Lecture 1 Phonetics as a Linguistic Science Plan

Literary stylistics and phonostylistics comprise the study of the aesthetic use of language (phonetic, prosodic and lexico-syntactic), both in texts that are predominantly aesthetic - canonical literature, oral narrative, jokes, etc. - and in texts with other predominant aims, e.g. conversation. Phonostylistics in particular contributes to the study of literary discourse and parallels the study of verbal texture in other discourse varieties. Phonostylistics mediates between the disciplines of linguistic and literary criticism, applying the methods and insights of linguistics to traditional problems in literary analysis, and the methods and insights of literary criticism to the analysis of language and intonation patterns.

The main orientations of phonostylistics are interdisciplinary, and toward literary studies in particular. Phonostylistics provides descriptive frameworks by which reader's hypotheses concerning the meanings and effects produced in texts can be explored through a systematic and principled attention to language and intonation patterns.

Aesthetic uses of language are defined within a typology of language functions. In most cases, a language function is associated with each of several 'factors' in communication (Jacobson 1987), as shown in Table.

Within this typology, aesthetic uses of language focus on the message itself: we respond aesthetically to language when our dominant response is to appreciate some quality of the language, independent of other ends to which that language is directed.

Stylistics in general and phonostylistics in particular, has played an important part in the re-insertion of literature into the second language (L2) curriculum. However, their applications to the first language (LI) situations continue to be relevant, and are being developed in the ways which foster among the students the confidence to understand contextual meanings for themselves, in preference to the imposed views of teachers and critics.

The classification of speech acts of different styles (registers) is of great interest and importance to English speakers, although there is no single basis for classification. One can classify them on the basis of:

■ the manner of speaking (for example, whispering versus shouting);

■ how information flows between speaker and hearer (asking versus telling);

■ where the words originate from (acting, reciting or spontaneous speech);

■ how the speaker evaluates it (promising versus threatening);

■ the effect it has on the hearer, i.e. its "perlocutionary force" (persuading versus dissuading).

One can even combine two or three of these bases; for example, preaching and lecturing are defined both by their manner and by the flow of infor-

mation. Even the length of units classified - our speech acts - varies vastly, from such complex categories as preaching and lecturing, which apply to long stretches of speech, to the manner-based categories - (for example, whispering) that can apply just to single words.

At present, relations between phonostylistics and its neighbouring disciplines are tentative at best. In the 21st century, however, this situation may change. In recent years, linguists have begun to acknowledge the important role of aesthetic considerations in conventional language and intonational structuring.

The recent broadening of linguistic description - to include pragmatics, semantics, discourse, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics - also suggests closer relations between the study of grammar, phonology, and the study of style. In these new sub-fields, the traditional methodological differences between linguists and stylisticians dissolve, here linguists must face the difficulties of describing contextual choice, intention, meaning, and real-time processing.