"Stylistics, a branch of applied linguistics, is the study and interpretation of texts of all types and/or spoken language in regard to their linguistic and tonal style..."
The process of analyzing a text in terms of its style, including the use of literary devices, grammar, rhetoric, lexicon, and other features.
Literary Devices: This involves understanding poetic and rhetorical devices like simile, metaphor, alliteration, hyperbole, and irony, to name a few. These elements are used to add depth and meaning to a text.
Syntax: Syntax refers to the structure of sentences and their arrangement. Understanding syntax is crucial to stylistic analysis because it helps identify how authors use language to evoke particular feelings, create tone or tension, and build meaning.
Diction: Diction is the choice of words that authors use to convey their message. An understanding of how authors use words to create the tone, mood, and atmosphere of a text can help the reader to interpret their work.
Imagery: Imagery refers to the use of descriptive language to create an image in the reader’s mind. This technique creates a sense of vividness, expressiveness, and emotional engagement for the reader.
Point of View: Understanding the different perspectives in a story, such as first-person point of view, third-person omniscient, or limited point of view, can shed light on how an author develops characters, and establishes their relationship with the reader.
Narrative voice: Narrative voice is how the story is being told, the tone, and the manner in which the author chooses to communicate information to the reader.
The pace and rhythm: How quickly or slowly the narrative is moving and how the flow of the writing affects the readers' engagement and attention.
Literary time periods: This includes understanding the unique features and themes specific to a particular time in history in regards to literature.
Culture and Society: Understanding how authors use language to communicate social issues, customs, traditions, and other cultural influences can help the reader to understand literature on a deeper level.
Historical Context: A knowledge of the historical background of a literary work can help readers better understand the motivations of the characters and the significance of the events described.
Speaker and Audience: The speaker is the voice that speaks the text, while the audience is those who receive and analyze the text. Understanding the speaker's intention and target audience can help the reader to understand a text more clearly.
Style and Tone: Style and tone refer to the way an author uses language to communicate a certain mood or emotion. Understanding style and tone is important in analyzing how the author conveys meaning in their work.
Morphological Analysis: The study of the internal structure of words and their formations.
Phonological Analysis: The study of the sound patterns of language.
Semantic Analysis: The study of meaning in language, including word, phrase, and sentence meanings.
Pragmatic Analysis: The study of how language is used in context.
Discourse Analysis: The study of written or spoken communication in its entirety, including its structure, functions, and relationships.
Textual Analysis: The study of language at the level of the text, including the analysis of literary texts.
Lexical Analysis: The study of vocabulary and the analysis of word usage.
Stylistic Analysis: The study of style in language, including the analysis of literary techniques and stylistic devices.
Comparative Stylistics: The study of the differences between different styles, genres, or periods of literature.
Corpus Stylistics: The study of language, based on large corpora of texts, with the aim of identifying linguistic patterns.
Cognitive Stylistics: The study of the mental processes involved in the production and interpretation of language, with a focus on literary texts.
Critical Stylistics: The study of the political and ideological dimensions of language use, with a focus on literary texts.
Feminist Stylistics: The study of the representation of gender in language, particularly in literary texts.
Multimodal Stylistics: The study of the interaction between different modes of communication, such as words, visuals, and sound.
Stylistic Forensics: The application of stylistic analysis to forensic linguistic investigations, such as identifying authorship or detecting plagiarism.
"...where style is the particular variety of language used by different individuals and/or in different situations or settings."
"For example, the vernacular, or everyday language may be used among casual friends..."
"...while more formal language, with respect to grammar, pronunciation or accent, and lexicon or choice of words, is often used in a cover letter and résumé and while speaking during a job interview."
"As a discipline, stylistics links literary criticism to linguistics."
"It can be applied to an understanding of literature and journalism as well as linguistics."
"Sources of study in stylistics may range from canonical works of writing to popular texts, and from advertising copy to news, non-fiction, and popular culture, as well as to political and religious discourse."
"Recent work in critical stylistics, multimodal stylistics and mediated stylistics has made clear, non-literary texts may be of just as much interest to stylisticians as literary ones."
"Literariness, in other words, is here conceived as 'a point on a cline rather than as an absolute'."
"Stylistics as a conceptual discipline may attempt to establish principles capable of explaining particular choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of language..."
"...such as in the literary production and reception of genre, the study of folk art..."
"...in the study of spoken dialects and registers..."
"...and can be applied to areas such as discourse analysis as well as literary criticism."
"Common stylistic features are using dialogue, regional accents and individual idioms (or idiolects)."
"Stylistically, also sentence length prevalence..."
"Stylistically, also language register use."
"Plain language has different features."
"Stylistics...inquiring upon semiotic associations in the potential for various kinds of conversations."
"Stylistics...focuses on phonetics."
"Stylistics...inquires upon the individual vocabulary and syntax of the separate speaker."