3 Varieties of Language
3.1 Two Kinds of Varieties
We have pointed out that when language is used, it is always used in a context. What gets said and how it gets said is always dictated by a variety of situations. Some situations seem to depend generally and fairly consistently on some regular sets of language features, so that distinctive varieties of language occur. These sets of features are historically formed and are changing overtime; but they remain relatively stable at a certain period of history governing people's language activity. As a study of the linguistic features that characterize the main varieties of a language, stylistics needs to define its variety categories. Since the 196o's, hopefully, studies in this area have made considerable progress. Modern linguistics has worked out a system of variety categories to help isolate these consistent relationships between particular features of language, and the particular situations in which they might possibly occur (see Gregory and Carroll, 1978). The constant features of the situational circumstances of speech events that can be consistently related to variations in language use fall into two main groups: one group relates to the relatively permanent characteristics of the user in speech events, the other relates to the user's use of language in such events; and they yield two main kinds of situational varieties: dialectal and diatypic.
DIALECTAL V ARIETIES, commonly called DIALECTs, are language varieties that are associated with different users of the language. As users in a society can be defined in terms of their individual, temporal, regional, and social affiliations, and their range of intelligibility, there are individual, temporal, regional, social and standard varieties respectively. These are relatively permanent features of the language user in a speech event.
DIATYPIC V ARIETIES, commonly called REGISTERs, are language variations that are associated with the different use to which they are put. Such varieties do not depend on the people who use the language, but on the occasion when it is used. Different types of language are selected as appropriate to different types of occasion. The choice is determined by the convention that a certain kind of language is appropriate to a certain use. The occasions can be classified along three dimensions, each presenting an aspect of the situation and the part played by the language in them. In this way, registers may be distinguished according to field of discourse, mode of discourse and tenor of discourse.
3.2 Dialects
3. 2. 1 Individual Dialect-- Idiolect
A specific person will display his or her own features of speech or writing habits. This is readily shown in the fact that most of us can recognize our friends by the sound of their voice or the look of their handwriting. Each speaker or writer will have his or her own particular voice quality, pitch and stress patterns, favorite lexical items, and even grammatical structures. These traits of speech or writing often point to a person's individuality which leads to a person's style. Terms like 'Conrad's language', 'Hemingway's language' indicate just this type of variety. We call it INDIVIDUAL DIALECT or IDIOLECT.
3.2.2 Temporal Dialect
Language changes over time, and so description of the language at a given point of time is likely to give rise to a historical variety. In the English language, for instance, there are Old English, Middle English, Elizabethan English and Modem English. A variety which correlates with the
various periods of the development of language is called TEMPORAL DIALECT.
Some of the striking differences between Old, Middle and Modern English can be seen from their
3.2.3 Regional Dialect
Language varies from region to region. Owing to the physical boundaries of oceans and mountains, people who live in different places tend to develop different speech patterns. So far as the English speaking world is concerned, there are British English, American English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English, Canadian English, and other international varieties. There are also regional varieties within Great Britain and the United States , such as cockney in Britain , North Midland dialect in USA , etc. A variety like this we call REGIONAL DIALECT. The lay term for it is ACCENT, as a dialect is often associated with a particular accent.
In spite of the fact that with the ever intensifying intercommunication between countries and the resulting closing up of the two major international varieties of English, the most striking difference between British English and American English is still found in terms of
3.2. 4 Social Dialect
Just as oceans and mountains separate people and can lead eventually to distinct language habits, so social and political boundaries separate people and can be instrumental in promoting different speechways. A variety associated with certain social group is referred to as SOCIAL DIALECT. The social groups may identify themselves as separate socioeconomic classes or as ethnic groups. And cutting across these social boundaries are differences in the ways of women and men, old and young. Each group tends to have its distinctive ways of speaking. Hence the occurrence of socioeconomic status varieties, ethnic varieties, gender varieties and age varieties.
3.2. 4 .1 Socioeconomic status varieties
Different socioeconomic status groups tend to show different patterns of speech characteristics. An often quoted example is the well-known case of r -fulness in New York City . New Yorkers sometimes pronounce/r/and sometimes drop it in words like car, fourth, beer, park (when/r / follows a vowel, either at the end of a word or preceding a consonant). Investigation shows that the occurrence of/r/in the pronunciation of these words is anything but random and anything but meaningless.
William Labov investigated pronunciations of/r/among employees of three Manhattan department stores of different social rank: Saks Fifth Avenue , an expensive, upper-middle-class store; Macy's, a medium-priced, middle-class store; and S Klein, a discount store patronized principally by working class New Yorkers. He found that at Saks, the highest-ranked of the stores, employees pronounced/r/more often than employees did at S Klein, the lowest-ranked store. At Macy's, the middle-ranked store, employees pronounced an intermediate number of/r/s. This confirmed Labov's hypothesis that members of higher socioeconomic status groups would pronounce/r/more frequently than would individuals from lower socioeconomic classes. The findings help explain the social basis for linguistic variation--even subtle differences in social stratification may be reflected in language use.
3.2.4 . 2 Ethnic varieties
Ethnic groups tend to develop and maintain distinctive speechways of their own. Hence the rise of ethnic varieties. This is especially true of urban Black Americans in the US who have actually developed a most widespread and familiar ethnic variety of American English—Black English, with its characteristic phonological, morphological, and syntactical features, as well as some vocabulary of its own. It is as rule-governed and systematic, as rich in its communicative expression and adaptability, as other varieties of English.
