Sylistics Notes PDF

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COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY GH: ABBAS BUKHARI (solitary110@yahoo.com) (May-2013)

Stylistics Notes (May-2013)
Chapter-1 Aims and perspectives
Stylistics is linguistics analysis of text. When we say text what do we mean by that? Which text? Here
text may include a poem and when we go for literature analysis linguistically we treat literature as text.
When we focus on literary criticism of literature then we treat literature as discourse. But combination of
both literature as text and literature as discourse is what stylistic does. Many writer believes stylistics as
discipline but Widdowson believes that stylistics is neither a discipline nor the subject but lies somewhere
in between; it is like meditation between discipline and subject. it related discipline with subject like
language with linguistics and literature with literary criticism. For instance he says; I want to define
discipline as set of abilities; concepts; ways of thinking associated with a particular area of which
one inquires, geneticists, biochemist, linguist, and literary critics, for example all follow certain
principles of inquiry which characterizes different discipline meaning Genetic, Biochemistry, they
all are different discipline what are subjects then? Subject is that from which a it is derived like subject is
derived from discipline; discipline provides material from which subjects are derived, because discipline
is a broader term. English language is subject; youre reading different subject in your school, English
language, Math, Science; science includes chemistry, biology, and physics but as you go on subject will
go on move towards discipline. You talk something general then you go to specify it.
Haliday defines stylistics as the linguistics analysis of literary text according to him stylistician can
comprehend literary text through a comprehension of their language structure. Literary text is seen to
consist of patterns and properties which are part of language. Those patterns of language can be at level
of:
a) Arrangement of graphic and phonic symbols
b) The lexico-grammatical patterns
c) The semantic or pragmatic patterns
The goal of stylistic is to show why and how the text means linguistically.
Language is subject and linguistics is its discipline same as literature is a subject and literary criticism is
its discipline. Discipline is studied to understand the subject. Stylistic is neither a subject nor a discipline
but it tells relation between them.
Disciplines: linguistics literary criticism

Stylistics

(English) language (English) literature
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For Example: a painting to a learner is nothing but use of colors but a critic may find a hidden message
behind that painting. Further when a non-verbal message is written into a verbal message it further gives
forms to understand this is possible through literary criticism.
Primarily critic concerned is with message of a literary piece which a writer wants to convey. Linguist
direct attention to how language is used in the piece of literary text.
Chapter-2 LITERATURE AS TEXT
Literature has attracted the attention of linguist for two very opposite reasons. One is that linguistic
description of a literary text sometimes gives sense and secondly it does not give sense sometimes.
Hadliday analyzes Yeats Poem Leda and Swan how two parts of the system of English are exemplified
one nominal group and other verbal group.
Leda and Swan
A sudden blow; the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, the thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast
Haliday observes definite article the in English functions in number of ways and can be
distinguish in grammar accordingly. In general its function is to signal that nominal group in
which it appears constitutes specific reference. This reference is of three kinds Cataphoric,
Anaphoric and Homophoric.
1) Cataphoric: it may include group of words (adjectives) in form of modifiers which come
before a noun and qualifiers which come after a head word. For example; The White
goddess in the temple (white-modifier, in the temple-qualifier). Article in this sentence
specifies a goddess.
2) Anaphoric: it is a reference of already mentioned head noun or phrase in the same paragraph.
For example The goddess was figure of mystery it refers to previous goddess in the poem.
3) Homophoric: when head words explain themselves and when they do not need any reference
they are called Homophoric references, for example the sun the moon the president etc.
If a nominal group has either a modifier or a qualifier then the group fall into the category of
Cataphoric reference, but if not having either anaphoric or Homophoric reference.
First criteria have to do with linguistics form and second with communicative function, and
relationship between them is considerably important. In Leda and Swan there are 25 nominal
groups and 10 contain definite article with modifier or qualifier, this is a simple text analysis of
the poem.
Those 10 groups must be counted as Cataphoric nominal group because of having modifier and
qualifier but they do not operate functional criteria of a Cataphoric reference. For example; the
great wings and beating still the dark webs in forms are Cataphoric reference but wings are
not identified as kind of wings which are great and beating, and nor the webs that are dark, so
respect to their function they are either anaphoric or Homophoric reference.
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So the dark web and the great wings and staggering girl are identified as anaphoric
reference to the title of the poem. So these references dark webs great wings as bodily parts
are anaphoric reference to the Swan and Staggering girl identified +human +female to the Leda
to the title of the poem as anaphoric reference.
Sometimes Cataphoric reference function as deictic reference, when something is pointed that is
called deictic reference. In the poem there is possibility that Yeats is pointing towards any
picture, painting or to imagined vision in his mind. This view can be supported when he uses
The thighs instead of saying her or his thighs. It is same like in guide books when there are no
buildings in front but their deictic references are used in the book. On other hand Burning wall
can be interpreted as Homophoric reference to the historical event of war of Troy.
The first use of definite article in the nominal group The thighs caressed by the dark webs this follows
the group the staggering girl which can relate to the title, but since the latter group establishes the link
with Leda identifying her as a girl, but use of the thighs instead of her thigh shows the poet is referring
to a specific thigh in a picture or painting etc.
Second observation concern the nominal group these terrified vague finger here determiner is adjective
these fingers refers to which fingers? Which has no other semantic association to it, so it is painting or a
picture?
If it is assumed that; Yeats was looking at a picture/painting of the Battle of Troy while composing this
poem. But this is one of the interpretations obtained according to the law of linguistics. No one is fully
sure that Yeats was looking at a picture and in order to get more information one has to look at the
deviations as well.

