sentencing, promising) is performed by the utterance of the sentence itself.

The study of speech acts forms part of pragmatics, an area of linguistics. In

philosophy, especially in ethics and philosophy of law, speech-act theory is
often treated as related to the study of norms.

Indirect Speech Acts

In the course of performancing speech acts we ordinarily communicate with

each other. The content of communication may be identical, or almost
identical, with the content intended to be communicated, as when I request
Peter to wash the dishes in saying, ”Peter, could you please do the dishes?”

However, the meaning of the linguistic means used (if ever there are
linguistic means, for at least some so-called ”speech acts” can be performed
non-verbally) may also be different from the content intended to be
communicated. I may, in appropriate circumstances, request Peter to do the
dishes in just saying, ”Peter ...I”, or I can promise to do the dishes in saying,
”Me!” One common way of performing speech acts is to use an expression
which indicates one speech act, and indeed to perform this act, but
additionally to perform a further speech act, which is not indicated by the
expression uttered. I may, for instance, request Peter to open the window in
saying, ”Peter, will you be able to reach the window?”, thereby asking Peter
whether he will be able to reach the window, but at the same time I am
requesting him to do so if he can. Since the request is performed indirectly,
by means of (directly) performing a question, it counts as an indirect speech
act.

Indirect speech acts are commonly used to reject proposals and to make
requests. For example, a speaker asks, ”Would you like to meet me for
coffee?” and another replies, ”I have class.” The second speaker used an
indirect speech.act to reject the proposal. This is indirect because the literal
meaning of ”I have class” does not entail any sort of rejection.

This poses a problem for linguists because it is confusing (on a rather simple
approach) to see how the person who made the proposal can understand that
his proposal was rejected. Following substantially an account of H. P. Grice,
Searle suggests that we are able to derive meaning out of indirect speech
acts by means of a cooperative process out of which we are able to derive
multiple illocutions; however, the process he proposes does not seem to
accurately solve the problem. Sociolinguistics has studied the social
dimensions of conversations. This discipline considers the various contexts in
which speech acts occur. Illocutionary Acts

The concept of an illocutionary act is central to Searle’s understanding of

speech acts. An illocutionary act is the expression of a proposition with the
purpose of doing something else. This is a bit more complex than a simple
locutionary act (such as ”It is raining”) because an illocutionary force is
attached to the utterance that indicates how the expression should be taken.
Examples of illocutionary acts are ”I will return this book to you next week”
and ”Please hand me that pencil.” In the first example the illocutionary act
has the force of a promise to return a book. The second example is an
illocutionary act having the force of a request in which the speaker is
soliciting a reaction.
I VA1

i
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF STYLISTICS

33

In most instances of language, the speaker’s meaning and the literal meaning
of an utterance are identical. For example, if a speaker says, ”I will return this
book to you next week” or ”When will you need this book returned?”, the
speaker’s intention and the literal meaning are the same. In either example, a
third person that should happen to overhear this portion of a conversation
and has no prior experience in the conversation would be able to understand
the correct meaning of the utterances. However, there are cases in which the
speaker’s meaning of an utterance is different from its literal meaning.
Consider this situation:

Speaker (S) asks hearer (H), ”Would you mind turning down the volume on
your radio?”, and H responds by lowering the volume.

Both S and H spoke and behaved in a way that we would expect: S performed
the perlocutionary act of getting H to turn down the volume. However, this
case is problematic for linguists because the speaker’s meaning differs from
the literal meaning. The literal meaning of the question is that S is soliciting a
verbal response of ”yes” or ”no” from H (perhaps followed by an
explanation). However, S intended H to understand the question as a
command to turn down the volume, and H understood the question as S
intended it. This exchange, while not uncommon, is troubling because one
questions how it is possible (1) for a speaker to say something and mean
something different from the meaning of the utterance, and (2) for a hearer
to understand both meanings. Utterances of this nature are troubling for
linguists, and the problems caused by such statements are the concern of
Searle in his article ”Indirect Speech Acts”. Further examples of indirect
speech acts include the following:

”Can you hand me that pencil?”

”I hope you will arrive on time.”

”Would you remove your hat?”

”Do you want me to drop that off for you?”

”It might help if you turn on the lights.”

”I might ask you to observe silence in the library.”

Although many indirect speech acts are softened or polite commands,

indirect speech acts can also include apologies, assertions, congratulations,
promises, and thanks.

John Searle’s theory of ”indirect speech acts”

Searle proposes a set of structural rules that generalize the steps that take
place during indirect speech acts. His proposition is, ”In indirect speech acts
the speaker communicates to the hearer more than he actually says by way
of relying on their mutually shared background information, both linguistic
and nonlinguistic, together with the general powers of rationality and
inference” on the part of the hearer.” Searle’s solution will require an analysis
of mutually shared background information about the conversation that will
be pieced together with a theory of speech acts and linguistic convention.