The most striking characteristics of Black English are as follows:
l) Phonologically, Black English is most salient in its frequent simplification of consonant clusters as 'des' for desk , 'pass' for passed, and 'wile' for wild . Another salient feature is the frequent deletion of the final stop consonants, pronouncing side like sigh and borrowed like borrow .
2) Black English distinguishes itself in a characteristic use of verb be.' the omission of the
contracted form in the present tense ('s), and the use of be to express a habitual state of affairs; as in
That my book (=That's my book).
The coffee cold (=The coffee's cold).
The coffee be cold there (=The coffee's always cold there).
Further, verb be is used to show habitual action; as in
Do they be playing all day?
(cf Do they play all day? )
Yeah, the boys do be messin' around a lot.
(cf Yeah, the boys do mess around a lot
3) Another distinctive feature of Black English is the use of ‘it is' in the place of 'there is'; as in
Is it (=Is there) a Miss Jones in this office?
4) A final illustration of the distinctiveness of Black English is the use of multiple-negative constructions:
Don't nobody never help me do my work.
(cf Nobody ever helps me do my work.).
3.9.4 .3 Gender varieties
In most languages, men and woman do not speak identically. Hence gender varieties occur. In English, for example, female speakers tend to use 'feminine-sounding' words like lovely, darling and cute. Likewise certain four-letter words may surprise us when uttered by a woman. Moreover, women tend to show extra politeness in their speech by leaving a decision open rather than imposing their claims on others. They make frequent use of expressions like 'I'm afraid that...', 'I'm not sure, but...' etc; of tag questions like 'The film is awfully interesting, isn't it?'; and of rising tone for a request, like "Do come and have a look', etc. Men, on the other hand, are usually more certain; decisive in their speech, often free to use strong expressions or rough language. Sometimes their pronunciation is not so clear as women's.
3.2.4 . 4 Age varieties
Language evolves with age. So a two-year-old child's command of language is far from perfect while a five-year-old in contrast has a much better command. A ten-year-old's command of grammar does not differ significantly from that of adults, though his/her vocabulary is smaller. Children through (and especially in) their teens tend to experiment with vocabulary, using long, 'literary' words more than adults.
There are language differences, chiefly in vocabulary, between younger adults and older adults too. Nowadays some older people still use icebox to refer to what younger generations call fridge , and they use record player for stereo . They might not have adopted words like bad-mouthing or ' dumping on' someone. Younger people tend to pick up newly sprung-up slangy expressions all the
time.
3. 2. 5 Standard Dialect
There remains another type of dialect distinction, the distinction between a standard and a nonstandard dialect. STANDARD DIALECT is the variety of a language based on the speech and writing of educated native speakers of that language which enables speakers of the language throughout the world to communicate intelligibly with each other, respective of their social standing or regional background. A standard variety is generally taught in schools and to non-native speakers when my are learning the language and is used in the news media and described in dictionaries and grammars. So far as the English language is concerned, there are Standard American English and Standard British English, etc. Standard English, however, is sometimes used as cover term for all the national standard varieties of English, which enjoys wide intelligibility throughout the English-speaking world.
3.4 Mutual Dependence Between Register and Dialect
Generally speaking, a language user, regardless of region, class, ethnic group, or gender, can speak in many registers, since he/she has to shift from one register to another as each situation type is replaced by another. But he/she does not normally speak in dialects of other regions, classes, or ethnic groups, as they are relatively permanent features of a language user, which are rarely manipulable by the user to fit the various contexts. However, as a citizen of a nation, he/she may learn the language habits of another individual, or time, or place, or social class, especially the standard dialect (a prestigious variety of language, serving as a ' model' for various functions), for certain uses. For example, many Chinese merchants in Guangdong province can readily switch between putonghua and Cantonese so as to meet the needs of their customers. In Britain it used to be regarded as a linguistic error to give a radio commentary on cricket in cockney or sing a pop song in Queen's English. Nowadays sports commentators on BBC may speak non-standard dialects; for a football match, a Cockney or Midlands commentator is more likely. In the US , an educated Black man can speak perfect general American; but when he wants to stress his membership in his ethnic group, he will exaggerate the Black English features in his speech. Not to mention those who adopt another dialect or dialects for parody, art, humor, etc. Here, the selection of one dialect rather than another in different situations is related to questions of language use. Likewise a register, especially a highly situation-tied register related to certain groups of people, such as argot, can become entirely unintelligible to other people, and thus acquire the feature of a dialect. So we see the mutual dependence between dialect and register. 3.5 The Social Meaning of Language Varieties
When we listen to a person speaking, we can often make intelligent guesses about where he or she is from, and perhaps also what his or her socioeconomic status is, or about whether he or she wants to be informal or formal, etc. Even a simple greeting like
Hi, how y'all doing?
tells a lot about the speaker. We can guess, for instance, the speaker is from the US (as Hi is not often used in Britain ) and probably from the southeast of the country (as is shown by the second person y'all ); also the speaker wants to be informal ( Hi as opposed to Hello ). In fact, any text (whether literary or non-literary) is likely to convey many other kinds of information besides the message being communicated, such as
l) the period of development of the language in which the speaker/ writer spoke or wrote it (temporal dialect);
2) the geographical area he or she is from (regional dialect);
3) the social group he or she belongs to (social dialect);
4) the range of intelligibility of his or her language (standard or non-standard dialect);
5) the activity he or she is engaged in (field);
6) the medium he or she is using (mode);
7) the social relationship existing between him or her and his or her addressee (s) (personal tenor);
8) the intention in his or her mind in conveying the message (functional tenor);
9) the distinctive language habits he or she has shown (idiolect).
