A Stylistic Analysis of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

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A Stylistic Analysis of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

摘要

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ABSTRACT



Since Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in 1997,Harry Potter series

have pervaded the whole world quickly, setting off Potter-mania and all upsurge of study

over the world. This series have ever been at the top of the best-seller lists for several

times and made the author J.IC Rowling receive numerous awards. Its author, the British

writer J.K Rowling, became the first billionaire woman writer from a poor single mother

only by writing and was conferred the British royal family’s award. Rowling tells the

magic story lasting for 7 years and uses abundant conversations to depict characters and

weave plots to attract audience.

This phenomenon has attracted experts and scholars’ attention, so they studied the series

from various aspects. ButtheresearchonthestylisticfeaturesofHarryPotterseriesisstillrare.

Literary stylistics explores how the author created the thematic significance and aesthetic

values of literary works by adopting proper language and appropriate rhetorical methods,

thus providing the interpretation and appreciation with a more objective method and

enabling readers to have a better understanding of literary works.

In this thesis, the writer analyzed the stylistic features of Harry Potter series in detail with

the corpus-based method, including general information of the language, the main plots

and themes, the depiction of main characters as well as some rhetorical methods.

Therefore, the research findings were arrived. Firstly, in the series lexical density is low

and sentences are short, which, to some extent, illustrates the popularity of the series.

Secondly, in terms of the theme, the series not only inherit the British literary tradition,



but also reflect contemporary social and cultural problems. Thirdly, the description of

plots and characters reflects children’s nature and sets a good example to the writing of

Chinese children’s literature. Finally, in order to make the imaginary wizarding world

vivid, the author invented numerous new words and employed a lot of impressive

similes. In addition, this thesis also verifies the important role of the corpus-based

method in stylistic analysis, especially the plot analysis. The combination of literary

stylistic and corpus linguistics not only strengthens our sensitivity to the choice of

language, but also helps to improve our appreciative abilities in literary work. The

application of such a analysis and appreciation of literary works.

To sum up, through the analysis both from the macro and micro perspectives, this thesis

shows that Literary Pragmatics is effective to interpret utterances and text, and what is

more important is that it aims to dynamically reveal the theme of the literary work. In

addition, this discussion also displays J.K.Rowling’s language art and her value of life.

KEY WORDS: Stylistic Analysis, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

INTRODUCTION

1.1Background

J.K.Rowling, as the author of Harry Potter series, is regarded as the most popular

children writer nowadays. She is a genius at story telling, which is exhibited in her

accomplishment of Harry Potter best sellers. Harry Potter series created countless

publishing and reading miracles in the industrialized age. At the same time, Potter-mania



becomes a global phenomenon and an important mark of popular culture, which has a

significant impact on children and adults.

Harry Potter series are original---the real books for children, which are full of

imagination, humor and suspense. Like a children psychological analyst, Rowling

narrates a year’s experience of the characters in each book and explores the development

of characters’ personalities in ever-changing circumstances, which is rare in children

novels. The fictional universe with all intertwining detailed back stories is so believable

and appealing. Who wouldn’t want to read them? Above all, it grounds on the real world

but has its own set of rules and regulations, forming the magical world with modem

civilization. In describing these big pictures, we have to admit Rowling is an excellent

writer.

As the craze of Harry Potter series is sweeping the world, the movies adapted from the

novels have smashed box office records and in the past ten years, Harry Potter series

have released 325 million copies all over the globe in 64 languages, including nine

million copies in China. Its brand has been assessed more than one billion dollars. Those

figures strongly prove that the little Harry has succeeded spelling the world into a real

Hogwarts where people have a crash on magic and the hero- Harry Potter. However,

most of the researches of Harry Potter series pay great attention to the conditions of

commercial success neglect its literary value. Those mind-blowing books serve as a

mirror of the society and deserve serious critical attention from the linguistic perspective.

Nowadays, more and more scholars found that the theory of Stylistic Analysis can



combine literary theories with pragmatics for maximizing the interpretation and analysis

of works. Therefore, in this thesis the theory of stylistic analysis will be applied into

Harry Potter to explore the literary value of the series and find a comprehensive way of

appreciating literature.

1.2The Significance of the Analysis

Generally speaking, there are two significances in the research. Firstly, the writer predicts

that this thesis will help readers analyze Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone guided

by the discipline of Stylistic Analysis. Readers can understand the meaning of the magic

novel from a new angle. Secondly, the writer expects the Stylistic Analysis can be widely

used to analyze a literary work. The view of author-reader-character dynamic relation

from the Stylistic Analysis framework will open a new window for readers to chew a

work in their own way.

Much research on Harry Potter series can deepen readers’ understanding of the whole

story a lot, but most is conducted with the traditional literature analysis. The following

exploration on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the present thesis will be far

different from the previous research since it is led by the literary pragmatic theory which

analyzes literature in a more comprehensive and dynamic way.

What are the purposes why the writer conducts this research? The first goal is to analyze

the conversations and narrations from the perspective of the literary pragmatic theory to

reveal the theme of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The second goal is to



inspire readers to study literature guided by this theory after understanding the whole

framework of Stylistic Analysis theory from this research.

1.3Why choose Harry otter and the hiloso!her"s Stone

Harry Potter series are conquering the whole world by the amazing magic power, ranging

from the miracle of the publishing sales to the birth of Harry Potter theme parks. As one

of the most popular cultural phenomena, Harry Potter series create a milestone in cultural

industry which will never be copied. In China, besides Xinhua dictionary, there is no one

book which can outrun the sale of Harry Potter series.

As the first book of the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone not only attract

the readers attention to the novel's role, but also for preparing the next story. Rowling has

suffered ups and downs in her life, she looked out window when trains was having break

off which produced story ideas of writing Harry Potter. It lasts six years until her first

novel published to the public, which shows the first novel plays an important role

throughout the series. We find that there are variety analysis of this first novel and many

wonderful insights, but also some excessive user-centered, deviated from the works and

the author's intentions. It is hardly convincing. There are a lot of articles do the

archetypal criticism about the Harry Potter series, these articles suspected of the rote and

deviated from the original intention of the structure of this story or plot traces. Some

even say Harry Potter supposed to apply mechanically. To name an article, " There are

plenty of characters have the myth archetype in the Harry Potter, such as Hogwarts



headmaster Dumbledore is the prototype of the Almighty God", the article has not

provided the evidence, yet people wonder why the "Almighty God" also died in the sixth

book of the novel. We know that Rowling born as a British, French, taught herself Latin,

and has a strong interest in literature. Rowling always obsessed with religion, mythology,

folklore and other imagined worlds. Author with a wide range of hobbies and family

background is a strong support and prove to its amazing imagination. However in our

criticism of literary works, which gives too many things. These empowerment is not so

much the intention of authors and works, as it is the reader's experience and imagination.

