NARRATIVE

STYLISTIC

Narrative discourse:

provides a way of recapitulating felt

experience by matching up patterns of
language to a connected series of events.

comprises

ordered

change

two clauses which are temporarily

in their order will result in a change in

the way we interpret the assumed chronology
of the narrative events.

Example:
John dropped the plates and Janet laughed
suddenly.
two

narrative clause.
Suggest a temporal progression between the
two actions described.
We assume that Johns misfortune preceded
Janets response, and that it was his
misfortune that brought about her response.

However, reversing the clauses to

form Janet laughed suddenly
and John dropped the plates
would invite a different
interpretation: that Janets
laughter not only preceded but
actually lead to Johns
misfortune.

Narrative requires:
development
elaboration
embellishment
a sufficient degree of stylistic flourish to give it
an imprint of individuality or personality.
Stories narrated without that flourish will often
feel flat and dull.

Sociolinguist William Laboy has argued that narratives require

certain essential elements of structure which, when absent,
render the narrative ill-formed.
Example :( 2)
Well this person had a little too much to drink and he
attacked me and the friend came in and she stopped it.
(Labov 1972:360)

The story satisfy the minimum criterion for narrative, but it also
lacks a number of elements which are important to the delivery
of a successful narrative.
For instance, where and when this story took place; who was
involved in the story ; how did the storyteller come to be in the
same place as the antagonist..
Lacking sufficient contextualization , it offers little sense of
closure or finality. It also lacks any dramatic or rhetorical

The task of providing a full and rigorous model

of narrative discourse has proved somewhat of
a challenge for stylisticians.
There

is much more disagreement about how

to isolate the various units which combine to
form, say a novel or short story, just as there is
about how to explain the interconnections
between these narrative units.

Narrative

structure is only one side of a coin of

which narrative comprehension is the other.

Two Basic Components of Narrative:

Narrative Plot- refer to the abstract storyline of a
narrative,the sequence of elemental,
chronologically ordered events which create the
inner-core of a narrative.
Narrative Discourse- contrast, encompasses the
manner or means by which that plot is narrated.
Characterized by the use of stylistic devices such as
flashback,prevision and repetition.

Abstract
Storyline
Represented
Storyline

PLOT
DISCOURSE

Textual Medium
Sociolinguistic Code
Characterisation 1: actions and
events
Characterisation 2: points of view
Textual Structue
Intertextuality

Domain in Stylistics

Textual

Medium : the physical channel of

communication trough which a story is narrated.

Sociolinguistic Code : expresses trough language
the historical, cultural and linguistic setting which
frames a narrative.
Characterisation 1: actions and events : how the
development of character precipitates and intersects
with the actions and events of a story.

Characterisation

2: point of view:

the relationship between mode of narration

and a characters or narrators point of view.
Textual Structure : the way the
individual narrative units are arranged and
organized in a story.
Intertextuality : the technique of
allusion. Narrative fiction does not exist in
a social and historical vacuum ,and it often
echoes other texts and images either as
implicit intertextuality or as manifest
intertextuality.

STYLE AS CHOICE

INTRODUCTI
ON

Choices in style are motivated, even if

unconsciously, and these choices have a profound
impact on the way texts are structured and
interpreted.
The experiential function is an important marker
of style, especially that of narrative discourse,
because it emphasizes the concept of style as
choice.

TRANSITIVITY
This is a system in which the particular grammatical
facility is used for capturing experience in language.
Is used in a more expanded semantic sense than that
used in traditional grammars where it simply serves to
identify verbs which take direct objects.
Refers to the way meanings are encoded in the clause
and to the way different types of process are
represented in language.

THREE KEY COMPONENTS OF PROCESSES:

(TRANSITIVITY)
1.
2.
3.

The process itself, which is typically realized in

grammar by the verb phrase.
The participants associated with the process,
typically realized by noun phrases.
The less importantly for stylistic analysis, the
circumstances associated with the process. This
is typically expressed by prepositional and
adverb phrases (the adjunct element in clause
structure).

THE SIX TYPES OF PROCESS

MATERIAL PROCESSES
Are simply process of doing.
Associated with are two inherent participant
roles which are the Actor, an obligatory role in
the process, and a Goal, a role which may or may
not be involved in the process.

Actor

Process

Goal

nipped

Daniel

The washing

broke down.

machine

MENTAL PROCESSES
are essentially processes of sensing.
Inhabit and reflect the world of
conciousness, and involves :
Cognition (encode in verbs such as
thinking or wondering)
Reaction (as in liking or hating)
The

two roles associated are the Sensor (the

concious being that is doing the sensing)
and the Phenomenon ( the entity which is
sensed, felt, thought or seen).

Sensor

Process

Phenomenon

Mary

Understood

The story (cognition)

Anil

noticed

The damp patch (

Siobhan

detests

Pate (reaction

Behaver

Process

Circumstance

That student

Felt asleep

In my lecture again

She

frowned

At the mess.

BEHAVIORAL PROCESSES
A process which represents both the activities of
sensing and doing .
Embody physiological actions like breathe or cough,
although they sometimes portray these processes as
states of consciousness as in sigh, cry, or laugh .
They also represent processes of conciousness as forms
of behaviour, as in stare, dream or worry.
The key participant is he Behaver, the conscious entity
who is behaving.

RELATIONAL PROCESSES:
Are processes of being in the specific sense of
establishing relationships between two entitles.
Can be expressed in a number of ways. There is
however general agreement about three main
types of realtional process.

Intensive relational process presents a relationship

of equivalence, an x is y connection, between two
entities.
Ex:
Paulas presentation was lively.
Joyce is the best Irish writer.

Possesive relational process plots x has y type of

connection between two entities.
Ex:
Peter has a piano.
The Alpha Romeo is Claras .

Circumstancial relational process is where the

circumstancial element becomes upgraded, so that it

fulfills the role of a full participant n the process: x
is/at in/is on/is with/y :
Ex:
The fete is on all day.
The maid was in the parlour.
The forces of drakness are against you.

THE THREE TYPES COME IN TWO MODES,

YIELDING SIX CATEGORIES IN TOTAL

Attributive

: The entity, person or concept

Identifying

: One role is identified through

described is reffered to as the carrier, while the

role of attribute refers to the quality ascribed to
that carrier. The attribute therefore says that the
carrier is, what the carrier is like, where the
carrier is , what it owns and so on.

reference to another such that the two have halves

of the clause often refer to the same thing. This
means that unlike attributive processes are
reversible. (the identifier)picks out and defines
(the identified).

Type
intensive

Mode Attributive
Paulas presentation was
lively.

Identifying
The best Irish writer
is Joyce

Joyce is the best Irish

writer
The Alpha Romeo is

possessive

Peter has a piano.

Claras

Claras is the Alpha

Romeo

The maid is in the

circumstantial

The fete is on all day

parlour

In the parlour is the

maid

EXISTENTIAL PROCESSES

These processes basically assert that something exists

or happens.
Typically include the word there as a dummy
subject,as in There was as assualt or Has there been
a phone call?, and they normally only contain one
participant role, the Existent (assult/phone call).

MODE OF TRANSITIVITY
Existential
(existing)
(There was a nip)

Relational (being)
(The best Irish writer
is Joyce)

MATERIAL
(doing)
(I nipped Daniel)
Physical Existence
WORLD OF .. .. .

BEHAVIOURAL
( behaving)
(She frowned at the
mess)

Abstract
Consciousness
realations

VERBALISATION (saying)
(The minister announced the decision)

MENTAL
(sensing
(Siobhan detest
pate)