All the above are stylistically significant features of a text in question.
Study Questions
1) How is it that there are different varieties in a language? What are dialectal varieties, and what are diatypic varieties?
2) Can we find any relationship between idiolect and other (ie temporal, regional, social, standard) dialects?
3) How are diatypic varieties of a language distinguished?
4) What is field of discourse? What are non-technical and technical fields of discourse?
5) What is mode of discourse? How is it that there are different modes of discourse in a language?
6) What is tenor of discourse? What is personal tenor/functional tenor concerned with?
7) How are field, mode, tenors interrelated?
8) In what way are register and dialect mutually dependent?
4 Linguistic Description
4.1 The Aim of Stylistics in Linguistic Description
Now that we have the variety categories in mind, we are in a position to specify an ordered approach to their linguistic description. Stylistics, in this respect, aims at providing a methodology of analysis-- a clear technique of description which, ideally, will allow any persons to cope with any text they want to study, a procedure that can ensure that no items of stylistic significance is overlooked. It replaces a sporadic approach with a systematic one and seeks to avoid over-reliance on intuitive ability in stylistic analysis. The ordered approach will be: take the object of study --a text, work through the text carefully, note down its stylistic features, and discuss them in terms of a number of levels of language.
4.2 Levels of Language
We know already that there are three aspects in a speech event--the substantial, the formal, and the situational. Now we should further know that these aspects of the speech event are relatable to the levels of language and linguistic description. The substantial aspect is related to the level of phonology/graphology, the formal is related to the level of lexis and grammar, and the situational is related to the level of semantics, the contextual relations between situation and form. Language is, as is mentioned in 1.2, often likened to a code. As a code, language is multi-leveled. It is necessary to distinguish three levels of language. In addition to the level of semantics (meaning), there are the levels of lexis and grammar and phonology/graphology, which
together form the expression plane of language.
4.2.1 The Level of Phonology/Graphology
4.2.1 .1 Phonology
Though the human throat can make amazingly numerous noises suggestive of meaning, only some of the sounds are used systematically in a language. PHONOLOGY is the study of the rules for the organization of the sound systems of a language. Phonological level is the expression or realization of language in its spoken form.
4.2.1.2 Graphology
GRAPHOLOGY is the study of the writing system of a language. Likewise, out of all the written marks available, each language selects only a few (26 letters for the English alphabet) and the selected marks are used in a limited number of combinations. Graphological level is the expression or realization of language in its written form.
4.2.2 The level of Lexis and Grammar
4. 2. 2 . 1 Morphology and syntax
GRAMMAR is the central part of a linguistic statement. It studies the structure of units called sentences in a language, and the way these function in sequences. Traditionally, grammar is divided into MORPHOLOGY which studies the internal structure of words (and of the rules governing their formation), and SYNTAX which studies their external relationships in a sentence.
4.2.2 .2 Lexicology
LEXICOLOGY studies the choice of specific LEXICAL ITEMs (units of vocabulary) in a text, their distribution in relation to one another, and their meanings.
4.2.3 The Level of Semantics
SEMANTICs, in this book, studies the overall meaning of a text, the meaning derived not from the formal properties of words and structures but from the way sentences/utterances are used and the way they are related to the context in which they are used/uttered.
In what follows, we shall discuss the properties of the English language in terms of the above levels.
Our division of the levels of language shows that we shall discuss stylistic features in a way that demands relatively not much technical knowledge. So long as users of this book are familiar with some basic concepts transplanted from modern linguistic theories and keep in mind traditional terms in phonology, grammar and rhetoric, they will, we hope, find themselves at home in this book.
4.3 Stylistic Features
A situational variety of language can be seen as a complex of features describable by reference to a number of contextual categories. The categories, in turn, are defined with reference to sets of linguistic features distinctive of a situation, which operate at some or all of the levels of language. These situationally bound features are stylistically significant features--what we call STYLISTIC FEATUREs. They are a potential of all language levels and units. Just as language is multi-levelled, so style is multi-levelled: Stylistic features can be found at the three distinct semantic, lexico-grammatical, phonological/graphological levels of language. In order to find out
all the items of stylistic significance in a text, we can collect data from one level of its language to another.
4. 3.1 Stylistic Features at the First Level
The first level -- phonology/graphology will be discussed under the headings of phonological features and graphological features respectively.
4.3.1 .1 Phonological features
So far as the sound system of the English language is concerned, we have SEGMENTALs--sounds broken into smallest units, called phonemes, including consonants and vowels, and SUPRA-SEGMENTALs (or PROSODIC FEATUREs) -- sounds that extend over longer stretches of spoken text, co-existing with the segmentals that occupy those stretches; such as syllable stress, rhythm, and intonation.
4.3.1 .1.1 Segmental features
Individual sounds can be stylistically significant in that:
1) Isolated sounds may reflect aspects of reality-- what we call ONOMA TOPOEIA or the use of words which 'imitate' natural sounds, like cuckoo for the bird that utters this cry, meow for a cat's cry, moo for sound made by a cow. In sentences like
The door banged open.
banged is used to imitate the noise with the opening of the door
Similarly
The actor was hissed off the stage.