Deviations (Unusual or odd and unacceptable)
Second reason of Linguistics interest in literary text is that of deviations that cannot be evaluated by
linguistics terms but they still carry a meaning. In literary text we find such sentences which could not be
generated by generative grammar but are still interpretable. for example:
Me up at does
Out of the floor
Quietly stare
A poisoned mouse
Still who alive
Is asking what
Have I done that
You wouldnt have
This poem is like an ungrammatical long sentences but it still gives a meaning that mouse that is poisoned
talking; since such a sentence is interpretable so grammar should be of such a principle that can generate
such kind of sentences. These deviations in literature do not occur randomly but literary writers often
patterns to violate the grammatical rules but they still give sense in literary language.
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Category rules violation and sub category: Shakespeare has violet category rule in his work such as
and I shall see some Squeaking Cleapatra boy my greatness in this sentence the word boy which is a
concrete noun is used as a verb if we use it in grammar it would look like she was boying her hair or
Mary boyed her doll which is very odd and unacceptable but in Shakespeares language it give sense. In
this way writer violets category rule of using noun as very. Sub-category rule violation is done when
writer uses transitive verb as intransitive verb, a transitive verb always need an object whereas an
intransitive verb does not need any object; for instance scaled in I scaled along the house is used here
as intransitive but actually it is transitive verb.
Selection and restriction rules violation: in literature large number of Selection Restriction Rules
Violation is involved mostly by giving feature of animate to and non-animate things in description of
language system. Most common of all instance animate nouns being given +animate and +human
features for example; in Ted Hughes poem Wind seeing the window tremble to comin in this
sentence oddity does not lie in the trembling of window; which can tremble in storm etc. But problem lies
the phrase tremble to come in which requires a animate subject as he tremble to come in here
selection of right verb or animate is violated, or in other example The yellow fog that rubbing its
muzzle (Eliot) in this sentence the fog is given +animate because fog has no muzzle perhaps an animal
can do that. For instance The Thistle saw the gardener and winds stampeding the fields here in these
sentences thistle and winds are given +human quality.
Transformational Generative Grammar rule violation.
These are four kinds of
i) Addition: when a word is not required and the writer add it for certain effect this is called
addition: for example: and mas in myrth like to a comedy in the poem by Spenser
underlined to is added by the writer though it is un-required.
ii) Deletion: when a word is required but the writer deletes it for certain effects. This is deletion.
For example: the cat which was expensive attracted my wifes attention in this sentence
which can be deleted or for example: the coat / the coat was expensive/ attracted my wifes
attention. Tahir wants to meet sidra can be written as Tahir wants meet Sidra.
iii) Substitution: when the writer instead of using she word uses another word this would be
substitution. For example: blank day, bald street rather than empty street.
iv) Reordering: when the writer changes the order of the words in a sentence for instance No
loyal knight and true instead of No loyal and true knight.

Deviations are used deliberately by the poets to beautify the literary work; literary writer is allowed to
make such deviance as contrast to a speaker. The result is some degree to surprise the reader and to get
readers attention.
It is hard to find out the degree of deviations in any rule. The problem of the relationship between
grammatical and interpretability is that even ungrammatical sentences are interpretable.

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Halliday believes that literary text (in which rules are violated) can be accounted for in term of models of
linguistic description while generative grammarians disagree.
Chapter-03 Literature as Discourse
Discourse in form of lecture or conversation, group discussion between two or more people represents
speakers knowledge but not in literature. In literature ungrammatical language makes sense and can be
interpreted through its code and context.
Code and Context:
Sometimes linguistic analysis may not give you the comprehensive meaning then literary criticism may
help it out to comprehend it. Deviations in literature are not random but they are patterns. And deviations
cannot be understood in isolation but partly understood by linguistics (grammar rules etc.) and partly by
context, in which they appeared, so that means literature can only be understood as whole
We understand a language through its code which is grammatical structure; unless we know the grammar
we cannot understand a language. in the same way every piece of literature has a different code of its
language , through some rules we derive a code out of literary text and we apply that code to analyze
whole literary piece.
Thornes proposals are applied particularly to e eCummings poem Anyone lived in a pretty town
which he treats as corpus of a different language, is the extreme deviance of which made it favorite text
for linguistic analysis.
Anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
Spring summer autumn winter
He sang his didnt he danced his did
If we analyze this poem, anyone is a common noun in grammar but in the code of poem it is used as
proper noun so to understand these deviations we need to understand literal characteristics of it as well.
Anyone is used as proper noun and auxiliaries didnt and did are treated as common noun in
reference to anyone in the poem. It is because he talks anyone in general who lives in that very town.
These deviations may lead us to the interpretation that writers past life is consisted of enjoyment.
In the code it does not happen all that time that all natural objects are given +animate and +human
features but sometimes they present as they are, For example: Winds stampeding the fields The blunt
wind that dented the balls of my eyes(By Ted Hughes). In this poem the poet wishes to express violent
animacy of wind that house taken on roots and windows come alive.
We may say that winds in the poem is animate but inanimate in general phenomena, and poet cant
simply ignore literal meaning and bring an entire new meaning of the word. For example a word may give
different meaning in a context but in the same poem it retain its original characteristics as well. E.g. in
Brownings poem The Sullen wind was soon awaken/ It tore the elm-tops down for spite since the
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wind is taken as +human as it awakens, but at the same time it retains its inanimate characteristics as in
next line it tore elm-tops use of it; which is a pronoun used for both animate and inanimate.
It is clear now that making rules cannot give whole meaning; but they are still English words and forms a
part of language system, for instance, anyone is a common noun also a indefinite noun. Similarly did
is a common noun in the code of the poem which is verb +past +activity.
It is clear now that literary text does not depend on readers knowledge or code as they are common. In
short neither standard grammar nor devised code can work as whole for the meaning of a poem.
It is suggested that an interpretation of a literary work as piece of discourse involves correlating of
linguistics item and then context or background where it occurs.

