Sample Stylistic Analysis

Introduction

The analysis of style is an attempt to find the artistic principles underlying a writer’s

choice of language. All writers, and for that matter, all texts, have individual qualities.

Therefore the features which call themselves to the readers’ attention in one text will not

necessarily be important in another text by the same or a different author. There is no

infallible technique for selecting what is significant for each text, for the artistic effect of

the whole, and in the way linguistic details fit into this whole. Analyzing a text stylistically

is not the usual 'literary' analysis as it needs to be much more objective and rooted in

fact. With stylistics, the aim is to explain how the words of a text create the feelings and

responses that readers get upon reading them (McIntyre, n.d.).

Stylistics, a yoking of style and linguistics, is a discipline which has been approached

from many perspectives. Its meaning varies, based on the theory that is adopted. When

carrying out different activities either in spoken or written forms, certain devices of

thought and the rules of language are used. However, there are variations so as to

change meanings or say the same thing in different. At the time stylistics developed, the

study of authorial style was a major critical concern, and linguistic analysis, allied to

statistics, was popular with the ways. This is what the concept of style is based upon:

the use of language in different ways, all for the purpose of achieving a common goal -

to negotiate meanings (Kadir, Sepora & Mahadi, 2014).

Moreover, stylistics and stylistic analysis have been extensively studied in recent years.

The term stylistics became associated with detailed linguistic criticism because,
according to Stylistic Analysis (2016), it has focused on how meanings and effects are

produced by literary texts. According to Jaafar (2014), stylistics takes a close look at the

text and analyzes its significant language forms for the sake of interpretation, it comes

very close to practical criticism. Even in the reader response theory criticism or

reception theory stylistics has a role to play. Stylistics, in fact, has a great effect in

almost every kind of critical approach. According to various dictionaries, the term

―stylistics means

―the science of literary style‖ or the ―art of forming good style in writing. Leech and

Short (2007) also define it as ―the linguistic study of style.

With its objectivity, insights from linguistics and useful terminology, stylistics makes the

readers’ interpretation valid and enhances their enjoyment of literature. Thus, stylistics

has become an inseparable part of contemporary criticism that should not be ignored.

This is one of the reasons why literary critics do not always separate stylistic study from

a wider theory of literature. The fabrication of situations and resulting moral evaluation

are the writer‘s purpose and this purpose cannot be entirely separated from style which

is its means and its fine texture. (Carter & Stockwell, 2008, as cited in Jafaar, 2014).

Analyzing a text stylistically is not the usual 'literary' analysis as it needs to be much

more objective and rooted in fact. With stylistics, the aim is to explain how the words of

a text create the feelings and responses that readers get upon reading them (McIntyre,

n.d.).

Meanwhile, this paper is primarily concerned with the literary and stylistics analysis of

the major plot parts of “XXXXXXXXX”, a short story written by XXXX XXXXX. This prose
has been included in the Grade X required reading material for public schools. Being a

secondary public school teacher herself, the writer found the material relatable and its

succeeding analysis a potential foundation for enhancing interpretation and teaching of

literature among high school learners. Looking into this aim, this paper would largely

focus on the analysis of the major parts of the plot in terms of its lexical and grammatical

categories to identify the authors’ style in writing.

Objectives

This literary analysis aimed to answer the following objectives:

1. to classify and analyze the language use in major plot parts of the story based on

the following categories:

1.1 lexical categories;

1.1.1 vocabulary,

1.1.2 parts of speech:

1.1.2.1 nouns,

1.1.2.2 adjectives,

1.1.2.3 verbs,

1.1.2.4 adverbs,

1.2 grammatical categories;

 1.2.1 sentence types,

1.2.2 sentence complexity,

2. to identify the deviant style of the author in presenting the major parts of the plot

based on the categorized language use of the piece

Scope and Limitations

This analysis focused on the major plot parts of the story, XXXX XXXX. Covering the

exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution, this paper also specified

details relevant to classifying and analyzing language use based only on the lexical and

grammatical categories. However, in terms of grammatical categories, it does not

include any pertinent analysis on the clauses and phrases. This paper also excludes

scrutiny of the figures of speech, context and cohesion. Therefore, the identified deviant

style of the writer in presenting the major plot parts would only be lexically and

grammatically dependent. Being purely stylistics in approach, this paper has no

intention to deconstruct the meaning of the text through any other methods or

approaches to literary analysis.

Literature Review

Divided into three distinct themes: lexical categories, grammatical categories and

deviant writing style, this portion interrelates various literature to determine the
significance of this analysis and to aid in the succeeding analysis of the different parts of

the plot.

Lexical categories

The lexical categories differ from language to language. Regarded as the linguistic

elements at the word level, lexical categories are the syntactic categories that are part

of the lexicon of a language. It may be elaborated in prototypes or kinds, which may

vary depending on how the word is used in discourse. These categories may further be

subdivided as major and minor. In English, included in the major lexical categories are

the noun, verb, adjectives and adverbs while part of the minor lexical categories are

pronoun, conjunctions, particles and prepositions (SIL, 2003). Wardaugh (2005) made

simple definitions of parts of speech: noun as names of person, thing or place; verb as

an action, occurrence or state of being; adjective as a modifier that expresses quality,

quantity or extent; adverb that expresses manner, quality, place, time, degree, number,

cause, opposition, affirmation or denial; and preposition as a modifier that indicates

location or origin.

Meanwhile, Leech and Short (1981) listed categories that are necessary in the stylistics

analysis of text. Under lexical categories, they included nouns, adjectives and adverbs

while sentence types, sentence complexity, clause types, clause structure, none

phrases, verb phrases and other phrase types are placed under grammatical

categories.
To elaborate the concepts of lexical categories, the subsequent paragraphs provide

elaborate discussion on the properties of noun, adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

It is important to note that nouns have various aspects which have been explained by

Talib (2017). One of these aspects includes countability or number. Nouns can be

countable or uncountable and a countable noun can either be singular or plural. The

plural is usually indicated by adding the appropriate plural morpheme at the end (such

as '-s' 'en' etc.). In relation to the countable/uncountable distinction, it may be of stylistic

relevance, in the analysis of a passage, to ask the question whether it is possible for the

writer, character, or speaker to use an uncountable noun instead of a countable one, or

vice versa. We may also note here that there are some uncountable nouns which are

treated as countable in recent English.

Another distinction found in traditional grammar, is that between proper and common

nouns. Proper nouns are often capitalized and are specific name of something or

someone whereas common nouns form the bulk of the nouns in an English dictionary.