The clock ticked away the minutes.
She clapped the book shut.
2) Certain sound clusters may relate to SOUND SYMBOLISM --sounds felt to be in some way appropriate to the meanings expressed. For instance, the initial sl - is often symbolic of 'slipperiness' in words like
slide, slide, slither, slush, sluice, sludge, sleak;
while- ash suggests violent impact in words like
bash, crash, smash and thrash .
3) ASSIMILATION (change of one sound into another at word boundaries in connected speech because of the influence of an adjacent sound) and ELISION (omission of sounds as in o'er,
4) Repetition of sounds may arouse the addressee's sensitivity to the sound quality of a text, which includes ALLITERA TION--repetition of the previous initial consonant; as in
R ound the r ock r uns the r iver.
ASSONANCE--repetition of the (stressed) vowel but with a different end consonant; as in sh ar per/g ar ter, pl ai n/pl a te; and RHYME--repetition of the vowel with the same end consonant, as in f eat /b eat /sw eet .
4.3.1 .1.2 Supra-segmental features
Distinctive features can mainly be found running over a sequence of sound segments. These features are supra-segmental features. Under this, we shall mainly discuss stress, rhythm and intonation; pitch height and pitch range; pause and tempo.
l) STRESS is the prominence (ie the force and intensity of air coming from the lung--loudness) given to one part of a word or longer utterance. Word stress is important in making a difference in meaning in word, compounds and phrases, as
'extract ----- ex'tract
'convert ------ con'vert
'permit ------ per'mit
'blackboard ------ black'board
'greenhouse ------ green 'house
'toy factory ------ toy ‘factory
Stress in connected speech is subject to the speaker's will and the meaning he/she wishes to convey, such as the use of contrastive stress which is capable of highlighting any word in a sentence, even a word or part of a word that is not usually stressed.
'Phil and 'Becky 'won the 'speech compe 'h ↘tition.
'Phil "and ↗Becky? How ↘could she?
She 'looked very 'happy at the ↘party.
But she seemed ↘unhappy to ↗me.
2) RHYTHM is the pattern formed by the stresses perceived as peaks of prominence or beats. In poetics we mark the stressed syllable with '--' and use ' √ ' for the unstressed syllable. Strongly stressed syllables occur at somewhat regular intervals of time, even in speech, eg
√ -----√ ---------- √ ------ √ ------ √ --------- √ ----- √ ------ √
In Scotland , Wales and Northern England , snow will fall on high ground.
In speech there are generally three types of rhythm: (a) a type which quires all or most of the content-words fully stressed and is pronounced in a rather leisurely and deliberate way; as in
I 'helped 'drivers to 'start their 'car after it had 'stopped ↘dead.
(b) a type which has some content-words unstressed and is pronounced in a rather brisk and lively
way; as in
‘Would you mind 'calling back ↗later?
(c) a type which requires only a few stresses for special prominence so as to convey a particular attitude or emphasis; as in
Don't waste 'your time and 'mine by getting me to ↘talk about it.
In verse, the regularity of rhythm is hightened:
√ -----√ -------√ ---- √ ----- √ ----
Around his tomb let Art and Genius weep
√ ------ √ -------- √ ------ √ --------- √ ---
But hear his death, ye blockhead! hear and sleep
-- Johnson, Vanity of Human Wishes
Pronounced regularity of rhythm is sometimes also found in prose works, for expressive or iconic effects. Dickens suggests the regularity of movement of a speeding train in Dombey and Son :
Through the hollow, on the height, by the heath, by the orchard, by the park, by the garden, over the canal, across the river, where the sheep are feeding, where the mill is going, where the barge is floating, where the dead are lying, where the factory is smoking, where the stream is running ... 3) INTONATION is the distinctive pattern of rise and fall in PITCH--the level of voice, high or low--taking place during connected speech. English is marked off into TONE UNITs- brief stretches usually corresponding to units of information. Each tone unit contains at least one syllable marked for pitch prominence. The syllable on which a change of pitch begins is called TONIC SYLLABLE. The first prominent syllable is the ONSET, commonly preceded by one or more unstressed syllables pronounced on a low pitch. Most significant is the final direction of pitch movement on the tonic syllable. There are five basic tones in English: fall ( ↘, rise ( ↗), moderate rise, fall-rise ( √ , and rise -fall. Different tones convey different meanings. Take 'Oh' for example: with a moderate rise, it may express initial receipt of information; with a falling pitch, disappointment; with a fast rising pitch, puzzlement; with a fall and then a rise, excitement; with a rise-fall, dismay.
For longer tone units, a fall at the end indicates completeness:
I'm leaving for Bei'jing the 'day after to ↘morrow.
'What's your' ↘name?
A rise at the end can indicate that our utterance is non-final or that we are leaving it open and inconclusive, as
↗One, ↗two, ↗three, ↗four, ↗five ....
'Are you 'leaving the 'day after to ↗morrow?
You're 'leaving al ↗ready?
Please 'sit ↗down.
A moderate rise is used to suggest that there is something more to come, as
He ↗left -- and 'never 'came ↘back.
The fall-rise occurs in doubtfully expressing a condition or with initial adverbials, as
I'll 'come if I have the √ time.
At √ last, they 'made a suc ↘cess.
