Stylistics

Stylistics is the branch of linguistics and literary studies that examines the expressive means of language, functional styles, and an author's individual style. Literary stylistics investigates how the selection and combination of linguistic means — lexis, syntax, tropes, figures — create an aesthetic effect and express the author's worldview. One distinguishes the stylistics of language (the system of stylistic resources) from the stylistics of speech (their realization in a text), as well as the stylistics of artistic speech. The foundations of scientific stylistics were laid by Charles Bally (a pupil of Saussure) and the representatives of 'stylistic criticism' — Leo Spitzer and Karl Vossler. An important contribution was made by Viktor Vinogradov (the doctrine of the language of imaginative literature and the 'image of the author'). Ukrainian stylistics was developed by Leonid Bulakhovsky and Svitlana Yermolenko; stylistic analysis is a key tool of textual interpretation.