The desire to find out the end is the most important part for readers; however, in this

book, as Harry’s adventure is moving on and all the mysteries are going to be clear, the

messages beneath the controversies and conversations are showing the true value of

analyzing, by which the underlying meanings of the novel can be grasped to deepen the

understanding of the whole series. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone demonstrates

the most exciting plots in front of US led by the splendid and multi-meaning dialogues

and narrations. The first book is loaded with the best answer which can be found through

conversations between characters. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone can be

viewed as the best material for exploring the theme of the whole series. Therefore, the

argument of this paper will be based on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone which

includes discourses of main characters and the design of prologue. All the extracts will be

served as exemplifications to demonstrate the dynamic relation among author, work and

audience.



1.4Structure of the Analysis

This research consists of four parts.

Chapter One gives a literature review on Harry Potter series, the style and stylistics

which contains the definition and history of stylistic and concept of style, three views on

the style, approaches of stylistic analysis. Chapter Two contains surface-structure

deviation in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Also the comprehensive

introduction of the theoretical framework of stylistic analysis, including the basic

principles and methodologies, such as phonological deviation, lexical deviation,

grammatical deviation, graphological deviation. Chapter Three is deep-structure

deviation in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It looks back on what the previous

researchers have achieved in the field, makes overview on Harry Potter series at home

and abroad and what research problems are still to be dealt with.

Cha!ter I #iterature Re$ie%

As Potter mania has expanded to be a signified cultural phenomenon, the Harry Potter

books have become ubiquitous early texts for children, and are a choice for many adults.

During the few researches that devoted critical attention to the books, most put focuses

on the commercial success of the series. Containing thought-provoking literary themes as

well as portrayals of social and cultural normalcy, the Potter books cumulatively serve as

a powerful form of social text and deserve serious critical attention. As the first

installment of the series, the research on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is



provided particularly for the study. Since there are few essays on Harry Potter and the

Philosopher's Stone in surface, researches on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

abroad are mainly deep.

&' Style and StylisticsTo begin with, a brief introduction of Style and Stylistics will be given. Style, manner

indicating prominent linguistic features, devices or patterns, most (or least) frequently

occur in a particular text of a particular variety of language.

Stylistic is a discipline that studies the ways in which language is used; it is a discipline

that studies the styles of language in use. Stylistics is a branch of linguistics, which

applies the theory, and methodology of modern linguistics to the study of style. Stylistics

is a branch of linguistics which studies style in a scientific and systematic way

concerning the manners linguistic features of different varieties of language at different

levels.

Style is an integral part of meaning. !ithout the sense of style we cannot arrive at a

better understanding of an utterance; Stylistics study helps cultivate a sense of

appropriateness. ("rammar# correctness; stylistics# appropriateness)

&'& Definitions of Stylistics$n the words of !ales (%&'&), stylistics is simply defined as the study of style. *ue to

various definitions of style+, we could find that scholars defined stylistics in different

perspectives. $n the boo The Stylistics Reader: from Roman Jacobson to the Present

(%&&-), various schools are listed# formal stylistics, functional stylistics, affective

stylistics, pedagogical stylistics, pragmatic stylistics, critical stylistics, feminist stylistics

and cognitive stylistics. ach school has its own perspective and gives different

definition respectively.

/eo Spit0er, regarded as father of literary stylistics1 defined stylistics as a bridge overlinguistics and literary history. 2e proposed that the researcher should start from the

linguistic features deviating from regularnormsto study the psychology of the writer or

the reason why the culture changed when the literary wors were written. (Shen

*an,3444)

2." !iddowson(%&56), one of representatives of pedagogical stylistics, defined stylistics

as the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation. 2e also distinguished

stylistics from literary criticism and linguistics. $t is the same with the suggestion of the

morphological mae7up of stylistics# sty71relative to literary criticism.while7istics1



relating to linguistics. /eech (%&-&)holds the same view that stylistics is a meeting

ground of linguistics and literary study+8

$n the words of 9rystal (%&-&), stylistics is ::defined as a branch of linguistics which

studies the characteristics of situational7distinctive uses of language, with particularreference to literary language, and tries to establish principles capable of accounting for

the particular choices made by individuals and social groupsin their use of language1,

reeman(%&'%) defined stylistics as a branch of linguistics studying style with the

theories and methodology of modem linguistics.

$n %&'&, !ales gave more information about the definition of stylistics in < *ictionary of

Stylistics. 2e pointed owing to the main influences of linguistics and literary criticism,

there were several different stylistic approaches. The goal of stylistics should describe the

formal features and linguistic features to interpret the functional significance and the

literary effects. <nd he also thought that researchers should turn to linguistics for theneeded models and terminology.

$n <n $ntroduction to Literary Quranic Stylistics, one definition that Stylistics is an area

of study where the linguist combines with the critic so as to achieve a better or fuller

understanding and appreciation of literature+ was given. $t emphasi0ed that Stylistics

could help readers reali0e linguistic features of the text and appreciate the literature

better. =ic Short (%&&-) regarded stylistics as a linguistic approach to the study of

literary texts1, that is, stylistics is a tool which analyses literary texts by describing

linguistic features.

<ccording to various definitions above, we may have the same conclusion with !ang

Shouyuan (3444) that stylistics is an area of study which straddles two disciplines#

literary criticism and linguistics. $t taes literary discourse (text) as its ob>ect of study and

uses linguistics as a means to an end.

&'( History of Stylistics&'('& )irst half of the (*th century+ the ,ro%th of StylisticsStudy on !estern style can be traced bac to ancient "reece, ?omes rhetoric studies.

*emetris Style of /iterature appeared as early as %44 and it focus on stylistic issues. @ut

before the 34th century, comments on the "eneral style discussion are more than

sub>ective impressions, and usually occur in rhetorical studies, literature studies and

grammatical analysis. Stylistic studies do not have its own independent status. Since the

beginning of 34th century, the use of stylistic analysis help out of the limitations of the

traditional perception of intuitive analysis, and even gradually deepen and systemati0e

and scientism. uropean history, /inguistics and "eneral /inguistics in the early 34th

century became more influential and independent sub>ects, combined with linguistic

stylistics. They have gradually become a certain independence of interdisciplinary.

ounder of modern stylistics is 9. @ally. (9.@ally,%'-6>%&A5)32e borrowed Saussure+sstructural linguistics to rethin traditional rhetoric, trying to set up as a branch of



/inguistics more scientifically and systematically. 9. @ally was in the ob>ect of spoen

style. 2e believes that when a person speas ob>ectively express, a variety of emotions

will come at the same time. Stylistics tas is to investigate the language means, and the

interrelationship between them. !hile 9. @ally didnt pay special attention to literary

texts, but his B"eneral stylisticsB has a direct role in promoting literary stylistics."ermany stylist /. Spit0er (/. Spit0er, %''57%&-4) who came after 9. @ally is generally

revered as the father of the stylistics. /. Spit0er ob>ect is not speaing, but literature. /.