Searle begins by making a distinction between primary and secondary

illocutionary acts. A primary illocutionary act is not literal; rather, it is what
the speaker means to communicate. The secondary illocutionary act is the
literal meaning of the utterance (Searle 178). In the example
, •»

(1) Speaker X: ”We should leave for the show or else we’ll be late,”

(2) Speaker Y: ”I am not ready yet.”

The primary illocutionary act is Vs rejection of X’s suggestion, and the

secondary illocutionary act is Vs statement that she is not ready to leave. By
dividing the illocutionary act into two subparts, Searle is able to explain how
we can understand two meanings from the same utterance all the while
knowing which is the correct meaning to respond to.
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

Searle attempts to explain how we are to separate the primary illocution from
the secondary illocution by means of a set of steps that the speaker and
hearer must subconsciously complete. For the previous example a condensed
process would look like this:

Step 1: A proposal is made by X, and Y responded by means of an

illocutionary act (2). Step 2: X assumes that Y is cooperating in the
conversation, being sincere, and that she has made a statement that is
relevant.

Step 3: The literal meaning of (2) is not relevant to the conversation.

Step 4: Since X assumes that Y is cooperating; there must be another

meaning to (2).

Step 5: Based on mutually shared background information, X knows that

they cannot

leave until Y is ready. Therefore, Y has rejected X’s proposition. Step 6: X

knows that Y has said something in something other than the literal meaning,

and the primary illocutionary act must have been the rejection of X’s
proposal. Searle argues that a similar process can be applied to any indirect
speech act as a model to find the primary illocutionary act (178). His proof for
this argument is made by means of a series of observations that he takes to
be facts.

Observation 1: Indirect speech acts should not be confused with imperatives.

Observation 2: Indirect speech acts ”are not ambiguous as between an

imperative illocutionary

force and a nonimperative illocutionary force” (180). Observation 3: Indirect

speech acts are usually used as directives.

Observation 4: Indirect speech acts are not idioms of a particular language,

since they can be

translated without losing their original meaning. Observation 5: Indirect

speech acts are idiomatic because a paraphrase may not produce the

same primary illocution. Observation 6: Indirect speech acts have a

secondary illocution that have meaning when taken

literally but do not have any sort of indirect meaning. Observation 7: When a
request is made using an indirect speech act whose literal meaning is
also a request, the speaker adds meaning so that he may
respond

appropriately. Observation 8: When a request is made using an indirect

speech act whose literal meaning is

also a request, the speaker responds to both the primary and secondary

illocution by virtue of responding to the primary illocution (Searle).

The last two observations (7 and 8) seem not to be indirect speech acts
because both illocutions are requests; however, while they are both requests
they may still have different meanings. Consider the example of a telephone
call:

(3) Speaker P: ”Is torn there?” Possible appropriate responses include:

(4) Speaker Q: ”No, he’s not here right now.”

(5) Speaker Q: ’Yes, I’ll hand him the phone.”

Observation 7 notes that there are two possible ways in which the speaker
can respond while fulfilling the requirements laid out in Searle’s process
(cooperation, relevance, sincerity, etc.). The question in (3) can be taken
either as a question about Tom’s location or as a request to speak with torn.
Observation 8 notes that in responding to (3) by handing torn the phone, Q
has answered the
-I
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF STYLISTICS

35

primary illocution (P’s request to speak with torn) and at the same time has
answered the secondary illocution (as to Tom’s location).

Searle has shown that his series of steps form a framework by which we can
understand requests; however, he has yet to show that this process will work
to help us point to the meaning of other indirect speech acts. To use this
process on other indirect speech acts, he will have to prove that there are two
illocutionary forces for each utterance, one £the primary force) that is the
speaker’s intent, and another one (the secondary force) that is the literal
meaning of the utterance. He will also have to propose a system by which we
can differentiate the two illocutionary forces. Searle offers the following
process for doing this:

Step 1: Understand the facts of the conversation.

Step 2: Assume cooperation and relevance on behalf of the participants.

Step 3: Establish factual background information pertinent to the

conversation.

Step 4: Make assumptions about the conversation based on steps 1-3.

Step 5: If steps 1-4 do not yield a consequential meaning, then infer that
there are two illocutionary forces at work.

Step 6: Assume the hearer has the ability to perform the act the speaker
suggests. The act that the speaker is asking be performed must be
something that would make sense for one to ask. For example, the hearer
might have the ability to pass the salt when asked to do so by a speaker who
is at the same table, but not have the ability to pass the salt to a speaker who
is asking the hearer to pass the salt during a telephone conversation.

Step 7: Make inferences from steps 1-6 regarding possible primary

illocutions.

Step 8: - Use background information to establish the primary illocution.

With this process, Searle concludes that he has found a method that will
satisfactorily produce two illocutionary forces that explain how we can act
upon indirect speech acts.

In language Development

Dore stated that children’s utterances were realizations of one of nine

primitive speech acts:
labelling repeating

requesting (answer) calling practicing

5. Rhymes vs. Poetry

answering greeting

requesting (action) protesting

A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different

words and is most often used in poetry. The word ”rhyme” may also refer to a
short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as
nursery rhymes.

