Stylistics: Past, Present, and Back to Front

Paul Simpson, Lyon, 2008.

Introductory remarks . . .

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‘mon accent d’irlande du nord . . .’

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Collapse of ‘pull’ – ‘pool’ distinction: ‘The pool was full of fools’

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Marked centralised diphthong in ‘house’ and ‘mouse’: ‘No doubt there’s a handout about’

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An [ie] sound in closed segments like ‘wait’ and ‘plate’: ‘There are eight plates on the grate’

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Historic postvocalic /r/ invariably present.

Derry / Londonderry, c. 1974

What is Stylistics?

• The application of techniques and concepts in modern linguistics to [literary] texts. Such linguistic analysis is used as a means of gaining new insights into a work, and as a way of supporting one’s intuitive responses to a work.

The Six Good Reasons . . .

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heuristic: critical: a way of discovering more about the structure and function of language; looking at what writers do is a good way of finding out about language.

the literary-interpretative function; looking at language is good way of finding out about what writers are doing.

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generic: a way of comparing different genres and registers

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intersubjective: empirical techniques; shared “metalanguage”; stylistics as empowering tool to support experience of reading.

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pedagogical: stylistic analysis: not only text-orientated, but teaching orientated.

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linguistic: testing ground for theories and constructs in linguistics; highlights “norms” of communication.

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Directions in Stylistics

‘Traditional’ Stylistics and its influences

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Literary stylistics vs. Linguistic stylistics

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‘Core’ language models: lexico-grammar, metrics, phonology, semantics, graphology . . ..

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Systemic-Functional Stylistics

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Transitivity, cohesion, modality . . .

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Narrative Stylistics

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Discourse Stylistics

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Corpus Stylistics

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Cognitive Stylistics / Poetics

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Sociolinguistic Stylistics?

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Applications of stylistic techniques: non-literary discourse

6 4 2 0 14 12 10 8

Recent trends: Language and Literature

Publications by National Source, vol 16 UK Eur (non-UK) N. America Far East Africa Asia Near east Australasia S. America

10 9 8 2 1 0 7 6 5 4 3

Recent trends: Language and Literature

Publications by Stylistic Theme CDA / non-lit stylistics Corpus Stylistics S&T presentation Sociolinguistics CogPo Narratology Translation Metrics Prag/DA Grammar SI 1 Blending SI 2 F'grounding SI 3 PedSty

Grammar, graphology and perceptual strategies

Why bother where I went for I went spinning on the four wheels of my car along the wet road until I saw a girl with one leg over the rail of a balcony (William Carlos Williams)

Stylistics back to front: from traditional pedagogical stylistics to ‘Cogpo’

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“You know a word by the company it keeps.” (J.R. Firth)

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Cloze procedure: Language teaching and creative writing.

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Lexical semantics: Dolour, Theodore Roethke.

Dolour

Lonely reception room, lavatory, switchboard,

Dolour I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils , Neat in their boxes , dolour of pad and paperweight , All the misery of manila folders and mucilage , Desolation in immaculate public places .

Lonely reception room , lavatory , switchboard , The unalterable pathos of basin and pitcher , . . .

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Issues in Cognitive Poetics: Metaphor

Metaphor: a process of mapping between two different conceptual domains. The different domains are known as the target domain and the construction. source domain. The target domain is the topic or concept that you want to describe through the metaphor while the source domain refers to the concept that you draw upon in order to create the metaphorical

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Thus, for: She really blew her lid.

the metaphor as a whole can represented, using the standard notation of small capital letters, by the formula: ANGER IS A HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER

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Consider: Talk about letting off steam . . . She really blew her lid, I mean really blew her top. She just exploded!

Common conceptual metaphors

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LIFE IS A JOURNEY

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He has no direction in life We are at a crossroads She’ll certainly go places Don’t let anyone get in your way

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IDEAS ARE MONEY

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Let me put in my two cents worth The book is a real treasure trove The essay's rich in ideas It’s a wealth of information

Concretisation

IDEAS ARE FOOD: “I can’t stomach that idea”, “Your theory’s half-baked”, “His story is pretty hard to swallow”. abstract target domain (IDEAS) physical source domain (FOOD)

Novelty in metaphor

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Novelty as a feature of metaphor (in literature)

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In literature, metaphors are typically more novel typically less clear (Kövecses 2002: 43). and

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Novelty:

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the newness or uniqueness of a conceptual mapping between a source and target domain

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a striking method of expression which a writer uses to relay a metaphor.