Spit0er thought the literary value of the wor was mainly reflected in the language, so his

detailed analysis of the effect of specific language, which is different from the traditional

perception of intuitive criticism. $n addition, he proposed a method called B philological

circleB which was suitable for analysis traditional novel, namely to loo for the wor that

appears frequently in the deviation from the normal language features. Then, to explain

psychological roots, in order to examine the relevant factors and confirmed or amended

(Spit0er, %&A'). /. Spit0er saw stylistics as the connection between /inguistics and

literature.

@efore the late 64th century, development of stylistic was wea, mainly in continental

urope. $n @ritain and the Cnited States, along with the gradual decline of new criticism,

a growing number of scholars have reali0ed the importance of linguistic theory in literary

studies. $n %&6' in the Cnited States a ma>or international conference was held at $ndiana

Cniversity777Bstylistics SymposiumB, this was a milestone in history of stylistics. This

9onference mared the birth of Style as an interdisciplinary learning in @ritain and the

Cnited States; <s far as the !est, it mars Stylistic study in a flourish period.

&'('( -*./*th century+ the Rise of Stylistics$n the -4th century and 54th century, !estern scientism was very popular. Structuralism

and /inguistics developed fast, contributing to the development of stylistic. lourish of

stylistic performed in different categories, such as BstylisticsB, B word stylisticsB, Bsocio7

historicalcultural stylisticsB and Blinguistic stylisticsB. These categories of distinction are

based on two different standards. Stylistics andB !ord stylistics Bdistinction was based

on the linguistic models used by the stylist. Stylistics is based on modern linguistic

theories and methods to study the style of discipline, in another sense, it is a very close

relationship between linguistics and stylistics. So development of new linguistic theories

tends to give birth to new stylistic school.

?ise of the stylistics is the date when new criticism declined. Dew criticism has strong

relationship with stylistics. The reason why stylistics flourished will be list below,

perhaps two main reasons. irstly, the Stylistics armed themselves with modern

linguistics. Secondly, some stylist use a more flexible position than the new critics.

<lthough they opposed the wor as social documents or historical documents, and does

not get rid of bacground nowledge of the wor. /eech has made it clear B$f you want

effective analysis each instance, it is necessary to understand the bacground of each

poem, including the author+s life, cultural bacground, social bacground, etc. 19ompared with new criticism, stylist always focus on text, but not focus on the author,



sometimes can consider for reader+s perspective.

$n addition, stylistics as intuitive impression of amending and supplementing in the

traditional criticisms, it can fill the gap which left by the decline of new criticism and

even played a large role in the teaching of language and literature. Stylistics is theconnection between linguistics and literary criticism, it focuses on how to express and

enhance the theme and aesthetic through the choice of language. /inguistic theory and

method generally be seen as a help tool to analy0e the factions. They are not limited to

the use a particular linguistic models, but according to the actual needs and select one or

more of the applicable linguistic patterns.

@ecause their purpose is to help the literary criticism but not contribute to the

development of linguistic theory. They only concerned with thematic significance and

aesthetic effects of characteristics, so that the language which describes the system tend

to be wea. =any linguists or linguist7turned7stylist thin that this style is impure, in

their view, the purpose should be to help to develop the linguistic stylistics. So it is easy

to see, stylistics is more acceptable to the traditional critics. =ost of the literary wors

combine interpretation with linguistic description very well. They tend to read wors to

identify language characteristics associated with thematic significance and aesthetic

effects, even use appropriate language structures related to the linguistic tools to analy0e

descriptions to clarify their literary significance. $n this style of study, description and

interpretation of processes are often inseparable# the description is found as linguistic

phenomena associated with the literary significance and reading, linguistic analysis

process can often strengthen or amend the interpretation of results.

Since the early 54th century, functional stylistic flourished. functional stylistic Bis

abbreviation of B systemic7functional B, especially one stylistics that based on 2alliday+s

systemic functional /inguistics. 2alliday was one of the founder of functional stylistics.

$n %&-& $taly, he presented an influential paper Bthe function of language and literary

styleB (2alliday, %&5%) on a literary seminar. $n this paper, Btheory of language featuresB

is a good tool for stylistic research. The so7called Btheory of language featuresB, 2alliday

said, is Blanguages play a role in our lives, to serve several common need that perspective

to explain the phenomenon of language structure and language.B 2alliday distinguishes

language has three functions# BinterpersonalB and organi0ational discourse of Btextual

functionB which to experience the speaers Bconcept featuresB, expressing the attitude,

evaluation as well as relations between the communicative role. The three functions are

interlined, constitutes the semantic layer or Bmeaning potentialB into three parts.

2alliday+s thesis of systemic functional stylistics laid an important role. $t has two main

features. Ene is the Btheory of language featuresB broe the boundaries of traditional

style and content. very language has its specific language features. 2alliday made it

clear that B language styles exist in any field.B B$deationalB he distincted belongs to theliterary stylistics. The stylistic research is expanded to help reveal the nature of the



survival activities in this field and the particular way of observing the world. <nother

feature that it to analysis of system performance. 2alliday detailed analysis and precise

statistics and chart diagram of system analysis in the form of statistical results to of

transitivity in type and number, type and number of participants as well as the type and

amount of environmental components. This systematic is based on the analysis of thelinguistic model.

<fter 2alliday, there are many functional stylistics transitivity patterns systematically to

analysis of the text. !hen comes to interpersonal functions, functional stylistics do

analysis from tone, mood, ad>ectives and adverbs in order to express attitudes and

explore the text which reflected the relationship between the sender and receiver

(authorDarrator in the novel, the characters, the relationship between readers), as well as

their value >udgment to the content. arly functional stylistics focuses on a specific

functional areas# focus on authors choice of the physical system, or to focus on the

authors choice of personal pronouns, or focus on the author+s choice of the textual

function of thematic structure. @ut in recent years, more and more functional stylistics

analysis pay more attention on several layers at the same time, pay attention on how they

interact to form the overall characteristics and to express and enhance the theme and

character. unctional stylistics has another notable feature, which emphasi0es the

relationship of language, discourse and social context. System functional stylistics

believes that language is a social symbol, textual sub>ect to situational context. @ecause

the emphasi0ed function of system stylistics, since the '4th century, it has been given

rapid development.

&'('0 The 1*th century+ )lourish de$elo!2ent of socio.historical andcultural stylistic

$n &4th century, the functional stylistics and discourse stylistics remained relatively

strong development. <lthough literary stylistics still plays an active role in the teaching

of language and literature, it has strong impact of cultural criticism. <s far as the stylistic

history of &4th century, social and historicalcultural stylistic flourished. Since the early

'4th, the ranfurt School, =arx, structuralism, especially the influence of oucault+s

thoughts, more and more the stylist no longer see neutral language as a carrier, but as the

physical carrier of ideology; Do longer tae text as a simple mirror of the ideology, but as

a product of ideology and social structure in turn. They thin it is a ind of dialectical

relations, language and social context mutually restricted, towards each other, mutually

constructed, exacerbating inequalities and in>ustices in our society. rom this point of

view, the tas of stylistics is to reveal ideologies and power relations that involved.