As well as conventional styles of language there are the unconventional - the

most obvious of which is poetry. In Practical Stylistics, HG Widdowson
examines the traditional form of the epitaph, as found on headstones in a
cemetery. For example:

His memory is dear today As in the hour he passed away.

Widdowson makes the point that such sentiments are usually not very
interesting and suggests that they may even be dismissed as ’crude verbal
carvings’ as does the English poet Thomas Gray in
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VARI

his ’Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ (1751), who refers to them as

’uncouth rhymes’ Nevertheless, Widdowson recognises that they are a very
real attempt to convey feelings of human loss and preserve affectionate
recollections of a beloved friend or family member. However, what may be
seen as poetic in this language is not so much in the formulaic phraseology
but in where it appears. The verse may be given undue reverence precisely
because of the sombre situation in which it is placed. Widdowson suggests
that, unlike words set in stone in a graveyard, poetry is unorthodox language
that vibrates with inter-textual implications.

This is by Ogden Nash:

Beneath this slab

John Brown is stowed.

He watched the ads, And not the road

’Lather As You Go’, Collected Verse (1952).

Nash is satirising the form. The epitaph is humorous but it is perhaps more
funny because o! the solemn location with which this language is normally
associated.

Below is a standard rhyme that might be found inside a conventional

Valentine’s card:

Roses are red, Violets are blue.

[Turn-tee turn-tee turn], Hove you.

We might ask why roses for the characteristic example of ’redness’ instead of
perhaps a Britisl pillar box, which is considerably redder than the petals of
any rose? Or, indeed, why violets as thi archetypical illustration of ’blueness’
and not, say, the distinctive cobalt hue of the shirt worn by th tragic 1978
Scottish World Cup squad in Argentina? Maybe because roses and violets are
traditiona tokens of romance, and their association with particular colours (as
not all roses are red, nor a! violets blue) reinforces the imagery: the red of a
lover’s lips, the blue of their eyes, or the sea, or th sky, etc. - aM very
roiriantic stuff. The conventional symbolism of the verse is certainly
appropriat for the setting of a Valentine’s card, but is this poetry?

The Point of Poetry

Widdowson notices that when the content of poetry is summarised it often
refers to ve general and unimpressive observations, such as ’nature is
beautiful; love is great; life is lonely; tin passes’, and so on. But to say:

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,

So do our minutes hasten to their end ...

(William Shakespeare, ’60’.)

to re] Widd

Typt

Or, indeed:

Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,

Nor hours, days months, which are the rags of time ...

John Donne, ’The Sun Rising’, Poems (163

This language gives us a new perspective on familiar themes and allows us to

look at tbt

, without the personal or social conditioning that we unconsciously associate

with them. So, althoui

we may still use the same exhausted words and vague terms like ’love’,
’heart’ and ’soul’ to refer

human experience, to place these words in a new and refreshing context

allows the poet the abi

words rhyme called

P ma

fern dad

In

and to t

classifie

imperfet

semirhyi
oblique {

consonai

half rhyn

assonanc

Ith<

sounds a becomes the not o begun. Pi

course ex beginning (”For I sen

Thel

cough, bo\ example, ” best an eye

The p classify rhy

tai

When a wo internal rhy two entire b

VARIOUS ASPECTS OF STYLISTICS

37

to represent humanity and communicate honestly. This, in part, is stylistics,

and this, according to Widdowson, and it seems reasonable to agree, is the
point of poetry.

Types of Rhyme

The word ”rhyme” can be used in a specific and a general sense. In the
specific sense, two words rhyme if their final stressed vowel and all following
sounds are identical; two lines of poetry rhyme if their final strong positions
are filled with rhyming words. A rhyme in the strict sense is also called a
”perfect rhyme”. Examples are sight and flight, deign and gain, madness and
sadness.

Perfect rhymes can be classified according to the number of syllables

included in the rhyme

masculine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the final syllable of the words,
(rhyme, sublime,

crime) feminine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the penultimate

(second from last) syllable of the

words, (picky, tricky, sticky)

dactylic: a rhyme in which the stress is on the antepenultimate (third

from last) syllable (”cacophonies”, ”Aristophanes”)

In the general sense, ”rhyme” can refer to various kinds of phonetic similarity
between words, and to the use of such similar-sounding words in organizing
verse. Rhymes in this general sense aje classified according to the degree
and manner of the phonetic similarity: imperfect: a rhyme between a stressed
and an unstressed syllable, (wing, caring)

semirhyme: a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word, (bend, ending)

oblique (or slant): a rhyme with an imperfect match in sound, (green, n’end)

consonance: matching consonants, (her, dark)

half rhyme: (or sprung rhyme) is consonance on the final consonants of the
words involved

assonance: matching vowels, (shake, bate)

It has already been remarked that in a perfect rhyme the last stressed vowel
and all following sounds are identical in both words. If this identity of sound
extends further to the left, the rhyme becomes more than perfect. An
example of such a ”super-rhyme” is the ”identical rhyme”, in which the not
only the vowels but also the onsets of the rhyming syllables are identical, as
in gun and begun. Punning rhymes such are ”bare” and ”bear” are also
identical rhymes. The rhyme may of course extend even further to the left
than the last stressed vowel. If it extends all the way to the beginning of the
line, so that we have two lines that sound identical, then it is called
”holorhyme” (”For I scream/For ice cream”).

