Microsoft word - handoutsstylistics.doc

Handouts RZM, p. 1
Definitions of Stylistics:

ƒ “The study of style. … Style has to do with making CHOICES. (Turner) ƒ “The study of the way an author uses words and grammar as wel as other elements both within the sentence and within the text as a whole.” (Guerin, et al.) ƒ “That part of linguistics which concentrates on variation in the use of language, often, but not exclusively with attention to the most conscious and complex uses of language in literature.” (Turner) ƒ “The study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation. (Widdowson)
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Disciplines: Linguistics
Stylistics

Subjects: Language
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Some useful concepts in Stylistics:
FOREGROUNDING – emphasis on a textual feature; may be achieved through
unusual or strange col ocations, meaningful repetitions, contrast, deliberate deviation from the norms/rules/conventions
COLLOCATION – the co-occurrence of certain words
REFERENCE vs. REPRESENTATION – Reference is the indexical function of
language, pointing to different aspects of reality. Representation is manipulating language to stand for an experience/situation.
DIEGESIS & MIMESIS – Diegesis is telling/narrating; mimesis is showing
COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE - According to Grice, people can engage in meaningful
extended conversation because, under normal conditions, the interlocutors observe
certain principles, which he calls the four conversational maxims. The maxim of
Quantity exhorts speakers to “make [their] contribution as informative as is required for
the current purpose of the exchange”; the maxim of Quality upholds the value of
truth/sincerity; the maxim of Relation insists on the relevance of contributions to the
conversation; and the maxim of Manner refers to the avoidance of obscurity of
expression and ambiguity, and to be orderly (Pratt, 1977, pp. 129-130).

SPEECH ACT – The theory that “many utterances are significant not so much in terms of
what they say, but rather in terms of what they do” (Sullivan, et al., 1994, p. 293). Handouts RZM, p. 2

Diegesis & Mimesis in Speech & Thought Representation (From Rimmon-
Keenan, 2002):
1) Diegetic
Summary – bare report that a speech act has occurred When Charley got a little gin inside him he started telling war yarns for the first time in his life. Summary, less ‘purely diegetic – summary w/c to some degree represents, not merely mentions, a speech event in that it names the topics of conversation. He stayed till late in the evening telling them about miraculous conversions of unbelievers, extreme unction on the firing line, a vision of the young Christ he’d seen walking among the wounded in a dressing station during a gas attack. Indirect content paraphrase/Indirect Discourse (ID) – paraphrase of content of speech event, ignoring style or form of original utterance The waiter told him that Carranza’s troops had lost Torreon and that Vil a and Zapata were closing in on the Federal Dist. ID, mimetic to some degree – ID w/c creates the illusion of ‘preserving’ or reproducing aspects of style of an utterance, beyond mere report of its content When they came out Charley said by heck he though he wanted to go up to Canada & enlist & go over & see the Great War. Free Indirect Discourse (FID) – grammatically & mimetically bet. ID & Direct Discourse. FID resembles ID in person & tense, while it resembles DD in not being strictly subordinate to a ‘higher’ verb of saying/thinking, and in deictic elements, the word-order of questions, and the admissibility of various DD features. Why the hell shouldn’t they know, weren’t they off’n her and out to see the goddam town and he’d better come along. Direct Discourse (DD) – A quotation, creates the illusion of ‘pure’ mimesis, although it is stylized in one way or another Fainy’s head suddenly got very light. Bright boy, that’s me, ambition and literary taste …. Gee, I must finish Looking Backward … and jez, I like reading fine, an’ I could run a linotype or set up print if anybody’d let me. Fifteen bucks a week … pretty soft, ten dollars’ raise. Handouts RZM, p. 3
Break, Break, Break
That he shouts with his sister at play! And the sound of a voice that is still! But the tender grace of a day that is dead When You are Old and Gray
An awful debility, a lessened utility, A loss of mobility is a strong possibility. In all probability I’ll lose my virility, And you your fertility and desirability. And this liability of total sterility Will lead to hostility and sense of futility. So let’s act with agility while we still have facility, For we’ll soon reach senility and lose the ability. Much Madness is Divinest Sense
Handouts RZM, p. 4
PASILYO 8
One day along Pasilyo 8, in an entresuelo that passed for home for Bianong and Estela, for Ikong, Tenteng and Miniang and the baby called Biik, one day the katsa curtains shut out the sky. Bianong touched a lapad to his lips, and the baby cried from hunger, and Ikong was terrified of his father, and Tenteng and Miniang lay as still as death, and Estela, and Estela, and Estela . Somewhere in the morning a radio came to life, and Aling Upe a door away was berating her Sigue-Sigue-Sputnik son, and still farther on, the puto vendor was singing, Puuuuuuuuto! Itoy Bayag, the kubrador, was collecting the early bets for Jai-alai, working his way down from the far end of the Pasilyo, and at exactly 12 noon, he was going to poke his head through the door to ask if Bianong had any sondo to bet with, which was not likely, and also to see if by any chance Estela was not wearing anything under her cotton shift. Bianong touched the lapad to his lips. A fly buzzed and alighted on his arm, and he banged the table with his fist. The baby cried harder, and Ikong cringed, and Tenteng and Miniang lay unmoving. Handouts RZM, p. 5
The morning reeled in Bianong’s mind, and reeled before his eyes, and he was growing more irritated because it would not stand still long enough for him to think, and how could a man think clearly in all this when there was no milk for Biik and not even any aspirin for Tenteng and Miniang? Poor Bianong, poor Estela, poor Ikong, and Biik, and Tenteng and Miniang. Poor Estela who had to work all night so her family could eat, and Bianong, ay, what a burden he was the lazy carabao. The fishwives clucked their tongues, and straddled the edge of his vision, safely beyond reach, mocking him. Bianong touched the lapad to his lips then shook his fist at them. He wanted to kill them, kill them, kill, kill them, but Pareng Isko merely laughed. Look, Pare, hahaha, they are only envious of you. He slapped his knee and winked at Mareng Estela when she emerged with a platter of pinapaitang aso, and winked at Pareng Bianong as they touched their lapads together, Pareng Isko saying, “tagay,” and Bianong saying, “tagay,” and when their Marka Demonyo was empty, he called Ikong and sent him out to Aling Upe’s for more. From: Hills Like White Elephants
(77) “I don’t feel any way,” the girl said. “I just know things.” (78) “I don’t want you to do anything that you don’t want to do--” (79) “Nor that isn’t good for me,” she said. “I know. Could we have another beer?” (80) “All right. But you’ve got to realize--” (81) “I realize,” the girl said. “Can’t we maybe stop talking? They sat down at the table and the girl looked across at the hil s on the dry side of the valley and the man looked at her and the table. (82) “You’ve got to realize,” he said, “that I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want to. I’m perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you.” (83) “Doesn’t it mean anything to you? We could get along.” (84) “Of course it does. But I don’t want anybody but you. I don’t want any one else. (85) “Yes, you know it’s perfectly simple.” (86) “It’s all right for you to say that, but I do know it.” (87) “Would you do something for me now?” (88) “I’d do anything for you.” (89) “Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?”

Source: http://www.dlsud.edu.ph/forms/llc/HandoutsStylistics.pdf