Significance VS Values
Meaning in code is known as Significance and meaning in context is known as Value. A word in a
dictionary can give different meaning; but context makes it clear that which meaning is being referred to,
that is why readers do not refer to dictionary after every word they read in the text. The value of a word
becomes significance with the passage of time; for example the word Band has different meanings like
group of people, group of musician, group of people sharing same interest etc. it also has a value which
can be understood by the context. For example Rocking band is coming to the concert in this sentence
we come to know what value is referred. Like there are many words which got their significance latter
e.g. earlier word freeze was used for salary but later became famous as stopping something. Expression
like Break up may be associated with concrete words to the non-native speakers.
The ability of language a user is to give new values to words in a discourse. Grammarian sometimes says
as if it is only poets, children, and foreign learners who do not conform to the rules of language code. The
answer of questions, how a poet differ from others? Is that no expression randomly occurs in ordinary
discourse but they are pattern in reoccurring sound (phonological), structure (syntactic aspect) and
meaning (semantic aspect)
1) Phonological Patterning: On the bald streets breaks the black day in this line phonological
pattern is used (alliteration) /b/ sound is repeated to make rhyme scheme which shows desolation
of the poet, through alliteration mood of the poet is conveyed.
2) Semantic Patterning: The way a crow/stuck down on me/ the dust of snow/ from a hemlock
tree through these lines death and desolation is presented for example Crow represents black
and black is dark and evil. Hemlock is associated with poisoned tree, and dust of snow associated
with Christian funeral ceremony dust to dust so through these meanings successfully conveyed
theme of death in the poem.
3) Syntactic patterning: for example in lines from Alexander Pope
See how the world its venterans rewards!
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A youth of frolics, an old age of cards;
Fair to no purpose, artful to no end,
Young without lovers, old without a friend

Through structure of the poem writer has conveyed his message for example synonyms and
antonyms are used, youth=old, love friend. Young=old, fair=purpose, through these we can
interpret that fairness is associate with youth and the art is associated with old age.

CHAPTER-4 THE NATURE OF LITERARY COMMUNICATION
Although the deviations are common in literature but these are not defining features of literature. But
literary language should be patterns into actual language system. Widdoson suggests that effect of
patterning is to create acts of communication which are self-contained units, independent of social
context and expressive of reality other than that which is authorized by conventions. In other words,
literature should not be deviant as text it must of its nature be deviant as discourse.

Literary communication takes place through literature or in other words message conveyed through
literature. Literature is deviant and may not follow the rules of language and grammar the way non-
literary discourse does. Literature is organized to form pattern and those pattern communicate and
that is purpose of literature. Literature cannot be understood in isolation, in sentences or in
phrases, but as whole, when you go through a poem you know the poet want to say. According to
Widdoson literary communication is independent of social context, because in ordinary
communications demand is social context so its context dependent but unlike literary communication.
We communicate and literature communicates but difference is that our communication is
context dependent and literary is not.
To understand this weve to first understand the process of communication in general. In
communication weve sender who encodes message and there has to be a receiver to decode the
message. Similarly, there are addresser and addressee, sender is addresser and receiver is addressee,
who is being addressed, or in the written message writer becomes sender and readers become
receiver. They are same in the common non-literary communication. Grammatical sender and
addresser is first person and receiver and addressee second person. E.g. I/We, and You and a third
person who is being talked about she/he etc. But in literary communication it may not happen.

