Course Project - stylistics
Salemiiv
SEUENG380Week07ChapterPPT_Simpsonunit06.pptxUnit 6, Sections A and B: Style as choice Style and transitivity
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Section A: Style as choice
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Stylistic choices are motivated by writer’s perception of reality/experiences, captured through transitivity
Experiential function of language: spoken and written representations of experience in the physical and abstract world
Stylistic choices dictate structure and interpretations of texts
Style as choice
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Grammatical function
Captures experience through language
Transitivity: “the way meanings are encoded in the clause and…the way different types of process are represented in language” (Simpson 2004).
Transitivity
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Process: in the verb phrase
Participants: in noun phrases
Circumstances: in prepositional/adverb phrases
Components of processes
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Material
Mental
Behavioral
Verbalization
Relational
Circumstantial
Attributive
Identifying
Existential
6 Types of processes
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
The process of doing
Process is in the physical world
Answers question “What happened?”
Participant roles
Actor: obligatory role in the process
Goal: may or may not be involved in the process.
Typically described in the present continuous tense
Material processes
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Examples
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
The process of sensing
Process is in the mental world
Cognition (thinking – wondering)
Perception (seeing – hearing)
Reaction (liking – hating)
Participant roles
Sensor: (the conscious being that is doing the sensing)
Phenomenon: (the entity which is sensed, felt, thought or seen).
Typically described in the simple present tense
Mental processes
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Examples
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Process lies in behavior
Physiological processes (breathe - cough)
States of consciousness (sigh – cry – laugh)
Behavior resulting from state of consciousness (stare – dream – worry)
Participant roles
Behaver (conscious entity who is behaving)
Typically the only participant
Circumstances
At…
In...
Test: can be described in the present continuous tense
Behavioral processes
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Example
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Processes of saying
Participant roles
Sayer
Animate (A person speaking)
Inanimate (A notice, a sign, etc)
Receiver
Verbiage
Content of message (“the story had been changed”)
Name of message (“the decision”)
Processes of verbalization
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Processes of being; relation between two beings/entities
Relational Processes
| Types of processes: | Modes to describe participant roles: |
| Intensive Equivalent entities x is y Connection between the entities (verb: to be) Possessive Possession x has y One entity has another entity (verb: to have) Circumstantial The circumstance component is upgraded to a participant ’is at’, ‘is in’, ‘is on’, ‘is with’ (verb: to be + preposition) | Attributive Carrier is the person being described Attribute is the quality ascribed to the character Identifying Identifier and the Identified Reversible |
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Assertion of existence/occurrence
‘There’ (There is/was, Has there been?)
Answers question “What happened?”
Participant roles
Typically only one
Existent
The role is nominalised (converted from a verbal process to a noun)
Example: There was an assault
Has there been a phone call?
Existential Processes
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
A little boy bites his brother, and the father asks what happened. How does the boy respond?
“There was a nip!”
Existential process
Avoids an explicit Actor role
Boy doesn’t take blame for his actions in order to avoid getting into trouble
“I nipped Daniel.”
Material process
Identifies himself as the explicit actor
Boy takes blame for his actions
Example: Transitivity and choice
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
The general point is that transitivity offers systematic choice, and any particular textual configuration is only one, perhaps strategically motivated, option from a pool of possible textual configurations.
Final note about transitivity
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Section B: Style and transitivity
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Types of agency
Holonymic agency
The participant role (Actor, Sayer, etc.) is occupied by a complete being.
Meronymic agency
A body part, rather than the person, is in the participant role.
Makes characters actions/behaviors appear involuntary
Differentiates the character experientially from other characters
Key concepts
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
M. A. K. Halliday (1971)
Applies transitivity model to William Golding’s novel The Inheritors
Analyzes linguistic patterns encoding the ‘mind-styles’ Neanderthal characters
Applies ‘material processes’ to Lok’s tribe
Analyses narrative statements as having the presence of an actor without a Goal
This stylistically depicts the tribe as aimless, leading to its replacement with a more advanced tribe later in the story
Meronymic agency: Lok’s ears and nose typically carry out the action, not himself
“illustrates well the usefulness of stylistic analysis as a way of exploring both literature and language” and “shows how intuitions and hunches about a text …can be explored systematically and with rigour using a retrievable procedure of analysis” (Simpson 2004)
Controversial work that prompted Stanley Fish’s critique of stylistics
Developments in the analysis of style and transitivity
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Kennedy (1982)
Applies transitivity model to a passage in Joseph Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent in which a character named Mrs. Verloc murders her husband, Mr. Verloc.
Argues that Conrad’s transitivity profile asks reader to not see Mrs. Verloc as the actual murder of her husband
No mental processes attributed to Mrs. Verloc
Reader cannot determine what she thinks or feels
This impresses her action as being done without reflection
Goal-less patterns in Mrs. Verloc’s actions
This impresses her action as not directly affecting her husband
Material processes with non-human actors to push narrative forward
Meronymic agency: Mrs. Verloc’s hand carries out the murder, not Mrs. Verloc herself.
Mr. Verloc’s processes are mainly mental processes
He is in the Sensor role; phenomenon element is present
This portrays him as aware of what is happening, but he cannot take the action to prevent his death
Developments in the analysis of style and transitivity
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Simpson, P. (2004). Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415644969 (print edition).
References
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