The rise-fall is used to express a (genuine or sarcastic) warmth or a feeling of surprise, as
That's ↘marvellous.
He's a complete ↘fool.
Likewise, the same sentence would have different implicature if uttered in different tones:
You 'mustn't 'give her ↘anything to read.
(implied: She should read nothing.)
You 'mustn't 'give her √ anything to read.
(implied: She should read only those that are good for her.)
We rarely speak on one pitch level continuously; that would be monotonous. An overuse of rises will give an unintentional impression of diffidence or complaint, and too many falls can create an unwitting effect of impolite assertiveness.
Reading a written text implies selecting the appropriate tone and the most contrastive word. Different selections result in different interpretation. Normally, however, unless a piece of writing is marked for the tonic syllable (by capitalization or italicization in print, or underlining or otherwise in handwriting), or restricted by context, the tonic syllable probably falls on the last lexical word with a stress on it. To shift the tonic syllable forward would make some earlier item 'new' by contrast with whatever information came before. A poem springs to life, reveals new possibilities when read aloud by someone who understands what he/she is reading.
4) Pitch height and pitch range
Within a longer tone unit, most commonly there is a gentle stepping down in pitch level from syllable to syllable; as in
Against this expected pattern, variations stand out clearly. A step upwards in pitch ( ↑) or a marked step downwards (↓), can add to the feeling conveyed. Thus
When we 'learn to 'speak a 'foreign ↗language, …
can be changed to
When we 'learn to 'speak a ↑foreign ↗language,
with an emphasis on the word foreign. The point on the pitch scale at which a stressed syllable occurs in relation to the previous syllable is what we call PITCH HEIGHT.
The amount of pitch movement, likewise, has a normal range pattern. But with a wider range (marked as '"'), various attitudes (such as excitedness, warmth) can be shown. Compare:
Was it ↗my fault? (a regular question)
Was it √ my fault? (a rhetorical question)
This width of pitch movement on the tonic syllable or from stress to stress is called PITCH RANGE .
In speech fluctuation in pitch height and pitch range can involve the audience deeper in what is being conveyed and add to its dramatic effect.
5) PAUSE is the temporary stop or silence in the flow of speech utterance together with the tone unit. V oiced pause like/m/,/a:/,/am/ often shows the normal non-fluency of casual or spontaneous speech, or the speaker's signal that he or she is not yet through, or sometimes the speaker's hesitance or nervousness. Silent pause occurs regularly in line with grammatical structure: at the end of sentences or clauses, or word groups, or at the boundary between words (contrast I/scream with ice/cream). Yet it is also stylistically significant for some spoken varieties of English, when the speaker uses it to involve the audience deeper in what he/she is talking about, or when he/she is too excited. Public speaking, drama, and film lay heavy store by pauses. If we are to announce that Phil Burton won the first prize in a speech contest, then we can have a little pause (marked as -) before the mentioning of Phil's name:
The 'first 'prize has been 'won by - ↑Phil ↘Burton.
6) TEMPO refers to the relative speed of utterance. In most cases, one tends to speak at an approximately constant rate, but both syllables and longer stretches may be uttered with distinctive changes in speed to convey different meanings. A slow tempo is related to special care and seriousness whereas a fast tempo suggests an off-hand dismissal or cheerful levity. Also, when a speaker is excited or impatient, he/she tends to speak at a quicker tempo. When hesitant, doubtful or low-spirited, he/she tends to slow down. Thus the utterance
What did you tell her just now? See how upset she is!
may convey the anger and reproach of the speaker when said in a fast tempo, or his/her disappointment and pain when said in a slow tempo.
A good manipulation of pitch height, pitch range, pause and tempo is characteristic of those whose jobs are highly verbal in nature, such as actor/actress, radio/TV announcers, and teachers. Certain prosodic features will be more marked in some registers such as different kinds of sports commentary, though they are characteristic of all English spoken utterance.
4.3.1 .2 Graphological features
The graphological level concerns the use of the alphabet, the number system, punctuation, capitalization, headlining, italicizing, bracketing, diagramming, paragraphing, spacing, etc.
So far as the types used in printing are concerned, we have three kinds: roman, italic, bold, each having its capital, small capital and lower-case letter. The styles include Gothic, old style, modern
style, Egyptian style, sanserif, script, etc.
In this area, stylistics describes patterns of writing that assist in distinguishing varieties of language. Different registers make particular use of the graphological features: Size of print and capitalization in newspaper layouts; various type sizes and styles in dictionaries; placement of blocks in legal documents; special line lengths in poetry; different density of punctuation in different texts, etc. Much modem advertising employs type size and style, logos, spacing, white space, line-length rhythms, often blending pictures with graphological patterns, making its design an art.
In literature, experiment has been made with aspects of the written medium for expressive effects. This is especially true in poetry, where literary effect is based upon design in the visual field--the novelty in layout, manipulation of sense lines, or the clustering of alphabet symbols into non-verbal patterns.
--Emmett Williams
Unlike other poems that we can hear to understand, this is a poem we must see to understand. The pleasure in the poem comes from solving the visual problem: What is the pattern that produces the poem? The poem has a stripping effect like the stripping away of daisy-petals. Each subsequent repetition of the two base lines of the poem is diminished by one word. So we see that our lover becomes more and more at a loss for words and his mistress eventually prefers her own company. Read diagonally from the bottom left upward to the right, the remaining isolated words will form a statement: 'She loves me not.'