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Back to Roethke: PEOPLE ARE OFFICE FURNITURE

Abstract storyline PLOT

Narrative Stylistics

Represented storyline Domain in stylistics DISCOURSE Textual medium Sociolinguistic code Characterisation 1: actions and events Characterisation 2: point of view Textual structure Intertextuality

Characterisation 1: Actions and Events

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The experiential function (Halliday): language used to represent the “goings on” of the physical or abstract world, to represent patterns of experience in spoken and written texts.

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Transitivity: the particular grammatical system used for capturing experience in language.

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Transitivity refers to the way meanings are encoded in the clause and to the way different types of process are represented in language.

Narrative Stylistics and Transitivity

Her right hand skimmed lightly the end of the table, and when she had passed on towards the sofa the carving knife had vanished without the slightest sound from the side of the dish. Mr. Verloc heard the creaky plank in the floor, and was content. [. . .] The knife was already planted in his breast. (Joseph Conrad The Secret Agent; see Kennedy in Carter (1982)

Characterisation 2: Point of View

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Point of view (or Focalisation): the "angle of telling" or viewing position adopted in a story. It encompasses authorial omniscience; a persona's version of events; the perspective of a single character. The entity whose view of events is represented is called the Reflector .

‘He rested his arms on the top of the wall and looked down the fifty feet or so to the tumbling white waters. Just upstream, the river Loran piled down from the forest in a compactly furious cataract. The spray was a taste. Beneath, the river surged round the piers of the viaduct that carried the railway on towards Lochgilpead and Gallanach.

A grey shape flitted silently across the view, from falls to bridge, then zoomed, turned in the air and swept into the cutting on the far bank of the river, as though it was a soft fragment of the train's steam that had momentarily lost its way and was not hurrying to catch up. He waited a moment, and the owl hooted once, from inside the dark constituency of the forest . . .’ (Iain Banks The Crow Road)

Voice in Narrative: Speech and Thought Presentation

She didn’t answer any of his other questions in the way that he [Ugwu] had expected, there were no energetic gestures, no sharp wit in her answers: yes, they had the wine carrying just before the vandals occupied the village. Onyeka was well; he had gone to the farm. They did not have children yet. She looked away often, as if she felt uncomfortable sitting with him, and Ugwu wondered if he had imagined the easy bond they had shared.

[From:

Half of a Yellow Sun

, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie]

Free Indirect Discourse in First Person Narration . . . I had nothing going for me. I was only Paula Spencer because of him. It was the only thing I was. People knew me because of him. We had the house because of him. I was there because he looked at me and proved it. One nice look could wipe out everything. I loved him with all my heart. I could never leave him. He needed me . . .

. . . He told me so, again and again. I was everything to him.

(Roddy Doyle, The Woman who Walked into Doors)

FOCALISATION IN FILM AND FICTION: AN EXAMPLE FROM CAL

Sociolinguistic Code

PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE VARIATION: DIALECT - defined according to user DIATYPE - defined according to use (register). DIALECT vs. ACCENT, where: Dialect = differences in grammar and vocabulary Accent = varieties of pronunciation EXTREME SOCIAL DIALECTS: ‘Antilanguages’

Antilanguages (Halliday)

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Developed by ‘anti-societies’ (subcultures) as a conscious alternative to dominant culture. An antilanguage is a language of social conflict – of passive resistance or active opposition.

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Antilanguages are re-lexicalized versions of the over-language: they give new names to things. They are also over-lexicalized: lots of terms for things important to the subculture. Calcutta Underworld Language: 41 words for police officers; 21 words of different types of bomb.

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There is a long established history of antilanguages (Elizabethan ‘Pelting Speech’) especially in urban contexts ( Cockney Rhyming Slang and its Parisian French equivalent Verlan ).

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‘Adam and Eve’ ‘China Plate’ ‘Hank Marvin’

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voiture musique flic Believe Mate Starving → → → turevoi siquemu keufli ‘I don't bloody Adam and Eve it!’ ‘How are you, me old China?’ ‘I'm Hank’ → keuf

Some Cognitive Perspectives on Narrative

Extract from the “Hades” episode of James Joyce’s

Ulysses

: Whores in Turkish graveyards. Learn anything if taken young. You might pick up a young widow here. Men like that. Love among the tombstones. Romeo. Spice of pleasure. In the midst of death we are in life. Both ends meet. Tantalizing for the poor dead. Smell of frilled beefsteaks to the starving gnawing their vitals. Desire to grig people. Molly wanted to do it at the window. Eight children he has anyway.

