Style as Choice

Introduction to Stylistics

Introduction

• Choices in style are motivated, even if unconsciously, and these choices have a profound impact on the way texts are structured and interpreted.

• The experiential function is an important marker of style, especially that of narrative discourse, because it emphasizes the concept of style as choice.

Transitivity

• This is a system in which The particular grammatical facility is used for capturing experience in language.

• is used in a more expanded semantic sense than that used in traditional grammars where it simply serves to identify verbs which take direct objects.

• refers to the way meanings are encoded in the clause and to the way different types of process are represented in language.

Three key components of processes: (Transitivity)

1. The process itself, which is typically realized in grammar by the verb phrase.

2. The participant(s) associated with the process, typically realized by noun phrases.

3. The less importantly for stylistic analysis, the circumstances associated with the process. This is typically expressed by prepositional and adverb phrases (the Adjunct element in clause structure).

The Six Types of Process

Material Processes

• are simply processes of doing.

• Associated with are two inherent participant roles which are the Actor, an obligatory role in the process, and a Goal, a role which may or may not be involved in the process.

Actor Process Goal

I nipped Daniel.

The washing machine

broke down.

Mental Processes

• are essentially processes of sensing.

• inhabit and reflect the world of consciousness, and involves: cognition (encoded in verbs such as ‘thinking’ or

‘wondering’) reaction (as in ‘liking’ or ‘hating’) perception (as in ‘seeing’ or ‘hearing’)

• The two roles associated are the Sensor (the conscious being that is doing the sensing) and the Phenomenon (the entity which is sensed, felt, thought or seen).

Sensor Process Phenomenon

Mary understood the story. (cognition)

Anil noticed the damp patch. (perception)

Siobhan detests paté. (reaction)

Behavioral Processes

• a process which represents both the activities of ‘sensing’ and ‘doing’.

• embody physiological actions like ‘breathe’ or ‘cough’, although they sometimes portray these processes as states of consciousness as in ‘sigh’, ‘cry’ or ‘laugh’. They also represent processes of consciousness as forms of behaviour, as in ‘stare’, ‘dream’ or ‘worry’.

• The key participant is the Behaver, the conscious entity who is ‘behaving’:

Behaver Process Circumstance

That student fell asleep in my lecture again.

She frowned at the mess.

Verbalisation

• are processes of ‘saying’

• the participant roles associated are the Sayer (the producer of the speech), the Receiver (the entity to which the speech is addressed) and the Verbiage (that which gets said).

Sayer Process Verbiage

Mary claimed that the story had been changed.

The minister announced the decision to parliament.

Relational Processes:• are processes of ‘being’ in the specific sense of

establishing relationships between two entities.

• can be expressed in a number of ways. There is however general agreement about three main types of relational process.

Intensive relational process presents a relationship of equivalence, an ‘x is y’ connection, between two entities.

Example:

Paula’s presentation was lively.

Joyce is the best Irish writer.

Possessive relational process plots an ‘x has y’ type of connection between two entities.

Example:

Peter has a piano.

The Alpha Romeo is Clara’s.

Circumstantial relational process is where the circumstantial element becomes upgraded, so that it fulfills the role of a full participant in the process : ‘x is at/is in/is on/is with/ y’ :

Example:

The fête is on all day.

The maid was in the parlour.

The forces of darkness are against you.

The three types come in two modes, yielding six categories in total • Attributive : The entity, person or concept

being described is referred to as the Carrier, while the role of Attribute refers to the quality ascribed to that Carrier. The Attribute therefore says what the Carrier is, what the Carrier is like, where the Carrier is, what it owns and so on

• Identifying: One role is identified through reference to another such that the two halves of the clause often refer to the same thing. This means that unlike attributive processes, all identifying processes are reversible, (The Identifier) picks out and defines (the Identified).

Existential Processes

• these processes basically assert that something exists or happens.

• typically include the word ‘there’ as a dummy subject, as in ‘There was an assault’ or ‘Has there been a phone call?’, and they normally only contain one participant role, the ‘Existent’ (assault/ phone call).

Model of Transitivity