Stylistics of language and speech

One of the fundamental concepts of linguistics is the dichotomy of «language and speech» (langue—parole) introduced by F. de Saussure. According to it language is a system of elementary and complex signs-phonemes, morphemes, words, word combinations, utterances and combinations of utterances. Language as such a system exists m human minds only and linguistic forms or units can be systematise" into paradigms.

1.2. Stylistics of language and speech

language is a mentally organised system of linguistic units. An ^ъ0.. _aj speaker never uses it. When we use these units we mix

m in acts of speech. As distinct from language speech is not relv mental phenomenon, not a system but a process of combining these linguistic elements into linear linguistic units that are called syntagmatic.

The result of this process is the linear or syntagmatic combination of vowels and consonants into words, words into word-combinations and sentences and combination of sentences into texts. The word «syntagmatic» is a purely linguistic term meaning a coherent sequence of words (written, uttered or just remembered).

StyUstics is a branch of linguistics that deals with texts, not with the system of signs or process of speech production as such. But within these texts elements stylistically relevant are studied both syntagmatically and paradigmatically (loosely classifying all stylistic means paradigmatically into tropes and syntagmatically into figures of speech).

Eventually this brings us to the notions of stylistics of language and stylistics of speech. Their difference lies in the material studied. the stylistics of language analyses permanent or inherent stylistic roperties of language elements while the stylistics of speech studies stylistic properties, which appear in a context, and they are called adherent.

word'' ^WOrds '^{ike тол}мач, штудировать, соизволять or English these ^prevaricate' comprehend, lass are bookish or archaic and of the^^{6 the}'^{r inherent} Properties. The unexpected use of any ProperT ^W°^rdS '" ^{3 modem context wil}> be an adherent stylistic

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics

So stylistics of language describes and classifies the inherent styli_sti_c colouring of language units. Stylistics of speech studies the compost, tion of the utterance—the arrangement, selection and distribution of different words, and their adherent qualities.

Types of stylistic research and branches of stylistics

Literary and linguistic stylistics

According to the type of stylistic research we can distinguish literary stylistics and lingua-stylistics. They have some meeting points or links in that they have common objects of research. Consequently they have certain areas of cross-reference. Both study the common ground of:

1) the literary language from the point of view of its variability;

2) the idiolect (individual speech) of a writer;

3) poetic speech that has its own specific laws.

The points of difference proceed from the different points of analysis. While lingua-stylistics studies

• Functional styles (in their development and current state).

• The linguistic nature of the expressive means of the language, their systematic character and their functions.

Literary stylistics is focused on

• The composition of a work of art.

Types of stylistic research and branches of stylistics

. Various literary genres., The writer's outlook.

Comparative stylistics

Comparative stylistics is connected with the contrastive study of more than one language.

It analyses the stylistic resources not inherent in a separate language but at the crossroads of two languages, or two literatures and is obviously linked to the theory of translation.

Decoding stylistics

A comparatively new branch of stylistics is the decoding stylistics, which can be traced back to the works of L. V. Shcherba, B. A. Larin, M. Riffaterre, R. Jackobson and other scholars of the Prague linguistic circle. A serious contribution into this branch of stylistic study was also made by Prof. I. V. Arnold (3, 4). Each act of speech has the performer, or sender of speech and the recipient. The former does the act of encoding and the latter the act of decoding the information.

^Jf we analyse the text from the author's (encoding) point of view ^we should consider the epoch, the historical situation, the personal Political, social and aesthetic views of the author.

' we try to treat the same text from the reader's angle of view max" ^{haVS t0 disre}8^ard ^s background knowledge and get the sitio ^{mUm ltlformation from} the text itself (its vocabulary, compo­se ' ^sen,ence arrangement, etc.). The first approach manifests -valence of the literary analysis. The second is based almost

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics

exclusively on the linguistic analysis. Decoding stylistics is an attempt to harmoniously combine the two methods of stylistic research and enable the scholar to interpret a work of art with a minimum loss of its purport and message.

Functional stylistics

Special mention should be made of functional stylistics which is a branch of lingua-stylistics that investigates functional styles, that is special sublanguages or varieties of the national language such as scientific, colloquial, business, publicist and so on.

However many types of stylistics may exist or spring into existence they will all consider the same source material for stylistic analysis-sounds, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs and texts. That's why any kind of stylistic research will be based on the level-forming branches that include:

Stylistic lexicology

Stylistic Lexicology studies the semantic structure of the word and the interrelation (or interplay) of the connotative and denotative meanings of the word, as well as the interrelation of the stylistic connotations of the word and the context.

Stylistic Phonetics (or Phonostylistics) is engaged in the study of style-forming phonetic features of the text. It describes the prosodic features of prose and poetry and variants of pronunciation in different types of speech (colloquial or oratory or recital).

1.4. Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines

Stylistic grammar

Stylistic Morphology is interested in the stylistic potentials of specific grammatical forms and categories, such as the number of the noun, or the peculiar use of tense forms of the verb, etc.

Stylistic Syntax is one of the oldest branches of stylistic studies that grew out of classical rhetoric. The material in question lends itself readily to analysis and description. Stylistic syntax has to do with the expressive order of words, types of syntactic links (asyndeton, polysyndeton), figures of speech (antithesis, chiasmus, etc.). It also deals with bigger units from paragraph onwards.