Stylistics and stylometry

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Stylistics and stylometry
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What is style?

• Term not much loved by linguists
• Too vague
• Has connotations in neighbouring fields (style
  good style, ie a value judgment)
• Many books/articles make reference to etymology
  of the word (Lat. stilus pen), so it follows
  that style is mainly about written language
• Various definitions, some very close to things
  already seen (especally register)
• Two main aspects widely supposed
• style is choice
• style is described by reference to something else

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Style as choice

• For any intended meaning there are a range of
  alternative ways of expressing that meaning
• Different choices express nuances
• of meaning
• of other things (style?) eg buy vs purchase
• Example
• Visitors are respectfully informed that the coin
  required for the meter is 50p no other coin is
  acceptable
• 50p pieces only
• Propositional meaning is the same difference in
  expression conveys something else (register etc)

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Style as choice

• Style is a choice, but often the choice is
  somewhat predetermined
• ie a choice between appropriate and inappropriate
  style
• So maybe style is just another word for
  register?

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Style and the norm

• Some writers define style as
• individual characteristics of a text
• total sum of deviations from a norm
• But what is the norm?
• Is there some form of the language that is
  neutral as regards style/register?
• Note also that the norm shifts eg Bible AV was
  written in the vernacular of its time
• Literary stylistics focuses on the exceptional

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• Even if there is no norm, we can describe style
  comparatively
• Stylistics mainly involves comparing and
  contrasting texts
• and associating linguistic variance with
  contextual explanation
• Some authors see style as being what is added to
  the text

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Stylistic analysis

• Gulf between literary vs linguistic stylistics
• Lit crit focuses on effect on the reader,
  intended or otherwise, so largely intuitive and
  subjective
• Linguistic stylistics looking for
  characterisations of style (including literary
  style) in terms of linguistic phenomena at the
  various levels of linguistic description

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Stylistic analysis

• Inventory of linguistic devices and their effect
• usually in a contrastive way
• in contrast with other writers in a similar genre
• in contrast with other genres
• Linguistic devices described in terms of the
  usual linguistic levels of description
  phonology, morphology, lexis, grammar, etc.
• Effects can be directly expressive, or
  indirectly, by association
• example onomatopoeia vs alliteration as a
  phonological device

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Examples of stylistic devices

• Phonostylistics
• onomatopoeia, alliteration
• use of regional accents
• Lexical stylistics
• archaisms, neologisms, slogans
• recurring imagery through metaphor (eg many water
  metaphors in Shakespeare)
• juxtaposition of close synonyms to imply subtle
  differences in meaning, or to reinforce (eg let
  or hindrance)
• Syntax stylistics
• tenses, word order, use of pronouns
• complexity, esp. juxtaposition of eg long and
  short sentence
• deliberate violation of normal syntactic
  conventions

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Historical stylistics

• Taking a diachronic view of language
• Study how linguistic devices lose or gain
  stylistic significance
• eg novel metaphor ? idiom ? cliché
• Must bear in mind contemporary setting
• eg falconry metaphor in Shakespeare understood
  differently
• My Fair Lady audience assumptions about Cockney
  characters

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Stylistic analysisCrystal Davy (1969)
Investigating English Style

• Informally identify stylistic features felt to be
  significant
• Devise a method of analysis which facilitates
  comparison between usages
• Identify the stylistic function of the features
  so identified

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Types of features

• Invariable features due to the individual or
  the time usually of little interest
• Discourse features
• medium ( Hallidays mode), what features
  distinguish written language from spoken language
• participation eg monologue vs dialogue
• Province ( field) lexis and syntax
• Status ( tenor) features relating to relative
  social standing of writer/speaker and
  reader/listener
• Modality ( text type) eg message delivered as a
  letter, postcard, text message, email, etc
• Singularity deliberate occasional idiosyncracies

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Methods

• Look at features on the various linguistic levels
• Example email (compared to letter)
• No address at top
• Greetings (Dear X, Yours sincerely) optional
• Where used, may be different strict rules about
  Yours sincerely/truly etc emails show more
  variety
• Spelling, orthography (caps and punc), and
  grammar more flexible
• Convention of including original in response
  (cutpaste vs indirect reference)
• Since two modes coexist, there is some cross-over
• some emails (more formal) have features of a
  letter, in the extreme being seen as just an
  alternative delivery mode
• some letters more like emails, eg if
  correspondence is in electronic form, you can
  cutpaste quotes from previous correspondence

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Stylometry

• Measurement of style based on numerical analysis
• Always been part of stylistics (especially in
  authorship studies), but more popular now due to
  practicality (computers)
• Involves counting things
• And knowing how to show the significance of what
  has been counted

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What to count

• Simple things may characterise different styles
• average sentence length
• average word length
• typetoken ratio (vocabulary richness)
• number of types number of different words
• number of tokens total number of words
• vocabulary growth (homogeneity of text)
• number of new types in 1st, 2nd, , nth 1000
  words
• in rich varied text, number will climb steadily
• Especially when used comparatively

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What to count

• More complex analyses can give a more interesting
  picture
• specific syntactic structures
• degree of modification in NPs
• types of verbs (eg verbs of persuasion, speech
  verbs, action verbs, descriptive verbs)
• distribution of pronouns (1st/2nd/3rd person)
• etc (anything you can think of)
• Quite sophisticated mathematical techniques can
  give an overall picture
• eg factor analysis identifies from a (big) range
  of variables which ones best identify/characterize
  differences

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Coming soon

• After Easter we will look at
• Case study of stylistic analysis
• Some examples of stylometry
• by Biber to classify of genre
• and various uses in the field of
• Authorship attribution
• Literary studies
• Forensic