(Luận văn thạc sĩ) an investigation into stylistic devices in english contemporary short stories

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

TRẦN ÁI VI

AN INVESTIGATION INTO STYLISTIC DEVICES
IN ENGLISH CONTEMPORARY SHORT STORIES

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Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8.22.02.01

Supervisor: HÀ THANH HẢI, Ph.D.


BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

TRẦN ÁI VI

NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC BIỆN PHÁP TU TỪ
TRONG TRUYỆN NGẮN ĐƯƠNG ĐẠI TIẾNG ANH

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Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh
Mã số: 8.22.02.01

Người hướng dẫn: TS. HÀ THANH HẢI


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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I certify that the substance of this thesis has not already been submitted
for any degree and is not currently being submitted for any other degree or
award.
I also declare that any help received to successfully complete this
thesis, and all sources employed, have been acknowledged in this thesis.

Binh Dinh, 2021

Tran Ai Vi

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many individuals both academically and personally have been
considered as important parts of my journey. Without their support, the
accomplishment of my study would have never been perfect.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
respectable supervisor, Dr. Ha Thanh Hai for his considerable encouragement,
timely enlightenment through valuable comments on every piece of my work.
Thanks to his great experience on Stylistic Devices, I have been expertly
guided throughout the thesis. And without his support, my study could not be
perfectly completed. I genuinely appreciate and learn a great deal from his
intellectuality, dedication, and professionalism.
Additionally, I would like to thank all the lecturers of my master‟s

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course at Quy Nhon University, who helped me to upgrade my knowledge
and my skills of Linguistics during my course. They all definitely play a vital
role in enriching my high interest in linguistic research to further explore
other aspects of both the English and Vietnamese languages. I am also
indebted to the authors and experts whose works have been cited in the
Literature Review part of my study.
Last but not least, my special thanks are extended to my family, my
friends who always stand by me, motivate and support me to participate in
this course, and fully concentrate on completing the course and my thesis, and
confidently overcome all the challenges and obstacles during the time of my
study.


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ABSTRACT
The thesis is a study of identifying the types and functions of figures of
speech in English contemporary short stories.This study is aimed to examine
types of figures of speech and investigate the significant of them into in
English contemporary short stories. A combination of descriptive, quantitative
and qualitative methods is employed to use for data analysis. The data of this
research is 20 English contemporary short stories of the U.S and England
from 2000 to 2019.The study points out that there are ten of twelve types of
figures of speech found based on Perrine‟s theory, namely metaphor, simile,
personification, metonymy, synecdoche, symbol, paradox, overstatement,
understatement, and irony. Simile is the most frequently used, and metonymy
ranks at the lowest point in the data of study. As for the effects they create for

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the stories, there are four functions of these figures of speech found based on
Perrine‟s theory: to afford imaginative pleasure, to bring an additional
imagery, to add emotional intensity, and to say much in a brief compass.The
study hopefully contributes to the procedure of teaching, and learning English
in particular and encourages them to use the stylistic device in writing to
make their written papers more beautiful and attractive.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. iv
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1
1.1. Rationale ................................................................................................. 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study ............................................................ 3
1.2.1. Aims .................................................................................................. 3
1.2.2. Objectives ......................................................................................... 3
1.3. Research questions .................................................................................. 3
1.4. Scope of the study ................................................................................... 3

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1.5. Significance of the Study ........................................................................ 4
1.6. Design of the study ................................................................................. 5
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................... 6

2.1. Stylistic devices....................................................................................... 6
2.1.1. The Definition of Figure of Speech .................................................. 7
2.1.2. Types of Figure Speeches ............................................................... 10
2.1.3. Functions of figures of speech ........................................................ 19
2.2. Contemporary short stories ................................................................... 22
2.2.1. Definition ........................................................................................ 22
2.2.2. Features of short stories .................................................................. 23
2.3. Previous studies..................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................... 29
3.1. Research methods ................................................................................. 29
3.2. Research procedure ............................................................................... 29
3.3. Data collection ...................................................................................... 30