In a text, the use of a proper noun as against a common noun may be of stylistic

significance. Repeating a person's name, for example, instead of using the appropriate

common noun or pronoun, may make the text sound formal, or even reverential,

although sarcasm may be intended.

Traditionally, nouns are also regarded as either abstract or concrete. A concrete noun

refers to an object which can be directly perceived by the senses, like 'tree' or 'building',

whereas an abstract noun refers to an idea or concept, such as 'society' or 'thought'.

Stylistically, the frequent use of abstract nouns in a text may lead to describing the text
as thoughtful, scholarly, pedantic etc., especially when it is possible to use concrete

nouns instead of their abstract counterparts.

Meanwhile, gender refers to the male or female variants of certain nouns, such as

'actor'/'actress', 'waiter'/'waitress' or pronouns such as 'he'/'she', 'him'/'her'. Gender is a

prominent issue in the study of stylistics today. It becomes especially significant in the

study of the style (and ideology) of recent writing when the writer (or narrator, character,

speaker etc.) can resort to a gender-neutral lexical item, but resorts instead to a

gendermarked noun or pronoun.

Also connected to nouns are the numerals. Stylistically, a person who is fond of giving

numerical figures such as '501' or '56' instead of less precise quantifiers such as

'many' or 'some' may be interested in precision, but may otherwise be regarded

(depending on the context) as pedantic, overscrupulous or overly detailed. In English,

what is known as the genitive or possessive case, is indicated at the end of the noun

with an ’s’ (in writing, a singular noun ends with an apostrophe followed by an 's', and a

plural noun ends with an ’s’ followed by an apostrophe). The noun with this construction

usually indicates that the person/being/thing which it refers to owns the referent of the

noun which immediately follows it, but other meanings are possible in the genitive case

in English (e.g. that the referent of the second noun is located within the first one.).

Another lexical category is the adjective. In traditional terms, adjective modifies the

meaning of the noun. It describes a person, place, quantity or a value. It has two main

characteristics: semantic and syntactic. On the semantic level, it may characterize

properties while on syntactic plane, it may function as a modifier.

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik (1985) as cited in Talib (2017) give a detailed

account of adjectives and explains the syntactic function of adjectives by pointing

towards three positions of adjectives in a sentence, which are, predicative, attributive

and post positive. Attributive adjectives emphasize action by being a permanent part of

the subject whereas predicative adjectives qualify the noun or the subject.

Concomitantly, these placements result in specific functions of these adjectives (Faiz,

Azher, Asghar & Jabeen, 2018, p. 336)

Adjectives can be easily located in English when they precede nouns, such as,

'the red house' and 'the wonderful party'. These adjectives are described as attributive.

But adjectives can also function predicatively, in which case they can be found

elsewhere in the clause, such as following the verb 'to be' like: 'the house is red', and

'the party is wonderful'. In some instances, adjectives can follow the direct object, in

which case it is described as postposed, such as 'he paints the house red', and 'they

made the party wonderful'.

Many adjectives can be modified by the intensifier 'very' and other intensifiers such as

'fairly' and 'quite', and many of them have comparative and superlative forms, or, the

appropriate comparative and superlative words can be added before them, that is to say

the suffix '-er' (or '-ier') or the premodifying word 'more' for comparatives, and the suffix

'est' (or '-iest) or the premodifying word 'most' for superlatives.

Adjectives which can have comparative and superlative versions, or which can be

modified by intensifying words such as 'very', 'so', 'utterly', etc. are sometimes described

as gradable adjectives. It is also important to note that the words 'more' and 'most' need
not always qualify adjectives, as they can also qualify nouns; e.g. 'most people

disagreed with the ruling', 'more students are coming forward to voice their opinion'.

As regards the analysis of adjectives in stylistics, one of the first questions one asks is

whether there are many of them in a text, or whether they are used sparingly. One of

the main functions adjectives serve is to give more description to the entities found in a

text; so, the use of more adjectives will result in the descriptive richness of the text,

whereas a lack of them may result in descriptive sparseness or thinness. A lot of

adjectives may however make the style of the text ornate (or flowery), and slows down

the action in the text, as one feels that one has to concentrate one's attention on the

details of static entities or phenomena. Whether comparatives or superlatives are used.

The use of comparatives is self-explanatory, and shows the interest the text has in

relating the qualities of something to those of another thing, or in relating them to an

assumed yardstick (this of course gives rise to another question: the basis for the

assumed yardstick, which you may want to question in your analysis). Superlatives may

also serve the same purpose, but they may reveal the interest the text has in viewing

things in terms of extremes (a few of these superlatives, especially when used

colloquially, may even be exaggerated, and this may be a point of interest in your

interpretation of the passage).

In analyzing the adjectives, it is also possible to put them in lexical sets, like placing

them in terms of certain categories, such as adjectives describing color, shape, size,

speed, etc. Similarly, the analysis may also look into lexical sets of the nouns, and

whether there is a variation in the use of the adjectives in relation to them: e g. concrete
or abstract nouns, animate / inanimate entities, male / female etc. In relation to the

abstract / concrete division, this distinction may also apply in relation to some of the

adjectives themselves; for example, 'red' or 'squarish' is concrete, but 'thoughtful' or

'regretful' is abstract. However, there are quite a few adjectives which are problematic;

many in fact appear to be concrete, but because they are used to describe abstract

nouns, become abstract in their significance.

Lexical sets work not only in relation to adjectives, but in relation to other grammatical

features or categories as well. Lexical sets that are assembled according to features of

nouns – for example, whether they are countable or uncountable, abstract or concrete –

may have a bearing on stylistic analysis.

The same can be said about the features of verbs, which may also be assembled

according to their lexical sets for stylistic analysis, such as whether they are transitive or

intransitive, whether their tense is past or present, or the significance of auxiliary verbs,

such as aspect, or the features of likelihood, necessity or obligation, amongst other

features, connected to the modal auxiliaries. In stylistic analysis of course, what is

important is not the mere assembling of such features, but it must be connected to the

interpretation of the text or part of the text (Talib, 2017).

