Ling: Stylistics

The course builds on your knowledge of the (phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical, semantic, pragmatic, etc.) resources offered by the system of English language and on your linguistic analytical skills which you have acquired in your previous linguistic training. In the stylistic perspective used here, these linguistic resources are used, in company with many other non-linguistic expressive resources, to meet the communicative needs of their producers (speakers and writers). We will assume that these uses of language are functionally motivated, and as such they are offered for interpretation by their recipients (addressees and/or readers). In communication, producers and recipients are always engaged in the making of meaning, which is fascinating to observe, analyse and understand. As stylisticians, we will analyse a set of selected samples of authentic (spoken and written) uses of language, or discourses, ranging from ´typical speaking´ (casual conversation) to ´typical writing´ (legal language). Our major goal will be to work towards developing our analytical sensitivity and critical attitude to discourses as they emerge from a complex interplay of participants´ intentions and interpretations who use the available expressive resources while negotiating their meanings.

After the course you are will have acquired

• a more systematic, and holistic, perspective of the expressive potential of the English language
• a higher awareness of the relation of form and function in the English language
• sharper analytical skills, by analysing various samples of spoken and written discourses
• a higher critical appreciation of discourses from observing how language users try to negotiate meaning