Stylistics is the study of style in texts. It examines an author's distinctive use of features like vocabulary, grammar, figures of speech and their effects. Foregrounding refers to linguistic features that are made prominent in a text to achieve special effects. It relates to deviation from ordinary language norms. Foregrounding devices attract attention and influence a reader's interpretation through what is emphasized versus backgrounded.

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Stylistics
The word style is derived from the Latin word `stylos` which meant a short stick
sharp at one end and flat at the other used by the Romans for writing on wax tablets.In its
broadest definition, style is the way in which language is used. Every poet or literary author
has his/her own style of writing that distinguishes him/her from other poets. Broadly
speaking, style in literature centers around the way that the author uses vocabulary- the
author's vocabulary choice, sentence structure, it also involves sentence length. It also
relates to the author'suse of figurative language, metaphors and similes that work together to
establish mood, images and meaning in text. Some authors focus on sound devices such as
alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm.In brief, style is the way the author uses words, phrases
and sentences. Robert Frost defined style as that which indicates how the writer takes himself
and what he is saying. It is important here to highlight that every author has a personal style of
writing, that style is not static. The author refines it through reading a variety of writers and
through his own writing experiences. So when analyzing an author's style, one should put in
mind the author's point of view, his type of writing and its structure and organization, his use of
figurative language and overall tone. Although the term style is used very frequently in literary
criticism and especially stylistics, it is very difficult to define. There are many definitions of the
term "style"-
1. Style is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in
communication.
2. Thomas S. Kane defines style as pattern of linguistic features that distinguishes one work
from to another.
3. According to Crystal, Style is a distinctive use of language.
4. Yule defines Style as the variation in an individual‘s speech which is occasioned by the
situation of use. Style is described as the variations in language usage. In essence, style is
conditioned by the manner in which an individual makes use of language.
5. According to Trask, Style is seen as ―any particular and somewhat distinctive way of
using language.
6. According to Lawal, Style was described as an aspect of language that deals with choices
of diction, phrases, sentences and linguistic materials that are consistent and harmonious
with the subject matter. It refers to the study of appropriate use of words or language in a
sentence or writing.
7. Turner describes stylistics as that part of linguistics which concentrates on variation in
the most conscious and complex uses of language in literature.
8. Verdonkdefines stylistics as ―the analysis of distinctive expression in language and the
description of its purpose and effect.
9. According toLeech, the main objective of stylistics is to discover the meanings and
appreciate the linguistic characteristics of the text.
10. H.G.Widdowson defines stylistics as the ‘study of literary discourse from a linguistic
orientation.’

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Styling, a branch of applied linguistics, is the study and interpretation of texts in regard to
their linguistic and tonal style. It is the systematic study of style used in language. This style
may be of a person, a group of people, a place or a period. It studies the relation between
language and its artistic function. For this study, it has some linguistic tools. As a discipline, it
links literary criticism to linguistics. It does not function as an independent domain (study topic)
on its own. It is a major branch of linguistics. It is primarily concerned with the application of the
methodology of linguistics to the study of the style used in language in a particular context. We
use language, whether in speech or writing for a particular purpose and choose our words
accordingly. While transmitting a message, we select language from an array of syntactical and
lexical possibilities to relate the style with the purpose of communication. Stylistics is equally
concerned with spoken and written language.It is a link between literary criticism and linguistics.
It is a bridge between the literary critic and the linguist. When we investigate the style of a text,
we try to find out three main stylistic levels- the linguistic form, the discourse of the text and the
communicative situation of the text.
Common features of style include the use of dialogue, including regional accents and
individual dialects (or ideolects), the use of grammar, such as the observation of active
voice and passive voice, the distribution of sentence lengths, the use of particular language
registers, and so on. In addition, stylistics is a distinctive term that may be used to determine the
connections between the form and effects within a particular variety of language. Therefore,
stylistics looks at what is 'going on' within the language.
There are various overlapping subdisciplines of stylistics, including literary stylistics,
interpretive stylistics, evaluative stylistics, corpus stylistics, discourse stylistics, feminist
stylistics, computational stylistics, and cognitive stylistics, and a person who studies any of these
is known as a stylistician.Stylistician studiesmorphology, phonology, lexis, syntax, semantics,
and various discourse and pragmatic models, goes in search of language-based evidence.He
illustrates
linguisticfeatures.The most important subject of study in literary stylistics is the language of the
writer and of works of literature, in which theproblem of individual style is brought to the forefro
nt.
Stylistics took form as an independent discipline in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particu
larly in the works of C. Bally.Bally developed a theory that the expressive means of a language o
n the emotional, social, and individual planes were themain subject of stylistics.
*Levels of Stylistic Analysis-The following are the levels of stylistics. We analyze the text
according to these levels.
1. Phonetic level: It is an examination of sounds; we study the characteristics and potential
utility of sounds in phonetic level. This level is concerned with the examination of sounds and its
characteristics and its potential utility in phonetic level.
2. Phonological level: It is the study of the sound system of a given language; the Formal rules
of pronunciation.This level is interested in studying the sound system of any given language. It is

