Stylistics & Style What you need to know to analyze an author’s writing style!

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Diction: the use of words on oral or written communication. Diction includes vocabulary, which generally means one at a time, and syntax, which generally means word order.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Syntax: the pattern of arrangement of words. Syntax is the rule-governed arrangement of words in sentences. In Frost’s lines “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall” and “Whose woods these are I think I know,” the vocabulary is quite common but the syntax is unusual. Syntax seems to be that level of language that most distinguishes poetry from prose.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Hypotaxis: An arrangement of clauses, phrases, or words independent of subordinate relationships. The phrase hyptactic style refers to writing that uses subordination to reflect logical, casual, temporal, or spatial relationships. In any event, parataxis is a feature of ordinary speaking— especially the naïve, simple, rustic, or juvenile—and hypotaxis of writing. One might say aloud, “I tried but I failed” (parataxis); one would probably write, “Although I tried, I failed” (hypotaxis).  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Parataxis: An arrangement of sentences, clauses, phrases, or words in coordinate rather than subordinate constructions, often without connectives, as in Julius Caesar’s “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”). As a rule parataxis is found more in speech than in writing and more in juvenile or uncultivated utterance than in the mature or sophisticated.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Acoustic: relating to, involving, or typical of sound, hearing, or the study of sound.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Graphic: A. including a number of vivid descriptive details, especially exciting or unpleasant ones B. representing something such as a sound by means of letters or other written symbols  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Connotation: The emotional implications and associations that words may carry, as distinguished from their denotative meanings.  Connotations may be: (1) private and personal, the result of individual experiences, (2) group (national, linguistic, racial), or (3) general or universal, held by all or most people. Connotation depends on usage in particular linguistic community and climate.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Denotation: The basic meaning of a word, independent of its emotional coloration or associations.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Abstract: Not relating to concrete objects but expressing something that can only be appreciated intellectually. The term abstract is opposed to concrete (opposite). With graphic art and literature, the adjective abstract means nonrepresentational or nonobjective.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Concrete: Certain and specific rather than vague or general. Able to be seen or touched because it exists in reality, not just as an idea. Having the quality of the physical, tangible, actual, real, particular; opposed to abstract.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Rhythm (rhythmic): The passage of regular or approximately equivalent time intervals between definite events or the recurrence of specific sounds or kinds of sounds.  In prose, despite the absence of formal regularity of pattern here described for poetry, cadence is usually present; in impassioned prose it often establishes definite patters of rhythmic recurrence.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Cadence: The rhythmic movement of writing when it is read aloud, a tone produced by the rise and fall of the voice, the rhythm that sounds the “inner tune” of a sentence or line. Cadence is customarily used to refer to a larger and looser group of syllables than the formal, metrical movement of poetry.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Pedestrian: Opposed to rhythmic: Referring to the types of words and phrases used—not the content of a story. Language is ordinary, unimaginative, or uninspired. Use of language is typical and unoriginal.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Sincere: Opposed to artificial: Referring to the types of words and phrases used—not the content of a story. Writing is honest and unaffected in a way that shows what is said is really meant. Based on what is truly and deeply felt.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Artificial: Opposed to sincere: Referring to the types of words and phrases used—not the content of a story. Writing is without sincerity or spontaneity.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Dignified: Opposed to comic: Referring to the types of words and phrases used—not the content of a story. Language is characterized or marked by dignity of aspect or manner; proper. Writing that is of a serious tone and matter.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Comic: Opposed to dignified: Referring to the types of words and phrases used—not the content of a story. Language is characterized by provoking laughter; humorous; funny; laughable. Writing that is of a light- hearted tone or matter.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Original: Opposed to imitative: Referring to the types of words and phrases used—not the content of a story. Characterized by new; fresh; inventive; novel thoughts or style. Writing that is of unique style in both diction and syntax.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Imitative: Opposed to original: Referring to the types of words and phrases used—not the content of a story. Of, pertaining to, or characterized by imitation. Writing that is intentionally or unintentionally similar to other pieces of literature in diction and syntax.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Dull: Opposed to vivid: Referring to the types of words and phrases used—not the content of a story. Not lively or spirited; listless. Writing does not show keenness of perception in the senses or feelings; insensible; unfeeling.  In your own words:

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:  Vivid: Opposed to dull: Referring to the types of words and phrases used—not the content of a story. Writing is characterized by striking clarity, distinctness, or truth to life when perceived either by the eye or the mind.  In your own words:

STYLISTICS:  The formal and objective study of style.  It concentrates on the choices available to a writer; chiefly: 1.vocabulary (familiar or not, plain or fancy, and so forth); 2.syntax (hypotaxis versus parataxis, loose versus periodic and so forth); 3.level and texture of diction; 4.and acoustic and graphic effects.

STYLE:  Style combines two elements:  idea to be expressed + individuality of the author.  From the point of view of style it is impossible to change the diction to say exactly the same thing; for what the reader receives from the statement is not only what is said, but also certain connotations that affect the consciousness.  Just as no two personalities are alike no two styles are exactly alike.

Style Continued:  A mere recital of some categories may suggest the infinite range of manners (styles) the word style covers: For instance, of journalistic, scientific, or literary styles; We call the manners (styles) of other writers  abstract or concrete,  rhythmic or pedestrian,  sincere or artificial,  dignified or comic,  original or imitative,  dull or vivid,  low or plain or high.

Style Continued  A study of styles for the purpose of analysis will include, in addition to the infinity of personal details suggested above, such general qualities as:  diction,  sentence structure and variety,  imagery,  rhythm,  repetition,  coherence,  emphasis, and  arrangement of ideas.