Cnited Fingdom stylist @urton is the founder of social historicalcultural stylistics. $n

%&'3, she published an article at that time was considered fairly radical article, presented

that !estern people were living in a society where class oppression, racial

discrimination, gender discrimination. @urton call stylist to loo at their own research to

find out whether it is served for the oppressive nature of rule consciousness or is tochallenge this domination. She thins that stylistic analysis is to understand the language



constructed out of a variety of BrealityB of methods, is a tool for transforming society. 2er

stylistic analysis is clearly different from the traditional style of analysis, because its

focus on how the text construct its own (fictional) reality structure. @urton+s position has

a considerable degree of representativeness in the stylistics of social historyculture.

Some scholars believe that this school has two branches. Ene for the 9*<, led byowler, another for 9. =ac9abe , who advocated of history and Ghilology .

9ritical /inguistics emerged in the late 54th in Cnited Fingdom Cniversity of ast

<nglia. $n %&5&, owler and his colleagues, ".Fress and ?.2odge, at the Cniversity of

the F/<$S, have published two boos of this *eclaration# /anguage and 9ontrol and

/anguage as $deology, first time presented Bcriticism of /inguisticsB in the boo, and sets

out the basic positions of the factions and methods. 9ritici0ed linguists believe that

language has a close correlation between structure and social structure, they saw

language as social semiotic and discourse as a socio7political phenomenon, see literature

as social discourse. They analysis the text, especially in the news media structure

contains class idea, power relations and gender discrimination of various ideologies.

They used 2alliday+s functional grammar system as analysis tool. 9ritical linguistics

developed rapidly in the &4th, in the Cnited Fingdom and the Detherlands, and <ustralia,

and "ermany, and Spain, and <ustria and other countries. =acaulays primary historical

literature has little effect. 2e stressed the importance of semantic research in the social

and historical context, paying attention to certain ey words in the historical

developments. This focus on historical literature of individual words has a certain

distance with analysis modern stylistic language model, and has close relationship with

the Cnited Fingdom+s practical criticisms. $ts influence is limited, but in a strict sense, itdoes not belong to the stylistics.

$n fact, some stylist circled the stylistic categories. @ut, as previously mentioned, more

than one standard can distinguish style. !ho circles into socio7historicalcultural

Stylistics, based on the standards for analytical purposes; Geople who circle the Stylistics,

/inguistics and criticism, is based on the criteria for analysis. <lthough many stylist no

longer insist on the distinction between literary and non7literary, they still treat literary

texts as stylistics study. $n my opinion, it is best to study here as a distinguishing criterion

because people who engage in social and historicalcultural stylistics have re>ected the

distinction between literary and non7literary or aesthetic value of literature. $n this case,

the line between literary and non7literary as the distinguishing criterion is rather far7

fetched. 9ontrasted with other stylistic School of scholars, there are few stylist claim that

they are dealing with social or socio7cultural stylistics. Such a name often appears only in

summari0ed overview of the wors, it covers several different stylistic analysis of critical

theory and linguistic tools. @ut in the Bsocial and historicalcultural stylisticsB, analysts

have a common ob>ective, namely reveal ideologies and power relations.

&'0 Conce!t of Style

!hat is stylisticsH Iin Jiubai (%&''), "u Kueguo (%&&4), /iu Shisheng(%&&3,%&&A,%&&') and "u Kulan (%&&L) hold the same view that to give stylistics an



accurate definition, the most important thing is to definite the term style1 accurately. @ut

what is styleH !e could get various definitions given by scholars in differentperspectives

and with difficult focuses. /iu Shisheng (%&&5) listed as many as L% definitions, for

example style as rhetoric by "orgias, as form by <ristotle, as proper words in proper

places by Swift, as meaning potential by 2alliday, as function by the Grague School andso forth. En internet, a number of definitions are given, for example, the mode of

expressing thought in writing or speaing by selecting and arranging words, considered

with respect to clearness, effectiveness, euphony, or the lie, that is the characteristic of a

group, period, person, personality, etc.; those components or features of a literary

composition that have to do with the form of expression rather than the content of the

thought expressed; a particular, distinctive, or characteristic mode or form of construction

or execution in any art or wor%,the combination of distinctive features of literary or

artistic expression, execution, or performance characteri0ing a particular person, group,

school, or era, and so on.

$n Investigating English style, 9rystal and *avy (%&-&) gave at least four commonly

occurring senses of the term style# some or all of the language habits of one person,

such as Shaespeares style, the style of =ar Twain and 2emingways uniqueness; some

or all of the language habits shared by a group of peopleatone time or over a period of

time, for example, the style of Eld nglish heroic1 poetry; saying the fighting in the

most effective way or as good manner, such as clear1 or refined style1, and the focus of

literary critics attention used to appreciate or describe and evaluate literary language,

such as good1 ,effective1 or beautiful writing1.

The innish scholar D. . nvist (%&-A) has ever summari0ed several definitions of

style, for example#

Style is the very thought itself.

Style is ingratiation. It involves saying the right thing in the most effective ay.

Style is a shell surrounding a !re"e#isting core of thought. It is a regarded as an addition

to central core of thought or e#!ression.

Style is a set of individual characteristics. It is the man himself.

Style is a set of collective characteristics.

Style is the relation among linguistic entities that are stable in terms of ider s!ans of

te#t than the sentence.

Style is choice. It is the choice beteen alternative e#!ressions$

Style is deviation from a norm.



<ccording to the words of Thomas S. Fane and /eonard M. Geters in %riting !rose:

techni&ues and !ur!oses (%&-&)# style is a pattern of linguistic features distinguishing

one piece of writing from another, or one category of writing from another.

/eech and Short (%&'%) also made a conclusion of style1#

Style is a ay in hich language is used.

Therefore style consists in choices made from the re!ertoire of the language.

Stylistic choice is limited to those as!ects of linguistic choice$ hich concern alternative

ays of rendering the same sub'ect matter.

( style is defined in terms of a domain of language use.

!hen " 2. !iddowson (%&56) defined stylistics1, he argued that the term style1

should include two layers of meaning, relating to literary criticism and linguistics

separately. This definition emphasi0es that style involves those two disciplines.

<lthough there are so many different definitions about the term style1, we still could

slim up the features of the term style1, that is, style encompasses the linguistic choices

of the writing presented by the writer for a particular purpose and the ways that the writer chose to express his thought and feeling effectively. $t not only is an ornament, but also

includes the thought, attitude, presumption and standpoint of the writer. Therefore, style

refers to the ways that language is chosen and used by a given person or a given group

for a particular purpose in a given context in a given period. =aybe it is >ust lie what

/eech and Short (%&'%) pointed in Style in )iction# it is selection from a total linguistic

repertoire that constitutes a style.

