Stylistics routledge English Language Introductions

Activity

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To help direct your analysis further, consider the following issues:
(i) Much is made in the literary critical commentary on this novel of Welsh’s
‘vibrant’ and ‘energetic’ language, his ‘spectacular’ use of Edinburgh vernacular
and his ability to blend and balance different voices within a narrative (and see
further the reading in D5). Can your analysis of this passage help explain why
critics often react to Welsh’s work in this way?
(ii) In the study of dialect variation in literary discourse, the ‘default’ position is that
the standard variety of the language is used for core narrative description while
regional, non-standard varieties are allocated to various individual characters in
the story. Thus, the standard dialect forms the matrix variety, the non-standard
dialects the satellite varieties. On the basis of your reading of the passage, is this
true of Welsh’s narrative technique? What is 
his
matrix dialect? And what are
the satellite varieties?
(iii) Whereas Renton escapes serious punishment, his accomplice, and less than artic-
ulate foil, Spud, is punished more severely. In terms of discourse representation,
how are these two characters differentiated in the passage?
(iv) Related to (iii), if you found certain aspects of the passage amusing or humorous,
try to work out why. What for example is the impact of Renton’s disquisition
on Kierkegaard? Shifts in style often form the basis for humour. To what extent
is style shift of this sort a feature of the passage?
Summary
The purpose of this exercise has been to try to develop some systematic methods for
exploring how multiple and higher-order levels of style can work in a text. The grid
11
111
11
111
S T Y L E , R E G I S T E R A N D D I A L E C T
107
Table C2.2
Register and dialect in narrative: grid for 
Trainspotting
activity