Stylistic device

Abstract: It is a well-known fact that there exist various ways of expressing people’s attitude towards another person, any kind of thing or this or that phenomena; there are different variants of expressing similar, though not absolutely identical ideas. It is stylistics that deals with all variants of linguistic expressions and the sub-systems making up the general system of language. Stylistic devices play the greatest role in the analysis of any kind of literary text. Among other figures of speech, repetition is one of the widely used syntactic stylistic devices. The aim of the given article is to discuss the problem of repetition, to give outline of this very important and frequently used stylistic device, its peculiarities and classification and identify those new classes which were revealed after thoroughly studying the material under investigation.

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the use of rhetorical questions (RQs), a stylistic device often not recognized as such. The problem of reading and writing in a second language in Nigeria and also using different styles apart from the conventional style are examined. The paper also focuses on the impact any stylistic choice has on the reader. Specifically, it examines style and the concept of the RQ as well as identifying typology of RQs (about 8 different types), their characteristics and instances of overlap, their purposes and functions in newspapers and other forms of discourse. The idea is to highlight reasons why teachers and writers should spice up and embellish the variety of styles available for use and also point out to readers and writers which types of RQs have been used as well as the purposes, objectives and the writer’s intention in using that particular style. The paper also looks at the sociocultural and extra linguistic contexts of the use of the RQ on the Nigerian literary scene. The typology is presented in tabular form and each type is discussed with examples. The implications of the use of this stylistic device are pointed out for teachers, students, readers and writers.

Abstract: The idea of literary language, especially poetic language, being somehow deviant from the language of discursive prose forms the basis of some recent contemporary stylistic theories. This deviant language is said to make the work, or parts of it, stand out foregrounds it and this in itself is artistically significant since, according to Shklovsky, the quality of literariness is related to being different, being strange as it were, and capable of evoking other than stereotyped or simplistic responses.’ Leech has given a taxonomy of the stylistic devices used by poets to create deviance and some of them can be usefully applied to the study of literature, especially twentiethcentury literature which privileges the deviant rather than the norm more than most other literary eras.’ The aim of this article is to throw some light on the way Pakistani creative writers use deviant English as a stylistic device in their fiction. For this purpose I shall first touch upon the mesolect, i.e. that form of Pakistani English which deviates from standard English because of interference from the indigenous languages without aiming at a literary effect. Then I shall go on to consider the works of those who