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concerned with the formal rules of pronunciation. Phonological devices include rhyme elements,
alliteration, consonance and assonance.
3. Graph logical level: It is the analogous study of a language’s writing system; the formalized
rules of spellings.It studies the writing system of a language. It discusses the formalized rules of
spellings, capitalization, the systematic formation, structure and punctuation in the sentence.
4. Grammatical level: In this level both the syntactic and morphological levels are discussed.
The aim is to analyze the internal structure of sentences in a language and the way they function
in sequences. Clauses, phrases, words, nouns, verbs, etc. need to be distinguished and put
through an analysis to find out the foregrounding and the deviation. It discusses both the
syntactic and morphological levels. It analyzes the internal structure of sentences in any given
language and how they function in sequences. It distinguishes clauses, phrases, words, nouns,
verbs, etc.
5. The lexical level: It is the study of the way in which individual words and idioms tend to
pattern in different linguistic context; on the semantic level in terms of stylistics. This level
examines the way in which individual words and idioms tend to pattern in different linguistic
context; on the semantic level in terms of stylistics. It studies words in relation to inner
expressiveness. these words are with emotive and referential .It is related to figurative language.
***
Scope of Stylistics-
A Stylistics approach teaches students how to look for and interpret stylistic dimensions
of a text. Students are made to learn how what is said is said and how meanings are made. They
are taught to know what makes the language of literature different from everyday language, if it
really is. The environment of our classes at the college level is lecture-based where teacher
remains at the helm of affairs and students are demanded to be patient listeners, which makes
them hardly participative. Advantages of the Stylistic Approach If we adopt the stylistic
approach to teach literature at the college level, it will help the students understand the role of
language in literature. Language is made up of words, structures and sentences and literature is
made up of these words, structures and sentences. Literature is language in its applied form and
prepares a basis for the study of language through various points of view. Every piece of literary
writing is different from the other. They have similarities but are never identical. Every piece of
literature is unique with own peculiarities. Therefore, literature offers as many models or
varieties of language just as we many writers. How the writers use the same limited set of sounds
with a variety of words, structures, syntax and collocations – set the platform for the stylistic
analysis of a particular task.
Students at the college level must be taught to recognize and focus on the style markers used by
the authors in their works which contribute to the effect of the work. A style marker may be
recognized intuitively, or with the help of critics who have analyzed the text and identified