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3.4. Data analysis ......................................................................................... 31
3.5. Reliability and validity .......................................................................... 32
3.6. Summary ............................................................................................... 32
CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................ 33
4.1. Findings ................................................................................................. 33
4.2. The types of stylistic devices in 20 English contemporary short stories ..... 36
4.2.1. Metaphor ......................................................................................... 36
4.2.2. Simile .............................................................................................. 37
4.2.3. Personification ................................................................................ 39
4.2.4. Symbol ............................................................................................ 41
4.2.5. Overstatement ................................................................................. 41
4.2.6. Understatement ............................................................................... 43
4.2.7. Irony ................................................................................................ 43

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4.2.8. Paradox ........................................................................................... 45
4.2.9. Metonymy ....................................................................................... 45
4.2.10. Synecdoche ................................................................................... 46
4.3. The functions of stylistic devices in 20 English contemporary short
stories ........................................................................................................... 47
4.3.1. To afford imaginative pleasure ....................................................... 47
4.3.2. To bring an additional imagery....................................................... 48
4.3.3. To add emotional intensity ............................................................. 49
4.3.4. To say much in a brief compass ..................................................... 50
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION ....................................................................... 53
5.1. Summary of Findings ............................................................................ 53
5.2. Implications ........................................................................................... 55
5.3. Limitations ............................................................................................ 56
5.4. Recommendation for further study ....................................................... 56
REFERENCES ................................................................................................ 57


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LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1. General view of types and functions of figures of speech ............. 33
Table 4.2. The frequency of figures of speech in 20 short stories .................. 35

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for
acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific
instance of such a system of complex communication. The scientific study of
language in any of its senses is called linguistics. It has brought to the subject
of semantics a certain degree of analysis combined with a view of the study of
meaning as an integrated component within the total theory of how language
works.
When we study about linguistic, we will know about semantics which
study the meaning. In English we know that meaning has important position
to study because it will create some effects when someone tries to understand

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what the speakers or the writers mean.
When creating a piece of writing as a literary text, the writer has to use
words to express his denotative and connotative meanings. To have good
quality of art, a writer not only has to use words effectively, colorfully but
also has to use stylistic devices to make his writing more interesting and more
persuasive. In literature and writing, using stylistic devices gives an auxiliary
meaning, idea, or feeling. Indeed, the frequent use of stylistic devices is an
important element to make the literature more attractive and lively.
Particularly, the use of stylistic devices in their written papers has great
impact on the readers.
Under stylistics, figure of speech is one of language style aspects
commonly discussed. Also under stylistics, language style can be seen as
figurative language through figures of speech. Leech & Short (2007) pointed

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out that figures of speech are the features which are foregounded by virtue of
departing in some way from general norms of communication by means of the
language code. Indeed, many researches have been done on figures of speech
of literary texts like poems (Perrine, 1987), prose texts (Leech & Short, 2007),
and short stories (Abet, 2019). This domain of research is spread to the setting
of education for student researchers as well (Simpson, 2004). It can be said
that most of the studies made a great effort to understand the famous writer
and their typical works like Hemingway‟s novels, O‟Henry‟s short stories, or
Emily Dickinson „s poems.
It is clear that short stories not only use denotative meaning to express
message from the author but also connotative meaning which is used to
express agreement, disagreement, happiness, unhappiness, etc, conveyed to
the listeners or readers. Many kinds of figures of speech give us so much

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information in which they use non literal meaning of words. For example,
some sentences in the story use figurative language to make it more beautiful,
interesting and imaginative. Figurative language is language using figures of
speech (a way of saying one thing and meaning another). There are many
types of figurative language such as: metaphor, simile, symbols, hyperbola,
irony, etc. But in general, the figurative language is differentiated into 3
groups in terms of their meanings by comparison, by association and by
contrast. These figurative languages are famous in society, and also in the
field of education starting from elementary school up to the university level
(Simpson, 2004).
The proved importance of understanding the stylistic devices or figures
of speech in literary texts and the insufficient analysis in contemporary short

stories encouraged the author of this thesis to conduct the study on stylistic
devices used in English contemporary short stories from 2000 to 2019 to


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detect the styles of the modern short story writers.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
1.2.1. Aims
This study aims to detect the typical figures of speech used in English
contemporary short stories to enable enable the learners of English to
understand English contemporary short stories thoroughly. Besides, the study
also find out the functions of these stylistic devices in these stories in terms of
aesthetic view.
1.2.2. Objectives
In order to achieve these aims, I try to fulfill the following objectives:
- To investigate stylistic devices in English contemporary short stories.
- To interpret the functions of these figures of speech in English
contemporary short stories.