(' Three 3ie%s on Style

To carry out a stylistic analysis, it is necessary to first of all be clear about what it is in aliterary text that should be described. 2owever, this question of what style is an issue that

has caused heated dispute among stylistic theorists and great confusion among students

of literature. /iu Shisheng (%&&') speas of the difficulties in defining style and lists L%

definitions. < do0en of these definitions have been listed above.

The above7listed definitions express important views on style, though there is some

overlap among them. $n the following sections, we will consider three of these views,

namely style as deviance, style as choice, and style as foregrounding.

('& Style as choice



@y style as choice meant that style Bresults from a tendency of a speaer or writer to

consistently choose typical structures over others available in the languageB (Traugott

and Gratt, %&'4# 3&). B!ith this viewB, Traugott and Gratt say, Bwe can distinguish

between +style+ and +language+ by saying that language is the sum total of the structures

available to the speaer, while style concerns the characteristic choices in a givencontextB.

To say that style is choice is not the same as saying that it is always conscious choice.

The effect of conscious choice7maing is no doubt more apparent in literature than in

other types of discourse, yet a sense of the +best way of putting something+ in any type of

discourse can be purely intuitive or even habitual. $f a writer had to mae choice

consciously all the time at different linguistic levels, it is not difficult to imagine how

long it would tae to produce anything at all and, consequently, how little literature we

would have in today+s literature storehouse.

Style as choice is often considered to be a matter of form or expression, i. e. as choice

among different ways of expressing a predetermined content. 2owever, it only taes a

moment or two to reflect that writers also choose content. $n the discussion of nvist+s

paper, +En the place of style in some linguistic theories+, it is pointed out that

B2emingway elects to write about men of action 7 bull fighters, deep7sea fishermen,

soldiers, big7game hunters 7 is as much a stylistic fact as his habit of writing in short,

simple sentences, preferring the +dramatic+ to the +interior monologue+ point of view in

narration, etc.B (9hatman, %&5%# -A).

The evidence of choice7maing can be found in authors+ manuscripts. 2ere we will cite

an interesting case which was once considered by Short (%&'A). $n writing The ve of St.

<gnes, Feats first produced the line, +<s though a rose should close and be a bud again+.

@ut when he re7read the line, he substituted the word shut for close# +<s though a rose

should shut and be a bud again+. En a first casual reading we may get the impression that

since close and shut are synonyms, the replacement of one with the other does not mae

much difference, and is therefore not necessary. @ut when we scrutini0e the two versions,

we may decide that shut is a much better choice. The word close in the first version

connects bacwards to rose to form an internal rhyme, which adds some poetic quality to

the line, since internal rhyme is one of those features associated traditionally and

typically with poetry. 2owever, this connection is made only within the first part of the

line. urthermore, the connection does not in any way reinforce the meaning of the

connected words, nor indeed that of the entire line. Therefore, we may say that it is

rhyme for rhyme+s sae.

$n contrast with close, the choice of shut is more appropriate and significant in three

respects# a) $t connects forward phonetically and supraclausally to bud, thus forming a

semi7rhyme or assonance. $t also connects bacward to should phonetically and visually

and to rose with which it forms the next immediate constituent. @ecause the aboveconnections run across both parts of the line instead of >ust one, the unity of the line is



greatly strengthened. b) The phonetic connection it forms with bud underlies the

semantic connection between the two words, for shut semantically relates to bud in terms

of the shape of the flower, while close does not have this relation. c) !hen we compare

the choice of shut with the choice of close phonetically, there is another interesting point

to be made. Dotice that the vowel a before a voiceless consonant t in the word shuttaes a much shorter duration to produce than the diphthong au before a voiced

consonant 0 in the word close. Dotice also that the consonant t is a plosive which is

produced with a rapid release of compressed air leading to short and sharp explosion,

while the consonant 0 is a sibilant which is produced with the blade of the tongue

maing almost complete contact with the alveolar ridge but leaving a narrow groove

along its median line. Therefore, the production of the word shut may produce a sense of

+suddenness+ and +abruptness+ in contrast with the production of the word close. This

greatly reinforces the meaning of the line.

The view that style is choice is a broader view. $t may in some way subsume the view of

style as deviance, for deviance is only one aspect of the language of literature (Traugott

and Gratt, %&'4). 2owever, lie the view of style as deviance, it also has limitations. or

example, it implies that every linguistic element in a text is a choice of the writer and

therefore should be included in a discussion of the style of the text it is in. @ut this is

obviously not the case. Eur experience and intuition tell us that in interpreting a text,

only a certain number of elements are interesting and relevant to the interpretation. The

stylistician must select those features that are most relevant to his discussion and ignore

the irrelevant ones in order to mae a coherent and convincing interpretation.

('( Style as de$iance

Ene of the views is implied in !iddowson+s remars quoted previously in Section %.A.

That is, the distinctiveness of a literary text resides in its departure from the

characteristics of what is communicatively normal. This has led to approaches to style as

deviance. Ene of the chief proponents of the concept of style as deviance was Man

=uarovsy, a leading linguist and literary critic of the Grague School in the %&L4+s. 2is

famous essay BStandard language and poetic languageB has been regarded as a classic in

stylistics. $n this essay, he speas of style as BforegroundingB, stating that Bthe violation

of the norm of standard, its systematic violation is what maes possible the poetic

utili0ation of language; without this possibility there would be no poetryB (%&54# A3).

<ccording to =uarovsy, normal uses of language Bautomati0eB language to such an

extent that its speaers no longer see its expressive or aesthetic power; poetry must Bde7

automati0eB or BforegroundB language by breaing the rules of everyday language.

To demonstrate what =uarovsy+s statements mean, let us first quote a classic example,

the phrase Ba grief agoB from a poem of that name by *ylan Thomas. The phrase violates

two rules of nglish# a) the indefinite article a clashes syntactically with the uncountablenoun grief, because it normally modifies a countable one; b) the postmodifying adverb



ago clashes semantically with the head word grief, for it usually is able to modify a noun

to do with time. @ut grief is a word which expresses emotion. The highly deviant nature

of the phrase attracts much attention from the reader to itself, and thus maes it possible

for the poet to express what cannot be expressed through the normal use of language.

Thomas here seems to be measuring time in terms of emotion. $t is not unreasonable,therefore, to suggest that the speaer of the poem may have experienced grief repeatedly

so that he can measure time in terms of it.

