Faculty of Languages Stylistics - Semester VI

and the Arts Prof. N. Jabbar

Department of Language
and French literature University year
Field: French Studies 2020-2021

Definition of stylistics

Stylistics is the study of the writing peculiarities of a text. It refers to the notion of 'style'.
which in antiquity referred to this iron or bone stylus used for writing on wax, and of which
the other flattened end allowed erasing what had been written. Centuries later, one recognizes
in this object the ancestor of the pen. But even at that time, through metonymic shift of
the instrument to its result, style is also the way of writing, the turn of expression.
Cicero uses it in this figurative sense as early as the first century BC.
Stylistics developed more particularly from the 19th century. But rhetoric
the former had already put in place a whole apparatus for analyzing the particularities of the language of a
writer and more particularly figures of style. In the 17th and 18th centuries and at the beginning of the 19th century
centuries, a large number of treatises on rhetoric, including figures of style, designated for this
The age under the term tropes was found. Thinkers and analysts in rhetoric were
designated as rhetoricians.

Subject of stylistics
There are two different approaches to stylistics that are often considered antagonistic: the
linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics.

1- Linguistic stylistics is associated with the study of linguistic variability (the ability to...
modifier, to vary), this faculty of the mind and language determines, on the one hand, the presence of
variants in the language system and, on the other hand, the necessity of choice in speech.

Linguistic stylistics studies the phonetic, grammatical, and lexical elements from the perspective of
view of their stylistic value in the communicative act → this separates it from phonetics, of the
lexicon, grammar, semantics. It studies the linguistic variability related to value
stylistics and stylistic effects by using all the knowledge of semantics.

The research areas of linguistic stylistics relate to the study of resources

stylistics of the language (notions of stylistic value, variants, norms), styles
languages and types of texts.

Within functional styles (familiar, popular, business, etc.), we identify modes.

of expression represented by types of texts (genres of discourse)

The analysis of functional styles intersects with a linguistic problem of typology of the
speech. The essential types of speech (dialogued, monologued, and mixed) as well as the form of
communication (oral or written) serve as important linguistic criteria to delimit and
study linguistic styles

2- Literary stylistics is dedicated to the study of the linguistic processes used by a writer.
in order to produce an aesthetic effect, pleasing to the reader. 'Aesthetic effect' should be taken
in a very broad sense, which can range from emotion to pleasure, including surprise. Everything
The reader is a bit of a stylist when he finds that such a writer has style and another has less.
The phrase is well-turned, has rhythm, or a text is beautiful. Stylistic analysis.

1
according to Molinié, aims to describe 'linguistically, the verbal conditions of character'
literary, as literary, that is to say from literariness" (Molinié, 1989, p.35).

The subject of stylistics is language, which it examines in the choice of words, phrases,
statements, combinations imagined, retained or created by writers.
The difference between the linguistic approach and the stylistic approach lies in the appreciation.
focused on this object.
This implementation of language may not be literary, but advertising, political, legal.
Style is not the exclusive domain of literature. However, literature is also characterized by the
stylistic research of writers.

Stylistics belongs to the broad field of linguistics, but stylistics intersects with several
approaches and several disciplines. Unlike linguistics, which builds its own
analytical tools, stylistics borrows its from other disciplines, such as grammar,
linguistics of enunciation, pragmatics, discourse analysis, rhetoric, poetics and the
semantics.

Stylistics and Rhetoric

Stylistics addresses a number of issues that were the subject of the 'old
rhetoric" (to borrow the phrase from Roland Barthes), but it pursues ambitions and
different aims.
Rhetoric is essentially, at its core, a praxis. It is defined as an "art of
persuader), before being described as an art of good speaking. Its goal is therefore eloquence, and it
seeks to build arguments based on specific language operations aimed at
to guide, modify or influence the way of thinking or the choices of the listeners.
The ancient rhetoric includes five parts:
art of invention (subjects, arguments, techniques of persuasion) > content
2. dispositio: art of composition, arrangement of the main parts of the discourse > structure
syntagmatic of discourse
3. Elocutio: art of style, choice and arrangement of words > effects of rhythm, figures
4. pronunciation: enunciation of the speech
memorization
By taking literary language as its starting point, stylistics directs its claims towards the
description of these 'literary' implementations, thus towards an approach that is closer to
those practiced in linguistics, while also distancing itself from that of rhetoric, by
a final aim which is the appreciation of the differential quality of this implementation by a
intentional subject: the subject of enunciation.

