Stylistics is a branch of general linguistics which deals with two interdependent tasks:

- the investigation of a special language media, which secure the desirable

effect of the utterance are called : stylistic devices (SD) and expressive means
(D)
- certain types of discourse, which due to the choice and arrangement of
language means are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of the
comunication! "hese types of texts are called functional styles (#S)
SD$% are dealt with the aesthetic function of language, synonymous ways of
rendering the same ideea, emotional colouring in the language, interrelation
between language and thought, the manner in which various authors use language!
"he word style is derived from the &atin word stylus which meant a short stick sharp at
one end and flat at the other, used by the 'omans for writing on wax tablets!
Definitions:
(! Style is a )uality of language which communicates precisely emotions or thoughts
or a system of emotions and thoughts pelicular to an author! (*! %! %urry)
+diosyncracy is a type of writing which is personal and has two extremes: baby talk and
the idiolect of an author!
,! Style is a contextual restricted linguistic variation! (nkvist)
-! Style is a product of individual choices and patterns of choices among linguistic
possibilities! (.hatman)
/! Style is simply synonymous with form or expression and hence a superfluous
term! (.roce)
0! Style is essentially a citadin process, a body of formulae, a memory almost in the
cybernetic sense of the word, a cultural and not an expressive inheritance!
(1arthes)
Style is a set of characteristics by which we distinguish one author from another! Style is
regarded as something that belongs exclusively to the plan of expression and not to the
plan of content!
"he style is marked by:
- uni)ueness $ individuality 2 it can be recogni3ed4 the individuality of a
writer5s style is shown in a peculiar treatment of language means!
- purpose 2 style is intentional, deliberate, it has a finality! "he first function of
style is not communication, but aesthetic effect and emotion!
- permanence 2 style has a great power of endurance, it never loses its aesthetic
value!
"he distinction between style in general and the individual style of an author:
- style in general is historically and socially conditioned (e!g! the style of an
epoch)
- the individual style of an author is one of the applications of the general term
6style5
"he most important procedure in detecting the individual style is the analysis of an
author5s language! "his is because:
- language is the only means by which an author5s ideas are conveyed to the
readers in precisley the way he intends4
- writers contribute greatly to establishing the norms of the literary language of
a given period!
+ndividual style is a uni)ue combination of language units, expressive means and stylistic
devices peculiar to a given writer, which makes that writer5s work easily recogni3able!