The last type of rhyme is the sight (or eye), or similarity in spelling but not in
sound, as with cough, bough, or love, move. These are not rhymes in the
strict sense, but often were formerly. For example, ”sea” and ”grey” rhymed
in the early eighteenth century, though now they would make at best an eye
rhyme.

The preceding classification has been based on the nature of the rhyme; but
we may also classify rhymes according to their position in the verse:

tail rhyme (or end): a rhyme in the final syllable(s) of a verse (the most
common kind) When a word at the end of the line rhymes within a word in the
interior of the line, it is called an internal rhyme. Holorhyme has akeady been
mentioned, by which not just two individual words, but two entire lines
rhyme. A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem.
38

A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS.

Rhyme in English

Old English poetry is mostly alliterative verse. One of the earliest rhyming
poems in English is The Rhyming Poem. Some words in English, such as
orange, are commonly regarded as having no rhyme. Although a clever poet
can get around this (for example, by rhyming ”orange” with combinations of
words like ”door hinge” or with far-fetched words like ”Blorenge”, a hill in
Wales), it is generally easier to move the word out of rhyming position or
replace it with a synonym (”orange” could become ”amber”).

The most famous brief remarks in English on rhyme are John Milton’s preface
to Paradise Lost, which begins

The Measure is English Heroic Verse without Rime, as that of Homer in Creek,
and of Virgilin Latin; Rime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of
Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a
barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac’t indeed
since by the use of some famous modern Poets, carried away by Custom...

Rhymes can also be used in puzzle games. A clue could be given (e.g. plump
feline) and one must find a rhyming answer to it (in this case, fat cat).

6. Phraseology

In linguistics, phraseology describes the context in which a word is used.

This often includes typical usages/sequences, such as idioms, phrasal verbs,
and multi-word units. Phraseological units are (according to Prof. Kunin A.V.)
stable word-groups with partially or fully transferred meanings (e.g., ”to kick
the bucket”).

Specialized phraseological expressions are common in these cases of

interference. The characteristics of specialized phraseological expressions
have been established, among other authors, by Bevilacqua (2001). The
criteria for their identification include the common features established by
Corpas Pastor (1996: 19-20) for the simple phraseological units: these units
are institutionalized and stable expressions formed by various words, whose
elements have some syntactic or semantic peculiarity. In the case of
specialised phraseological units, at least one terminological unit is added, as
well as its usage in a specific scope and a relevant frequency in specific texts.

Bengt Altenberg states that phraseology is a fuzzy part of language. It

embraces the conventional rather than the productive or rule-governed side
of language, involving various kinds of composite unite and ”pre-patterned”
expressions such as idioms, fixed phrases, and collocations.
According to Rosemarie Glaeser, a phraseological unit is a lexicalized,
reproducible bilexemic or polylexemic word group in common use, which has
relative syntactic and semantic stability, may be idiomatized, may carry
connotations, and may have an emphatic or intensifying function in a text.

7. Message

Message in its most general meaning is an object of communication. It is

something which provides information; it can also be this information itself.
Therefore, its meaning is dependent upon the context in which it is used; the
term may apply to both the information and its form.

More precisely, in the communications science, a message is information

which is sent from a source to a receiver. Some cota^ron definitions include:
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF STYLISTICS

39

Any thought or idea expressed briefly in a plain or secret language, prepared

in a form suitable for transmission by any means of communication.

An arbitrary amount of information whose beginning and end are defined or

implied.

Record information, a stream of data expressed in plain or encrypted

language (notation) and prepared in a format specified for intended
transmission by a telecommunications system.

8. Interpretation .

Interpretation is the process establishing, either simultaneously (known as

simultaneous interpretation) or consecutively (known as consecutive
interpretation), oral or gestural communications between two or more
speakers who are not able to use the same set of symbols. By definition it is
available as a method only in those cases where there is a need for
interpretation - if an object (of art, of speech, etc.) is obvious to begin with, it
cannot draw an interpretation. In any case the term interpretation is
ambiguous, as it may refer to both an ongoing process and a result.

Interpretation is a term used in informal education settings to describe any

communication process designed to reveal meanings and relationships of
cultural and natural heritage through first hand involvement with an object,
artifact, landscape or site. This is primarily known as heritage interpretation.

An interpretation can be the part of a presentation or portrayal of information

altered in order to conform to a specific set of symbols. This may be a
spoken, written, pictorial, mathematical, sculptural, cinematic, geometric or
any other form of language. Complex meanings may be evoked where the
reader consciously or unconsciously cross-references the text by situating it
within broader frames of experience and knowledge. The purpose of
interpretation would normally be to increase the possibility of understanding,
but sometimes, as in propaganda or brainwashing, the purpose may be to
evade understanding and increase confusion.