First Person in Literary communication: in literary communication sender and addresser are
different and addressee and receiver are different.. For instance poet writes a poem he is sending the
message and the characters in the poem are the addresser so there is different between sender and
addresser. E.g Im the enemy you killed my friend : a dead person is addressing, according to code
of language the third person is addressing, in the context of poem, being first person, so third person
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is used as first person. Im not yet born; o Hear me ; an un-born child speaks. I come from haunts of
coot and hern (reference to brook or stream is saying I come from). I bring fresh showers for the
thirsting flower (cloud addressing). These examples do not fulfill requirements eg. A dead person
speaking which does not happen in real world, a dead person can be talked of as third person, and
other requirement of addresser is that he should be human. In these examples senders are poets
Shelley, Owen, Tennyson and Mac Neice but the addressers are dead person, unborn child, stream
and clouds; which in normal communication are being talked as third person. First person pronoun in
these extracts then is not the conventional one but is somehow compounded with the third person to
create a unique kind of reference.
Second person in literary discourse: Ye trees! Whose slender roots entine/ Altars that piety
neglects ( Wordsworth) and Thou still unravishd bride of quietness/Thou foster-child of
silence and slow time. (Keats) With how sad steps, O moon, thou climbst the skies( Sidney). In
these extracts addressees are inanimate objects incapable of receiving messages, therefore, third
person entities. Poets commonly address non-human objects, flower, clouds etc; but they know it is
human reader who receives their messages. It means addressee is different from receiver, addressee
is an object and receiver is human which is different from conventional use of second person pronoun
and third person is used as second person. If the extracts are converted into common discourse
then the value of the discourse is altered. He is not yet born. It comes from haunts of coots and
hern. The still unravishd bride of quietness. The poet is no longer saying the same thing. We
might express the difference for the moment by saying that the immediacy of experience is lost and
the poet is detached from complete involvement.
Third person in literary discourse: let us now consider how third person is used in literary
communication, Fear took hold of him. Gripping tightly to the lamp, he reeled, and looked round.
The water was carrying his feet away, he was dizzy.......In his soul, he knew he would fall. (D.H
Lawrence The Rainbow) in this extract it is to be noticed that Lawrence is describing feelings of a
drowning man which is only felt by the person himself can feel. And this cannot be predicted for third
person except in reported speech. What goes in mind can be only described by first person for
instance In my soul, I know I would fall etc. but of course neither first person nor third person suits
the situation because man is not presented as ghost speaking from his grave, but a drowning, which
cant speak. In the extract we have effect of third person which takes value of both first and third
person.
In literary discourse we do not have sender sending message to receiver directly, as in normal case.
Instead we have a communication situation within a communication and a message whose
meaning is self-contained and not dependent on who sends it and who receives it.
The literary message does not arise in the normal course of social activity as do other messages, it
arises from no previous situation and requires no response, and it does not serve as a link
between people or as a means of furthering the business of ordinary social life. We might
represent the normal communication situation as follows:

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I III II
Sender Receiver
Addresser Addressee
Literary communication:
I/III II/III
Sender Addresser Addressee Receiver
Three objections might be raised against this characterization.
i) First, pronouns in English can refer to more than one person (I+III) My wife has a train to
catch so we must leave at once or Your train leave at 10 so we must leave at once. We
may also include speaker and hearer (I+II). You II+II , I+III, I+II multiple references when
someone is not directly addressed.
Resolution:
Answer to this objection is that singular pronouns which in the code can only have single
reference but which in literary writing has what we might call compound references. This might
formulate I/III, II/II, III/I.

ii) Second, that the way Widdowson has compounded pronouns, as first person pronoun in poetry
refers to poet who is sender and addresser, does not follow that all literature makes use of
pronouns in same way.
Resolution:
This objection can be answered that in literary writing even if first and second person pronouns
do not refer to entities which cannot of their nature send and receive messages, they do even so
depend for their value on the ending of the sender/addresser and receiver/addressee amalgams
and on the addition of a third person feature.
The literary writer is well aware that artistic convention within which he works allows for this distinction
between sender and addresser and so relieves him from any social responsibility for what he says in the
first person. This is how literary writing differs from diaries and personal letters.

iii) Third, object that writer mostly does have social purpose of writing.
Resolution:
It can be answered that writer does not do so by addressing himself directly to those who consciences he
wishes to stir.
Most literature provokes no social action whatever. Shelly spoke of poets as the unknowledgeable
legislator of the world, but a legislator who is not acknowledged is not a legislator; poets do not make
laws, although they make directly influence those that do. Literary discourse is independent of normal
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interaction, has no links with any preceding discourse and anticipates no subsequent activity either verbal
or otherwise.

