The object of stylistic study. Branches of stylistics. Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines

The object of stylistic study. Branches of stylistics. Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines.

Some scholars  claim that this is a comparatively new branch of linguistics. The term stylistics really came into existence not too long ago.

The problem that makes the definition of stylistics a curious one deals both with the object and the material of studies. When we speak of the stylistic value of a text we cannot proceed from the level-biased  approach that is so logically described through the hierarchical system of sounds, words and clauses.

Another problem has to do with a whole set of special linguistic  means that create what we call «style». Prof- J- ^R- Galperin offered his definition of style s a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication». According to Prof. Y. M. Skrebnev «style is what differentiates a group of homogeneous texts (an individual text) from all other groups (other texts)... Style can be roughly defined as the peculiarity, the set of specific features of a text type or of a specific text».

According to the type of stylistic research we can distinguish literary stylistics and lingua-stylistics.

Both study the common ground of:

• the literary language from the point of view of its variability;
• the idiolect (individual speech) of a writer;
• 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.
• Various literary genres.
• The writer's outlook.

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.

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. 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. 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.

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.

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).

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 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.

This science is very closely linked to the linguistic disciplines philology students are familiar with: phonetics, lexicology and grammar due to the common study source.

Stylistics interacts with such theoretical discipline as semasiology. This is a branch of linguistics whose area of study is a most complicated and enormous sphere—that of meaning. Semasiology in its turn is often related to the theory of signs in general and deals with visual as well as verbal meanings. Practically all stylistic effects are based on the interplay between different kinds of meaning on different levels.

Onomasiology (or onomatology) is the theory of naming dealing with the choice of words when naming or assessing some object or phenomenon. In stylistic analysis we often have to do with a transfer of nominal meaning in a text (antonomasia, metaphor, metonymy, etc.)

Literary stylistics will inevitably overlap with areas of literary studies such as the theory of imagery, literary genres, the art of composition, etc.

Decoding stylistics in many ways borders culture studies in the broad sense of that word including the history of art, aesthetic trends and even information theory.