Consecutive interpretation (interpreting) - a type of conference interpretation

when the translator waits for the speaker to finish and then translates the
latter’s utterance’consecutively - it could be of any length - within a
reasonable limit so that not to distract the listener (s).

C. i. can be of a dialogue type - when the statement is short enough (without

taking notes) or with using interpreters’ notes - when the utterances are long
enough for the memory to absorb the information and provide adequate
result. Common situations in which interpretation is performed consecutively
include medical, legal, and other interview settings.
The main difficulty in C. i. Is that the information is dematerialised (that is not
available on a carrier - paper, display, screen etc.) but exists only in the form
of sound wave.

The main benefit of C. i. is that the information is completely understood by

the interpreter pnor to it being rendered into the target language. Thus,
meaning is transferred, rather than the form of the original language.
Interpretations produced in consecutive mode are often far more accurate
than those produced in simultaneous mode.

Recipients of information also construct meaning, in effect ”interpreting”

information. For example, in written texts, there are three considerations: the
writer, the text and the reader; and these are all interlinked and
interdependent. Through the act of interpretation the reader is the one
creating meaning; the meaning of the text intended by the writer is
potentially overlooked or ignored. The reader produces meaning by
participating in a complex of socially defined and enforced practices.
Interpretation is an active process of producing values and meanings, a
process that always occurs within specific cultural and political contexts,
directly linked to the world in which the reader lives.
40

A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

VARIOUi

9. Imagery

Imagery is any literary reference to the five senses (sight, touch, smell,
hearing, and taste). Essentially, imagery is any words that create a picture in
your head. Such images can be created by using figures of speech such as
similes, metaphors, personification, and assonance. Imagery helps the reader
picture what is going on.

Imagery is also the term used to refer to the creation (or re-creation) of any
experience in the mind - auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, gustatory,
kinesthetic, organic. It is a cognitive process employed by most, if not all,
humans. When thinking about a previous or upcoming event, people
commonly use imagery. For example, one may ask, ”What color are your
living room walls?” The answer to this question is commonly retrieved by
using imagery (i.e., by a person mentally ”seeing” one’s living room walls).

Remembered imagery is mostly based on what an individual has already

experienced. People have a clear image of those ”experienced” things, which
they can recall at will. Imaginary imagery does not seem to have a
corresponding equivalent inihe real world - often it is a strange combination
of remembered images, or of remembered images mixed with confabulation.

Research areas concerned with imagery include cognitive neuroscience, and

sport/exercise/dance psychology. Research in psychology has shown that
imagery does not have a unified biological basis in the brain, but is rather
considered as a collection of different functions situated in various parts of
the cerebral hemispheres. Imagery can also be based on what has not been
experienced. In this case, it is commonly used to ”fill in the gaps” in one’s
mind. A common example of this is a child having nightmares of a monster
when the room is dark. They can ”imagine” a monster coming out of nowhere
to attack them. Imagery is often used by poets and authors to help the reader
imagine what is happening and helps the reader to become absorbed in the
article/book and allows the reader to see what is in the author’s mind.

10. Genre

A genre, (French: ”kind” or ”sort”) is a loose set of criteria for a category of

literary composition; the term is also used for any other form of art or
utterance. In all art forms, genres are vague categories with no fixed
boundanes. Genres are formed by sets of conventions, and many works cross
into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions.
The scope of the word ”genre” is usually confined to art and culture,
particularly literature. In genre studies the concept of genre is not compared
to originality. Rather, all works are recognized as either reflecting on or
participating in the conventions of genre.

In philosophers of language, figuring very prominently in the works of

philosopher and literary scholai Mikhail Bakhtin. Bakhtiris basic observations
were of ”speech genres” (the idea of heteroglossia), modes of speaking or
writing that people learn to mimic, weave together, and manipulate (such as
”formal letter” and ”grocery list”, or ”university lecture” and ”personal
anecdote”). The work of Georg Lukacs also touches on the nature of literary
genres, appearing separately but around the same time (1920s-1930s) as
Bakhtin.

11. Context

The speech, writing, or print that normally precedes and follows a word or
otjier element of language. The meaning of words may be affected by their
context. If a phrase is quoted out of context, its effect may be different from
what was originally intended.

The linguistic, situational, social, and cultural environment of an element of

language, an action, behaviour, etc. Technically, the occurrence of a word in a
linguistic context is said to be determined by collocational or selectionaJ
restrictions-, the use of rancid with butter and bacon, of

Hock wii largely c affected

context i contrast illustrate as male i

12. Vo<

Hen

As w

verse with simile for of potatoes

Givei

word for tl crooked’, i

Verbs In the shor of the poe definitions misinterpre same as ’ci Concise 0
difference ’foolish1.