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various style markers used by the authors. Thus stylistics offers some critical and creative ways
of looking at a work under study. Students will develop a sense of appreciation as well as
acumen. Students should be motivated to recognize intuitive responses to a text which are central
to the process of reading and re-reading the text, thus helping them develop their own
communicative competence as reading is the silent exposure of the self to the language. Intensive
and extensive reading of a literary text enables the students infer more than one meaning and it
helps them to understand how to make the use of the target language in everyday contexts. It is
very much essential for the learners learning English as a second or a foreign language who most
of the time remain less informed of the culture and practices of the native speakers/writers of the
target language. Our students remain busy in merely memorizing answers for the questions based
on the works or the authors to reproduce them in their examination rather than learning how to
bring out the aesthetic element of a particular piece of art. It has become a malpractice among the
college students to pick up readymade material available in the form of guidebooks in the
market. These guidebooks may not provide the students with the authentic material, yet these are
very popular among a large number of college students. The stylistic approach will make
learning of language an interesting task as students work upon their own intuition, background
knowledge and experience of the language. They will learn to appreciate the artistic use of
language and enhance their own communicative competence. The Stylistic Approach The
stylistic approach incorporates a close reading of its literature contrary to the traditional ways of
memorization and reproduction. It can prove to be the best method to learn a foreign language
through stylistic approach as it would give a close view of the target language. They will learn to
relate a piece of literary writing to their own experience of language and consequently extend
their experience. Literary analysis through stylistic approach encourages in students the ability to
infer meanings by interacting with the text. The stylistic approach demands a close reading and
re-reading of a literary text by the students. A close reading and re-readings of a literary text
would help the students internalize the rules of the grammar of the target language indirectly.
They would be learning language through literature and this is basic aim of teaching literature of
any language.
Stylistics as Applied Linguistics- Stylistics is regarded as applied linguistics and teaching of
literature at the college/university level can be regarded as applied stylistics as students are
basically taught to interpret or analyze a literary text using stylistic features. The stylistic
approach provides an objective basis for interpretation of a literary text. It works like a scientific
tool and fixes some standards on which the students can test any piece of literature. The learners
when study the text from the stylistic approach, experience the work with a totally new insight as
they work on their intuition. They build their own hypotheses based on certain facts or features
related to the particular text and may reach to new findings or a new interpretation. This
approach helps them to know how the language works and transmit arbitrary meanings. The
literary work becomes the only object to experiment with and find out more than one meaning
using their own intuition. The benefit of this approach is that the teacher becomes a facilitator

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whereas the text and the students become the prominent elements of research/analysis which
provides new results.
It acts as means of linking linguistics and literary criticism. It, therefore, encompasses literary
studies and linguistics as well as discourse studies.That's why students cannot ignore this branch
of study for the great benefits they can gain from studying the literary text by doing
stylistics.That's why literary critics do not always separate stylistic study from a wider theory of
literature. All the critics recognizedstylistics as a science, a branch of general linguistics, that
investigates principles and the results of selection and use of lexical, grammatical, phonetic and
other language means for the transfer of thoughts and emotions under different circumstances of
communication.
Doing Stylistics: Why? Doing stylistics for any given literary text is of great value for those
who are interested in main in learning English language and in particular for both teachers and
learners.It enriches learner's ways of thinking about the studied language and improves its skills
in order to be competent. It enables the learner to extract the importance of any literary text by
analyzing the interrelations between its linguistics items.Its main aim is to explicate how our
understanding of a text is achieved, by examining in detail the linguistic organization of the text
and how a reader needs to interact with that linguistic organization to make sense of it. Doing
stylistics means exploring the language and its creativity in language use. It reveals new aspects
and dimensions of interpretation. In addition, doing stylistics develops the skills and approach of
analyzing any given language to improve receptive skills of the target language.
***
Foregrounding-
Foregrounding is the practice of making something stand out from the surrounding words or
images.It is "the 'throwing into relief' of the linguistic sign against the background of the norms
of ordinary language." The term was first associated with Paul Garvin in the 1960s, who used it
as a translation of the Czech aktualisace (literally "to actualise"), borrowing the terms from
the Prague school of the 1930s.
Foregrounding refers to the concept of making certain features prominent in a
text.Some linguistic features can be made prominent for special effects against th
ebackground features in a text. Scholars have examined the term as used in the literaryenterprise
as being for purely aesthetic exploitation of language which has the aim of making what is
familiar unfamiliar in order to attract attention. The concept of deviationis closely related to
that of foregrounding in that what is foregrounded is made todeviate from the familiar
pattern. Also, when the content of a text has deviated from the norms of language use, then
wecan say that a style is being carved out. In the process of determining the area
of deviation in the study of stylistics, one has to identify the different highlighted
aspectsthat have been made prominent. Thus, foregrounding is related to the notio
n of deviation and it provides the basis for a reader’s recognition of style. As Hallidaysays, foregrounding
is prominence that is motivated. He also defines prominence as