Reformulation of the Principles:
Combines what is separate in code:
A) It is because a literary work is dissociated from other social interaction that the writer is required
to work the language into patters: patters are designed self-contained and they are comparatively
different from conventional language code. For instance in poem Child On Top Of A
Greenhouse The billowing out the seat of my britches,/ My Feet Crackling splinters of
glass and dried putty,/ The half-grown chrysanthemum starting up like accusers,/Up
through the streaked glass flashing with sunlight,/ A few white clouds all rushing eastward,/
A line of elms plunging and tossing like horses;/ And everyone pointing up and shouting.
The poem consists of a series of noun phrases or nominal groups. It deviance in grammatical
terms is shown by the fact that it is a sentence which lacks the obligatory category of verb phrase.
So this utterance is not an independent sentence since first base rule of generative is S NP +
VP but VP is missing in the above extract.
It is common to find utterances which consist only of NPs but such utterances are not independent
but make logic to a forgoing utterance which provides the grammatical elements necessary for a
sentence to be reconstructed. For example: the first line of poem can serve as a reply to a question
as: A: What do you feel? B: The wind billowing out the seat of my britches. Bs remark an
utterance consisting of an NP. However As question provides means whereby the utterance can
be related to the sentence. I feel the wind billowing out the seat of my britches.
Underlying Bs utterance is an sentence of NP (1) and VP (Feel the wind, etc), and further that
the VP consist of a V (feel) and another NP (the wind etc).
One piece of information that the forgoing text provides is tense. In the exchange between A and
B, the tense of verb in As question is transferred to Bs reply. The deep structure for Bs reply
could be shown as: I feel the wind/ the wind is billowing out the seat of my britches.
Transformational treatment will then yield alternative surface forms like: I feel the wind which is
billowing out the seat of my britches or I feel the wind billowing out the seat of my britches.
But notice that Bs remark could take exactly the same form even if As question use of the past
tense of the verb: A: what did u feel? B: I felt wind/the wind was billowing out the seat of my
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britches. And the deletion transformation would yield exactly the same form of noun phrase
before: the wind billowing out the seat out the seat of my britches.
In the absence of any additional information from the preceding text, the noun phrases which
constitute this poem have no specific time reference. We do not know whether we are to
understand The wind (is/was/will be) billowing.
Effect of isolating aspect here is to make a statement about a sensation of ongoing movement
which has no attachment to time. The boy is perched on top of the greenhouse physically aloof
from the world below and at the same time removed from the reality which it represents, detached
from real time and aware only of a kind of timeless movement. This sensation of duration outside
time to expressed by the recurrence of the progressive forms-billowing, crackling, starting,
flashing, rushing, plunging, tossing, painting, shouting.

B) Time and Tense /Aspect
It is because a literary work is dissociated from other social interaction that the writer is required to work
language into pattern. As literature has no other link it should be self-contained and the very design, the
creation of unique language pattern. For example: The wind billowing out the seats of my briteches,/
My feet crackling splinters of glass and dried putty,/ The half-grown chrysanthemums staring up like
accusers... looking at this poems text we can define it consisting of noun phrases or nominal groups,
deviant from a sentences which need VP to be completed.
The first rule of generative grammar is: SNP +VP and poem consist of SNP+NP etc. it is to be noted
that this kind of utterance does not occur independent but in an ongoing conversation. For instance, A:
What do you feel, B: The wind billowing out the seat of my britches. We can say that underlying
Bs utterance consisting of I and verb feel I feel the wind billowing but in the poem weve no
linguistics background knowledge so we cannot relate NP to the poem.
The problem is that we dont know what to understand from the preceding text of present or past, the
wind is billowing or the wind was billowing, poem has no specific time reference. Weve aspect but
not tense, in language code time and tense are interrelated one cant have without another; present
continuous and present perfect tense, thereby including aspect as feature of general category tense. But in
this poem what is normally inseparable becomes separated: we have aspect without tense.
The effect of isolating aspect here is to make a statement about a sensation of ongoing movement which
has no attachment to time. Boy perched at the top of house, detached from real time and aware only of a
kind of timeless movement. Only progressive form is used which runs as motif through linguistics
patterning of the poem billowing, crackling, staring, flashing, rushing, plunging, tossing, pointing,
shouting.
The reality which the poem records, is that of subjective impression. Individual thoughts, feelings and
perceptions, the private person, and this reality cannot be described by society as whole, but through code
of language it was drawn to create a pattern of its own kind.
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Literary writing often follows strategy as; it combines what is kept separate in the code and separate what
is combined in the code. For instance, a lexical item can combine (wind) the feature /-human which is part
of signification with the feature of /+human which context imposes upon it, and the entity refers to both
human and non-human at the same time. And this is inseparable in the reality.

C) THE SEPRATION OF SENDER AND ADDRESSER, RECIEVER, ADDRESSEE.

C) The second example is combing the feature of human features with +human which is done in
personification. This creates a unique pattern in which a thing is both human and non-human at
the same time something Is either human or not human, it cannot be both; but in literature it
can be.

D) PARADIGMATIC AND SYTANGMATIC RELATIONSHIP (Double Articulation or
Double structure)
Whereas syntagmatic analysis studies the 'surface structure' of a text, paradigmatic analysis seeks to
identify the various paradigms (or pre-existing sets of signifiers)

It is thought that phonological structure of language has no independent function but serve only to
construct units of grammar. But in poetry patterns of sound do have a function other than that of
constructing words: lexical items en+ter directly into the meaning through value which they do not own.
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves (keats
The presence of the murmuring noise of flies on evenings of summer.
The second does not have the same value as the first; there is not the same degree of convergence of
double structure.
A linguistic unit, whether a sound at the phonological level or a word or group of words at the
grammatical level, enters into two kinds of relation: it is paradigmatically related to units which can
occur in the same phonological or grammatical context, and syntagmatically related to units which it
actually does occur with and which constitute this phonological or grammatical context.
For instance: sound /p/ in pet, pat, pack are represented by et, -at, and ack in contexts; it is in
syntagmatic relationship with these sounds. sound /b/ in contexts to produce bet, bat, and back. /p/ and
/b/, in the contexts et, -at, -ack- and in consequence are in paradigmatic relationship with each other.
For example: in sentence like: The plumber smiled. Here NP (The plumber) and VP (smiled) are used,
now NP can be replaced by number of items like My Aunt Charlotte/ An old man. They are in
paradigmatic relationship. Similarly VP can be replaced Complained, Arrived etc, Mended the pipes,
installed. We can set up class of transitive verbs which all are verbs having not following NP as part of
their grammatical environment, for instance some noun cannot occur with intransitive verbs like the
plumber mended.
A sound or word or a phrase in paradigmatic relation with any other which can replace it and the context
which provides the position in which these different elements can operate consists of items which are in
syntagmatic relation with these elements and with each other. To make a correct sentence one selects an
element from paradigmatic and combines with another. In the NP and VP weve choices; between proper
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noun and common noun, class of common nouns, animate and non-animate; and within VP weve
transitive and intransitive verbs belongs to different paradigms. Horizontal plane are syntagmatically
related and those on the vertical place are paradigmatically related. For instance:
The Nurse
Teacher
disappeared
objected
Arthur
Harold Wilson
shot
ridiculed
a man from the BBC
The Archbishop of
Canterbury

