ABSTRACT
Theorderedapproachwhi~hseemsmostsatisfactoryinrealisingthe generalaimsofstylisticanalysisinvolvestakingtheobjectofstudyaparticularpieceoflanguage,ortext-anddiscussingitintermsofa numberofinterrelatedlevelsofdescription.Ateachlevel,.weare studyingoneaspectofthewayinwhichlanguageisorgapised:we shallbedistinguishingphoneticfgraphetic,phonological/graphological,grammatical,lexical,andsemanticlevels,andweshallexplain whatwemeanbythesetermsbelow.Thenumberandnatureofthe levelsisdictatedbyconvenienceforthejobinhand,varietyanalysis: interesting,stylisticallyrelevantvariationsoccurfrequentlyateachof thelevelsdistinguished,andneedtobediscussedintheirown·terms. Otherlevelsmighthavebeenbroughtin(whatlinguistshavereferred toasmorphophonology,forexample),orwemighthavedistinguished furtherlevelswithinthosealreadymentioned(eglexis,cfp58;but thelittleinformationfoundtoberelevantintheseareasforourdiscussionwasmoreeconomicallyincorporatedintothelevels·distinguishedbelow.
