stylistics and its relevance to the study of literature: edgarallan...

Yu-Fang Ho Stylistics and Its Relevance to the Study ofLiterature. 137 •

Stylistics and Its Relevance to the Study ofLiterature: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale

Heart" as an Illustration

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Abstract

The primary pu中ose of this paper is to introduce a stylistic analytical approach to the study of

literary texts. Stylistics is generally considered as the study of literary discourse from a linguistic

orientation (e.g. lexis, syntax, sound patterns, semantics, etc). It explores how readers interact with

the language oftexts, i.e. how we understand and are affected by texts when we read them. As Wales

(200 I: 373) states more precisely, stylistics is a discipline principally concerned with describing

the linguistic features of texts and the functional significance of these features in relation to our

inte中間的tion ofthe text. Edgar Allan Poe'、s short s仗to叮

pe叮rfecωt manifestation of Po∞巳，冶s “"s討in培叫g斟Ie ef叮feet" theory - is used to exemplify and demonstrate how the

sense of “ terror" is conveyed through the language and how readers are affected accordingly.

Keywords: “The Tell-Tale Heart弋 Edgar Allan Poe, style and effect, stylistic analysis

Author: Yu-Fang Ho, E-mail: [email protected] received: 200911 1/30; Modified: 2010/04/09; Accepted: 201010811 O.

• 138 • Stylistics and Its Relevance to the Study of Literature

I.What is stylistics?

1.1 Introduction to stylistics

Yu-Fang Ho

Stylistics emerged in 196缸， and can be seen as an extension of moves within literary criticism

in the early 20th century to concentrate on studying texts rather than authors. In Britain, this text

based approach is often called “Practical Criticism" promoted by I. A. Richards and his pupil

William Empson, and it is matched by a similar critical movement called “New Criticism" in the

USA, associated with Cleanth Brooks, Rene Wellek, Austin Warren and others.

Another important influence in the development of stylistics comes from the Russian Formalists

in Moscow. The group also rejects excessive concentration on the author in literary criticism in favor

of analyzing the language of text itself in relation to the consequent psychological effects. They

develop “ foregrounding theory," which suggests that some parts of texts are linguisticillly deviant

or specially patterned in some w呵， thus making them psychologically salient (or “ foregrounded")

for readers. These textual elements therefore have more effect on readers than others in terms of

interpretation. The Russian Formalists are basically the first stylisticians, and their “ foregrounding

theory" becomes a very influential aspect of textual study in later stylistics. Modem stylisticians pay

more attention to the psychological aspects involved in a reader interacting with a work, trying to

understand how readers respond to the foregrounded linguistic detail (for a more detailed history of

stylistics and the concept of foregrounding, see Douthwaite 2000; Short 1996).

During the course of the development, stylistics is generally considered as the study of literary

discourse from a linguistic orientation. Nonetheless, as Widdowson suggests, what distinguishes

stylistics from literary criticism on the one hand and linguistic analysis on the other is that it is

essentially “ a means of linking the two (1 975: 3)." The aim of stylistics is to relate features of

linguistic description step by step to the functional significance of these features in relation to our

critical interpretation of the text (Wales 2001: 373). The two activities of linguistic description

and literary criticism should be viewed as "distinct, but complementary (Leech 1985: 42)." As

stylisticians have demonstrated in various stylistic analyses (e.g. Leech and Short 2007; Short and

Semino 2008; Stubbs 2005), detailed examination of the language of a literary text

Yu-Fang Ho Stylistics and Its Relevance to the Study ofLiterature + 139 +

1.2 On style, choice, meaning and effect

To understand better the discipline of stylistics, it is essential to clari句 the meaning of “ style."

As we know, the very concept of “ style" in literature, though widely used and multifariously defined,

has proved notoriously slippery and hard to define precisely. It is somewhat confused by the fact that

different people mean different things by the label “ style."

Enkvist in “On Defining Style" (1 964) has eminently reviewed and classified many definitions

of style suggested by various scholars during the history of linguistic stylistics (for definitions of

style, see also Chatman 1971; Mcrae and Clark 2008; Muller 2001; Short 1994; Verdonk 2002). One

ofthe best known definitions regards style as an addition to a central core ofthought:“Style consists

in adding to a given thought all the circumstances calculated to produce the whole effect that the

thought ought to produce (Enkvist 1964: 12, emphasis mine; see also Ullmann 1964: 25)." Similarly,

Riffaterre defines style as “an emphasis (expressive, affective or aesthetic) added to the information

conveyed by the linguistic structure" (1 967: 413).