(Penguin edn., p.110)

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) Whores in Turkish graveyards.

Learn anything if taken young.

You might pick up a young widow here.

Men like that.

Love among the tombstones.

Romeo.

Spice of pleasure.

In the midst of death we are in life.

Both ends meet.

Tantalizing for the poor dead.

Smell of frilled beefsteaks to the starving gnawing their vitals.

Desire to grig people.

Molly wanted to do it at the window.

Eight children he has anyway.

Counterfactuals in Narrative . . . It took exactly four hours to paint the Broussard, and even then I took more care than Dominique had done. Being Magna, it dried fast and I was soon able to spray it with a solution of sugar and water [. . .] ‘Here’s the Broussard, toots,’ Milton Hesse would say to Jane Threadwell. ‘I know it’s crap, baby, but it has some historical value, and anyway the family wants it cleaned.’ Something like that . . . (Peter Carey, Theft)

Attitude to present reality Positive Positive Negative Negative Attitude to counterfactual world Positive Negative Positive Negative

DISCOURSE STYLISTICS

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Organisation of language above the level of the sentence; larger linguistic units. Pragmatics and discourse analysis.

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Specific sense (in linguistics): conversational exchanges; verbal interaction; connected spoken or written texts.

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General sense: language in context.

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Focus:

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Discourse Structure (axis of chain): the linear progression of discourse as a series of exchanges and transactions along a horizontal axis.

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Discourse Strategy (axis of choice): the selection of specific interactive tactics from a pool of available tactics; a vertical axis of possibilities which intersects the horizontal axis of structure.

Strategy continua: Grice, Brown and Levinson, and Sperber and Wilson Indirect High Effort?

Implicatures Politeness Weak Relevance Direct Maxims Followed strategy Impoliteness Strong Relevance inferencing Low Effort?

More (Discourse) Stylistics, Back to Front

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Setting 1

: A chance encounter between two middle-aged strangers at a bench in a public park. •

Setting 2

: An eight-year old child in conversation with her father’s adult friend whom she has met for the first time.

“I’ve been to the zoo. I said, I’ve been to the zoo. MISTER, I’VE BEEN TO THE ZOO!”

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Setting 3

: A doctor engaged in a diagnosis of a patient’s illness.

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prosthesis lung cancer cancer of the mouth doctor jaw

Setting 1

:

Setting 2

:

Setting 3

: middle-aged strangers eight-year-old child doctor

JERRY: PETER: JERRY: I’ve been to the zoo. [PETER doesn’t notice.] I said, I’ve been to the zoo. MISTER, I’VE BEEN TO THE ZOO!

Hm? . . . What? . . . I’m sorry, were you talking to me?

I went to the zoo, and then I walked until I came here. Have I been walking north? PETER: [puzzled]: North? Why . . . I . . . I think so. Let me see.

JERRY: [pointing past the audience]: Is that Fifth Avenue?

PETER: Why, yes; yes, it is.

JERRY: PETER: JERRY: And what is that cross street there; that one, to the right?

That? Oh that’s Seventy-fourth Street.

And the zoo is around Sixty fifth Street; so I’ve been walking north.

PETER: [anxious to get back to his reading]: Yes, it would seem so.

JERRY: Good old north.

PETER: [lightly, by reflex]: Ha, ha.

JERRY: PETER: [after a slight pause]: But not due north.

I . . . well no, not due north; but, we . . . call it north. It’s northerly. JERRY: [watches as PETER, anxious to dismiss him, prepares his pipe]: Well, boy; you’re not going to get lung cancer, are you? PETER: [looks up, a little annoyed, then smiles]: No, sir. Not from this. JERRY: No, sir. What you’ll probably get is cancer of the mouth and then you’ll have to wear one of those things Freud wore after they took one whole side of his jaw away. What do they call those things? PETER: [uncomfortable]: A prosthesis? JERRY: The very thing! A prosthesis. You’re an educated man, aren’t you? Are you a doctor?

PETER: Oh, no; no. I read about it somewhere: Time magazine, I think. [ …] JERRY: Well, Time magazine isn’t for blockheads. PETER: No, I suppose not.