4- 3.2 Stylistic Features at the Second Level
The second level has two components grammar and lexis, each including different kinds of patterns. At this level, we shall discuss the possible significance of grammatical structure and the distribution of lexical items in a text.
4.3.2 . 1 Grammatical features
Under grammar, we shall mainly discuss sentence type, clause type, group type and word type.
4.3. 2 .1.1 Sentence type
Sentence type treats various kinds of sentences discussed in traditional terms: declarative, interrogative, imperative or exclamatory; simple, compound, complex or compound-complex; complete or elliptical. The stylistic analysis of sentence types may tell us such things as whether a
variety makes use of a particular type of sentence to the exclusion of others for instance, whether it uses only STATEMENTs (as in reports, journalism, science thesis), or it also uses QUESTIONs (as in conversation), COMMANDs (as in sermons). The analysis may also show us whether a text consists solely of SIMPLE SENTENCEs or of a high proportion of ELLIPTICAL SENTENCEs which is characteristic of informal speech or personal letters; whether it shows a preference for a particular kind of complex sentence pattern, as dependent clauses preceding the main clause called PERIODIC SENTENCE which is characteristic of writing rather than speech and of formal kinds of prose, as contrasted with LOOSE SENTENCE -- a complex sentence in which the main clause comes first, often found in speech or informal kinds of prose.
Further, the analysis may tell us whether there is any repetition of the same structural pattern -- called PARALLELISM, such as
Out of sight, out of mind.
He came, he saw, he conquered.
Parallelism with contrast is known as ANTITHESIS, as the opening of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities :
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...
and Benjamin Franklin's
Where there is marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.
Parallelism is a feature of prose styles and public oratory for emphasis. It is a striking feature in poetic language.
Also, the analysis may show us whether there is any question which does not expect an answer, since it really asserts something that is known to the addressee, and cannot be denied. This is called RHETORICAL QUESTION, as the last line of Shelley's Ode to the West Wind :
If winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
In public speaking, and in writings of political agitation, rhetorical questions are often employed as persuasive devices to appeal to the addressee's outburst of natural feelings, as Frederick Douglass' speech:
Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body?... Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is it a question for republicans?
And last of all, the analysis may reveal the average SENTENCE LENGTH in a text. Shorter sentences are often found in speech or on other informal occasions, such as advertising, news headlines, slogans, whereas longer sentences are used in writing or on other formal occasions such as science theses, official documents, formal speeches.
4.3.2 .1.2 Clause type
Clause type deals with main kinds of clauses: independent clauses, or dependent clauses; non-finite structures (infinitive/-ing/-ed structures); clause elements: S (subject), P (predicator), 0 (object), C (complement), A (adverbial). Stylistic analysis may tell us what types of dependent
clauses are favored in a text: relative, adverbial, nominal (that-/wh-); what types of non-finite structure are common; whether there is anything distinctive about the elements of structure: the proportion of nouns to verbs, frequency of objects, complements, adverbials, frequency of transitive verb constructions; whether there are any unusual orderings (fronting of object or complement, predicator before subject, initial adverbials), etc.
4.3.2 .1.3 Group type
Group type refers to various types of nominal groups and verbal groups. NOMINAL GROUPs consist of a noun, or pronoun, numeral, some non-finite or nominal structures operating as head with or without modification. There are two types of such groups: premodified nominal groups (head with premodification called modifier, as these six rough men ), postmodified nominal groups (head followed by postmodification called qualifier, as scholars from the west who arrived on Sunday ). VERBAL GROUPs consist of a lexical verb operating as head, with or without one or more auxiliaries preceding it, as in I shall have to go .
In terms of complexity of nominal groups, varieties are to be found which have hardly any PREMODIFICATION or POSTMODIFICATION at all (such as conversation); some are typified by complex premodification (such as journalism and science) and others by complex postmodificafion (such as legal document). V arious features of the verbal group relevant from a stylistic angle will indicate whether a variety is restricted in the TENSE FORMs it uses (as in commentary); whether it is restricted in the use of ASPECTUAL CONTRASTs (as the distinction between I go and I am going ); whether PASSIVE FORMs are frequent (as in some types of scientific writing); and whether CONTRACTED FORMs of the verb are common (as in casual conversation, advertising, or informal writing).
4.3.2 .1.4 Word type
Word type is discussable in terms of traditional morphology: root, prefix and suffix. Under this heading, we may note what distinctive types of word formation are there in a text: frequent COMPOUNDs (words consisting of two or more parts as childcare ), complex AFFIXA TION (a letter or sound added to the beginning of a word, called PREFIX, as un tie, or the end of a word, called SUFFIX, as kind ness ), deviant forms such as PORTMANTEAU words (words made by combining two words, as motel =motor + hotel), NONCE words (words coined for one occasion, as man-unkind ), CONVERSION (for instance, a noun changes into a verb, as 'Don't brother me '), PUNs (humorous use of words which sound the same or of two meanings of the same word; as in 'Is life worth living?' 'That depends on the liver ).
Distinction can he found between texts in which there are many deviant types of word formation as in advertising and news reporting and texts in which there are few of those types occurring as in legalese.
4- 3.2. 2 Lexical features
Under lexicology, we shall discuss the distinction of individual words in a text.