Nevertheless, the scholars who support the definition of時Ie as intended何辦ct are quite happy

to talk about style as choice (e. g. Enkvist 1964; Hough 1972). These two definitions are actually

interrelated. Theoretically, an author has a vast repertoire of linguistic devices at his disposal. For

example, he may choose to give his thoughts an objective mode of expression, i.e. pure facts which

conform to reality as closely as possible. He may also choose to add various affective elements, i.e.

expressions coloured by interests, feelings , approval or disapproval and so on. Hence, linguistic

forms can be conceived as a set of possibilities for the production of texts. The author must sift and

choose among them to express himself.

However, can all choices the author makes result in a style?1 The answer seems to be negative,

as Enkvist (1 964) suggests. For example, the choice between “ it's drizzling" and “ it is pouring"

should not be labeled as stylistic given that the choice is based on extralinguistic grounds of truth.

If not all the choices the author makes result in a style, then what kind of choice can be counted as

stylistic choice?

This is a question that stylisticians have been trying to explore. A short answer to this intricate

question is to recognize the interconnected relation between style and effect. The sty

1How far a writer is aware of the choices that he makes , or aware of the stylistic devices which he employs isanother issue. For a discussion ofthis issue, see Ullmann (1 964).

. 140 • Stylistics and Its Relevance to the Study of Literature Yu-Fang Ho

as certain linguistic elements are chosen by an author for certain effect, and that intended effect

is recognized by readers, they become units of text style, i.e. “ style markers" in Enkvist's terms

(1 964: 34). What stylistics attempts to discover and explain is exactly the causal relation between

that stylistic choice and that effect. In terms of identification of potential stylistic features in a text,

the theory of “ foregrounding" and the notion of “markedness" help. Though the text is a weave of

linguistic choices, some stylistic choices are prominent by virtue of being particularly arresting and

noticeable in a text.

1.3 Stylistic analysis toolkit

How can we be made aware of the so-called particularly noticeable textual features? Stylistics

is, in effect, a practice of facilitating readers to identify textual peculiarities and to explain the

marked stylistic features more systematically. To achieve the goal of systematic analysis , many

stylistic-based checklists have been developed by scholars (e.g. Leech 1969; Leech and Short 2007;

McRae 1991; Short 1996; Simpson 1997, 2004). These stylistic checklists generally highlight

certain linguistic features that readers should be made aware of, such as lexis (words), syntax (how

the words/phrases/clauses/sentences are put together), phonology (patterns of sound), graphology

(layout, typeface, punctuation, visual effects), semantics (areas of meaning and how the meaning

is achieved); cohesion (the linking mechanisms within the text), dialect (usually spoken variants of

standard English), register (tone), etc

Among these, Leech and Short (2007: 61-4) have developed by far the most heuristic “Checklist

of Linguistic and Stylistic Categories" as a tool which can be applied to any text for systematic

analysis. Their checklist gives a series of questions about the different elements of text readers

can ask. Answering the questions helps us to specify the nature of each element, and we can then

consider the effects of the element on our interpretation of the text. Their list covers four major

categories:2 1) Lexis; 2) Grammar; 3) Figures of speech; 4) Cohesion and Context. Below is a

summarized version of the checklist!.

I.Lexis

General - Is the vocabulary simple or complex? Is it descriptive or evaluative? Is it general

or specific? Does the writer make greatest use of referential or denotative meanings, or do we have

2Semantic categories are not listed separately, since it is easier to arrive at these through other categories. Forexample, we shall use our lexical categories to find out how choice of words involves various types of meaning. Weshould also be aware that categories will overlap, so that the same feature may well be noted under different headings,see Leech and Short (2007: 61).

Yu-Fang Ho Stylistics and Its Relevance to the Study ofLiteratureφ141φ

to think about connotations or other emotive senses of the words? Are there any unusual words or

specialized vocabulary? Do the words fall into groups which form noticeable semantic fields?

Nouns - Are they abstract or concrete? If abstract, do they refer to similar kinds of element, e.g.

events, perceptions, processes, moral qualities, social qualities? Are there proper names or collective

nouns?

Adjectives - Do they occur frequently? What kinds of attributes do they embody (physical,

emotional, visual, color, etc)? Do they occur singly or in groups?

Verbs -Do they occur frequently? Are they stative (referring to states) or dynamic (referring to

actions, events)? Do they refer to physical movement, psychological states or activities, perception,

etc?

Adverbs - Do they occur frequently? What kinds of meaning do they have (i. e. do they

describe manner, place, direction, frequency, degree, etc)?

II. Grammar

General - Are any general types of grammatical construction used to special effect, e.g.

comparative or superlative constructions, parallelisms, listing, interjections or other speech-like

phenomena?

Sentences - Are they statements, questions, commands, etc? Are they simple, compound or

complex? How long are they? Are there striking contrasts in sentence length or structure at any point

in the text?

Clauses - What types of clauses are noticeably favoured (e.g. relative, adverbial, noun clauses

etc)? Is there anything special about the clauses, e.g. a frequent and unusual placement of adverbials?

Phrases - Do phrases display any remarkable features?

Word Classes - Do the closed class words (i .e. prepositions , pronouns , conjunctions,

determiners, auxiliaries, interjections) play any significant role in the text? Is there frequent or

striking use of the closed class words?

III. Figures of speech, etc.

Figures of speech can be divided up into types related to the language levels and language

patterns (parallelism, deviation, foregrounding). They are of two major types: Schemes, which are

constituted by “foregrounded repetitions of expression" and Tropes, or “ foregrounded irregularities

of content."

Grammatical and Lexical Schemes - Is there any formal or structural repetition (anaphora,

parallelism)? If so, do these schemes bring about effects of antithesis, reinforcement, climax,

anticlimax, etc?

. 142 • Stylistics and Its Relevance to the Study ofLiterature Yu-Fang Ho

Phonological Schemes - Are there any patterns of sound (rhyme, alliteration, assonance) or

rhythm? Are there noticeably frequent occurrences of the same or similar sound-clusters? Is there

sound symbolism or are there musical devices which affect interpretation?

Tropes - Are there any obvious violations of the “normal" linguistic code? Are there

neologisms or deviant lexical collocations? Ifthere are deviations on other language levels (semantic,

syntactic, phonological, graphological), do they lead us to interpret in terms of such figures of speech

as metaphor or irony, etc?

IV. Cohesion and Context

COHESION is the name given to those language features which do the job of “ holding

together" a text, for example, by connecting sentences. They assist in the internal organization of the

text, and can comprise a wide range of linguistic and stylistic devices. CONTEXT can be “ internal"

or “external". External context might include very broad cultural and historical informlltion about

the author, the period of writing, etc. However, for stylistic pu中oses， external context will be mainly

concerned with textual relations,3 i.e. with the apparent relationships between persons inside and

outside the text (e.g. the author and the reader, the author and the characters, one character and

another, etc).

Cohesion 一 Does the text contain logical or other links between sentences (e.g. and, or, but,

and so, then, etc.) or does it rely on implicit connections (e.g. juxtaposition, sequence)? Is there a

lot of cross-reference by means of pronouns or ellipsis? Or is there “elegant variation" 國 the use of

different ways of describing the same thing/person (so as to avoid repetition or to give us an idea of

whose view of the thing/person we are getting)? Are meaning connections made by means of lexical

repetition or by the 企equent use ofwords from the same semantic field?

Context - Does the writer address the reader directly, or through the words or thoughts of

a fictional character? What language features are there which tell us who is “speaking" (e.g. first

person or third person pronouns)? Can we sense the author's attitude to his subject? Is it revealed

explicitly or can we infer it from the way he writes? If a character's words/thoughts are represented,

is this done by direct or indirect speech, or by some other means? Are there noticeable changes of

style according to who is supposed to be speaking/thinking?

Since stylis

3This is not to say that the cultural or social contexts are to be ignored, but merely to recognize that theseaspects form a secondary, rather than a primary, consideration in our analysis

Yu-Fang Ho Stylistics and Its Relevance to the Study of Literature. 143 •

be systematic in their identification and not miss important linguistic features and patterns. It also

provides us with a means to articulate in more clear terms some of our intuitive feelings about

a literary text. While conducting a stylistic analysis, it is sensible to select which questions are

most appropriate for any given text. Nonetheless, we should also be aware that not everything we

systematically examine will tum out to be important interpretatively. Stylistic analysis of literary

texts, just like any other scientific experiments, is a trial-and-error practice.

In the next section, for an illustration, Leech and Short's (2007) checklist will be applied

to analyzing the style and effect of a tale of terror 一“The Tell-Tale Heart" - by Edgar Allan Poe. In

his discussions of literary principles, Poe insisted that a good short story accomplished its unity by

achieving a single emotional effect on the reader and that each element of a story contributes to its

total effect. As he states,

[a] skilful literary artist has constructed a tale. He has not fashioned his thoughts to

accommodate his incidents, but having deliberately conceived a certain single 電flect to be

wrought, he then invents such incidents, he then combines such events, and discusses them

in such tone as may best serve him in establishing this preconceived effect (Poe 2003: 396).4

“The Tell-Tale Heart" is a perfect demonstration of his “ single effect" proposition. The following

section investigates the stylistic choices Poe has employed, and how the sense of “ terror" is

constructed through the language of the text and how readers are affected accordingly.

2.Style and effect in “The Tell-Tale Heart"

“The Tell-Tale Heart" was published by Poe in 1843. The story opens with an unnamed first

person narrator directly addressing the reader in a detailed and chillingly calm manner about how

he has killed an old man simply due to his fear of the man's “vulture-like" eye. Every night for

seven nights he sneaks into the old man's room, observes him sleeping, and waits for a chance to

unlatch the lantern slightly to shine a single ray of light onto his eye. On the eighth night, the old

man is stirred, sitting awake and frightened in darkness. The narrator claims that he understands

how frightened the old man must be, as he has also experienced the lonely terrors of the night. After

waiting for a long time in silence, the narrator decides to take action to unlatch the lantern. He then

begins to hear a dull pounding, presumably his own terrified heartbeat that he mistakes as the old

4Poe mentioned about this “single effect" theory in his review of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales.


man's. Worried that it might be heard by his neighbors, he attacks and kills the old man, dismembers

his body and hides it beneath the floorboard of the old man's room without leaving any evidence.

Shortly after he commits the crime, three policemen arrive. He receives them calmly without acting

suspiciously. He even brings them to the crime scene, sitting on the very place where the victim is

buried. The I-narrator is content with his flawless crime until he starts to "hear" the low sound again,

which grows louder and louder. In the end, his guilt manifests itself in the hallucination that the

man's heart is still beating.

Upon examining the text by using Leech and Short's (2007) checklist, I ident“if布扯 five important

stylistic fi良ea訓tu盯re臼s that altogether contribute to the ef宜fec叫t of “t臼er叮Tor" t由ha刮t Poe has wrought out in

Tell-Tale Heart." They will be discussed respectively in the following subsections.

2.1 Low lexical density, syntactic simplicity and simple vocabulary

To begin with the analysis, I first make use of a software package, WordSmith Too缸，sfor

finding the general lexical pattern of the story. As shown in Table 1 below, the short story contains

a total of 2,219 words in 132 sentences. The general statistics also indicate three distinctive features

ofthe text: 1) low type/token ratio; 2) low average sentence length; 3) low average word length, all

pointing to a text style that is simple and easy for readers to process.

First of all,“type/token ratio" is the ratio of distinct words (types) in the text to its total number

of words (tokens). It is a measure of the range and diversity of vocabulary used by a writer in a

text. In other words, this ratio tells us the lexical density of the chosen text. A high type-token ratio

indicates that a writer uses a wider range of vocabulary, whereas a low ratio means that a writer

draws on a more restricted set of vocabulary items.6 Understandably, the longer a text is, the lower

the type token ratio, because a writer is typically recycling words from the vocabulary introduced

earlier in the text as he writes more. In

the type/九token ratio i臼s 29.07 , which is quite low. The low ratio indicates Poe uses his words

economically and repetitively in the story.

Moreover, as we can also see in the table, the average sentence length in the story is an

5 WordSmith Tools is lexical analysis software. It is an integrated suite of programs for looking at how wordsbehave in texts. The WordList toollets us see a list of all the words or word-clusters in a text, set out in alphabetical orfrequency order. The concordancer, Concord, allows us to see any searched word or phrase in context. With KeyWordswe can find the key words in a text as compared to other texts. The tools have been used by Oxford University Pressfor their own lexicographic work in preparing dictionaries, by language teachers and students, and by researchersinvestigating language patterns. See http .//www.lexically.net/downloads/version5/HTMLlindex.html.

6See WordSmith online manual: http://www.lexically.net/downloads/version5/HTMLlindex.html.


Table 1 The general statistics of “The Tell-Tale Heart"

The Tell-Tale Heart 見也可，-戶開製 sta1istics R位 F 翱翔

Tokens 2 , 219

Types 645

Type/Token Ratio 29.07計

Sentences 132

Ave. Sent. length 13.31

Ave. Word Length 3.92

I-letter words 236

2-letter words 336

3-1etter words 546

4-letter words 410

5-letter words 231

6-letter words 167

7-letter words 138

8-letter words 71

9-1etter words 44

1O-letter words 22

Words above 10 letters 18

exceptionally short 13.31 words. With sentences as brief as this, there seems to be little room for

complexit夕 in sentence structure. The vocabulary is also short and concrete, w他 the average word

length 3.92 letters. Further computation shows that words with five letters or fewer account for 79

per cent ofthe text, helping to give a low-key air to the story.

Poe's economical language style in “The Tell-Tale Heart" makes his narrator relate his story

simply and concisely in an easy-to-understand and straightforward manner. It is arguable that the low

lexical density, syntactic simplicity and simple vocabulary of the text are the first potential factors

that contribute to the total effect，的 they presumably facilitate the reading process and help readers

concentrate on the horrifying event described by the narrator.

2.2 An unnamed crazy narrator and the in medias res effect

The story is told in first-person point of view by an unreliable narrator who is addressing the

reader directly. We can easily recognize this narrator type because it is distinguished by prominent

use of first-person singular pronouns, as shown in the opening passage of the story:


TRUE! 一 nervous - very, ve可 dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say

that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses - not destroyed - not dulled them.

Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I

heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily - how

calmly I can tell you the whole story.

The kind of narrator speaks in the first person “ I", and is generally a character in the story.

This is usually a limited point of view. When there is an I-narrator, readers can only know what this

I-narrator/character sees, hears, and thinks, and are unlikely to know what other characters in the

story are thinking or doing unless they are within the sight or hearing ofthe I-narrator. The benefit of

this type of point of view is that the narrator can increase suspense because he cannot tell the reader

the inside view ofthe other characters (for example, the old man in the story).

The narrator in “ The Tell-Tale Heart" is obviously deranged, even though he declares at the

outset that he is sane. This can be perceived from the way he relates the apparently motiveless

murder

It is impossible to say how first 血豆且盟 entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me

day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none.I loved the old man. He had

never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was

his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture - a pale blue eye, with a film over it.

Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees - ve可 gradually - L且週金

UD mv mind to take the life ofthe old man ‘ and thus rid mvself of the eve forever.

Notice the narrator's obvious contradictory statements: he loves the old man, yet at the same time

makes up his mind to kill him in order to rid himself of his “evil" eye. Notice also how we are drawn

into the narrator's deviant mind by the definite references “ the idea" and “ the old man".

Linguists make a distinction between what they call “given" and “new" information, in terms of

how information is “packaged" by speakers (see Short 1996: 266-8). If we want to refer to something

which is not already known to our addressee, we will typically use indefinite reference, whereas

if what we want to refer to is already known to our addressee, we will use definite reference. The

use of defmite (“the") or indefinite (“的 articles is one of the given/new information indicators of

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10 Yown powers ofmy sagacity. I could11 g of the door, and I kept pushing it on12 oor, and I kept pushing it on steadily,13 When I had waited a long time, very14 0 I opened it you cannot imagine how15 t you cannot imagine how stealthily,16 directed the ray as if by instinct,17 yet I r巴金ained and kept still. I18 eld the lantern motionless. I tried how19 the body. The night waned, and I worked20 antIings. I then replaced the boards so21 her replaced the boards so cleverly, so

scarcelysteadily,steadily.patiently,stealthily,stealthilypreciselyscarcelysteadilyhastily,cleverly,cunningly,

contain my feelings oftriumph.steadily. I had my head in,I had my head in, and wad awithout hearing him lie down,stealthily unt汀， at lenguntil, at length a singleUpon the damned spot. And nBreathed. I held the lantern moI could maintain the ray upon tBut in silence. First of all Iso cunningly, that no human eythat no human eye not even

In “The Tell-Tale Heart", the narrator's nightly visits to the old man's chamber take place

precisely at midnight, in darkness and in silence. When he is describing how he creeps into the old

man's room and what he does to him in detail , time seems to slow down and almost stand still. Every

action seems to occur in extremely slow motion, as conveyed in the adverbs “gradually,"“slowly,"

"gently,"“cautiously,"“steadily" and “stealthily," etc. The use of “cunningly" and “cleverly" also

indicates the narrator's perverse pride in his own sagacity and skillfulness.

If we observe the concordance examples in more detail, we can see another distinctive feature ,

namely, repetition, in the use ofthe adverbs.

“ I moved it slowlv - verv. verv slowly" so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. L. .l

I undid the lantern cautiously - oh. so cautiously - cautiously (for the hinges creaked) 一 I

undid it just so much 也at a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. [...J I kept pushing it on

steadily. steadily"

It should be obvious that the repetition of “slowly,"“cautiously" and “steadily," combined with

some degree adverbs "very" and “ so," creates a greater, more intensified and prolonged force than

usual. At this point, we, as readers following the narrator's viewpoint, seem to be preoccupied with

the narrator's murderous action.

2.4 Repetition and parallelism-creating slow and fast rhythms

The theme of the story is that the “heart" (conscience) reveals the tru曲， as implied in the title.

The rhythm of heartbeat becomes an important symbol in the story. From time to time, Poe uses a

succession of words, short phrases or sentences, mostly in repeated and parallel structure, to create

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sound, connected with his guilt feelings , ultimately overcomes him. Through the linguistic devices

(repetition, parallelism, heavy use of question and exclamation marks), we seem to be able to "see"

and experience the narrator's anxiety and hysterical emotions at this point.

2.5 Figures of speech - repetitive sound patterns and the obsessive mind

Other striking linguistic features that contribute to the total effect of the story include simile,

anaphora and alliteration, all helping to reinforce the sound pattern of the heartbeat and intensi布 its

emotional impact on the reader.

Throughout the story, the central image of the heartbeat is associated with other rhythmic sound

patterns:

- now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when

enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It

increased my fu可，的 the beatinQ: of a drum stimulates the soldier into couraQ:e.

Notice the comparison of the heartbeat to the ticking of a watch and the beating of a drum. Both

watch and drum could emit a repeated rhythmic sound which is often employed in horror movies for

a certain creeping effect.

Anaphora is a popular figure of speech involving repetition of the same word at the beginning

of successive clauses or sentences (Wales 200 I: 19). Here are some boldfaced examples from “The

Tell-Tale Heart:"

I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.

Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never

wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his

eye! Yes, it was this!

You should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded - With what

caution - with what foresight - with what dissimulation -I went to work [plot the murder]!

There was nothing to wash out- no stain of any kind- no blood-spot whatever.

They heard!-they suspected!-they KNEW!一they were making a mockery of my horror!

this I thought, and this I think.

The anaphoric expressions are effectively deployed to underline descriptive and emotional effects.

Yu-Fang Ho Stylistics and Its Relevance to the Study of Literature + 151 +

Similarly, alliteration is used for the same purpose. Alliteration is the repetition of the initial

consonant in two or more words (Wales 2001: 14). Here are some boldfaced examples from “The

Tell-Tale Heart:"

Hearken! and observe how healthily, how ~almly， Iεan tell you the whole story.

Meanwhile, the hellish tattoo of the heart increased.

It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant.

They were making a mockery of my horror!

It is the beating of his hideous heart!

As a deliberate phonological device, alliteration is associated mostly with literary, especially poetic,

language. As Wales (2001: 14) suggests, the foregrounding of the sounds is often used for emphasis

and to aid memorability.

To sum up , from the narrator's protestation about his sanity in the opening lines to his

confession in the last, eve可 carefully crafted nuance of the tale contributes to a frighteningly charged

effect. Poe strips the story of excess detail as a way to foreground the narrator's (the murderer's)

obsession with certain issues, i.e. his own plea of sanity, the old man's eye, and the heartbeat. His

economical style, simple and concrete diction, uncomplicated syntax, repetition and parallelism at

various linguistic levels, and other rhetorical devices, altogether contribute to the “single effect" that

he has wrought out for “The Tell-Tale Heart."

3.Concluding remarks

The paper has illustrated a stylistic analysis of Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart" in an aU臼empt to

demonstrate how stylistics could be usen臼11 in deepening our unde叮rs削s叫tand副ing and a叩ppreciation of a

literary t紀ex玖t. By examining the stylistic devices in

of how the sense of “t臼er叮Tor" i臼s conveyed through the language and how readers interact with the text

accordingly.

I would also like to suggest that stylistics could be of special value for the teaching of both

language and literature, as many stylisticians have been trying to explore and demonstrate (e.g. Clark

and Zyngier 2003; Hall 2005; Watson and Zyngier 2007; Widdowson 1975, 1992). The stylistic

approach to the teaching of literature often requires the close reading of texts, with a focus on the

specific linguistic choices made in a text and the effect/meaning of those choices. Through the

detailed stylistic analysis, the merger of linguistic analysis and literary study, we can help students

. 152 • Stylistics and Its Relevance to the Study ofLiterature Yu-Fang Ho

to be aware of language use within chosen literary texts, to improve their linguistic sensibility and

literary appreciation at the same time (see Appendix for some students' responses to the short story,

for example).

At last, it should be noted that I do not intend to claim that stylistic analysis can replace

literary criticism. I would simply like to argue that stylistic analysis can prepare the way for our

interpretation to operate more effectively, as Leech and Short suggest,“to check and validate

intuitions by detailed analysis (2007: 4)." Overall, stylistic analysis of a literary text is comparable

to the study of a painting; the more we learn about how different colours, tones or textures can be

produced, or about how we interact cognitively with perspective or with foregrounding, the more we

appreciate an author/painter's artistic creation.


Bibliography

Chatman, S, ed. Literary Style: A Symposium (London: Oxford University Press, 1971).

Clark, B. and Zyngier, S. “Towards a Pedagogical Stylistics," Language and Literature, 12.4 (2003):

339-5 1.

Douthwaite, J. Towards a Linguistic Theoη ofForegrounding (Torino: Edizioni dell'Orso, 2000).

Enkvi泣， N.E. “On Defining Style: An Essay on Applied Linguistics," in Linguistics and S，秒I， ed. J.

Spencer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964), 1-56.

Hall, G. Literature in Language Education (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).

Hough, G. Style and Stylistics (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972).

Leech, G. A Linguistic Guide 的 English Poetry (London: Longman, 1969).

Leech, G. “ Stylistics," in Discourse and Literature: New Approaches to the Analysis ofLiterary

Genres , ed. T. A. v. Dijk (Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1985), 39-58.

Leech, G. and Short, M. Style in Fiction . A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose

(London: Longman, 2007).

McRae, J. Literature with a Small 'L' (London: Macmillan, 1991).

McR前， J. and Clark, U. “Stylistics," in The Handbook ofApplied Linguistics, eds. A. Davies and C.

Elder (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), 328-46.

Muller, W. G. “Style," in Encyclopedia ofRhetoric, ed. T. O. Sloane (Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 2001).

Poe, E. A. The Fall ofthe House ofUsher and Other Writings (London: Penguin Classics, 2003).

Ritfaterre, M. “Criteria for Style Analysis (1 959)," in Essays on the Language ofLiterature, eds. S.

Chatman and S. R. Levin (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967), 412-30.

Short, M. “ Style: Definitions," in The Encyclopaedia ofLanguage and Linguistics, ed. R. Asher

(Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1994), 4375-8.

Sho肘， M. Exploring the Language ofPoems, Plays and Prose (Harlow: Longman, 1996).

Short, M. and Semino, E.“Evaluation and Stylistic Analysis," in The Quality of Literature:

Linguistic Studies in Literary Evaluation , ed. W. v. Peer (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2008),

117-37.

Simpson, P. Language through Literature (London: Routledge, 1997).

Simpson, P. S，秒listics: A Resource Bookfor Students (New York: Routledge, 2004).

Stub恤， M. “Conrad in the Computer: Examples of Quantitative Stylistics Methods," Language and

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Literature, 14.1 (2005): 5-24.

Ullmann, S. Language and Style (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1964).

Verdonk, P. Stylistics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

Wales, K. A Dictionary ofStylistics (London: Longman, 2001).

Watson , G. and Zy時間， S. eds. Literature and Stylistics for Language Learners: Theory and

Practice (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007).

Widdowson, H. G. Stylistics and the Teaching ofLiterature (London: Longman, 1975).

Widdowson, H. G. Practical Stylistics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).

OHUbnaFAUYStylistics and Its Relevance to the Study of Literature. 155 •

Appendix

StudentA 發表於 2009 年的月 25 日週三， 01:57 下午

本篇的描述較為細膩，善用很多重複的單字或句子，來營造整個緊張、詭譎的氣氛。

我還蠻喜歡倒數第二段的敘述，“ but the noise steadily increased"一直重複，“it grew louder

louder - louder!"“louder! louder! louder! louder!" 真的是把整篇文章帶到了最高潮，閱讀的時

候，也讓我整個內心都隨著激昂了起來!

Student B 發表於 2009 年的月 18 日週三， 09:08 下午

此文章藉由第一人稱的敘述方式，引領讀者進入其內心世界，充斥著矛盾、重複的句

型，強調narrator在意的事情， Allan Poe帶有寓意的小說不做虧心事;很好奇也很佩服，作

者由人物的獨自刻畫出鮮明的角色特性，由兇手的行為模式看來他精神似乎異常，但他卻一

再強調他沒有發瘋，尤其是兇手與老人對峙時間長達一小時，也令我覺得作者將精神異常的

角色發揮的淋漓盡致。老人與兇手完全無嫌隙，卻因為眼睛而招來設機，此原因真的出乎意

料。大量短句、重複、排比的用法，令人不禁想趕緊將文章讀完。作者對於文章的標題在閱

讀玩文章後也令人心有同凰......。

Student C 發表於 2009 年的月 18 日週三， 12:25 下午

The Tell-Tale Heart雖和上篇出自同一作者之手，但卻帶給我很不同的戚覺，相較於前篇

的深謀遠慮、用盡心機，這篇瘋子的激動殺人更加吸引我的目光，因為是短篇小說的關係，

少了前面的鋪陳，在 The Cask ofAmontillado雖然作者有稍稍提到殺人動機，但太簡略的帶過

其實無法引起我的共鳴，而這篇將殺人動機直接用成一位瘋子對受害人眼睛的憤怒，反而讓

我能融入劇情。而作者用短句及重複句增加劇情緊張戚和節奏駝的方式也讓我十分喜歡，也

更能戚受劇情張力。

Student D 發表於 2009 年的月 15 日週日， 07:15 下午

對我而言， {The Tell-Tale Heart} 的敘事風格比較吸引我，雖然同樣都是殺人事件，不

過 {The Cask of Amontillado} 在敘述時是以十分平稽的方式推展故事，四平八穩但少了一些

高潮起伏，而 {The Tell-Tale Heart} 在故事的鋪陳上，就設計了兩段高潮點，一是 'I J 殺人

的時候，另外一段設計在結尾，是 I I J 自曝殺了老人，由於有兩段高潮，閱讀時比較緊張

與刺激。此外，我尤其喜歡ALLAN POE在這篇文章中所運用的寫作技巧一來，這是個


有關瘋子的殺人計劃(姑且不論兇手到底是不是) .而且全篇只有三頁，算是相當緊湊，二

來，在字裡行間. ALLANPOE又使用了許多重覆的句子(或單字)以及戚嘆詞，這兩者在文

章的進行中，又給我一種緩慢下來的錯覺，因此這樣時快時慢的文風，豐富了整篇文章的律

動戚。

Student E 發表於 2009 年的月 16 日週一 I 11:13 上午

「洩密的心」以文字的快慢表達出電影的效果，多了一分娛樂性。精采的地方在他所交

代殺人的過程與最後面警察來家搜查時，殺人過程從預先準備要謀殺這一件事上與上一篇很

相似，性格上的冷血與變態也令人印象深刻，像是他說了他愛這位老人但又因他的眼睛而要

殺了他和他殺人的手法以支解的形式採取。到了尾聲，又掀起了另一波的高潮，他與自己的

心在戰爭，作者運用不斷出現重複的文字，表達出內心的跳動，也透露出人性的一面。這篇

也告訴我們. ，-人就算多想要去掩飾自己，但終究還是逃不離自己的審判。」

Student F 發表於 2009 年的月 16 日週一 I 12:40 上午

在讀這篇“The Tell Tale Heart"時，我發現，比讀上一篇‘'The Cask of Amontillado"更容易

上手且融入劇惰，也發現“The Tell Tale Heart"裡的句子，較少是長句，讓人嵐覺劇情安排很

緊湊，所以在讀“The Tell Tale Heart"峙，使我有種既緊張但又停不住想往下唸的慾望!而本

篇令我印象較深刻的地方是:講述者愛那個老人，但卻因為那老人像「禿鷹般的眼睛』而想

謀般那老人!講述者那趨近於變態的行為，令我匪夷所思及害↑白!而在故事結尾，講述者像

是做賊心虛般地，瘋狂、歇斯底旦地說出是他殺了那老人。這一番的所作所為，給了我們一

些歐發，就是: ，-平時不做虧心事，半夜不怕鬼敲門J !

Student G 發表於 2009 年的月 14 日週六 109:34 下午

這一篇的單字量比較少，讓在深夜讀這篇文章的我覺得驚陳多了......因為讀得比較懂。

最令我戚到害怕的是主角和老人在黑暗中對峙，經過了一個小時之後開燈，赫然發現老人的

眼睛正對著自己，這一幕光用想的就很恐怖。而且這一整篇用了非常多的重複句法，讓不管

是音響效果或是視覺效果都覺得營造的很成功，老人的心跳、主角的心跳、甚至是牆上的掛

鐘都發出令人心神不安的聲音。

我覺得這篇的主角明顯的變態多了，他可以花很久很久的時間默默的窺探別人，在心裡

想著復仇的計畫然後嘴角揚出微笑，而且我覺得他的心裡應該是有病的，但是卻又不斷的提

醒讀者"你覺得一個這麼聰明的人會有病嗎?"這樣的概念，真是有點恐怖。

Yu-Fang Ho Stylistics and Its Relevance to the Study of Literature φ157 •

風格學與文學研究之相關性:

以愛倫坡的〈洩密之心〉為例

何玉方

英美語文學系

慈濟大學

助理教授

摘要

廣義而言，風格學(或稱文體學)旨在從語言學的角度切入去研究文學作品，並探索

讀者與文本語言之間的互動，亦即，分析文學作品如何透過語言文字(如詞彙、句法、語

音、語義等)相互發揮作用並呈現意義 (meaning) ，進而對讀者產生影響 (effect) 。本文

旨在介紹文體學分析方法對文學研究的相關性，並以愛倫坡的短篇恐怖小說〈洩密之心〉

為示範'驗證作品文字如何營造恐怖氛圍，以及文體風格分析如何幫助讀者將主觀的嵐受

(subjective impression) 提出客觀的描述和解釋(objective description) ，從而提高對文學作

品的分析和鑑賞能力。

關鍵詞: (洩密之心〉、愛倫坡、風格與效果、文體分析

stylistics and its relevance to the study of literature: edgarallan...

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