Thus the nurse and teacher are equivalent but not nurse and Harold. Again disappeared and objected
are equivalent but they are not equivalent to shot and ridiculed but only to shot the Archbishop of
Canterbury or ridiculed a man from the BBC since it is these verb phrases and not the verbs
themselves which share the same column as the intransitive verb phrases.
Substitution table makes clear that a sentence is formed by selecting from items in a paradigmatic
relationship and combining them with items from a different paradigmatic set. A sentence is both a
selection and a combination and these two can be said to be the basic principles of linguistic organization.
Previous chapter Literary Discourse makes it clear that patterns very commonly depend on a combination
of items which are in paradigmatic relationship. That is to say, a selection is made of a series of items
from the same column and equivalence is thereby transferred from vertical plane of selection to the
horizontal plane of combination.
For instance: Eliots Four Quartets might be arranged in to a substitution table for: words, strain
under the burden, words slip, words decay with imprecision, words will not stay still.

Words

Strain
Crack
Break

Under the burden
Under the tension
Slip.
Slide.
Perish.
Decay with imprecision.
Will not stay in place.
Will not stay still.

A further example we can reduce some lines of Wordsworth which were previously discussed to the
contents of a substitution table:

I

Have felt
A presence

A sense sublime
of something

A motion
That disturbs me with the joy of elevated
thoughts.
For more deeply interfused.

Whose dwelling is

The light of setting
sun.
The living air.
The round ocean.
14

If we move from left to right selecting from each column we can construct a whole series of different
sentences:
I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts.
I have felt sense sublime of something that impels all objects of all thought.
I felt a spirit far more deeply interfused.
I have felt a motion whose dwelling is the round ocean.
I have felt a spirit that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts.

Wordsworth uses syntactic and semantic equivalences which create the effect that poet trying to express
the unspeakable; trying to capture a true experience. By organizing Wordsworths lines into a substitution
table we can show how paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations are combined to create a literary
discourse. By doing we point out linguistic feature of Wordsworths style; it underlines our impression of
its sublimity, its grandeur and so on. The use of table can be helpful in teaching literature.

Lets now briefly review the converse: aspect of literary discourse which depend on dividing what is
normally compounded. The most obvious instance of this, of course, is the separation of addresser from
sender and addressee from receiver. It is to be noticed that this separation is symptomatic of the
independence of literary discourse from the normal processes of social interaction and that it is because of
this independence that internal patterns of language have to be designed within the discourse to carry
meanings. These patterns are formed by reversing the normal principles of linguistic organization. Thus,
the dividing of what is combined leads to the combining of what is divided: the one is consequence of
other. The isolation of aspect from tense is the result of removing the discourse from any contact with
previous interaction, but the consequence of this is that the occurrence of the continuous form of the verb
cannot itself be isolated in the context: it has to pattern in with others. The first line of the poem: The
wind billowing out the seat of my britches make no sense on its own ( as it would if it were the
reply of the question or if it were linked with previous discourse In any other way). It only makes sense in
association with the other lines of the poem, as part of code patterns prepares the way for the creation of
patterns in context.
Separation of what is normally combined is, then, symptomatic of the detachment of literary discourse.
Other examples are provided by such opening lines as; No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist/ Wolfs
bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine (keats) and yes, I remember Adlestrop (Edward
Thomas). These lines make o sense on their own. They only make sense in association with the rest of
the poem which they appear; being cut off from one link they have to form others.

Two quotations cited above sound like spoken replies, one catches the cadence of the speaking voice; but
at the same time lines are in medium of written form. Organization of first lines of poems suggests mode
of communicating. The medium used in literature is not like that of conventionally associated but it is
more like of spoken. For example: the patterning of sound and stress upon which poetic meanings so
often depend are obviously intended to appeal to the ear, and in this respect poetry has character of

A spirit

The mind of man.