<nother frequently quoted example is . . 9ummings+ poem anyone lived in a pretty

how town. This poem shows not only the extremity of rule violations in poetry, but also

the systematicity of violations. 2ere is part of the poem#

(%) anyone lived in a pretty how town

(with up so floating many bells down)

spring summer autumn winter

he sang his didn+t he danced his did

!omen and men (both little and small)

cared for anyone not at all

they sowed their isn+t they reaped their same

sun moon stars rain

To avoid complications let us limit our discussion here only to the use of auxiliaries in

the poem fragment. There are three auxiliaries in this part of the poem# didn+t, did andisn+t. They are all used in positions where we normally employ common nouns and,

therefore, they obviously violate a syntactic rule. ach of these auxiliaries on its own, we

may find, does not seem to mae much sense. 2owever, because they are used

systematically, i.e. in the same way, we are able to impose some ind of interpretation

upon them. 2ere didn+t and did can be taen as antonyms. < possible interpretation we

could construct for the last two lines of the first stan0a, therefore, may go as follows# all

the year round, he greeted with equal happiness things, acts or actions of opposite

consequences that came to him.

The approach of style as deviance as introduced above has the advantage of helping us tosee and eep in mind that there is a difference between everyday language and the

language of literature. $t also helps us reali0e that deviant features provide important

clues for interpretation. 2owever, this approach also has a number of disadvantages. The

chief disadvantage, which is a much debated problem, is that it is difficult to define the

nature and the status of the norm from which style of a text deviates. @loch, for example,

considers the basis of norm to be statistical. 2e defines style as Bthe message carried by

the frequency distributions and transitional probabilities of linguistic features, especially

as they differ from those of the same feature in the language as a wholeB (%&6L# A3). @ut

this position has been challenged. reeman points out# BThe +frequency distributions and

transitional probabilities+ are not nown, and never will be, and even if they could be



ascertained, they would constitute no particularly revealing insight into either natural

language or styleB.

<nother disadvantage of this approach, as Traugott and Gratt point out, is that of

Bencouraging the linguist to loo at the language of grammatically highly deviant authorslie . . 9ummings at the expense of the relatively non7deviant ones such as T. S. liot

and !allace Stevens. =ore generally it tends to undervalue all non7deviant language,

both within literature and withoutB (%&'4# LL). The theoretical assumption that aesthetic

effects can only be achieved through deviance needs to be questioned.

('( Style as foregrounding

!e have examined two views of style at some length. ach view, as we have found, has

its own strengths and weanesses. There is a further view of style which appears to be a

compromise between the two views discussed so far. This is the view of style as

foregrounding. The term foregrounding is a concept of pictorial arts, referring to that part

of the composition that appears to be closest to the view (=ayer, %&-&). The concept was

applied to literature first by the pre7war Grague School linguists and literary critics, such

as =uarovsy, to refer to the unexpected departures from the accepted norms. This was

discussed above when we examined the view of style as deviance. The proponents of the

view of style as foregrounding extended the concept to include both the deviant features

and those linguistic phenomena which are not deviant, but nevertheless striing. The

latter are what /eech refers to as Bthe opposite circumstance, in which a writer

temporarily renounces his permitted freedom of choice, introducing uniformity where

there would normally be diversityB (%&5%# %33). 9onsider the following parallel structurefor example#

(%) !hen he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,

<nd when he cried the little children died in the streets.

(!. 2. <uden, pitaph on a Tyrant)

<uden could have chosen a different structure for each line, yet he limited himself to the

same option. The parallel structure here draws the attention of the reader and maes him

see the semantic connection between the two lines. This, therefore, is a type of

foregrounding.

The view of style as foregrounding is explained in Short+s article B!ho is stylisticsB#

<. !hen a writer writes he is constantly involved in maing linguistic choices 7

choices between one word and another, one structure and another, and so on.

@. xamination of the choices that he maes (as opposed to the ones that he re>ects)

can help us to understand more fully the meaning he is trying to create and the effects he

is striving to achieve.

9. 2e can mae choices both inside and outside the language system. 9hoices outside



the language system are deviant and thus produce foregrounding.

*. Everregularity of a particular choice within the system (e.g. parallelism) also

produces foregrounding.

(Short, %&'A# 3%)

!e can see from the above statement that importance is attached to the concept of choice.

2owever, the most weight is given to two ma>or types of choices, i.e. choices that are

deviant and those that are over regular, for they both produce foregrounding. This is to

say that it is foregrounded features that are stylistically relevant and merit consideration

in a stylistic analysis. $n other words, style is foregrounding.

The notion of style as foregrounding, which seems to be an integration of the two views

already discussed, may theoretically raise problems similar to those that the other

approaches have. 2owever, it has two obvious advantages over the other approaches# a)

$t can account for certain aspects of non7deviant language in literature which the

approach of style as deviance fails to do. $n other words, it is a broader view than the

view of style as deviance. b) 9ompared with the view of style as choice, the view of style

as foregrounding leaves much less to personal >udgment, i.e. the identification and

selection of stylistically relevant features for analysis are less of a problem for those

taing the view of style as foregrounding.

/eech points out# Boregrounding is a useful, even crucial, concept in stylistics,

providing a bridge between the relative ob>ectivity of linguistic description and the

relative sub>ectivity of literary >udgment. $t is a criterion by which we may select, from amass of linguistic detail, those features relevant to literary effectsB (%&5L# 56). Therefore,

it seems necessary for us to have a closer examination of it. There is also a pedagogic

reason for a further consideration of foregrounding. Short informs us Bthe overseas

student is unliely to have a sufficient grasp of the norms of the language to be able to

determine what is deviant, foregrounded, and hence crucial to understandingB (Short,

%&'L# 53). Thus, the next four chapters will be devoted to an in7depth discussion of the

various aspects of foregrounding.

$t can be noticed from Short+s statement that foregrounding is achieved either through

deviation or through overregularity in language use. *eviation can be investigated and

classified according to its linguistic level. $n his boo < /inguistic "uide to nglish

Goetry (%&-&), /eech, for example, considers phonological, graphological, grammatical,

lexical, semantic and dialectal deviation. 2e also discusses deviation of register and

deviation of historical period. $n this boo, we will consider phonological, graphological,

syntactic, lexical and semantic deviation.

0' A!!roaches of Stylistic Analysis<pproaches of stylistic analysis contains three parts, linguistic description, textual

analysis, contextual factors analysis. /inguistic description refers to the exploration andclassification of linguistic features of a given text. < linguistic feature is shown by its



consistency and relative frequency. The linguistic features are reflected by style marers,

which are linguistic items that only appear, or are most or least frequent, in a text,

representing a particular variety of language or literary genre. /eech and Short (%&'%) list

four linguistic and stylistic categories when they expound the methods of stylistic

analysis of fiction# lexical categories, grammatical categories, figures of speech, andcohesion and context. There is also a checlist of linguistic description for stylistic

analysis.

Textual analysis is The definition of BTextB. tymologically, the word BtextB comes from

a metaphorical use of the /atin verb BtextereB(weave), suggesting a sequence of

sentences or utterances BinterwovenB structually and semantically. $t is possible for a text

to consist of only one sentence or utterances, e.g. a notice or road sign (xit; Stop),

which is semantically complete in itself, and pragmatically tied to a specific situation.

