Stylistics
Contents
Stylistics
Definition
As its name, stylistics aims to study the style of both written and spoken language. Stylistics is one of the field of linguistics which analyzes specific linguistic expressions along with the explanation of its function and effect. Moreover, stylistics can also be interpreted as the study of textual meaning. By using stylistics for literary analysis, it closes the gap between literary criticism and linguistics.
Stylistician
A stylistician is someone who specializes or experts in the study of stylistics, which is the analysis of linguistic style.
History
Stylistics is a discipline that emerged as a reaction to the impressionistic and obscure tone of most literary criticism. Particularly, stylistics evolved because the work of famous exponent of Russian Formalism, Roman Jakobson, which an important figure who developed stylistics in the first place during the mid-20th century.
Function
As an approach, stylistics offers a balance between one's interpretation of a text and appropriate stylistic references to support the text's analysis.
Principles of Stylistics
Principles of Stylistics by Paul Simpson
Paul Simpson is one of the stylistics experts or a stylistician who established main principles of stylistics which can guide the analysis of texts. He also published several books related to linguistic. In 2004 he published a book with a title "Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students". Three principles of stylistics regarding Paul Simpson:
- Stylistics analysis should be rigorous
- Stylistics analysis should be retrievable
- Stylistics analysis should be replicable
Rigorous means that the analysis of stylistics must be precise and detail, it can be done only just through skimming.
Retrievable means that the analysis must be well explained and explicit, other people who reads your analysis would be easy to understand your analysis conclusion.
Replicable means that the analysis conclusion would always be similar if someone analyzes the same text with other methods.
Comment
Everyone has a different style of language. We can recognize that one person's language style is different from another's. For example, if we have all the history data of a person's language style, then it can be analyzed through stylometry, which is a measurement of style based on numerical analysis of literary style.
Resources
K., Yuwono, U., & Lauder, M. R. M. T. (2005, January 1). Pesona bahasa. Gramedia Pustaka Utama. http://books.google.ie/books?id=8rt2JikaPCoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Pesona+Bahasa&hl=&cd=1&source=gbs_api
Giovanelli, M., & Harrison, C. (2022). Stylistics and Contemporary Fiction. English Studies, 103(3), 381–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2022.2043035
Stylistics. (n.d.). Obo. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780190221911/obo-9780190221911-0048.xml