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1.3. Research questions

In order to achieve the above aim and objectives, the research collect
and analyze the data in order to answer the following questions:
1. What are common stylistic devices used in English contemporary
short stories?
2. What are the functions of these stylistic devices?
1.4. Scope of the study

There are different types of stories, like novels, short stories, flash
fiction, short fiction challenges,... However, I mainly focus on English
contemporary short stories for some reasons. Firstly, choosing 20 English
contemporary short stories with different authors helps the research be more
precise. Each author has a special style. Secondly, I want to investigate
various topics instead of just one topics. Besides, within the framework of this
minor thesis, I mainly focus on English contemporary short stories of the U.S


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and England from 2000 to 2019. 20 English contemporary short stories are
collected mainly from Internet. This study focuses on 12 figures of speeches
as stylistic devices in English contemporary short stories categorized by
Perrine (1987).
Moreover, all over the world, there are many varieties of English such
as British English, Indian English, United States English, etc. However, the
thesis only focuses on contemporary short stories of the U.S and England
because this is the main source of English and this thesis can figure out the
beauty of English linguistics as a native language.
1.5. Significance of the Study
Theoretically, the research will provide a systematic insight into lexical
stylistic devices in English contemporary short stories. Practically, the
research is expected to be a valuable contribution to the teaching and learning

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of English stylistics in general and of stylistic devices in English
contemporary short stories in particular. Through the study on the use of
stylistic devices in English contemporary short stories, the learners recognize

and achieve the beauty of using language in writing stories. Moreover, it will
not only help them get better understanding of English contemporary short
stories language but also provides them with some necessary techniques in the
use of words in writing papers. As a result, their experience will certainly
facilitate their English language learning so that they will be able to learn
more accurately and effectively. Stylistic devices are used not only in English
contemporary short stories but also in everyday life as well. Understanding
stylistic devices in contemporary short stories help both writers write a lot of
successful short stories and readers understand the hidden message under the
words so that they can read the short stories more quickly and accurately.


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1.6. Design of the study
The study is organized into five chapters as follows:
Chapter 1 presents the rationale, aims and objectives, research
questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, and design of the
study.
Chapter 2 is a summary of the theory, including not only definitions of
stylistic devices, figures of speeches and contemporary short stories but also
mainly focusing on the types and the functions of figures of speech. Then, a
concise review of the previous studies related to the issues under investigation
is also indicated.
Chapter 3 is a description of research method and procedure, data
collection, data analysis and reliability ad validity will be fully described.
Chapter 4 deals with finding and analyzing the types of figures of

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speech used in 10 English contemporary short stories. Besides, four functions
of figures of speech are clearly discussed.
Chapter 5, Conclusion and Implications, provides a brief summary of
the research findings, and mentions the limitations of the research.
Furthermore, suggestions for further studies related to the research are also
included in this chapter.


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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Stylistic devices
There are many definitions of stylistic devices from different authors.
According to Galperin (1977), “a stylistic device is a conscious and
intentional intensification of some typical structural and/or semantic property
of a language unit (neutral or expensive) promoted to a generalized status and
thus becoming a generative model”.
Widdowson (1975) defines stylistics as the study of literary discourse
in a linguistic context. Stylistics, he claims, is distinct from both literary
criticism and linguistics, and it occupies a middle ground between linguistics
and literary criticism. He adds that stylistics is an area of mediation between
two disciplines. According to that, stylistics is a synthesis of two schools of

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literary criticism, incorporating the reader's subjective, intuitive judgment and
linguistics, which provides a method of describing the reader's reaction.
Styles, according to Short (1996), interpret the connection between
language and aesthetic function. Stylistic analysis is an attempt to investigate
artistic components based on the writer's choice of language, therefore it is

important to analyze each text's perspective of the overall artistic impact and
how to integrate the parts into the whole.
Stylistic devices refers to different techniques to provide additional and
complementary meaning, ideas, or sensations. Also known as figures of
speech or rhetorical devices, the goal of these techniques is to create image,
emphasis, or clarity in the text in the hope of engaging the reader.
Most stylistic devices display an application of two meanings: the
ordinary one is the meaning (lexical or structural) which has already been