In ’Q explores the speaker’s at certain emo language he pronunciatk

meanings, i autobiograp] Green. 1964 example:

It In
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF STYLISTICS

Hock with sheep and birds, of pack with dogs, wolves, and cards. Generally,
such association largely or wholly determined by meaning (drink milk/beer,
eat bread/meat), but meaning can b^ affected by collocation: white as in
white wine, white coffee, and white people. Non-linguistic context is often
referred to as situation, and meaning expressed in terms of context is
reference (in contrast with SENSE, which exists in and among language
elements regardless of context). To illustrate the meaning of ram by pointing
to a picture or an animal is to use context, but to define it as male sheep in
contrast with ewe is to do so by means of sense.

12. Vocabulary

Here is Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ’The Eagle’ (a fragment):

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls. Poems, (1851)

As with the eagle, Tennyson leaves the reader balancing precariously on the
end of the first verse with the single word ’stands’. Again, however, why ’like
a thunderbolt’ for an appropriate simile for the description of the eagle’s
decent and not, for example, ’a brick’, or ’a stone’, or ’a sack of potatoes’?
Perhaps the answer lies in the word’s syllabic (or syllable) structure: ’thun-
der-bolt’.

Given the compact yet detailed nature of the poetic form, the poet will try to
choose the precise word for the exact context. For example, the use of
alliteration in the first line, ’clasps ... crag ... crooked’, is preferably to the
alternatives ’grabs ... rock ... twisted’.

Verbs in particular perhaps cause the greatest headache for the poet in their
choice of words. In the short piece above there are five: ’clasps ... stands ...
crawls ... watches ... falls’. The simplicity of the poem is matched by the lack
of ambiguity in the definition of these verbs. However, definitions can also
dictate the position of particular words, and definitions can be easily
misinterpreted. For example, the verb ’bold’ does not mean ’brave’. The word
’arrogant’ is not the same as ’conceited’. Timid’ means easily frightened;
apprehensive, while ’shy’ is defined in The Concise Oxford Dictionary as
diffident or uneasy in company. Lastly, there is considerable difference
between the words ’ignorant’ and ’innocent’, and, similarly, between
’reckless’ and ’foolish’.

In ’Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics’ in Style in Language, Roman

Jakobson explores the concept the ’emotive’ or ’expressive’ function of the
language, a direct expression of the speaker’s attitude toward what they are
speaking about, which tends to produce an impression of a certain emotion.
The distinction here can be made between the spoken word and writing,
spoken language having a possibly greater emotive function by emphasising
aspects of the language in its pronunciation. For example, in English stressed
or unstressed words can produce a variety of meanings. Consider the
sentence ’I never promised you a rose garden’ (the title of the
autobiographical novel by Joanne Greenberg, which was written under the
pen name of Hannah Green. 1964). This has a multitude of connotations
depending on how the line is spoken. For example:

I never promised you a rose garden I never promised you a rose garden
42

A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

I never promised you a rose garden I never promised you a rose garden I
never promised you a rose garden I never promised you a rose garden

Or even:

^ I never promised you a rose garden

And there are many more besides these.

13. Implicature

In ’Poetic Effects’ from Literary Pragmatics, the linguist Adrian Pilkington

analyses the idea of ’implicature’, as instigated in the previous work of Dan
Sperber and Deirdre Wilson. Implicature may be divided into two categories:
’strong’ and ’weak’ implicature, yet between the two extremes there are a
variety of other alternatives. The strongest implicature is what is explicitly
implied by the speaker or writer, while weaker implicatures are the wider
possibilities of meaning that the hearer or reader may conclude.

Pilkington’s ’poetic effects’, as he terms the concept, are those that achieve
most relevance through a wide array of weak implicatures and not those
meanings that are simply ’read in’ by the hearer or reader. Yet the
distinguishing instant at which weak implicatures and the hearer or reader’s
conjecture of meaning diverge remains highly subjective. As Pilkington says:
’there is no clear cut-off point between assumptions which the speaker
certainly endorses and assumptions derived purely on the hearer’s
responsibility.’ In addition, the stylistic qualities of poetry can be seen as an
accompaniment to Pilkington’s poetic effects in understanding a poem’s
meaning. For example, the first verse of Andrew Marvell’s poem ’The Mower’s
Song’ (1611) runs:

My mind was once the true survey

Of all these meadows fresh and gay,

And in the greenness of the grass

Did see its thoughts as in a glass

When Juliana came, and she,

What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me.

Miscellaneous Poems (1681)

The strong implicatur^ that is immediately apparent is that Marvell is

creating a pastiche (distinct from parody) of the pastoral form: the narrator
being the destructive figure of Demon the Mower and not the protective
character of the traditional pastoral shepherd. The poem is also highly
symbolic. In literary criticism grass is symbolic of flesh, while the mower’s
scythe with which he works represents human mortality (other examples
being Old Father Time and the Grim Reaper). Even the text on the page can
be seen as a visual representation of the Mower’s agricultural equipment: the
main body of each verse is suggestive of the wooden shaft of the scythe and
the last flowing line of each verse the blade. (This visual similarity of text on
the page and the poem’s subject is known as concrete poetry.) However, it is
the concluding phrase, repeated in every stanza, that is most stylistically
effective. This long sweeping line that extends beyond the margins of each
verse does not simply recall the action of the scythe through the grass, but
occurs at the exact moment of every pass and further illuminates the
mower’s physical and emotional disquiet. These conceits do not appear by
accident and are precisely intended by the poet to enhance to the poetic
effects of the verse.
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF STYLISTICS 43