Moreover, the next lexical category, the verbs in English can be generally categorized

in terms of auxiliary and lexical (or content, or what Hughes describes as 'ordinary')

verbs. The auxiliary verbs perform their function only in relation to the lexical verbs (and

are hence sometimes also known as function verbs). Auxiliary verbs, unlike lexical

verbs, are sometimes described as a closed category, as their total number is limited,
and has not changed very much in the recent history of the language. Due to their

limited number, all the auxiliary verbs in English, unlike the lexical verbs, can be

conveniently listed in a typical grammar of English. Some of the auxiliary verbs are

categorized as modal, whereas the others can be categorized as primary. The primary

auxiliary verbs in English are do, have, and be while the modal auxiliary verbs are can,

could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must, used to, need, and dare.

One must be careful with these examples, because some of them can function as

lexical verbs. All the primary auxiliary verbs for example, depending on their meaning,

can function as lexical verbs, and this is also true for some of the modal auxiliaries, such

as need and dare (and arguably, will and would, although their meanings are different

from those of their auxiliary equivalents).

In order to see whether a verb functions as an auxiliary, one must identify the essential

functions to modify another verb; if the verb stands on its own, then it should be

regarded as a lexical verb. Verbs in English can also be finite or non-finite. Non-finite

verbs in English are usually indicated by the word 'to' preceding the verb, or by the

morpheme '-ing' at the end of the verb. A finite verb has tense, i.e. past or present

tense. The one in the present tense also has a relationship of concord with the subject

of the clause. This means that the verb has to agree in number with the subject (i.e.

whether it is singular or plural). If the subject is singular, the (present tense) verb ends

with an 's', 'ies' etc., but if it is plural, this morpheme is not present.

However, it is important to note that number concord is not present (at least in form) in

the modal auxiliaries (and this may be one way by which we can judge whether these
verbs function as modal auxiliary or lexical verbs: i.e. if number concord is evident, then

the verb is a lexical verb). A finite verb has a relationship of concord with the subject of

the clause, but this does not mean that for a noun to be regarded as a subject, the

succeeding verb has to have a relationship of grammatical concord with it, nor need the

verb be finite.

Considering verb tense, past tense in English is usually indicated by a morpheme spelt

with a '-d' or '-ed' at the end of the verb. However, there are a number of irregular verbs

where past tense is indicated by other means, e.g. 'to see'--'saw', 'to go' -- 'went', 'to

sing' -- 'sang', etc. In forming the future tense, the auxiliary verb 'will' is indicated before

the lexical verb).

Related to tense is aspect, where one specifies whether the action denoted by a verb

has been done or is going on. One uses the perfect aspect, which is indicated by the

auxiliary verb 'to have', followed by a lexical verb in the form of what is sometimes called

the '-ed participle' in the grammar of English, to specify that an action has already been

done at a particular point of time. The perfective in English can either be in the present

or past tense (indicating that the action has been done at the present moment of the

discourse, or at a point of time to the past of the discourse). The progressive aspect is

indicated by the auxiliary verb 'to be', followed by the lexical verb, which is in the form of

what is called the '-ing participle' in the grammar of English, to specify that an action is

(or was) still going on at a particular point of time. Again, the progressive in English can

either be in the present or past tense (indicating that the action is going on at the

present moment of the discourse, or at a point of time to the past of the discourse).
 Finally, another concept essential to verb is its transitive. One way by which this

concept can be understood, is to look at the verb in relation to the subject, and the

presence or absence of the direct and indirect objects. A verb which carries both the

direct and indirect objects is known as a ditransitive verb, that which carries only the

direct object is called a transitive verb, and finally, that which does not carry the direct

object is known as an intransitive or non-transitive verb.

Some verbs consist of two or even three words, such as 'round off' and 'face up to'.

These are called phrasal verbs. In each of the given examples, the preposition or

prepositions following the first word are not prepositions in their own right, but part of the

phrasal verb. Some phrasal verbs allow a word or phrase to be inserted between their

earlier and later components, thus splitting the phrasal verb into two. Talib (2017)

emphasized that in literary stylistics, the primary interest is not on the various categories

of the verbs but on how the verbs function in the given work or abstract. The usefulness

of a primary auxiliary verb for stylistic analysis may depend on the aspectual function it

serves in relation to the lexical verb: for example, whether an action is still going on, no

longer functioning etc. These verbs may be of concern in relation to the accuracy of

analysis of time in the literary work.

The modal auxiliaries are usually a rich source for the interpretation of opinions,

evaluations, feelings and emotional reactions, judgments of certainty, and the issuing of

commands etc. Furthermore, the finite verbs can be regarded as being anchored to a

more definite time, and related in more definite ways to their subjects, whereas the

nonfinite verbs do seem to have, comparatively speaking, a less certain linkage to time
and person; however, one needs to be warned here that this linkage may be indicated

or implied by the tensed verb to which the non-finite verb grammatically relates, or by

time adverbials.

The interpretation of the significance of tense in a literary work is by no means confined

to determining whether an event is in the past or the present: notice for example, the

use of the present tense in a narrative written in the past tense, which may indicate that

the situation described is imaginary, hypothetical, of universal significance, etc.

The use of a lot intransitive verbs in a text may indicate the description of actions which

exist by themselves, and are not done on objects, things or people, while the frequent

use of transitive verbs may signify the opposite of this; ditransitive verbs quite often

indicate the conveyance (or exchange) of information, or of goods and services.

The last lexical category to be elaborated is adverb. Adverbs are words that are used in

sentences to describe or change the meaning of a verb or adjective or even another

adverb. They add a description to the sentence to make it more detailed and interesting.

The following types are explained by the ESL Grammar (2019) for illustration purposes:

The adverb of time answers the question when did/is/will the action take place like

yesterday, later, never, and tomorrow. The adverb of place specifies the place where

the action occurs like there, everywhere, anywhere, somewhere, near and far. The

adverb of manner tells the way in which the action was carried out like quietly, fast,

honestly, joyfully, and cunningly.

The adverb of frequency tells the frequency or amount of time spent in doing the verb.

These adverbs are used to show the duration or timing of the action that is
happening/had happened/will happen. They also tell us how often and how long these

actions would be, like frequently, often, yearly, and briefly. The adverbs of degree are

used to show to what extent or how much has an action been done or will be done, like

almost, fully, partially, and altogether. The adverbs of confirmation and negation either

confirm or deny the action of the verb. They are also used to reinforce the action that is

described by the verb. For confirmation, examples are definitely, absolutely, certainly

and surely; for denial or negation are never, no, don’t, can’t, etc. The adverbs of

comment are used to make a comment on the entire sentence. They give a look at the

speaker’s viewpoint or opinion about the sentence. These adverbs do not just change or

describe the verb; they influence the whole sentence. Like in the example:

Unfortunately, they found his secret easily. The addition of the adverb, unfortunately,

has changed the entire tone of the sentence. The adverbs of conjunction are used to

connect ideas or clauses.