The text includes the following aspects#

• a. Text layout (general frame wor of the text)

• b. ?eference (personal, demonstrative, comparative, etc.)

• c. Substitution (nominal, verbal, clausal, etc.)

• d. llipsis (nominal, verbal, clausal, etc.)

• e. /ogical connectors (additive, adversative, causal, temporal, and other logical

connections, e.g. reiteration, classification, division, exemplification, etc.)

• f. 9ollocation (words typically associated with one another)

• g. $nter7sentence relationship (coordination, homology, sequence, separation,

hyponymy, reiteration, adversative and contrast, explanation, cause and effect,

etc.).

9ontextual actors <nalysis is the definition of B9ontextB. 9ontext consists of two

aspects# Ene is Blinguistic contextB, referring to the linguistic units preceding andor

following a particular linguistic unit in a text. The other is Bextra7linguistic contextB,

referring to the relevant features of the situation in which a text has meaning.

So that, ma>or topics will be discussed of the approaches of stylistic analysis will be

listed below.

%. !hat are the three steps of stylistic analysisH

3. Substantiate the four items# rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and consonance.

L. *efine the terms# phonology, graphology, lexis, syntax, and semantics.

A. !hat is a textH xplain the aspects of textual analysis.

6. !hat is contextH xplain the three types of contextual factors according to unctional

Stylistics.

The goal of stylistic inquiry should have two points. The first goal of stylistics is to help

readers understand a text better. $n other words, it provides insights into the meaning of

the text. The second goal is to explain why and how one text is better than another one.

That is to say, stylistics is more directly concerned with interpretation of a text.



Ene thing that has to be attended to is the tas and aim of stylistics. <s discussed in the

previous 9hapter, the tas of stylistics does not focus on listing items or categories of

various styles. $nstead, it lies in observing and describing the language features of

principal styles, that is, the features of pronunciation, sentence, words and discourse of

each style. $n so doing, the aim of stylistics of enabling leaners to now the expressioncontents and use them is maintained. So besides the description of stylistic features of

language, the stylistic effects must be emphasi0ed in order to inform the learners of their

expressive force.

0'& ronunciation #e$el

!ith respect to pronunciation, the first point to explain is phonetic symboli0ation. Some

phonetics or phonetic clusters are regarded as capable of playing the role of semantics or

as appropriate expression to the semantics to a certain extent.1(/iu Shisheng, 344-#56)

<ccording to /iu Shisheng, the phonetic symboli0ation includes Seven constituents forconsideration.

@esides phonetic symboli0ation, there are also some special phonetic patterns, including

alliteration, assonance and consonance, and rhyme. <lliteration, assonance and

consonance are the contrived use of voices, which often connect the effects of emphasis,

prominence and other special stylistic effect. ?hyme is a maredness which is often

related to poems, aiming to provide Senses of balance aesthetics.

stablished phonetic patterns of stress and rhythm are also included under pronunciation

item. Stress appears in words as well as sentences, while rhythm is a term bearing closerelation to poems and proses. ach poem, generally, consist of some stan0as in which are

some verses. $n succession, each verse is composed by foots of different stress or non7

stress patterns. inally, rhythms are engendered by these patterns to give a sense of

music.

<ll in all, it is believed that a good command of these pronunciation features and their

stylistic effects will improve students recognition of these sounds, and further, prepares

them to communicate more effectively and appropriately.

0'( 3oca4ulary #e$el

nglish words can be classified into different categories according to different criteria.

rom the perspective of part of speech, there are nouns, verbs, ad>ectives, adverbs,

prepositions, con>unctions, articles, inter>ections and determiners. $n such categories, the

last five belong to grammatical words or functional words. !hile the fist four are lexical

words which reveal more styles with the variation of use. "enerally, texts with

extraordinary use of nouns are called noun style, and texts with extraordinary use of

verbs are called verb style, so there are also ad>ective style and adverb style, the last of

which rarely occurs since adverbs are more attached to grammar. En the basis of

llegards analysis (lllegard, <. %&5'), the average portion of noun use is 35N, and the



average portions of verb and ad>ective are respectively %3.%N and 5.AN. The excessive

use of certain class of words is often for the special stylistic effects in certain contexts.

or instance, a paragraph of speech in noun style may indicate the content speaer wants

to express is much, but this phenomenon is in line with incorrect or even nonexistent

noun words, which >ust tell the readers the speaer in fact is in a blan of mind or hismind is narrowed in a cabined situation.

<nother perspective is to divide words based on its origin. !ith different origins, nglish

words can be divided into <ngle. Saxon words, /atin words, "ree words and rench

words. xcept for the <ngle. Saxon words, most of which are monosyllabic words in

daily life, the following inds often fall into the group of polysyllabic words. $n addition,

those words are commonly more formal, thus appearing mainly in the legal documents

and other formal occasions.

<ccording to the degree of standard, nglish words consist of standard and non7standardwords lie dialects. $t is largely accepted that standard nglish instead of non7standard

nglish is a sign of good education and social status.

0'0 Sentence #e$el

Stylistics nowledge of at sentence level is no simpler than that of pronunciation, since

there are a number of variations for sentences. Ene element of sentence is verb, which

changes in line with the tenses. "enerally speaing, in literary wors it is past tense,

which dominates the passage. 2owever, some wors may instead prefer present tense to

recurrence of the situation for authenticity.

<nother grammatical element relating to sentence is voice, including active voice and

passive voice. ach of these two has its own features. <ctive voice emphasi0es the

performerof action whose foreshow has a strong control of the action, thus active voice

exhibits the sub>ectivity of narration as well as the absoluteness of power. En the

contrary, passive voice embodies its ob>ectivity and abstract, implying the action receiver

is passive and powerless. @ecause of that, passive voice is commonly used in the styles

which should avoid the sub>ectivity and regard ob>ectivityor reasoning .Such voice

accounts for a large portion in the fields of science and technology as well as law.

@esides, it is estimated by foreign linguists that in physics, chemistry, engineering

textboos, verbs of passive voice mounts to more than %L of the total finite verbs.

<lmost without exception, students study nglish from the simple sentence to the

extended sentence. $t is common that experienced or advanced nglish learners are

capable of writing long or complex sentences. Such sentences are extended sentences

which are formed by means of lining, listing or nesting. /ining refers to the lin of two

or more than two sentence elements by con>unctions. The sentence formed by lining is

called the compound sentence. $n addition, the simple sentence and the compound

sentence are concise and vivid, so a bunch use of them formulates the style of simplicity

and concision which connects inadequate education, young age or blanness. 9ompared



with lining, the tempo of listing is more fast and tight. or example, Ene !orld, Ene

*ream1(the 344' Elympics Slogan) being a list without con>unction is tight and vivid.