4. 3.2 .2.1 General wording inclination
We would note:
whether the vocabulary of a text is simple or complex (the complexity can be measured by the number of morphemes a word has, as un-friend-ly-ness has four morphemes, or simply by the number of syllables in a word, the more formal/informative a text is, the more complex its
vocabulary), descriptive (as a hardworking woman, an idealized place in narrative biography, travelogue, etc) or evaluative (as lady, bitch in reviews, well done in project or experiment assessments, there is no justification for.., in certain kinds of journalistic article, ere, where evaluation plays an important part and is built into the grammar and lexis), general or specific (as good food contrasted with tasty, nourishing, rich, fresh food );
whether there is any use of rare or specialized or Latinate vocabulary (words like hereinafter that occur in legal language, and acquired immunodeficieney syndrome (AIDS) in medicine); whether there are any idiomatic expressions associated with certain dialects or registers (for instance, many lexical idioms are clearly common in colloquial speech, as 'He's kicked the bucket '; many phrasal verb idioms like make up, do away with, turn on, get off with , etc, are often found in informal rather than formal varieties);
whether the nouns are abstract (as happiness, idea, punishment , and other words referring to events, perceptions, processes, moral qualities, social qualities, as found in Henry James' description of Mr Grant-Jackson in The Birth Place ), or concrete (as book, house, water and other words referring to concrete things or materials as found in Steinbeck's description of Tom-Joad in. The Grapes of Wrath );
whether the verbs are stative (referring to states of affairs like be, have, love, resemble, think, own, etc), or dynamic (referring to actions, events, etc, like rain, shine, drink, write, ripen, improve, flash, tap, catch, shoot, etc);
whether the adjectives and adverbs are frequent (as in advertising).
4.3.2 .2.2 Connotative meaning
In discussing the lexis of a text, we should also notice whether there are words with rich connotative meaning or heavy stylistic coloring. CONNOTATIVE MEANING refers to all kinds of associations words may evoke, particularly in certain emotional, situational contexts, over and above the basic or central referential meaning of words -- the latter called DENOTATIVE MEANING.
For example, home has a denotative meaning 'a dwelling place', but to many people it has connotations of 'domesticity'; rose has a connotation of love; red is associated with 'jubilation', also with 'revolution'; night and thunder connote 'evil' or 'mystery'; and stars 'steadfastness'.
Many words have a favorable meaning, many neutral, and many derogatory. This helps to distinguish apparent synonyms, as slim is complimentary, thin neutral, skinny derogatory; the same difference exists in plump--fleshy--fat, hound-- dog- cur , etc.
We must know, however, that there is an element of subjectivity involved: words may evoke different connotations to people of different nations, ethnic groups and other social background. For instance, white symbolizes 'purity' in the western countries, but is associated with 'funeral' in China .
In literature such 'second order' meanings are particularly exploited and expected. But in the register of science, and other technical or informative registers, associative meanings are suppressed with only the desired denotative meaning retained.
Foreign learners need to pay careful attention to the various situations in the target language use, either spoken or written, so that they will be conscious of the emotional effect of the wording they are using, whether formal or informal, respectful or condescending, friendly or hostile, subservient or gently teasing.
Many words have acquired stylistic coloring in their long time of use. Some words are colloquial,
to be used in intimate conversation, personal letters, etc, whereas others are literary, to be used in contracts, legal documents, formal letters, etc. SLANG (colloquial usage characteristic of some social dialects, see 5.6.1 & 6.2.2), ARCHAISM (which color a text with antiqueness, and hence solemnity, found in the language of liturgy like forthwith, ye, thou, takest , etc, or in legal language, like witnesseth, aforesaid etc, and especially in poetic language as maiden for gift, billows for sea, bough for branch, vernal for spring, etc), NEOLOGISM (often found in news reporting, scientific writings and popular literary writing, see 9.2.3 .3.3, 10.4.3.2 & 11.4.2.1), JARGON (chiefly used in science and technology, see 1x. 4.2.3 ), and ARGOT (related to certain groups of people such as thieves as do porridge, in stir for 'in prison', persuaders for 'daggers') all have stylistic coloring.
4.3.2 .2.3 Collocation
Special attention should be paid to collocation. COLLOCATION refers to the habitual or expected co-occurrence of words. The meaning of a word depends on its immediate context -- its nearby words which are its COLLOCA TEs. This context will permit some of the possible denotations and connotations, but rule out others, or make them less probable. The habitual collocation of voice with 'active' and 'passive'; mood with 'declarative', 'imperative' and 'interrogative'; and subject with 'predicator', distinguishes these three items in the English of linguistics from the 'voice' that is 'raised', the 'mood' that can be 'bad' or 'good' and the 'subject' of a discussion. Force, mass and energy in the English of physics have predicatable collocates which distinguish them from the 'force' that collocates with 'police' or 'third', the 'mass' that collocates with 'riot' and the 'energy' of a young man. Habitual collocations are a recognizable feature of registers, eg desirable residence in the ad; soaring prices in the press. Words having similar collocational range belong to the same LEXICAL SET. Study of the characteristic lexical sets of a literary text wiI1 help reveal its major theme.
4. 3- 3 Stylistic Features at the Third Level
The third level, the level of semantics, concentrates on how the cohesive devices, paragraphing, discourse patterning, rhetorical devices and role structures contribute to the meaning of the text as
a whole.