They are used to show consequence or effect or the relation between the two

clauses, like however – yet, on the other hand, in spite of; consequently – as a result,

resulting in; moreover – beside, in addition; and conversely – opposite of, contrary to.

Adverbs can be used in diverse ways, which means that they are very flexible in

sentences; they can be moved around quite a bit without causing any grammatical

irregularities.

Generally, adverbs or adverbials are more complex as a lexical category than

adjectives. From a stylistic perspective (Talib, 2017), adverbs or adverbials, like

adjectives, give more description to a passage. Unlike adjectives however, they do not
merely serve the function of qualifying only one type of lexical category. Their stylistic

significance may therefore vary according to the function they serve in a clause, and the

functions they serve are more diverse than that of adjectives – for example. Lexical sets

of adverbs or adverbials may also be useful for stylistic analysis. Adverbials can be

further described in terms of their modal, circumstantial or conjunctive characteristics,

and their lexical sets be collated accordingly.

Grammatical Categories

The sentence is the highest rank of grammatical construction. In the English

sentence structure, it begins with a capital letter, ends with a punctuation (period,

question mark or exclamation point), contains a subject that is given only once, contains

a verb or verb phrase, follows the S-V-O or the subject-verb-object word order, and

must have a complete idea that stands alone, and which can also be called a clause.

(Walden University Academic Guide, 2019).

In the Hallidayan definition, a sentence is an orthographic entity. If the sentence has

only one clause (i.e. only one subject - predicator set, or -- as subjects can be missing --

one predicator) then it is regarded as a simple sentence (note that all the examples

given earlier are simple sentences). However, a sentence may have more than one

clause in it, in which case, in traditional grammar, the sentence is regarded as either

compound or complex: A compound sentence is one in which the clauses have a

coordinate relationship with each other. A complex sentence is one in which one or

more clauses have a subordinate relationship with the main clause. According to
Rambo (2012), a complex sentence joins an independent clause with one or more

dependent clauses. The dependent clauses can go first in the sentence, followed by the

independent clause. When the dependent clause comes first, a comma should be used

to separate the two clauses.

Conversely, the independent clauses can go first in the sentence, followed by the

dependent clause. When the independent clause comes first, a comma should not be

used to separate the two clauses. Complex sentences are often more effective than

compound sentences because a complex sentence indicates clearer and more specific

relationships between the main parts of the sentence. The word "before," for instance,

tells readers that one thing occurs before another. A word such as "although" conveys a

more complex relationship than a word such as "and" conveys.

The term periodic sentence is used to refer to a complex sentence beginning with

a dependent clause and ending with an independent clause. Periodic sentences can be

especially effective because the completed thought occurs at the end of it, so the first

part of the sentence can build up to the meaning that comes at the end. Beginning a

sentence with "and," "or," "but," or the other coordinating conjunctions should be

avoided. These words generally are used to join together parts of a sentence, not to

begin a new sentence (Rambo, 2012).

However, such sentences can be used effectively. Because sentences beginning with

these words stand out, they are sometimes used for emphasis. If you use sentences

beginning with one of the coordinating conjunctions, you should use these sentences

sparingly and carefully. Because each type of sentence can serve various functions, the
writer should use the type of sentence that best communicates the purpose of his or her

idea (Andersen, 2014): Simple sentences are used to present a limited amount of

information.

Although simple sentences may be shorter, they are not any less academic than other

sentence types. These are used to declare a direct statement, to display a list, to give

concise directions or to ask a question. Compound, complex, and compoundcomplex

sentences can serve similar purposes. The writer can tailor the amount of information

he or she provides by adding independent and dependent clauses to simple sentences.

These sentences combine similar ideas, compare or contrast ideas, convey cause and

effect or chain of events, and elaborate on a claim or extend reasoning. In terms of their

communicative functions, sentences may be divided into four categories: statement,

command, question, and exclamation (Zhang, 1999 as cited in Song, 2009, p. 120).

Declarative sentences, or declarations, convey information or make statements.

Interrogative sentences, or questions, request information or ask questions. Imperative

sentences, or imperatives, make commands or requests. Exclamatory sentences, or

exclamations, show emphasis. Unlike the other three sentences purposes, exclamatory

sentences are not a distinct sentence type. Instead, declarative, interrogative, and

imperative sentences become exclamatory through added emphasis. The most

common of all these sentence types is the declarative. It typically follows the structure:

subject + verb, and has a full-stop final punctuation or the period. It can be in positive or

negative and in any tense.

Since its main purpose is to tell a statement, it is used all the time. However, there are

also some declarative sentences that ask a question, give command or even express

emotion. Secondly, the interrogative sentence follows the structure: auxiliary verb +

subject + verb and always has a question mark. It can also be stated in positive or

negative form and in any tense. There are basic question types like the yes/no question,

the WH question, the choice or alternative question and the tag question.

Next is the imperative sentence, which can be as simple as the verb itself. Typically,

imperatives use the base verb and has no subject. It can be ended with either a full-

stop/period or an exclamation point. Although generally used to give direct commands,

imperatives can also give instructions more politely than a straight command.

It can be in positive or negative statement and in either present or future tense.

Lastly, exclamative or exclamatory sentences make exclamations. They express

strong feelings or opinion in one or two forms. The usual function of an exclamative

sentence is to help the speaker express a strong (often extreme) opinion about a

situation—an "exclamatory statement". It expresses personal and magnified

assessment of the situation while the final punctuation is usually, but not necessarily an

exclamation mark. Sometimes, it can be reinforced by using an interjection in front of it.

Generally, exclamatory statements are used less than the other sentence types.

Deviance of writing style

Linguistic deviation arises/happens/occurs when the writer or the poet choose not to

abide by the rules of his language when he transcends its norms and exceeds the limits
of the linguistic protocols that characterize it. Deviation is the breaking of rules which

others obey. In literary circle, deviation is taken as poetic license or writer’s license and

it should be noted that deviation could occur at various linguistic level.

In order to determine this deviant style, Leech (1981) recommended a stylistic

framework which is largely based on the Mukarovskian notions of foregrounding and

deviation in his discussion of the concept of parallelism and deviation as a poet’s

devices for violating the norms. He explains deviations as a pervading feature of poetic

language operating at all the levels of language (phonological, grammatical, lexical,

grapholological and semantic).

