Passage to India Analysis

Stylistics (literature) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This articles timbreor style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone utilise on Wikipedia. See Wikipediasguide to writing better articlesfor suggestions. (October 2010) Stylisticsis the study and interpretation of texts from a polyglotic perspective. As a discipline it linksliterary criticismandlinguistics, but has no autonomous domain of its own. 12The preferred object of stylistic studies isliterature, but not exclusively high literature but too other forms of written texts such(prenominal) as text from the domains ofadvertising,pop culture,politicsorreligion. 3 Stylistics also acts to establish principles capable of explaining the varyicular choices do by individuals and sociable groups in their wasting disease of style, such associalisation, the production and reception ofmeaning, criticaldiscourse analysisandliterary criticism.Other features of stylistics include the use ofdialogue, including regionalaccentsand peoplesdialects, descriptive voice communication, the use ofgrammar, such as theactive voiceorpassive voice, the distribution ofsentencelengths, the use of particularlanguage muniments, 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.Contentshide * 1Early twentieth century * 2Late twentieth century * 3literary stylistics * 3. 1Poetry * 3. 2Implicature * 3. 3Tense * 3. 4The point of poetry * 4See also * 5Notes * 6References and related reading * 7External links - editEarly twentieth century The analysis of literary style goes back toClassical rhetoric, but groundbreaking stylistics has its roots inRussian Formalism,4and the relatedPrague School, in the early twentieth century. In 1909,Charles BallysTraite de tylistique franca isehad proposed stylistics as a distinct academic discipline to complementSaussureanlinguistics. For Bally, Saussures linguistics by itself couldnt fully describe the language of personal expression. 5Ballys programme fitted well with the aims of the Prague School. 6 Building on the ideas of the Russian Formalists, the Prague School developed the concept offoregrounding, whereby poetic language stands reveal from the background of non-literary language by means ofdeviation(from the norms of everyday language) orparallelism. 7According to the Prague School, the background language isnt fixed, and the relationship between poetic and everyday language is always shifting. 8 - editLate twentieth century Roman Jakobsonhad been an active member of the Russian Formalists and the Prague School, before emigrating to America in the 1940s. He brought together Russian Formalism and AmericanNew Criticismin hisClosing Statementat a conference on stylistics atIndiana Universityin 1958. 9Published as linguistics and Poeticsin 1960, Jakobsons lecture is often credited with being the first coherent formulation of stylistics, and his argument was that the study of poetic language should be a sub-branch of linguistics. 10Thepoetic functionwas one of six generalfunctions of languagehe described in the lecture. Michael Hallidayis an important figure in the development of British stylistics. 11His 1971 studylinguistic Function and Literary Style An Inquiry into the Language of William Goldings The Inheritorsis a key essay. 12One of Hallidays contributions has been the use of the termregisterto explain the connections between language and its context. 13For Halliday register is distinct fromdialect. Dialect refers to the habitual language of a particular user in a specific geographical or social context. Register describes the choices made by the user,14choices which depend on three variablesfield(what the participants are actually engaged in doing, for instance, discussing a specifi c subject or topic),15tenor(who is taking part in the exchange) andmode(the use to which the language is being put).Fowler comments that different fields produce different language, most obviously at the level ofvocabulary(Fowler. 1996, 192) The linguistDavid Crystalpoints out that Hallidays tenor stands as a roughly equivalent term for style, which is a more specific alternative used by linguists to avoid ambiguity. (Crystal. 1985, 292) Hallidays third category,mode, is what he refers to as the symbolic organisation of the situation. Downes recognises 2 distinct aspects within the category of mode and suggests that not exactly does it describe the relation to the medium written, spoken, and so on, but also describes thegenreof the text. Downes. 1998, 316) Halliday refers to genre as pre-coded language, language that has not simply been used before, but that predetermines the excerption of textual meanings. The linguistWilliam Downesmakes the point that the principal characterist ic of register, no matter how peculiar or diverse, is that it is obvious and immediately recognisable. (Downes. 1998, 309) - editLiterary stylistics InThe Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, Crystal observes that, in practice, most stylistic analysis has attempted to deal with the complex and valued language within literature, i. . literary stylistics. He goes on to say that in such examination the scope is some convictions narrowed to concentrate on the more striking features of literary language, for instance, its deviant and abnormal features, rather than the broader structures that are found in whole texts or discourses. For eccentric, the compact language of poetry is more likely to reveal the secrets of its construction to thestylisticianthan is the language of plays and novels. (Crystal. 1987, 71). editPoetryAs well as conventional styles of language in that location are the unconventional the most obvious of which ispoetry. InPractical Stylistics,HG Widdowsonexamines the traditional form of theepitaph, as found on headstones in a cemetery. For example His memory is dear today As in the hour he passed away. (Ernest C. Draper Ern. Died 4. 1. 38) (Widdowson. 1992, 6) Widdowson makes the point that such sentiments are usually not very enkindle and suggests that they may even be dismissed as crude verbal carvings and crude verbal disturbance (Widdowson, 3).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 formulaicphraseologybut in where it appears. The verse may be given undue reverence exactly 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. Widdowson. 1992, 4) Two problems with a stylistic analysis of poetry are noted byPM WetherillinLiterary 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. (Wetherill. 1974, 133) 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. (Wetherill. 1974, 133) editImplicatureIn Poetic Effects fromLiterary Pragmatics, thelinguistAdrian Pilkingtonanalyses the idea of implicature, as instigated in the previous work ofDan SperberandDeirdre 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 emphatically implied by the speaker or writer, while weaker implicatures are the wider possibilities of meaning that the hearer or reviewer may conclude.Pilkingtons poetic effects, as he terms the concept, are those that achieve most relevance through a wide soldiery 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 readers conjecture of meaning diverge remains highly subjective. As Pilkington says there is no clear cut-off point between assumptions which the speaker for certain endorses and assumptions derived purely on the hearers responsibility. (Pilkington. 991, 53) In addition, the stylistic qualities of poetry can be seen as an accompaniment to Pilkingtons poetic effects in understanding a poems meaning. editTense Widdowson points out that inSamuel Taylor Coleridges poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), the mystery of the Mariners abrupt appearance is free burning by an idiosyncratic use of tense. (Widdowson. 1992, 40) For instance, the Mariner holds the wedding-guest with his skinny hand in thepresent tense, but releases it in thep ast tense( his hands dropt he. ) only to hold him again, this time with his glittering eye, in the present. Widdowson. 1992, 41) editThe point of poetry Widdowson notices that when the content of poetry is summarised, it often refers to very general and unimpressive observations, such as nature is fine-looking love is great life is lonely time passes, and so on. (Widdowson. 1992, 9) But to say Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes zip to their end William Shakespeare, 60. 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(1633)This language gives uswho? a upstart perspective on familiar themes and allows us to look at them without the personal or social conditioning that we unconsciously associate with them. (Widdowson. 1992, 9) So, although wewho? may still use the same exhausted words and vague terms like love, heart and soul to refer to human experience, to p lace these words in a new and refreshing context allows the poet the ability to represent humanity and communicate honestly. This, in part, is stylistics, and this, according to Widdowson, is the point of poetry (Widdowson. 1992, 76).