Here is another example from William Shakespeare’s ’71’, Sonnets (1609):

No longer mourn forme when I am dead, Than you shall hear the surly sullen
bell Give warning to the world that I am fled From this vile world, with vilest
worms to dwell:

On the face of \hings the poet appears to be saying: ’When I have passed
away, do not grieve for me.’ A full stop at the end of the first line, and
nothing further, would certainly be enough to convey and satisfactory
conclude the principal sentiment. Yet there is not a full stop. Indeed, there is
no full stop until the end of line eight!

Looking at these first four lines, the first is a full sentence but ends with a
comma. The first and second lines taken together are not a complete
sentence and encourage the reader to continue onto the third line, which,
taken with the first and second lines, is still not a complete sentence. The
fourth line concludes the sentence but ends with a semicolon, again
persuading the reader on to the fifth line, which begins with an abrupt
exclamation, reinforcing the opening statement, and continuing to hold the
reader’s attention:

Nay, if you read this line, remember not The hand that writ it; for Hove you
so, That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, If thinking on me then
should make you woe.

Here, it appears that Shakespeare is simply paraphrasing the first three lines
with the additional fourth line showing concern for the reader’s emotions
should they spend too much time reminiscing over the dead poet. The
contradiction is puzzling. Why should the poet repeat what is apparently
being explicitly asked of the reader not to do? And, again, the final four lines
emphasise the point, once more beginning with the seemingly by now
obligatory exclamation:

Oh, if (I say) you look upon this verse, When I perhaps compounded am with
clay, Do not so much as my poor name rehearse; Lest the wise world should
look into your moan And mock you with me after I am gone.

Furthermore, the poet asks the reader to not even repeat the ’name’ of ’the
hand that writ it’, while the ending is tinged with more than a degree of false
modesty within the realm of the unsentimental ’wise world’. What on the
surface appears to be one contention turns out to be quite the opposite.
Shakespeare, far from telling to reader to forget him following his demise, is
actually saying: ’Remember me! Remember me! Remember me!’ And he
does this through deceptively unconventional language that progresses and
grows continuously into the traditional sonnet form.

14. Grammar
Although language may appear fitting to its context, the stylistic qualities of
poetry also reveal themselves in many grammatical disguises. Widdowson
points out that in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem ’The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner’ (1798), the mystery of the Mariner’s abrupt appearance is sustained
by an idiosyncratic use of tense. For instance, in the opening lines Coleridge
does not say: ’There was ancient Mariner’ or ’There arrived an ancient
Mariner’, but
44

A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

VARIOUS

instead not only does he immediately place the reader at the wedding feast,
Coleridge similarly throws the Mariner abruptly into the middle of the
situation:

It is an ancient Manner

And he stoppeth one of three.

- ’By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,

Now wherefore stopp ’st thou me?

The bridegroom’s doors are opened wide.

And I am the next of kin;

The guests are met, the feast is set:

May’st hear the merry din.’

Coleridge’s play with tense continues in stanzas four to six, as he swaps

wildly from past to present and back again.

He holds him with his skinny hand,

’There was a ship,’ quoth he.

’Hold off! Unhand me, grey-beard loon I’

Eftsoons his hands dropthe.

He holds him with his glittering eye -

The Wedding-guests stood still,

And listens like a three years’ child:

The Mariner hath his will.

The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone

He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner.

Lyrical Ballads (1798)

The Mariner ’holds’ the wedding-guest with his ’skinny hand’ in the present
tense, but releases it in the past tense; only to hold him again, this time with
his ’glittering eye’, in the present. And so on, back and forth like a temporal
tennis ball but all adding to the enigma. The suggestion could be made that
Coleridge was simply careless with the composition and selected these verb
forms at random. However, the fact is that they are there in the text of the
poem, and, as Coleridge himself would recognise, everything in a poetic text
carries an implication of relevance.

15. Phraseology

Another aspect of stylistics, as in the poem ’I Saw a Peacock’, is when the

meaning only becomes clear when the context is revealed.

I saw a peacock with a fiery tail

I saw a blazing comet drop down hail

I saw a cloud with ivy circled round

I saw a sturdy oak creep on theground

I saw a ’pismire swallow up a whale ’[ant]

I saw a raging sea brim full of ale

I saw a Venice glass sixteen foot deep

I saw a well full of men’s tears that weep

I saw their eyes all in a flame of fire

I saw a house as biff as the moon and higher

Ifwt

because v line. By al

The c ’Venice gl< inverted.