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established in the language-as-a-system, and a special meaning which
originates within certain context and is contextual.
Leech and Short (2007) claim that the study of stylistics aims to give an
explanation of the language use and aesthetic function. They also affirm that
every analysis of style is an attempt to find the artistic principles underlying a
writer‟s choice. Moreover, the essential purpose of stylistics is to explore
language and creativity in language use (Simpson, 2004: 3).
Leech and Short (2007) also mentions four fields of study for stylistics.
The first of them is lexical categories. Lexical categories are concerned with
lexical elements found in the text, i.e. verbs, adjectives, nouns and adverbs.
The second is grammatical categories. Grammatical categories are concerned
with the structure of the sentence, including tenses, voice, aspects…. The
third is cohesion and context. Cohesion and context also play important roles

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in the research of language styles. Cohesion is a relationship between words
and phrases in a text, whereas the context is the location of the text. The

fourth is figures of speech. Figures of speech are the forms of speech that are
different from common speech in use, which makes the language more
figurative.
In conclusion, stylistic devices are a part of general linguistic with rules
that include the lexical, grammatical, context and cohesion and figures of
speech. It expresses the transfer of thoughts and emotions. It offers the result
and the input of the act of communication. In this thesis, stylistic devices are
limited in the meaning of the figures of speech, so following will be the detail
of these.
2.1.1. The Definition of Figure of Speech
Figurative language is pervasive in many forms of discourse. Some
linguists have different perceptions to define figurative language. Dancygier,


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& Sweeter (2014) suggest that figurative language is the language used in a
creative work. It is widely used through verbal communication to create the
ideas and to shed light on the audience‟s feelings. Moreover, Eubanks (2011)
has said that figurative structures are far from being just decorative. They are
important and persuasive in language; furthermore, it is the relevant cognitive
structures that are important and persuasive in thought, draw creative meaning
for the audience, and provide imagination through the words implied.
According to Perrine (1987), figures of speech should not be interpreted
literally. It is because figures of speech cause the speaker to communicate
things in an unusual manner. Figures of speech are used to provide new
meaning to something that has already been spoken.
Perrine (1987) argues that figurative language is a way of saying one
thing in order to mean another. She explains that the use of figurative

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language thoroughly serve the function of providing extended meaning to
words, phrases or sentences from their literal expressions. She also avers that
figurative language can be a more effective method of saying what we need to
mean rather than direct statements. Moreover, she proposes seven
classifications of figurative language, metaphor, simile, personification,
metonymy, paradox, overstatement, understatement, irony and allusion.
Rozakis (1995), supports Perrine‟s idea that “figurative language is the way of
saying one thing in terms of another”. She exemplifies that figurative
language is an expression used by a person to refer to another meaning by
using the comparison, the expression cannot be interpreted literally because
the comparison in figurative language has an intended meaning.
Ogunsiji (2000) suggests that the use of figurative language implies
extended or associative meanings in terms of an imaginative understanding at
the same time to appeal to the readers‟ emotions. Figuration is an important


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element in the composition of poetry texts and creative writings in the sense
to extend the meaning of phenomena and create readers‟ emotions in deep
perception
Thus, it can be said that definitions of figurative language differ, but the
concept and function are almost the same. That is, they agree that figurative
language is a way of describing stories through the non-literal language. The
uses of figurative language were seen as stylistic decorations in which the
writers dressed up their language to go beyond meanings, make the writing
more engaging, clarify the meaning they wanted to communicate and shed
light on the audiences‟ perceptions through the cosmetic uses of figurative

language.
Meanwhile, scholars of classical western rhetoric have classified
figurative language into two main categories of tropes and schemes. Some

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experts like Abrams and Harpham (2012), Perrine (1987) and Znamenskaya
(2004) have employed the term „figurative language‟ to refer to both tropes
and schemes.
Znamenskaya (2004: 193) claims that figures of speech are stylistic
devices which include schemes, tropes, and other syntactical expressive
means. For identifying features in figures of speech, tropes and schemes are
often useful categories.
Leech and Short (2007: 66) state that schemes are defined as
„foregrounded repetitions of expressions‟, and tropes as „foregrounded
irregularities of content‟. Schemes are classified into several types, i.e.
phonological schemes, grammatical schemes, and lexical schemes (Leech and
Short, 2007: 63). Phonological schemes include phonological patterns of
rhyme, alliteration and assonance while grammatical and lexical schemes
contain formal and structural repetition (such as anaphora and parallelism)


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and mirror-image patterns (chiasmus). In addition, tropes also contain
traditional poetic figures of speech and their special interpretation.
2.1.2. Types of Figure Speeches
The classification of figures of speech is based on Perrine‟s theory
(1987) which divided figures of speech into three categories: The first one is
figures of speech by comparison, which contain metaphor, simile,

personification, and apostrophe. Second, there are figures of speech by
association which consist of metonymy, symbol, synecdoche, and allegory.
The last one is figures of speech by contrast which include paradox,
overstatement, understatement, and irony.
2.1.2.1. Figures of speech by comparison
2.1.2.1.1. Simile
Based on Perrine (1987), both metaphor and simile are used to compare

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things that are fundamentally unlike. The similarity is stated directly in simile
by the use of a connector word.
Furthermore, Kennedy & Gioia (2007) say that “Simile is indicated by
some connective words such as like, as, than, or a verb such as resembles.”
For instance, the sentence He is like my sunshine uses the word “like” to
make a connection between the words “he” and “my sunshine” and to
demonstrate that they have a resemblance, which is the value of beauty. The
presence of simile may be seen in various domains of language, including
literature, music, newspapers, ads, and so on. Another example is presented in
this poem:
“He fights like a lion.”
“He slithers like a snake.”
“The café was like a battleship stripped for action.”
(extracted from Kennedy & Gioia, 2007)


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Simile is a very effective and widely used literary device. Here are
some examples of simile and how it adds to the significance of literary works:

A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance,
particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been
flooded. (extracted from Kennedy & Gioia, 2007)
According to Kennedy & Gioia (2007), in this sentence, Lemony
Snicket displays the power of figurative language in comparing a library to an
island and conjures a literal picture of a library as an island. This reinforces
the significance of a library as a refuge and protective haven against
ignorance and other potentially destructive forces.
2.1.2.1.2. Metaphor
According to Perrine (1987), “Metaphor is a comparison between
things which essentially unlike.”

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In addition, Simpson (2004) says that “Metaphor as a process of
mapping between two different conceptual domains that are known as the
source domain (the topic or concept that a speaker or writer draws in order to
create the metaphorical construction) and target domain (the topic or concept
that a speaker or writer wants to describe).”
Leech and Short (2007) states that “The analogizing sense in figures of
speech can be revealed through metaphor. Implicitly, metaphor is a kind of
analogy or comparison. Metaphor can function as subject, object, etc.” They
also examplify the use of metaphor “a heart of lion” in the sentence He had a
heart of lion. This phrase, according to them, means that the person has a
lion's heart, which is strong and courageous.
In addition, Leech and Short (2007: 21) also say that “Poetic metaphor
makes people to deny a literal sense and provokes people to make sense, i.e.
to find interpretations by paraphrase”. For example:

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"Dear Nature is the kindest Mother still" (Leech and Short (2007)
The concept of mother evokes acts such as breastfeeding, caring for,
and so on. However, the concept of nature does not. There is no actual
resemblance but it is defined metaphor as the ability to realize two lexical
meanings at the same time.
Metaphors can make your words come to life (or in the case of the
exam, to death). It turns up everywhere from novels and films to presidential
speeches and even popular songs. For example:
“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;”
(Perrine, 1987)
In “You are the sunshine of my life”, the metaphor lies in the noun

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sunshine. The meaning is the happiness created by a certain person and the
vehicle is the sun and happiness is the common ground.
There must be some similarities between the two items being compared
in order to make this comparison. Metaphor translates the features of a
tangible item into a more abstract concept. It gives the reader a new
perspective on one thing by comparing it to another.
2.1.2.1.3. Personification
According to Perrine (1987), personification gives human being
attributes to an animal, an object, or or a concept. Those animals, un-living
things, or ideas can perform actions like human. In his book Sound and Sense,
Perrine (1987) gives an example of personification:
The gray sea and the long black land;

And the yellow half-moon large and low:
And the startled little waves that leap