A Brief Comment on 'style and stylistics'
...pe of context in which they are communicating . Leech lists three categories of features of style: 1) (Relative permanent features of style) Individuality Dialect Time 2) Discourse a) Medium b) Participation 3) (Relatively temporary features of style) Province Status Modality Singularity While the definitions of style listed by Liu Shisheng are: 1) Style as form 2) Style as eloquence 3) Style as the man 4) Style as personal idiosyncrasy 5) Saying the right thing in the most effective way 6) Style as the choice between alternative expressions 7) Style as equivalence 8) Style as foregrounding 9) Style as deviation 10) Style as prominence 11) Style as the selection of features partly determined by the demands of genre, form, theme, etc. 12) Style as the linguistic features that communicate emotions and thought. Certainly there is some overlap among the above- listed definitions. To define style is so complicated that we should comprehend fully the defining features of style. B. Defining features of style In Wang Zuoliang & Ding Wangdao (1987), they define the stylistics like this: “ Stylistics, a discipline of studying of style,” It has two domains of studies: in a narrow sense, it refers to literary style, including a style of a particular writer’s, and broadly speaking, it indicates various styles of a language, e.g. oral style, written style, among which are several styles, say, in oral style are styles of speeches delivered in a conference which is different from that of a private letter. The style in a broad sense, including literary style, is the subject matter of their studies. In Tong Qingbing’s ‘Style and Stylistic Creation’, style is regarded as literary genre with their textual aesthetic standards emphasized; Tao Dongfeng argues that style is form of literary works in discourse and mode of textual structure. And if text is a special structure of signs, then style is a sign-encoding mode. Liu and Hu (2000.) summarize that he regards style as expressive mode without considering the content in demarcation of style. In English, style originally meant no more than a writing-implement, the following are the definitions of style given by various kinds of scholars in various times. Style is defined or accounted for through three main aspects: Form elements, Thematic elements, Author’s qualities. 1) Form elements: Style as foregrounding Style as the choice between alternative expressions. Style as the linguistic features that communicate emotions and thought Style as ‘ the dress of thought’ Style as form Style as prominence Style as equivalence Style is deviation 2) Thematic elements Saying the right thing in the most effective way Style is ‘proper words in proper places’ 3) Author’s qualities Style as personal idiosyncrasy Style as eloquence Style is the man Style is high breeding in words and in argument Style as the selection of features partly determined by the demands of genre, form, theme, etc. No matter what its definition is given in what historic period. Style is identified either through language in terms of form and themes or through authors. The style of a certain genre and variety or style of a particular writer in a particular period in the history might be identified through different perspectives of the language use, e.g. through language use in terms of the form elements in renaissance or through the thematic elements, humanism in that period. According to David Crystal, ‘style’ can be identified through two approached, the evaluative and the descriptive. In the first sense, it implies a degree of excellence in performance or a desired standard of production, as when someone is complimented for ‘having style’ or condemned for writing ‘without style’, the second sense lacks these value judgments and simply describes the set of distinctive characteristics that identify objects, persons, periods or places, in this sense, we talk of Shakespearean style, the house stylistic studies. Evaluative notions are an essential part of aesthetic approaches to language and are implicit in such areas as elocution, oratory, and literary criticism. Descriptive approaches are found more in scientific studies, such as the various branches of linguistics, where there is a concern for objective identification without evaluation. According to David Crystal, the concept of choice is central to stylistic study, whatever is our approach. Style is seen as the selection of a set of linguistic features from all the possibilities in a language. The notion of stylistic choice could be used to explain many of the effects used in the expression of social and contextual identity, and indeed, several stylisticians do adopt this wider approach. For them, ‘ style’ is any situationally distinctive use of language—a characteristic of groups as well as individuals. Leech clarify definitions of style into three principal groups: Monism, Dualism, and Pluralism. By monist demarcations, he means ‘ the inseparability of style and content’, by dualist definitions, he refers to the “strong tradition of thought which restricts style to those choices which are choices of Mannerism rather than Matter, of Expression rather than Content, while by pluralist definitions, it is meant “analyzing style in terms of functions”. Leech (1981) summarizes the defining features of style in this way. 1) Style is a way in which language is used, i.e. it belongs to parole rather t...