Deviance in sentences and their interpretation has provided interesting insights into the

way language is manipulated in literary writing. It is important due to its motivated

breach of the rules. Writers resort to deviation to achieve certain artistic aims and

effects as Leech say "a poet may transcend the limits of the language to explore and

communicate new areas of experiences ".

Through this phenomenon, writers can communicate unique experiences which cannot

be effectively communicated by means of normal communicative resources of the

human tongue – the native normal language. Deviance is also used to realize specific

effects on the reader by striking him with something unexpected forcing him to focus his

attention on the deviant sequences.

Moreover, its important psychological effect on the readers (or hearers) is made

noticeable or perceptually prominent – the foregrounding. (Short, 1969 as cited in Real

English, 2015). In this sense, foreground in is the intentional violation of the scheme by
means of which an item brought into artistic emphasis and thus stands out from its

background through parallelism or repetition.

On one hand, parallelism is different from mere mechanical repetition in that it is an

apportionment of invariants and variables .In any pattern of parallelism there must be an

element of identity and an element of contrast but the absolute duplication or the exact

repetition of a sentence is not considered of any parallelistic value. On the other,

repetition is the repeated use of the same word or word pattern as a rhetorical device in

a short passage or sentence.

Foregrounding regularity (parallelism) is considered an important feature of poetic

language. Leech for example considers it to be the principle underlying all versification

& refers to its "overriding importance in the structure and significance of works of

literature".

Moreover, Leech's concept of parallelism seems to be a continuation of Levin's concept

of "coupling". Levin considers "coupling" to be the essence of poetry and argues that

poetic language maximizes the use of such figures as "couples". Coupling, according to

Levin, accounts for the convergence of a pair of equivalent phonic and/or semantic

elements and a pair of syntagmatic (positional) patterns.

Deviation from linguistic or other socially accepted norms has been claimed to be a

basic principle of aesthetic communication and is essential for the study of poetic

language. The creative writer's dilemma is that he is never satisfied with the normal

communicative resources of his language and always feels the need to find other ways

of using the language that are particular to himself and through which he can convey
what he has to say. In his strife for linguistic creativity a writer may violate the rules of

the normal usage of his language in a number of ways: He can infringe these rules, add

to them or relate the structure of language to meaning in ways not prescribed by

everyday linguistic convention.

This motivated violation of linguistic rules, known as linguistic deviation, and results

when the writer makes choices that are not permissible in terms of the accepted

code .and effects a disruption of the normal process of communication that is justified

only when the reader can assign some significance, some communication value to the

deviation, i.e. It has its significance through the reader knowledge of it, and it is

unintelligible unless the reader can, by some effort of his mind, provide an interpretation

for it. (Real English, 2015).

Synthesis

Stylistics analysis provides a commentary which is objective and scientific based on a

concrete quantifiable data and applied in a systematic way. It uses specialized technical

terms and concepts which derive from the science of linguistics. Stylistics analysis is

something different from literary criticism. Literary criticism continues to focus on

interpretation and the field of linguistics had little to say about literature beyond the

sentence level.

Meanwhile, literary texts can be described in linguistic terms. Language remains as the

most formidable tool that writers use for literary creativity. It also serves as an avenue

through which literature delights and instructs and remains indispensable to the creative
artists and to the literary critics, who have a facility of words. Moreover, any

“experience” (emphasis, mine) of literature is made possible primarily in and through

language. Thus, linguistics, which is the scientific study of language and language use,

functions as a critical key/way to unlock any literary text.

In this sense, syntactic (and morphological) levels of analysis need to be done to

determine the internal structure of sentences in a language and the way they function

on sequences. Clauses, phrases, words, nouns, verbs, etc. need to be distinguished

and put through an analysis to find out the foregrounding and the deviation.

For a stylistician, then, being objective means to be detailed, systematic, and

explicit in analysis, to lay one's interpretative cards, as it were, clearly on the table. If the

number of interpretations that a text can hold is not indefinitely large, then interpretative

argumentation and testing will have to depend not upon something as unreliable as

rhetorical persuasion. But on analysis of the linguistic structure of texts in relation to

what we know about the psychological and social processes involved in textual

understanding. This is what stylistics has traditionally involved.

Stylistics, therefore, requires the peeling off of linguistic features of a text layer by layer

so to facilitate the reveal of deviant styles where lexical feature is concerned.

Synthesis

Material for Criticism

Treatment of Material

As a literary criticism approach, stylistics deal with the interpretation of texts from a

linguistic perspective. (Bramlette & Arellano, 2013). Using this approach can be traced

back even before time it was founded by Charles Bally in the latter half of the twentieth

century. Aristotle, along with other ancient figures in history used stylistics to interpret

the written word and to examine their thoughts. Literary works were primarily analyzed

in a more logical and structural way until Bally introduced the idea of looking deeper into

text.

This approach is selected to analyze the reasons why the author chose to use the

techniques and language they do and to analyze the overall attitude of the piece. Since

it applies linguistics to literature, it anticipates an analysis which is “broadly based,

rigorous and objective”. Focused on linguistic devices or applications at the

phonological, lexical, or syntactic level, stylistics prove to be meaningful in any kind of

literary appreciation (Cordova, 2014).

Applying the stylistics approach in the five major plot parts of the short story this paper

employed classifying and analyzing language use in terms of lexical and grammatical

categories. Specifically, this analysis utilized the checklist of linguistic and stylistic

categories suggested by Leech and Short (2007, pp. 61-62): On one hand, in terms of

lexical categories, this analysis used the questions specified below:

1. General. Is the vocabulary simple or complex? Formal or colloquial? Descriptive or

evaluative? General or specific? How far does the writer make use of the emotive and

other associations of words, as opposed to their referential meaning? Does the text

contain idiomatic phrases or notable collocations, and if so, with what kind of dialect

or register are these idioms or collocations associated? Is there any use of rare or

specialised vocabulary? Are any particular morphological categories noteworthy (e.g.

compound words, words with particular suffixes)? To what semantic fields do words

belong?

2. Nouns. Are the nouns abstract or concrete? What kinds of abstract nouns occur

(e.g. nouns referring to events, perceptions, processes, moral qualities, social

qualities)? What use is made of proper names? Collective nouns?

3. Adjectives. Are the adjectives frequent? To what kinds of attribute do adjectives

refer? Physical? Psychological? Visual? Auditory? Colour? Referential? Emotive?

Evaluative? etc. Are adjectives restrictive or nonrestrictive? Gradable or non-gradable?

