A Functional Stylistic Approach To The Novel Eveline

The analytical models of stylistics mainly come from the theories of linguistics. According to Carter and Simpson, there are four major models in the development of modem stylistics: formal stylistics, functional stylistics, discourse stylistics and socio-historical and socio-cultural stylistics. (Ronald Carter & Paul Simpson, 1989)Functional theory is playing a more and more important role in modem stylistics. The most important characteristics of functional linguistic theory is that it pays special attention to the study of the relations between the linguistic system and the outside world. This is strikingly different from formal linguistic theory which focuses on studying the relations between the linguistic units within the linguistic system. In this sense, the field of concern of functional linguistics is broader than formal linguistics. The functional stylistics analyze language in terms of three metafunctions: the ideational, interpersonal and textual, while formal stylists consider style exists at the level of form and does not affect the content. It is the way how units of form are organized.The functional stylistics has great influence on the discourse stylistics and socio-historical and socio-cultural stylistics. Functional stylistics is closely related with discourse stylistics in that both of the two stress on the context of situation, on interpersonal communication and on the cohesive relations between sentences. Meanwhile, more and more functional stylists pay attention to the study of the relation and interaction between textual language and ideology, which would certainly benefit the development of socio-historical and socio-cultural stylistics. (Shen Dan, 2001)Functional stylists in the early stage focused on the study of one of the three metafunctions of the language, for example, the study of the author's choice on the transitivity system, etc. In recent years, more functional stylists have paid more attention to make stylistic analysis on the three levels. (Shen Dan, 2001) In the present thesis, I shall test and verify the applicability of Halliday's functional stylistics by applying the three metafunctions to the analysis of the language of literary work. Literature is the performance of work. Literary language is creative or figurative expression of life. It involves more writing elements such as character, plot theme and etc. than any other styles. So in this sense, the stylistic analysis of literary work is meaningful. (Shao Jindi, 1998) The language under close examination is taken from Eveline, one of the fifteen short stories in the collection Dubliners written by James Joyce. The language used in this short story is very simple and transparent. The purpose is to show that 1. the functional analysis can provide linguistic proof for insight into the theme of the story, and this paper provides a way of literary stylistic analysis in terms of all the three metafunctions in Halliday's functional grammar. 2. Halliday's functional grammar can be conducted successfully not only in highly deviant language, but also in rather plain language.