That impels

All thinking things,
All objects of all
thoughts

That rolls through all things

15
communication in the spoken mode. The medium is writing, but the mode of communication is not
definitely spoken or written in the conventional sense but a blend of both. Literature also has blend of
both for instance; if we look at certain features of short stories, appears to be mode of communicating
which has no analogue in conventional uses of language.
It is very common to find literary works beginning with a third person pronoun for which there is no
previous reference. In normal circumstances, if one uses he or she it is anaphoric or deictic reference
and refers to human; however this is not normally case in the literature for example: she walks in
beauty like the night(Byron), She was a phantom of delight (Wordsworth). Here she is not told
about so here she pronoun takes place of proper noun and it never happens in normal discourse. For
instance in Fiction its often found He came back into the kitchen. The man was still on the floor,
lying where he had hit him, and his face was bloody (Somerset Maugham :The Unconquerred).
And Soon they enter the Delta. The sensation was familiar to him (William Faulker: Delta
Autumn) and it was an eighty-cow dairy and the troop of milkers, regular and supernumerary,
were all at work. (Hard; The withered Arm).
Since there is no preceding discourse to which these sentences can relate, the above used pronouns have
no references and reader takes it as it were, on trust. So the literary discourse and common discourse
differs; whereas ordinary discourse pronoun derive their value retrospectively and in literary discourse
pronoun take their value prospectively from what follows. It frequently happens that in literary discourse
person pronouns are not anaphoric in function but operate as Homophoric or deictic as in the case of the
lines from Byron and Wordsworth or Cataphoric in the case short story opening. Since the man was
still on the floor is a Cataphoric reference followed by article; in effect inclines us to interpret these
definite noun phrases deictically. The effect of use of phrase like The man without any given
information; draw the reader into the imagined situation and to provide an immediacy of reference by
involving the reader as participant in the situation itself. The purpose of throwing the reference forward,
of projecting the readers attention towards what is to come, is of course precisely to make us read on.
Here are some other examples of the dual functioning of definite reference: The Picton boat was due to
leave at half past eleven (Katherin Mansfield: The voyage) There was two white men in charge
of the trading situation (H.G.Wells: In the Abyss).
Occurrence of aspect without tense and use of pronoun and definite noun phrases; which has no
antecedent reference in the context; reflects the independence of literary discourse. In conventional
discourse it is not generally necessary to provide details about the participants and the setting in terms of
time and place. If the discourse is spoken most of these details appear within the actual situation. Whereas
in literature sense of time and tense and social context is removed; and sender is no longer identified with
addresser nor the receiver with the addressee. The fact about participants and about setting in which they
interact have to be included within the discourse itself. In consequence, its mode of communicating is
really neither spoken nor written in any straightforward way but a combination of both.
It is for this reason that prose fiction is marked by frequent description of persons and settings: they
represent the necessary situational context within which the action, include the verbal actions, of the
participants can be understood; for instance: quote from Conrads An Outpost of Progress There was
two white men in charge of the trading station, Kayerts, the chief, was short and fat; Carlier, the
assistant, was tall, with a large head and a very broad trunk perched upon a long pair of thin legs
and about place t was dead hour of November afternoon. Under the ceiling of level mud-coloured
cloud, the latest office buildings of the city stood out alarmingly like new tombstones among the
mass of older building (V.S Pritchett: The Fly in the Ointmen).
The account of person and settings is not, however, a straightforward one (as, indeed we might not expect
it to be). As the situation is one which is removed from the reality of normal social life there is no need to
keep the different situational factors distinct. Again see the combing principal at work. Thus, it is
common to find it instead of having persons, times and places described as separate aspect of situation
they are interrelated as features of a kind of composite reality which we usually refer to as the theme.
Consider again following example, the opening of Lawrences story Fanny and Annie:
16
Flame-lurid his face as he turned among the throng of flame-lit and dark faces upon the platform.
In the light of the furnace she aught sight of his drifting countenance, like a piece of floating fire.
And the nostalgia, the doom of homecoming, when through her veins like a drug. His eternal face,
flame-lit now. The pulse and darkness of red fire from the furnace towers in the sky, lighting the
desultory, industrial of crowd on the wayside station, lit him and went out...Ofcourse he did not see
her. Flame-lit and unseeding!.... Scene here, the darkness and the red light from the furnace is
inextricably involved with the mans appearance. This kind of description of person and setting which is
required in literary discourse has no exact analogue in other uses of language.
What literature communicates, then, is an individual awareness of a reality other than that which is given
general social sanction but nevertheless related to it.
The basic problem in the teaching of literature is to develop in the student an awareness of the what/how
of literary communication and this can be only be done by relating it to, without translating it into, normal
uses of language. it is at this point that we can turn to pedagogic questions.

Chapter 5 Literature as Subject and discipline

Different between subject and discipline is that disciplines are derived from the subject like youve
studied literary criticism, linguistics or literature. So here he discusses that how literature is to be taught
as subject because we do teach in literature as subject not only in Pakistan but in English countries.
Because here is no proper framework as such for teaching English literature; what he says that teachers
more or less teach literature to the student as the same way as they were taught.