There

approach t

Examinatic
particular f

second is tl

other ways

multitude c

being one s

the interpn

Poetry can 1

is an origin

and experie

Conlusioi

In ’Po ’convention, that is seem other words jargon and metaphors s phrases
are diction and
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF STYLISTICS 45

I saw the sun even in the midst of night I saw the man who saw this
wondrous sight

’A Person of Quality1, Westminster Drollery (\&7\)

If we read the poem like this, it almost makes sense - but not quite. The
reason is, perhaps, because we as readers are conditioned to reading poetry
in a specific way, conventionally - line by line. By altering the phrases in each
line, the descriptions are made coherent.

1siw a peacock

with a fiery tail I saw a blazing comet

drop-down hail I saw a cloud

with ivy circled round I saw a sturdy oak

creep on the ground I saw a pismire

swallo w up a whale I saw a raging sea

brim full of ale I saw a Venice glass

sixteen foot deep I saw a well full of men’s tears that weep

J saw their eyes

all in a flame of fire I saw a house

as big as the moon and higher I saw the sun

even in the midst of night

I saw the man who saw this wondrous sight

The anonymous narrator, sitting drinking by a fire and gazing at his mirror
image in the ’Venice glass’, is commenting on the reflected images that he
sees in language that is similarly inverted.

There are, however, two important points worth mentioning with regard to
the stylistician’s approach to interpreting poetry, and they are both noted by
PM Wetherill in Literary Text: An Examination of Critical Methods. The first is
that there may be an over-preoccupation with one particular feature that may
well minimise the significance of others that are equally important. The
second is that any attempt to see a text as simply a collection of stylistic
elements will tend to ignore other ways whereby meaning is produced.
Nevertheless, meaning in poetry is conveyed through a multitude of language
alternatives that manifest themselves as printed words on the page, style
being one such feature. Subsequently, the stylistic elements of poetry can be
seen as important in the interpretation of unconventional language that is
beyond what is expected and customary. Poetry can be both sublime and
even ridiculous yet still transcend established social values. Poetry is an
original and unique method of communication that we use to express our
thoughts, feelings and experiences.

Conlusion - Orwell and Swift on writing Methods

In ’Politics and the English Language’ (1946), George Orwell writes against
the use of ’conventional’ language as, in doing so, there is the danger that
the traditional ’style’ of language that is seemingly appropriate to a specific
context will eventually overpower its precise meaning. In other words, the
stylistic qualities of language will degenerate the meaning through the
overuse of jargon and familiar, hackneyed and/or clich^d words and phrases.
Orwell condemns the use of metaphors such as ’toe the line; ride roughshod
over; no axe to grind’. He suggests that these phrases are often used without
thought of their literal meaning. Orwell hits out at pretentious diction and the
use of Latin phrases like ’deus ex machina’ and even ’status quo’. He also
argues
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

against unnecessary clauses, such as ’have the effect of; play a leading part in; give
grounds for’. These are all familiar phrases, but are they really useful in any context?
Orwell says that one reason we use this kind of language is because it is easy. He
writes:

It is easier - even quicker, once you have the habit - to say la my opinion it is a not
unjustifiable assumption that... than to say I think.

. Furthermore, Orwell says:

It [modern language] consists in gumming together long strips of words which have
already been set in order by someone else, and making the result presentable by
sheer humbug.

In Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), the English language is distilled and
sanitised and then imposed upon a population who, out of terror, actively conform to
the process. The language is dehumanising as it does not allow for any form of
communication other than that permitted by the state. Similarly, in the appendix to
the novel, ”The Principles of Newspeak’, more subversive linguistic gymnastics are in
evidence:

The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the
world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other
modes of thought impossible.

On the language of George Orwell, Fowler says that the rapidity and fluency are
made possible by the fact that the speaker is simply uttering strings of orthodox
jargon and is in no sense choosing the words in relation to intended meanings or to
some state of affairs in the world.

Today we have word processor programs thaf will effortlessly write a letter for any
occasion. Stock phrases and paragraphs can be cut and pasted at random to appear
coherent. An extreme example of this practice is found in Jonathan Swift’s satiric
novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726). When Lemuel Gulliver arrives at the Grand Academy
of Lagado he enters the school of writing, where a professor has devised an
enormous ’frame’ that contains every word in the language. The machine is put into
motion and the words are jumbled up, and when three or four words are arranged
into a recognisable phrase they are written down. The phrases are then collated into
sentences, the sentences into paragraphs, the paragraphs into pages and the pages
into books, which, the professor hopes, will eventually ’give the world a complete
body of all arts and sciences’.

This method of writing is not only absurd but produces nothing original. It also relies
on both the writer and the reader interpreting what is created in exactly the same
way. And it is highly political as the writer and the reader are indoctrinated into using
a particular form of language and conditioned towards its function and
understanding. As Orwell says: ’A speaker who uses this kind of phraseology has
gone some distance towards turning himself into a machine.’

University Questions
1. What are the various aspects and points of interest normally discussed in
stylistics?

2. Write a note on Register, Tenor and Field.

3. How do both the grammar and vocabulary affect the message of text, discuss?

4. Discuss the major concepts of Stylistics.

5. Write a note on symbolism and imagery in the context of Stylistics.