4.3.3 .1 Text as a semantic unit
A text is a stretch of language which forms a unity by reason of its linguistic COHESION (ie the means of linking sentences together into larger units) and semantic COHERENCE (ie natural or reasonable connection in content). In other words, a text both coheres in its real-world context and is internally coherent. It may be spoken or written. We naturally think of it as being realized in a string of utterances or sentences, such as a scientific article, a recipe, a poem, a lecture, though in fact even a single sentence or word can be a text that is appropriately coherent in actual use; a road-sign bearing the word 'STOP', which, tied to a specific situation (here, placed by the roadside), is syntactically complete in itself.
4.3.3 .2 Cohesion
What can be stylistically interesting about a text is the way language links within the text itself and with the situation --the various phonological, grammatical, lexical, semantic means of making sentences into paragraphs and chapters. The cohesive ties can be explicit or implicit. Implicit connectivity works best for sequence of events; as in
The policeman held up his hand. The car stopped.
and also for reason; as in
Go and visit your father; it's New Year's Day
Explicit connectivity, however, aids clarity and underlines the structure of an argument. It is common in all discourse types for dealing with relations other than the simply sequential. Roughly, there are three types of connectives:
l) The first type refers to TRANSITIONAL WORDs/PHRASEs, showing time, place, and causal relation. They include conjunctions, adverbial conjunctions, prepositional phrases and other elements; eg afterwards, then, firstly, finally, besides, moreover, but, however, though, therefore, thus, in conclusion, ~not, to sum up , etc. The importance of transitional words/phrases lies in the fact that they can best show the train of thought and the focus of meaning in the text.
2) The second type refers to grammatical devices: ellipsis, substitution and co-reference. ELLIPSIS, omission of an utterance or grammatical structure, is a common means of implicit cohesion, usefully avoiding unnecessary repetition; eg
You like swimming and Jane ( likes ) jogging.
SUBSTITUTION involves the replacement of one expression by another, which stands for it; eg I have a red pencil, and he has a blue one .
Substitution is also found with verbs (do) and clauses (so), involving ellipsis; eg
I went to the party and my sister did too.
You think she liked the party? -- I don't think so .
CO-REFERENCE describes the relations between two nominal groups that have the same reference, that is to say, identify the same thing. It is of often defined in terms of the means of referring to something elsewhere in the text--either already mentioned (ANAPHORA), or yet to come (CATAPHORA). Backward-reference is far commoner than forward-reference and is signalled by the third person pronouns and by the definite article or demonstratives; eg
The children next door stole a toy from my son. Their mother told them to return it , but they said it was theirs .
3) The third type refers to lexical reiteration. LEXICAL REITERA TION is a means of cohesion achieved through the repetition of key words, or through the use of synonyms, near-synonyms (as color is the superordinate for red, blue, yellow , etc) and general words (as use of working in place of chopping the wood, washing the clothes ) so that the theme of the text is highlighted. For instance,
I took leave, and turned to the ascent of the peak. The ascent/The ascension/ The climb/The task/The thing was perfectly easy.
Cohesion is very important in terms of stylistic function. Distinctiveness could be the frequent use of anaphora and ellipsis as in conversation; the frequent use of lexical repetition as in science articles or technical manual; the informal kind of transitional words/phrases (such as and, so, to start with, for another thing, on top of that, in any ease ) used in informal speech or colloquial style of writings versus the formal kind (such as however, consequently, firstly, secondly, furthermore, in conclusion ) used in formal speech or serious writings, etc.
4. 3.3 .3 Paragraphing
With the various cohesive devices sentences are connected into larger units: paragraphs. A paragraph concentrates on one aspect of the total theme. The division of a text into paragraphs helps bring out a clear picture of the organization of the thematic development. Each paragraph has one central idea and is complete in itself. Hence its independency. But as part of a coherent text, it is correlated with other paragraphs. It may be parallel to other paragraphs; it may be subordinate to a dominant paragraph or itself a dominant one.
Contrast can be found for instance in the linear structure used in conversation, personal letters, etc, and the hierarchical structure employed in science writing, etc.
Contrast can also be found in the use of specific patterns of paragraphing. Notice, for instance, the difference between the easy-for-reference sentence-like paragraphs employed in some news reportings and the section-like paragraphs used to show the relative importance of the sections into which the content is organized in some legal documents. (see lo.2 & m.2 respectively)
4.3.3 . 4 Discourse pattern
DISCOURSE, in its broad sense, refers not only to ordinary conversation and its context but also to written communications between writer and reader. In this sense, it is often used synonymously with TEXT.
Generally, different types of discourse have different ways of organization; similar types of discourse present ideas in similar patterns.
For instance, conversation has a pattern: opening sequences (For this, greetings are most common between acquaintances or for longer conversations between strangers; a stranger in the park would begin his/her talk with 'Excuse me, ...'); initiation-and-response sequences (turn-taking, usually adjacency pairs), as the following:
Ellie: What do they charge you for car insurance?
Ted: Two hundred bucks a year, but then there's a three-hundred-dollar deductible. Three hundred or one hundred -- I can't remember.
Ellie: Probably's one hundred, right?
Ted: Yeah, I think you're right. One hundred sounds right.
then closing sequences (with simple exchange of OK or Well, yeah to conclude the last topic, and arrangement of meeting at a later time, and then goodbye), as the following:
A: Okay, it's nice to see you again. I guess you'll be at Kathy's party tomorrow.
B: Yeah, I'll see you there.
A: See you then!
B: See ya.