Attributive or predicative?

4. Verbs. Do the verbs carry an important part of the meaning? Are they stative

(referring to states) or dynamic (referring to actions, events, etc.)? Do they ‘refer’ to

movements, physical acts, speech acts, psychological states or activities,

perceptions, etc.? Are they transitive, intransitive, linking (intensive), etc.? Are they

factive or nonfactive?

5. Adverbs. Are adverbs frequent? What semantic functions do they perform (manner,

place, direction, time, degree, etc.)? Is there any significant use of sentence adverbs
 (conjuncts such as so, therefore, however; disjuncts such as certainly, obviously,

frankly)?

On the other hand, the following sets of questions were used to guide the analysis in

terms of grammatical categories:

1. Sentence Types. Does the author use only statements (declarative sentences),

or do questions, commands, exclamations or minor sentence types (such as sentences

with no verb) also occur in the text? If these other types appear, what is their function?

2. Sentence Complexity. Do sentences on the whole have a simple or a complex

structure? What is the average sentence length (in number of words)? What is the ratio

of dependent to independent clauses? Does complexity vary strikingly from one

sentence to another? Is complexity mainly due to coordination, subordination, or

parataxis

(juxtaposition of clauses or other equivalent structures)? In what parts of a sentence

does complexity tend to occur? For instance, is there any notable occurrence of

anticipatory structure (e.g. of complex subjects preceding the verbs, of dependent

clauses preceding the subject of a main clause)? In analyzing the text in terms of lexical

density, an online text analyzer accessible through Online-Utility.org was also utilized.

However, a great deal of manual quantification was made to generate figures and data

that helped in analyzing the major plot parts of the short story. A web-based lexical and

syntactic complexity analyzer was also used to generate figures on the lexical variations

in terms of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Finally, the result of the first two parts
of analysis (grammatical and lexical) would be used to determine the deviant style of the

author in writing the given short story.

Discussion

This portion aims to identify the deviant literary style of XXXX XXXX in his short story

XXXX XXXX by classifying and analyzing the language use in major plot parts based on

lexical categories (vocabulary and parts of speech) and grammatical categories

(sentence types and complexity). However, it is of utmost significance to primarily

identify what events compose the major plot parts. Considered as the narrative

exposition are the first paragraph, which describes the setting and gives a picture of the

first scene in the story and the succeeding paragraphs that provide a detailed flashback.

1. Language Use in Major Plot Parts

The succeeding items methodically present the classification and analysis of the

language used in major plot parts of the short story. These parts include the exposition,

rising action, climax, falling action and resolution or ending. Findings are presented

twofolds: first, on matters pertinent to lexical categories, and second on the bases of

grammatical categories:

1.1 Lexical Categories

1.1.1. Vocabulary

In determining lexical complexity, the syllabic complexity was analyzed among only the

content words (noun, adjective, verb and adverb) in the major plot parts. Analysis

revealed that the text is generally simple as evident by the majority of monosyllabic and

disyllabic words used by the author in all the plot parts. There were also occasional

appearance of familiar words that have three syllables like in the title and other common

words like disappeared, finally, cautiously, and suddenly. There were also rare

appearance of four-syllable words like the nouns adaptation, perversity and embroidery,

the adjective incredible, and the adverb malignantly. Lastly, a fivesyllable word

appeared only once in the whole text, i.e., is alternatively in the exposition part of the

plot. These varying indicators of lexical complexity can be straightforwardly illustrated

through the table below.

Table 1

Syllabic Complexity in Major Plot Parts of the Short Story

 4

Comparing all plot parts, the author is consistent in using monosyllabic and disyllabic

content words in almost 90% of the text. In terms of formality or informality, the text was

written in an informal but figurative manner. Although, no colloquial terms are recorded

from the short story. The characters’ names used by the writer do not necessarily

indicate any regionalism since these names are internationally acknowledged.

Moreover, in all the plot parts, word contraction is only evident within dialogues. It

occurred 22 times in a total of 45 lines exchanged by the characters in the entire story.

Although indicators of informality, contractions are common in everyday speech, which

do not necessarily affect formality but result to more natural and realistic dialogues. The

author employed both descriptive and evaluative words in the text. Highly descriptive

language are scattered all over the exposition part which mostly appeal to senses and

create imagery. The author showcased an effective practice of giving a vivid picture of

the setting and the identity of the characters weaving simple descriptive words to create

a vivid picture of a detailed fiction.

 Table 2

Lexical Categories in the Major Plot Parts of the Short Story

As shown in Table 2, nouns and verbs recorded the highest number of words in all the

major plot parts while the modifiers: adjectives and adverbs were noted to have the

least number. This figure is quite normal since, basically, nouns and verbs form the

major parts of the sentence, which are subject and predicate. Nevertheless, the

existence of word modifiers, adjectives and adverbs, also plays significant roles in

completing the picture of the story and all its elements. Thus, varied content words carry

the meaning and theme of the story. Such variety can be observed in the next figure.

Figure 1

Lexical varieties of content words in the major plot parts

In terms of variation, nouns and verbs also recorded the highest rate while adjective

and adverbs have the lowest rate in all parts of the plot. Indicators and effects made by

these varieties would be tackled in the specified analysis for each content word.

1.1.2.1. Nouns

Figure 2

Distribution of concrete and abstract nouns in major plot parts

 Majority of nouns used in all parts of the plot are concrete nouns – making an

impression that most of the subjects or objects in the text are largely physical or

perceivable by the senses and just around a quarter is consist of ideas, emotions, time

indicators and the like. Aside from the quantity above, this phenomenon can also be

explained by the occurrence of thematic nouns.

Table 3

Dominant themes of concrete and abstract nouns in major plot parts

Thus, looking at colored items, the author is consistent in including concrete nouns that

can be associated to animals, parts of the body and family members in all parts of the

plot, and abstract nouns relative to emotions and time concepts in most parts of the

text.
1.1.2.2. Adjectives

Adjectives are mainly known as modifiers, as ‘modifying’ a noun or nominal phrase is

their main function in the sentence. These words also play important roles in every part

of the plot in the given text.

Table 4

Frequency of adjectives in the major plot parts

Table 4 presents the number of adjectives used in different parts of the plot. Aside from

having the highest number of words among plot parts, rising action and exposition also

listed the greatest number of adjectival use while the falling action and resolution have

noticeably low number of adjective use. Aside from counting numbers, it is also

important to analyze the modifier in terms of its positioning in the text. An adjective can

be classified as either attributive (pre-nominal) or predicative (post-verb or part of a

sentence’s predicate.