The third means nesting normally accompanies the complex sentence. *ifferent from the

other two, the sentence with nesting always expresses complicated thoughts or ideals that

are laborious to comprehend. So it is generally applied in legal documents that need strictreasoning. $n a word, the extending means of sentences is closely related to the style

demanded, lining and listing correlate to concise and simple style in whir listing is

tighter and closer, while nesting always functions in complicated ways to increase the

complexity of style.

$n the use of nglish, a large number of sentences are formulated out of normal nglish

habits for some special purposes; such usage variations include ellipsis, inversion,

periodic sentence, loose sentence, climax, anticlimax, repetition, parallelism and

antithesis. =ost forms of these usage variations can be deduced from the name of

themselves. or example, ellipsis refers to the omission of certain sentence element;

::parallelism means the repetition of phrases or clauses of similar structure. or the

stylistic effects, these usage variations function a lot. llipsis brings about compactness

and simplicity; inversion aims for structure balance or element emphasis; periodic

sentence is in contrast with loose sentence in which the main contents expressed in the

beginning, periodic sentence puts the main part in the end, which produces suspense or

emphasis; climax and anticlimax are two opposite means in which the former increases

force of affection and persuasion while the latter creates ironic or humorous effect;

repetition is for emphasis or the expression of strong emotions; parallelism intends to

mae the text emphatic and improve expressive force; antithesis purposes brilliance andinterest by mutual reflection.

xcept for traditional grammar, the contemporary linguist 9homsys theory of

TransformationalOgenerative grammar is very significant for stylistics since it maes a

differentiation between surface structure and deep structure. Such a division seems very

consistent with the dualism of stylistics# deep structure is the semantic resource, while

surface structure is all optional style.

0'5 Discourse #e$el

@esides the above discussions, the largest grammatical element discourse7related

stylistics nowledge should also be analy0ed. *iscourse is engendered by one or more

than one sentences which are lined together with cohesive devices. < series of randomly

combined sentences is not a discourse. 9ohesive devices in nglish are in the forms of

reference, substitution, ellipsis, con>unction and lexical cohesion. Some language

elements are meaning incomprehensible without concomitant of some others, that is, they

have to be comprehended by considering the meanings of some other elements. <ll these

elements together form the reference, for instance, it is impossible to figure out it1 in the

discourse The paint is still tacyP *ont touch itP if without the sentence The paint is

still tacyP The two elements ::the paint+ and ::it+ form a reference which connects the



two sentences. ?eference occurs in the semantic level, while substitution and ellipsis tae

place in syntax level concerning words. llipsis and substitution not only enhance the

structure relation but also bring about language variation, novelty, concision and vivacity.

9on>unctions show semantic relations other than grammatical relations. "enerally

speaing, some con>unctions are more used in spoen nglish, such as and, so, yet, then;while others are more commonly used in written nglish, such as however, nevertheless,

consequently; in addition, con>unctions are comparatively more applied in spoen

nglish than written nglish. @ased on the functions of con>unctions, cause and effect

con>unctions and transition con>unctions appear more frequently in articles of reasoning

or arguing. /exical cohesion occurs when related words are capable of connecting

sentences by the means of collocation and reiteration, the latter of which is reali0ed

through repetition, synonym, near7synonym, superordinate or general word. Ene

significant advantage of lexical cohesion lies in its function of avoiding blanness with

the use of different words expressing the similar meanings.

*iscourse cohesion regarding sentence is one aspect, another larger element is sentence

group which forms by a few sentences of a single idea. "enerally,s everal sentence

groups together compose a paragraph, each of the group owns a single ideal, however,

and all the sentence groups serve for the same paragraph focus. The arrangement of

sentence groups differs according to article type. <rticle of argumentation prefer sentence

groups of layers in which some sentences groups explain for some others or some

dominate others. *ifferent from the arrangement of argumentation article, those groups

in novels are often more loosely arranged with temporal order.

!hatever the discourse is, it falls into a certain pattern which forms in the long run of

language %lse.The similar discourses are of the same discourse pattern which is

distinguished from other ones. The pattern of conversation generally is salutation, body

part and valediction, the con>oint two of which are always with obvious language signals,

such as Dow, Kou see. The pattern of news report naturally has its own characteristic# the

crucial part comes first in the report beginning followed by the related process or details.

$n addition, the latter parts of news basically are cause, process, result and affect.

xpositions discourse pattern, liewise, is comparatively orderly+ from thesis to further

explanation. *istinct from the above patterns, argumentation pattern basically is

constituted by three parts which are launching a issue, retort and reasoning, conclusion.The last one for introduction is novels discourse pattern. !ith seemingly protean

structures, novel has a most common pattern which includes the elements of setting,

participants, events, conclusion and evaluation.

The stylistic analysis of at the discourse level enriches learners nowledge of style,

which should help improve their ability of recogni0ing and applying the discourse

stylistic characteristics into practice. $f learners are equipped with such nowledge, they

are sure able to communicate appropriately in accordance with style.

0'6 The Notion of Conte7t



$f the application of stylistics as well as its function of improving communicative

competence are expected, the concept context1 should be studied.

9ontext is divided into linguistic context and non7linguistic context. /inguistic context

refers to the inner7linguistic factors which influence the meaning of language while

non77linguistic context refers to the extra77linguistic factors which affect the practical use

of language in the particular context, including cultural context and situational context.1

<mong the three sub7divisions, situational context is the mostcomplicatedone since it has

sub7divisions for its own.Situational context, as 2alliday puts forward, include three

constituents# field of discourse, mode of discourse and tenor of discourse.(Qhu

Kongsheng,344A#% '37% '-) ield of discourse, referring to the whole event in language

communication, is tightly related to topic or sub>ect matter which is the instance

symboli0ing field of discourse. *ifferent topics al e still possible to indicate the same

field of discourse. =ode of discourse primarily concerns spoen mode and written modewhich are the two existing patterns of language. Tenor of discourse refers to the degree of

familiarity between the speaers and the roles they play in a language activity. *iscourse

tenor affects the linguistic style chosen in communication.

<ccording to =artin Moos (%&&4), linguistic style is grouped into five levels# fro0en

linguistic style, formal linguistic style, consultative linguistic style, casual linguistic style

and intimate linguistic style. Such a division is generally accepted by linguistic and

language learners. The five linguistic styles perform very differently in communication

activities. /anguage in fro0en style is elegant, precise even stiff, which is mostly adopted

in official documents, legal iterns and other grave or serious occasions, especially in

written form. ormal style bears the characteristics of coherent organi0ation and

elaborate expression, which is commonly envisaged by one person facing a number of

people, such as meeting, business negotiation, foreign diplomacy and so on. Sometimes

the speaers are formally polite to each other because they are unacquainted and need

more language to mae themselves understood. Style of such a situation is consult ative

style.

Documents

A Stylistic Analysis of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone