ABSTRACT
In its broadest sense, stylistics is the study of style; of how language use varies according to varying circumstances: e.g. circumstances of period, discourse situation or authorship. A style X is the sum of linguistic features associated with texts or textual samples defined by some set of contextual parameters, Y. For example, Y may be a set of situational parameters such as the formality of the relation between addresser and addressee, the kind of communicative activity they are engaged in (e.g. scientific discourse), or the method by which communication is maintained (e.g. written correspondence). But traditionally and predominantly, stylistics has focused on texts which are considered of artistic value, and therefore worthy of study for their own sake. We may therefore begin by distinguishing general stylistics, the study of style in texts of all kinds, from literary stylistics, which is the study of style in literary texts, and is the main subject of this present chapter. The 'Y' mentioned above may be termed the domain of style, and it is essential to note that the domain can be more or less general. We may, for instance, be interested in the style of all novelists of the nineteenth century, or of only one of such novelists; we may wish to study all the novels of that writer, or only one. The most specific domain of style, and in many ways the most valuable starting point for stylistics, is the individual text or text extract.