Figure 3

Distribution of adjectives in the major plot parts

Figure 3 illustrates the distribution of attributive and predicative adjectives in different

plot parts. It can be observed that majority of the adjectives used across the plot parts

are attributive. Some also use predicative, except only in the case of the falling action.

Aside from determining adjectival positioning, another essential way to analyze

adjective choice and use is categorizing modifiers as presented in the next table.

Table 5

Categories of adjectives used in the major plot parts

Table 5 shows how adjectives are used categorically, according to type

(coordinate, descriptive, distributive, sequence and indefinite) and according to

attribution (physical emotive, referential and evaluative) across the different parts of the
plot. In terms of adjectival type, descriptive adjectives appear in all parts of the plot.

There were also frequent use of coordinate adjectives noted from exposition and rising

action. Although rare, there are distributive, sequence and indefinite adjectives in

exposition and rising action. Aside from their appearance in different parts of the text,

the manner by which the author uses this lexical category can be regarded as

normative.

1.1.2.3. Verbs

Verbs carry important meanings in the text. Sentences are incomplete without verbs.

Thus, it analyzing verbs also contributes in interpreting the meaning of the text.

Figure 4

Verb types in the major plot parts

Figure 4 is a twin chart which demonstrates the distribution of verb use in different parts

of the plot. The one on the left shows that more than half of the verbs in the text are

action verbs while the one on the write show the almost evenly distributed stative and

dynamic verbs in the plot.

1.1.2.4. Adverbs

Like adjectives, adverbs modify certain words in the statement. This function of adverb

is clearly evident in the text.

Table 6

Frequency of adverbs in the major plot parts

Table 6 details the frequency of adverb use in the major plot parts. The highest number

of adverb (40) is listed under the rising action. This part of the plot is the seat for nearly

half the quantity of adverbs that appeared in the entire text. Meanwhile, exposition and

climax also had certain numbers of adverbs but falling action and resolution had only

one each. To understand the roles that these adverbs have in the text, the information in

the next table would be helpful.

Table 7

Types of adverbs in the major plot parts

Table 7 shows the types of adverbs in the major plot parts of the text. Generally, it can

be observed that there is a decrement in the number of adverb types used from

applying six (6) in exposition and rising action, four (4) in climax and one (1) each for the

falling action and resolution. This may be brought by the decreasing number of words

and sentences in this parts or by the author’s writing style. Some examples of the

aesthetic and sophisticate use of adverb in the text are found in the subsequent

sentences taken from different plot parts. The adverbs of manner, negation, degree,

frequency, time, place, and confirmation cited below are those that appear to be

dominant or reflective of their plot parts.

1.2. Grammatical Categories

In analyzing grammatical categories, thorough classifications of sentence types and

sentence complexity is included.

Figure 5

Syntactic varieties of content words in the major plot parts

Figure 6 shows the syntactic variety of content words in the major plot parts of the text.

It can be observed that the rising action recorded the most number of sentences, verb

phrase, clauses, and tone units. In all the plot parts, there is more number of verb

phrases than sentences and clauses. The quantity of tone units in all plot parts show

resemblance with that of the sentences. There is always a drastic decrease in the

quantity of all grammatical categories in when it comes to falling action and resolution.

The mean length of sentence are almost similar in the cases of exposition, rising action

and falling action while those of the climax and the resolution are both lower than the

rest.

This variation in the syntax of the text can be elaborated through an analysis of two of

its components: sentence types and sentence complexity.

1.2.1. Sentence Types

Figure 6
 Sentence types in the major plot parts

Figure 6 shows the variation of sentence types used in the major plot parts of the text. It

can be deduced that the sentences are generally declarative. It can be noted that there

is no exclamatory sentence in the climax, which is supposed to be the part where

intense feelings or emotions can be ideally presented in exclamations. However the

absence of exclamation in the climax is supposed to make the readers calm, the series

of simple declarative sentences gave the adverse effect to the readers – making the

climactic part more thrilling, more sensible and more intense.

1.2.2. Sentence Complexity

Figure 7

Sentence structures in the major plot parts

Figure 7 illustrates the distribution of sentences in different structures across the major

plot parts. From the data, it can be deduced that the majority or more than half of the

text is written in the simple sentence. Although, some plot parts also utilize compound

and complex sentence. There is also few statements in compound-complex sentence

and very few minor (or no-verb) sentences. The exposition has a combination of all

sentence structures. Rising action has all the four major sentence structures. The climax

only uses simple, compound and complex while the falling action has only simple and

compound sentences. Lastly, the text ended with its resolution having only simple and

complex sentence.

Figure 8

Average number of words per sentence in the major plot parts of the text
Figure 8 shows the average number of words per sentence in the major plot parts.

From the illustration, it can be noted that the highest mean length of sentence (MLS) is

in the falling action while the lowest is in the climax. However, this does not indicated

the least number of words per sentences since the longest (74-word sentence) is found

in the rising action while the shortest (one-word sentence) is found in both the climax

and the falling action.

All numbers indicating the MLS denote that the sentences in the text are within the

range of normal average of 10-20 words per sentence.

2. Deviant style/s in presenting the major plot parts of the short story

Syntactic (and morphological) levels of analysis need to be done to determine the

internal structure of sentences in a language and the way they function on sequences.

Clauses, phrases, words, nouns, verbs, etc. need to be distinguished and put through

an analysis to find out the foregrounding and the deviation.

Hence, adhering to this process, this portion attempts to determine the author’s deviant

style in writing each part of the plot in terms of the lexical and grammatical categories.

Lexical categories

The pervading atmosphere of action and the palpable details that evoke

sensations are just two of the domineering impressions from an initial reading of the

text. With 90% of the content words in the text being monosyllabic and disyllabic, it can

be deduced that most of the words used in the story are simple. Thus, the author’s style

is presenting intricacies of events through the use of short yet impactful terms. This style

has been effective in bringing the readers in the fictional world (exposition), creating a

thrilling intensity and palpability of the physical and emotional setup (rising action),

generating a relevant feel of the story’s peak (climax), guiding the assessment of

character’s actions (falling action), and leaving an open finale to evaluate what actually

happened to both of the major characters in the ending (resolution).