2
The poetic function of language
If linguistics is interested in the functioning and, consequently, the functions of language, the
stylistics favors one of its functions that Roman Jakobson called the poetic function.

Note: One must not confuse 'poetic' and 'poetry'. The poetic function is not found
only in poems, it applies every time an emphasis is placed on a statement
the message itself, rendering, according to Jakobson's formula, the message and the signs that it
tangible components.

The functions of language

In the commentary he provides on the communication diagram, organized around six poles,
Roman Jakobson (1963) defines six essential functions of language, mainly to
to nuance the idea that language only serves to communicate, which continues to be seen as its
essential function. The study he conducts on functions, which are each defined from one
The poles of this diagram (sender, channel, code, message, receiver, referent) are very revealed
interesting and fruitful in the field of stylistic study.
1-The emotive or expressive function is activated when the statement emphasizes the pole of
speaker to express their subjectivity, their emotion, their investment in the discourse.
The conative function aims at the recipient to attract their attention, to command them to...
an order or a compelling desire, to influence in any way. It is often
the imperative that serves as a relay for this aim.
3-The referential function reveals the informative value of the statement. It allows to refer to
the extralinguistic universe (whether real or imaginary).
4-The phatic function allows for emphasizing contact and verifying that the information flows well.
between the interlocutors. This includes the interjections, the names, the supports of the speech (hello,
Hi, uh, you see), the polite formulas, the questions without informative content.
5-The metalinguistic function allows the speaker to reflect on the code they are using.
It is one of the specificities of human language to be able to take itself as an object and
to question its own functioning.
6-The poetic function emphasizes the message itself. It concerns the choice and
the arrangement of words, the play on the signifier and the signified.
The implementation of these functions varies from text to text, and we will work in terms of
dominant.

3
The table below summarizes these different definitions.

FUNCTION CENTERED ON EXAMPLES

referential the subject to teach, the the course content

reference framework

expressive the teacher the teacher's opinions

conative the students the instructions, the orders, etc.

phatic the pedagogical relationship verbal forms or not

verbal (regards,
movements) of the
communication

metalinguistic the technical language and the the definition of the terms
terminology related to new materials

poetic the language and oral expressionrhetorical effects,

the elocution

Exercise:
Associate each of the communication functions listed below with the propositions that correspond to it.
correspondent

Function Carried on Characterized, among other things,

by
A. referential a. the clarification of the code orders

B. expressive b. the materiality of signs 2. verbs of opinion

C. conative c. the sender that. "you 3. expressions such as.

Do you hear me? Can you hear me?

d. the establishment of contact 4. rhetorical figures

D. metalinguistic
what we are talking about 5. the third person 'he'
E.poetic
f. sender 6. the definitions of the terms
Phatic used

4
Bibliography

Albalat, Antoine, The Formation of Style through the Assimilation of Authors, Paris, Armand Colin, 1991.
- Amossy, Ruth. Argumentation in Discourse. Paris: Armand-Colin, 2006 (revised edition and
augmented)
- Aquien, Michèle and Georges Molinié, Dictionary of Rhetoric and Poetics, Paris, Bookstore
French General, Pocket Book, series 'Today's Encyclopedias', 1999.
Boissieu, Jean-Louis, Stylistic Commentaries, Paris, SEDES, 1987.
Calas, Frédéric, Method of Stylistic Commentary, Paris, Nathan, 2000
Cressot, Marcel, Style and its Techniques: A Guide to Stylistic Analysis, Paris, PUF, 1991.
-Deloffre, Fréderic, French stylistics and poetics, Paris, SEDES, 1974.
Guiraud, Pierre, The Stylistics: readings, Paris, Klincksieck, 1978. Larthomas, Pierre, Notions of
general stylistics, Paris, PUF, 1992.
-Maingueneau, Dominique. Discourse and Discourse Analysis. Paris: Armand-Colin, 2014.
Molinié, Georges, The Stylistics, Paris, PUF, series 'What do I know?', 1989.
Salbayre, Sébastien and Nathalie Vincent-Arnaud. Stylistic Analysis. Literary texts in the language
English. Toulouse: University Presses of Mirail, 2006.

Faculty of Languages and Arts - Kénitra

Stylistics – S-VI Professor N. Jabbar