Dialogue, Discourse and Father Ted.

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The case of Father Jessop: “the most sarcastic priest in Ireland”.

What is the pragmatic formula for “sarcasm”? During the videos, watch how Mrs. Doyle encounters Father Jessop’s “wit”. In terms of the linguistic-pragmatic formula for sarcasm, how do Fr. Jessop’s strategies come unstuck?

Dialogue, Discourse and Father Ted. Fr. Ted: Hello Father Jessop, helping Bishop Brennan then?

Fr. Jessop: No, I’m up in space doing important work for NASA

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Fr. Ted: Nasty day, did you come by the new road?

Fr. Jessop: No, we came round by Southern Yemen.

Sarcastic or literal?

Mrs Doyle: Would you like a cup of tea?

Jessop: No, we’ll just die of thirst!

Mrs Doyle: (confused) OK, so.

Father Ted:Mrs Doyle, uhmm, I think Father Jessop was being a bit sarcastic.

Mrs Doyle: What! Were you being sarcastic, Father?

Jessop: No, we want to die of thirst.

Father Ted: I know it’s a bit confusing . . . just do the opposite of what Father Jessop says. Mrs Doyle: So, you really do want a cup of tea? Fr Jessop: (exasperated) Yes!

Mrs Doyle: (knowingly; snatches cup of tea away).

Retribution in discourse?

Reading

Bex. A., Burke, M. and Stockwell, P. (eds) (2000)

Contextualised Stylistics

Rodopi. Carter, R. (ed.) (1982)

Language and Literature: An Introductory Reader in Stylistics

Allen Unwin.

Carter, R. and Simpson, P.(eds.) (1989)

Language, Discourse and Literature: A Reader in Discourse Stylistics

Unwin Hyman.

Carter, R. and Nash, W. (1990)

Seeing Through Language

Blackwell.

Carter, R. and Stockwell, P.(eds.) (2008)

The Language and Literature Reader

Routledge.

Cook, G. (1994)

Discourse and Literature

Oxford University Press.

Culpeper, J. (2001)

Language and Characterisation

Longman.

Culpeper, J., Short, M. and Verdonk, P. (eds.) (1998)

Exploring the Language of Drama: From Text to Context

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Emmott, C. (1997)

Narrative Comprehension

Oxford University Press. Fowler, R. (1981

) Literature as Social Discourse

Batsford.

Fowler, R. (1986)

Linguistic Criticism

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Freeman, D. C. (ed.) (1981)

Essays in Modern Stylistics

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Gavins, J. and Steen, G. (eds) (2002)

Cognitive Poetics in Practice

Routledge Goatly, A. (1995)

The Language of Metaphors

Routledge. Kovesces, Z. (2003)

Metaphor

Oxford University Press.

Leech, G. N. (1969)

A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry

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Leech, G. N. and Short, M. (1981)

Style in Fiction

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Reading contd.

Montgomery, M., Durant, A., Fabb, N., Furniss,T. and Mills, S. (1992)

Ways of Reading

Routledge Semino, E. (1997)

Language and World Creation in Poems . . .

Longman.

Short, M. (ed.) (1989)

Reading, Analysing and Teaching Literature

Longman.

Short, M. (1996)

Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose

Longman.

Simpson, P. (1993)

Language, Ideology and Point of View

Routledge.

Simpson, P. (1997)

Language through Literature

Routledge.

Simpson, P. (2004)

Stylistics

Routledge.

Stockwell, P. (2002)

Cognitive Poetics

Routledge.

Toolan, M. (1988)

Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction

Routledge.

Traugott, E. C. and Pratt, M. L. (1980)

Linguistics for Students of Literature

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Harcourt Brace Toolan, M. (1998)

Language in Literature

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Verdonk, P. (2002)

Stylistics

Oxford University Press.

Wales, K. (1989)

A Dictionary of Stylistics

Longman.

Weber, J. J. (ed.) (1996)

The Stylistics Reader

Edward Arnold.

Verdonk, P. (ed.) (1993)

Twentieth-Century Poetry: From Text to Context

London: Routledge.

Verdonk, P. and Weber, J. J. (1995)

Twentieth-Century Fiction: From Text to Context

London: Routledge.

Wales, K. (1992)

The Language of James Joyce

MacMillan.

Widdowson, H. G. (1975)

Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature

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Widdowson, H. (1992)

Practical Stylistics

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