This stylistic that weve been discussing and weve know how important this stylistic is, and within
stylistic how important the role of language is in understanding literature. Language aspect the linguistics
aspect the linguistic analysis it guides to towards the understanding of literature. When you ignore the
importance of language you just focus on critical aspect of literature then youre deriving students of
literature of very important thing in order to understand literature language has to be given due
importance because as we see language is very important and there is no well defined rules for teaching
English literature that according to stylistics this is how you teach the literature, take your example how
youre taught literature teacher reading out the poem and teacher explaining the main points what a writer
wants to convey may be telling you about rhyme scheme at the most but guiding to you towards message
this is what poet is saying. But what happens when youre taught literature youre taking the message that
teacher is delivering to them not the poem that is delivering, a poem communicates as weve seen
literature as communication; that communication is deliverd through the medium of teacher to the
students. so students are doing what they are not understanding literature themselves, not trying to
understand the message in the poem making use of language and all, but they are the told what the
message is and that is what they follow; if they are supposed to explain that poem they will produce what
the teacher has told them this is what you student have been doing. Teacher tells you summary the main
idea and you reproduce it in exams.

Widdowson doesnt believe in this approach he says that there should be a proper system through which
and proper techniques would be used so that students are properly guided how to interpret literature;
17
instead of giving them readymade interpretation which they cram and reproduce and teacher give them
one or two interpretation and students apply them in all of literature.
He says that literature since we know language is patterns in literature that gives the beauty to literature
whether prose or poetry and when you translate it or paraphrase it so that beauty is gone, students then are
not getting that beauty of literature and cannot appreciate that because they cannot reach it. And this
happens when language is not given importance for dealing with literature. It is patterning of language
and the point is what that patterning is when you understand that you can understand literature. So
language cannot be separated but unfortunately this has been happening.

For example if there is extract from Shakespeares play what teachers normally do they take help
literature as discipline by looking for more work of Shakespeare by looking at whole of the play from
which extract; so looking for an answer within the realm of literature. Their teacher might have taught
them in the same manner, so teaching literature by taking help from literature that means ignoring the
linguistics and language. Teaching literature as subject focusing on literature as a discipline. Aim of
teacher is to teach literature for the exams but not for the sake of understanding of literature. If teachers
know that there will be the reference to the context so teacher will teach them more or less for that. For
instance a TEFL students is taught; how to teach and different techniques for teaching English language
but in literature teacher are not being given formal training for the teaching of literature.

This chapter favors stylistic approach towards the study of literature.
F.R. Leavis definition of literature as a subject given which indicates what author sees as the
essential benefit deriving form study of literature and in particular from a study of English literature:
the essential discipline of an English school in the literary critical; it is a true discipline, only in an
English school if anywhere will it be fostered, and it is irreplaceable. It trains, in a way no other
discipline can, intelligence and sensibility together, cultivating sensitiveness and precision of
response and a delicate integrity of intelligence

OBJECTIONS RAISED BY WIDDOWSON AGAINT THE DEFINITION OF F.R LEAVIS
iv) The aim of the discipline of literary criticism as given in the definition are of extremely general
and idealistic kind.
v) There are a number of other discipline which might justifiably claim to train people acquire
precision of response, awareness of the significance of tradition and so on.
vi) No mention is made of language whereas the benefits that Leavis associates with literary
studies can be realized if the student develops an awareness of the way language is used in
literary discourse for the conveying unique messages.
vii) Leavis remarks are made with British universities in mind or at least with universities in
English-speaking countries in mind and the remarks were made over thirty years ago.
viii) Rejecting the argument that English literature teaching fosters desirable qualities of mind, one
is left with two other possible reasons for teaching it overseas:
a) Cultural reason: To acquaint students with ways of looking at the world which characterize
the cultures of the English-speaking people (English, Irish, Scotish, Welsh)
b) Linguistics reason: To teach English literature as something written in English language
(figure of speech, metaphor, expression, the expression of language and vocabulary.

The treatment of literature as a cultural subject reduces literature to the level of conventional statement
about ordinary reality. It does not direct at the specifically literary nature of literature. Literature, in such
case, is only treated as a source of factual information, such as, we might read conventional forms of
discourse like a historical document, philosophical treaties, a sociological questionnaire.

WIDDOWSONS SUGGESTION
18
In view of these difficulties, it would be better to define literary studies as a linguistic subject and define
the term literature as an enquiry into the way language is used to express a reality other than that
expressed by conventional means. This of course, amounts to the study of literary works as kinds of
discourse. If one defines the subject in this way, the reason for teaching overseas becomes immediately
apparent. Pupils and students are engaged in learning the English language; this involves in part of
learning of the language system the structures and vocabulary of English but it must involve also the
learning of how this system is used in the actual business of communication.
This being so, the manner in which the resources of the language system are used in the fashioning of
unique literary messages can be compared with other uses of the language so as to make clear by contrast
how the system is used in conventional forms of communication. At the same time, of course, a
comparison with other kinds of discourse will reveal what it is what is peculiar to literary uses of English.
So the stud of literature is primarily a study of language uses and such it is not a separate activity from
language learning but an aspect of same activity.
Widdowson says that in most cases the individual can only respond to literature as a result of guidance.
One can not just express to literary wirting but normally what critics and teachers. So often do is to tell
students what message are to be focused in the literary words. This discourages them to find their own
interpretation as the full input of work can only be recognized by the individual direct experience of it.
Widdowson says literature should be read linguistically and literally. If we disregard we do not
understand the real sense of literature.

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COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY GH: ABBAS BUKHARI (solitary110@yahoo.com) (May-2013)

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