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1.3. Stylistic functions

Stylistics does not study linguistic elements as such, it studies their expressive potential in contexts, i.e. it deals with their stylistic functions. By function, following the American linguist Michael Holliday, we mean a role played by this or that class of words in the structure of a higher linguistic plane.

Stylistic function is an expressive potential of linguistic element interaction in the context, which enables the author to render alongside with the subject logical content of the text its expressive, emotive, evaluative and aesthetic information.

As to the question of classification of stylistic functions, the majority of linguists speak of descriptive, emotive and evaluative functions, but the problem demands further investigation.

Irene Vladimirovna Arnold speaks of some peculiarities, typical of stylistic functions:

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  Accumulation – one and the same mood, idea, feeling, etc. Is rendered in the text by a number of stylistic devices. A group of stylistic devices fulfilling one stylistic function forms convergence.
  
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  Implication arises due to connotation.
  
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  Irradiation, which is opposite to accumulation. For example, a long utterance may contain only one or two high-flown words, but due to them the whole text will sound high-flown, and vice versa.
  

Stylistic function shows the stylistic significance of linguistic elements in their interaction in decoding the author’s intentions. It should not be confused with stylistic devices.