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thegeneral name for the phenomenon of linguistic highlights whereby some linguisticfeat
ures stand out in some way. Thus, to Halliday, a feature that is brought intopromi
nence will be foregrounded only if it relates to the meaning of the whole
text. These include unusual capitalisation, italicisation, bold words, contractions,underl
ining, pictureart works and so
on. we can say that the use of theseforegrounding devices creates some visual imagery
which adds to the memorability of a text.
There are two main types of foregrounding: parallelism and deviation. Parallelism can be
described as unexpected regularity, while deviation can be seen as unexpected irregularity. As
the definition of foregrounding indicates, these are relative concepts. Something can only be
unexpectedly regular or irregular within a particular context.
For example, the last line of a poem with a consistent metre may be foregrounded by changing
the number of syllables it contains. This would be an example of a deviation from a secondary
norm. In the following poem by E. E. Cummings, there are two types of deviation:
light’s lives lurch
a once world quickly from rises
army the gradual of unbeing fro
on stiffening greenly air and to ghosts go
drift slippery hands tease slim float twitter faces
Only stand with me, love! against these its
until you are, and until i am dreams...
Firstly, most of the poem deviates from 'normal' language (primary deviation). In addition, there
is secondary deviation in that the penultimate line is unexpectedly different from the rest of
the poem. Nursery rhymes, adverts and slogans often exhibit parallelism in the form of
repetition and rhyme, but parallelism can also occur over longer texts. For example, jokes are
often built on a mixture of parallelism and deviation. They often consist of three parts or
characters. The first two are very similar (parallelism) and the third one starts out as similar, but
our expectations are thwarted when it turns out different in end (deviation).
Foregrounding can occur on all levels of
language(phonology, graphology, morphology, lexis, syntax, semantics and pragmatics). It is
generally used to highlight important parts of a text, to aid memorability and/or to invite
interpretation.
***
Parallelism-
Parallelism means the parallel (sameness) structure or parallel construction. Parallelism is
a figure of speech in which two or more elements of a sentence (or series of sentences) have the
same grammatical structure. These "parallel" elements can be used to produce and intensify the
rhythm of language, or to draw a comparison, emphasize, or elaborate on an idea.
Parallelism is the use of components (parts) in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or
similar in their construction, sound, meaning, or meter. It is a balance within one or more

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sentences of similar phrases or clauses that have the same grammatical structure.Parallelism may
be accompanied by other figures of speech such
as antithesis, anaphora, asyndeton, climax, epistrophe, and symploce.
Examples–
 Parallelism: Their son loved playing chess, video games, and soccer.
 No parallelism: Their son loved chess, video games, and to play soccer.
 In this first set of sentences, the first sentence contains a list of three parallel nouns, while
the second combines two nouns with a verb.
Compare the following examples:
Lacking parallelism (table 1) Parallel(table 2)
"She likes cooking, jogging, and to read."
"She likes cooking, jogging, and reading."
"She likes to cook, jog, and read."
"He likes baseball and running."
"He likes playing baseball and running."
"He likes to play baseball and to run."
"The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the
fence, and sprinted away."
"The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the
fence, and sprinted down the alley."
All of the above examples in both tables are grammatically correct, even if they lack
parallelism(in table 1): "cooking", "jogging", and "to read" are all grammatically valid
conclusions to "She likes", for instance. The first nonparallel example has a mix
of gerunds and infinitives. To make it parallel, the sentence can be rewritten with all gerunds or
all infinitives. The second example pairs a gerund with a regular noun. Parallelism can be
achieved by converting both terms to gerunds or to infinitives. The final clause of the third
example does not include a definite location, such as "across the yard" or "over the fence";
rewriting to add one completes the sentence's parallelism.
Parallelism examples are found in literary works as well as in ordinary
conversations.
Common examples of Parallelism-
1. Like father, like son.
2. Easy come, easy go.
3. whetherin class, at work,or at home,Kavita was always busy.
4. Flying is fast, comfortable, and safe.
5. He came, he saw, and he conquered.