The author demonstrates a balanced use of content words and function words in all

parts of the plot. Majority of the nouns are concrete and common ones. However, there

are interesting group of nouns that fall under specific themes. The author is consistent in
including concrete nouns, which can be associated to animals, parts of the body, family

members and spatial quality of topography, and abstract nouns, which are pertinent to

emotions, concepts of time and other processes or conditions. This has been relevant to

the lexical analysis of Tarrayo (2014), where he pointed out that the majority of such

kinds of vocabulary leaves an impression of accessibility to or congruity with the story’s

theme. Likewise, the dominant use of concrete nouns generally accentuates the idea of

familiarity. (p. 109).

The language used in the text is basically descriptive and figurative, which Liu (2010)

had characterized as “full of images, concrete verbal pictures appealing to the senses,

by the employment of adjectives.” As illustrated, most of the adjectives used by the

author in all the plot parts are attributive. This has resulted to what Talib (2017) called

as descriptive richness of the text and oppose descriptive sparseness or thinness.

Attributive adjectives emphasize action by being a permanent part of the subject

whereas predicative adjectives qualify the noun or the subject. Concomitantly, these

placements result in specific functions of these adjectives (Faiz, Azher, Asghar &

Jabeen, 2018, p. 336). Similarly, the use of attributive adjectives is suggestive of their

permanent modification or qualification of the noun it precedes.

Given that most of the verbs used in text are action verbs, what is important to note as

the author’s deviant style is his ability to use and sustain themed or associated verbs in

all major plot parts and his knack in palpably elaborating intricate negative actions in

syllabically simple words. Talib (2017) emphasized that in literary stylistics, the primary

interest is not on the various categories of the verbs but on how the verbs function in the
given work or abstract. The usefulness of a primary auxiliary verb for stylistic analysis

may depend on the aspectual function it serves in relation to the lexical verb: for

example, whether an action is still going on, no longer functioning etc. These verbs may

be of concern in relation to the accuracy of analysis of time in the literary work. The

author used a combination of the varied types of adverbs in all parts of the plot.

However, distinct in the text is the frequent use of the adverb of negation ‘not’. The use

of adverbial phrases and clauses is another deviant style of the author. There are plenty

of them in the exposition and rising action which have effectively served the purpose of

connecting possible ideas, scenes, feelings and dominant behavior in the story prior to

arriving at an absences of phrase and clause modifiers at the rundown of simple

sentences in the climax. The author has a distinct skill in using adverbials, which are

considered by CelceMurcia and Larsen-Freeman (2010) as morphologically and

syntactically the most diverse grammatical structures in English. Traditionally, adverbs

are words that modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb. However, adverbials are

words, phrases or clauses which can modify entire sentences or clauses.

Grammatical Categories

There are three distinct features of the text’s grammatical categories. First, the most

number of sentences, clauses, verb phrases and tone units are found in the rising

action. Second, in all parts of the plot, the author favored the use of more verb phrases

than clauses. Third, there is a drastic decrease in the number of sentences in the falling
action and resolution. Generally, the sentences used in all parts of the plot are

declarative.

However, there are also other sentence types like exclamatory and what is notable is

that all of these exclamatives are found to be part of Character 1 dialogue. Similar with

the analysis of Tarrayo (2014), the majority of the simple sentences in all parts of the

plot run parallel with the simplicity of the vocabulary used in the story. There are

subordination but most of the complexities in the text occurs at phrasal level, and the

dominant pattern of this clauses would appear to be a series of main clauses

coordinated together. The writer’s style of combining all sentence types in the exposition

and rising action opens the reader to many possibilities that are about to occur. The

Anticipatory and trailing constituents are present in most sentences in the exposition

and rising action.

Conclusions

Based on the stylistic analysis of the major plot parts of the text, the following

conclusions can be drawn:

1. On analysis and classification of language use in major plot parts:

1.1. Lexical categories

1.1.1. In all parts of the plot, the vocabulary used are mostly short and

simple, placed in a well-chosen placement of descriptive and

evaluative statements in the text.

1.1.2. In terms of the parts of speech, there is a balance in using content

words and function words in the entire text.

1.1.2.1. Nouns used are mostly concrete, which suggests that

the subjects and objects in the text are largely perceivable by the

senses. There are also dominant themes for nouns, which are

mostly relevant to animals, body parts, topography and family

members among concrete nouns and themes of time, emotion and

processes among abstract nouns.

1.1.2.2. Adjectives used are more frequent in the exposition

and rising action. Most of which are attributive rather than

predicative but of varying types like coordinate, descriptive,

distributive, sequence and indefinite, and have physical, emotive,

referential and evaluative attributions.

1.1.2.3. Majority of the verbs used are action-verbs and can

be categorized into three associative groups: the deconstruction of

something or someone, the varying degrees of painful cries, and

the stopping or ending of something or someone.

1.1.2.4. Most adverbs are located in the rising action while the

least in the falling action and resolution or ending. All types of

adjectives are used in different plot parts – the exposition and

1.1.3. Grammatical categories

 1.1.3.1. Sentences are generally declarative although there

are timely use of other sentence types like interrogative, imperative

and exclamatory.

1.1.3.2. Although a large number of sentences are simple,

there is still a good insertion of compound, complex and

compound-complex sentence structures that create variety in the

reading material.

2. On the author’s deviant style in writing the text

2.1. In terms of lexical categories

By using a huge number of monosyllabic and disyllabic words, the author has been

successful in presenting intricacies of the events through the use of simple yet

impactful terms. There is also a distinct knack in weaving descriptive and evaluative

language in the whole text. The author also has a balanced quantifiable use of content

words and function words in all the plot parts. Majority of the nouns used leaves an

impression of accessibility to or congruity with the story’s theme. However, there is also

marked deviation in the authors use and repetition of the character’s name in some

parts of the plot. Furthermore, the author was able to sophisticatedly use attributive

adjectives which suggest permanence in quality of the words being modified. The

presence of adjectival attitude is also evident in the text. Other than the author’s use of

extensive adjectives, another prominent feature of writing is the use of adjectives that

are apparently contradicting. Like how the author was able to theme up his nouns, the
same goes with verbs, which can largely be relevant to the main theme –

deconstruction, pain and vengeance.

Although the presence of the adverb of negation ‘not’ is highly distinguished, what is

more interesting is the author’s style of using initial-position of final-position

adverbials.

2.2. In terms of grammatical categories

The author follows a pattern of placing anticipatory and trailing constituents in a large

of sentences, including the simple ones. There was also a notable deviation from the

maxim of manner and tense violation in the narrative – which are both contributory to

the complex appeal of the text to its readers. The author also favors subordination over

coordination.

References
Conclusions

References