English 553: Stylistics 
M 6:00-8:50 HLG 201
Clai Rice
University of Louisiana
at Lafayette

Office: Griffin 357 
Phone: 2-1327 
Email: crice@louisiana.edu 
Office Hours: M 1-4, W & Th 9-12
and by appointment
UL Moodle | Homework Assignments and Links
Course Description:

This course will begin by looking at different historical and disciplinary approaches to the study of style, then systematically examine current trends and methodologies in research on linguistic style.  Most attention will be given to methods of characterizing literary texts, including those of a specific author, genre, or period, but some “non‑literary” texts and genres will be examined also.  Sub‑topics will include: theories of defamiliarization; corpus stylistics; cognitive stylistics; phonesthemes; linguistic style as possibly linked to authorial personality type, gender, race, or political outlook; various attempts to escape the tyranny of style; and stylometry–the measurement of textual attributes for determining authorship.  As a whole, the course will attempt to interrogate the received definition of style, especially its reliance on a particular conception of human choice as a chief explanatory construct.

An eclectic selection of texts will be studied in class, determined mostly by the texts theorists have chosen to analyze. Seminar students will be invited to write on texts or genres (including genres such as film or architecture) that interest them or that they are considering for dissertation research. Anyone needing to fulfill a distribution requirement other than linguistics may select a  group of texts for a final project in the appropriate area. This course should also be helpful to students of literary theory. Some passing familiarity with linguistic terminology and theories is recommended, as is a basic facility with computers, but willingness to learn will be an ample substitute. The program WordSmith Tools will be used throughout the semester.

In addition to regular reading, students will be required to complete several brief homework assignments, a book report, an exploratory midterm project, and a final project.  The final project can take the form of an essay that examines an area of theory or practice in stylistics in the context of other approaches to literature and theory, or projects can be practical investigations into linguistic style utilizing techniques based on those discussed in class.

Texts:
Recommended: Paul Simpson, Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students. London: Routledge, 2004. ISBN: 0-415-28105-9.
Helpful: Carter and Stockwell, The Language and Literature Reader (Routledge)
Course Packet will be required, and some articles will be available online.
Access to a fully functional copy of the text analysis program Wordsmith Tools will be useful.
Daily Syllabus

Monday.
January 28--introduction: Style and Stylistics; Classical approaches to style.
February 04--Levels of Linguistic Analysis, (Simpson 1-49. )
Levels of Linguistic Analysis: Lexical: DeForest and Johnson 2001; Heaney, "Punishment"; Russian Formalism, Literariness, and Defamiliarization: Shklovsky; Mukarovsky;
February 11--Mardi Gras  No Class
February 18-- (Simpson, 50-59) Jakobsonian stylistics: "Linguistics and Poetics," "Two Aspects of Language", "Shakespeare's Verbal Art."
February 25--Levels of Linguistic Analysis: Phonological (Hollander, "Dallying"); Fabb 1999 on alliteration; Lawler, "Style"; (Simpson 66-70); Morphological: Carroll, Szymborska, Allen: poems
March 04--Levels of Linguistic Analysis: Meter, (Simpson A4-D4) Cureton 2002 on Frost; Fabb and Halle 2006 on C. Rossetti.
March 11--Levels of Linguistic Analysis: syntactic: Simpson, A6-D6 including Burton, "Through a Glass Darkly"; feminist stylistics:
Mills, "Third Wave Feminist Linguistics and the Analysis of Sexism" Short Paper Due
March 18--computational stylistics:
Oakes, "Literary Detective Work" (Chap 5 from Statistics for Corpus Linguistics)
[comparable introduction: Craig 2004, in the Companion to Digital Humanities]
Schler at al 2006: "Effects of Age and Gender on Blogging." Jockers Blog --"Machine Classifying Novels and Plays by Genre"
March 25--authorship (stylometry): [Journalistic summary of stylometrics: "Bookish Math"]
Juoloa, "A Prototype for Authorship Studies";
Binongo: "Who Wrote the 15th Book of Oz?" in Chance 16.2 (2003): Special issue on stylometry
April 01--Spring Break: No Class
April 08--psychology: Stirman & Pennebaker: Word Use in Poetry
Whissell, Phonoemotional Profiling
April 15--Cognitive stylistics: Simpson, A10-D10; Jeffries 2008 "The Role of Style in Reader Involvement";
April 22--Lancashire 2004, in the Companion to Digital Humanities; Lancashire et al 2011, "Dementia"
April 29--Sociolinguistics: Eckert
May Mon. May 3 -- final exam

Attendance: University policy states that you may miss 10% of the class meetings without institutional consequences.  Subsequent absences will cause your grade to suffer.
Americans With Disabilities Act Compliance Statement
It is the policy of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to afford equal opportunity in education to qualified students. If you have a disability that may prevent you from meeting course requirements, contact the instructor immediately to file a student disability statement and to develop an accommodation plan. Course requirements will not be waived but reasonable accommodations will be developed to assist you in meeting the requirements. 
Percentages of Each Assignment:

Homeworks 20%
Midterm Project 20%
Final Project 60% 

Course Days that we didn't have time for:
Automated Essay Grading:
Burstein, Chodorow & Leacock: Criterion
Attali and Burstein: Automated Essay Scoring with E-rater, v. 2
Burstein & Wolska: Toward Evaluation of Writing Style
(Burstein et al: Towards Automatic Classification; Powers et al., Stumping E-rater)
Also, two journalistic discussions: brief articles from Inside Higher Ed, and Getting Smart.

Escape from Style:
MacLow, "Museletter", Silliman, "Who Speaks", both from Bernstein Close Listening; Perloff, "Langpo and Lyric Subject",
(extra:  http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/hartley/maclow/maclow.html,
"Listen" & "Relate": Notes Towards a Reading of Jackson Mac Low [Sulfur 23 (Fall 1988)])

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