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***
Cohesion vs Coherence
There are many who think that cohesion and coherence are synonyms and can be used
interchangeably. However, this is not the case, and there are subtle differences despite
similarities that will be talked about in this article.
Cohesion
All language tools, which are used to provide links and help in connecting one part of the
sentence, are important in achieving cohesion in the text. It is difficult to define cohesion but one
can visualize it as small sentences adding up to make for a meaningful text as is the case with
many different pieces fitting together to make for a jigsaw puzzle. For a writer, it is better to start
with text that the reader is already familiar with to make a piece cohesive. This can also be done
with the last few words in a sentence setting up the next few words at the start of the next
sentence.
In short, the links that stick different sentences and make the text meaningful can be thought of
as cohesion in the text. Establishing connections between sentences, sections, and even
paragraphs using synonyms, verb tenses, time references etc. is what brings cohesion in a text.
Cohesion can be thought of as glue sticking different parts of furniture so that it takes the shape
the writer wants it to give.
Coherence
Coherence is a quality of a piece of text that makes it meaningful in the minds of the readers. We
find a person incoherent if he is under the influence of alcohol and not able to speak out in terms
of meaningful sentences. When the text begins to make sense on the whole, it is said to be
coherent. If the readers can follow and understand a text easily, it obviously has coherence.
Rather than the text appearing linked together perfectly, it is the overall impression of the text
that appears to be smooth and clear.
What is the difference between Cohesion and Coherence?
• If different sentences in a text are linked properly, it is said to be cohesive.
• If a text appears to make sense to a reader, it is said to be coherent.
• A cohesive text can appear as incoherent to the reader making it clear that the two properties of
a text are not the same.
• Coherence is a property decided by the reader whereas cohesion is a property of the text
achieved by the writer making use of different tools like synonyms, verb tenses, time references
etc.
• Cohesion can be measured and verified through rules of grammar and semantics though
measuring coherence is rather difficult.

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Cohesion (linguistics)-
Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical linking within a text or sentence that holds a text
together and gives it meaning. It is related to the broader concept of coherence.
There are two main types of cohesion: grammatical cohesion, which is based on structural
content—and lexical cohesion, which is based on lexical content and background knowledge. A
cohesive text is created in many different ways. In Cohesion in English, M.A.K.
Halliday and RuqaiyaHasan identify five general categories of cohesive devices that create
coherence in texts: reference, ellipsis, substitution, lexical cohesion and conjunction.
Coherence (linguistics)
Coherence in linguistics is what makes a text semantically meaningful. It is especially dealt with
in text linguistics. Coherence is achieved through syntactical features such as the use
of deictic, anaphoric and cataphoric elements or a logical tense structure, as well
as presuppositions and implications connected to general world knowledge. The purely linguistic
elements that make a text coherent are subsumed under the term cohesion.
However, those text-based features which provide cohesion in a text do not necessarily help
achieve coherence, that is, they do not always contribute to the meaningfulness of a text, be it
written or spoken. It has been stated that a text coheres only if the world around is also coherent.
***
What do "Coherence" and "Cohesion" Mean?
The two words, "coherence" and "cohesion" mean different things but the two ideas are
connected and, in fact, overlap. "Coherence" in an essay (or when you are speaking about
interconnected idea in the Speaking test) means the overall "understandability" of what you write
or say. When writing an essay, coherence involves such features as: summarizing the overall
argument of an essay in the introductory paragraph; presenting ideas in a logical sequence;
putting separate, major points into separate paragraphs; and beginning each paragraph with a
'topic sentence', following by supporting sentences. Coherence is based more on the logic of the
ideas and how they are presented rather than on the language that is used to express these ideas.
"Cohesion" refers to the degree to which sentences (or even different parts of one sentence)
are connected so that the flow of ideas is easy to follow. To achieve good cohesion, you need to
know how to use "cohesive devices", which are certain words or phrases that serve the purpose
of connecting two statements, usually by referring back to what you have previously written or
said. For example, if you write "Statement A" and then follow with the words, "On the other
hand, Statement B", then these two sentences "cohere" or "stick together" and it is easy to follow
the flow of ideas. Good cohesion leads to good coherence, which is the ultimate aim.
Here's an example of how coherence and cohesion overlap. If you have a major new point to add
to your essay then you should put that in a paragraph by itself and begin the paragraph with a
topic sentence that more or less summarizes the point you want to make. This topic sentence,
following by supporting sentences, make your paragraph more coherent. However, your essay

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will be less coherent if you suddenly start a paragraph without some form of connection to what
you have previously written, either in the previous paragraph or some other previous part of your
essay. This problem can be overcome by beginning that topic sentence with words such as, "On
the other hand", which connect to the last statement made in the previous paragraph. This shows
good cohesion.