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Section 3. Philology
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20534/EJLL-17-1-64-66
Todua Lia, PH. D.,
associate professor, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia,
E-mail: ltodua@ibsu.edu.ge Danelia Ira, PH. D.,
associate professor, Sokhumi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia,
E-mail: iradanelia@sou.edu.ge
The effectiveness of teaching quantitative stylistic analysis to students of English philology
Abstract: The paper deals with the methods of stylistic analysis of any medium of verbal expression, primarily, ofwritten means whether in fiction or journalism, etc. It is claimed in the research that older methods of text analysis which mostly focus on qualitative empirical processing of a spoken or written text are no longer relevant for full and thorough understanding of it. Quantitative approach to deciphering a text in combination with more traditional methods is seen in the paper as appropriate and efficient for students of stylistics. The research is an attempt to prove this hypothesis.
Keywords: stylistics, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, teaching stylistics.
Introduction one more prevailing trend in stylistics to on an equal basis
It has been practice long established when teach- switch to non-literary medium ofexpression as well, i. e., to ing stylistic analysis of a literary text that the emphasis as many genres and styles as it is possible for interpretation
has been made on an empirical method for interpretation, evaluation and description of this type of written discourse. Students have been equipped with the basic knowledge how to pinpoint various stylistic devices, expressive means, structural, semantic, morphological and phonological peculiarities in the text, they have been trained to characterize the writer's style comprehensively and thus judge true merits of his/her writings. The practice is evidently in unison with the traditional methods and approaches of literary criticism which are principally and firmly based on empirical qualitative decoding of the text. Thus, trends in classroom practices in stylistics are predominantly borrowed from the tendencies in the above sphere.
For the last few decades the field of stylistics has undergone profound and paramount transformations, one of them being establishing the equilibrium between qualitative and quantitative analysis of any text whether literary or non-literary; moreover, of any medium of expression, be it films, advertising, news reporting, etc., therefore, it is
Jeffries and Mclntyre [2].
The recent fact that Bob Dylan — a world famous singer and songwriter was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature served as a blow for many literary critics as they were not cognizant, and moreover, indignant which criteria were used by the committee for elevating the poet to such a premium pedestal. Therefore, utilizing more innovative methods of text analysis along with strict literary canons is made essential in order to find logic behind such decisions. Hence, classrooms ofliterary studies and stylistic analysis must become laboratories for testing various theories (whether questionable or axiomatic) concerning distinguishing true qualities of any text.
Why quantitative studies have been considered so much essential for stylistic analysis? Researchers of the field understood that empirical judgments can be and are predominantly subjective though they are based on the theoretical background of the researcher, and on the "observing" the text by him/her; however, even these two aspects do not decrease the probability of erring to the
The effectiveness of teaching quantitative stylistic analysis to students of English philology
lowest point when assessing the writer and the experience frequently proves it. On the other hand, it is evident that sociological studies with their inclination towards combining both qualitative and quantitative studies and thus arriving at more reliable data, conclusions and at a fuller discloser of the subject matter fascinated the whole array of fields. Stylistics is not an exception in this respect.
In the modern world quantitative-statistical analysis of a text is made extremely easy. With special IT programs, virtually at the click of a button any data concerning the text can be obtained inter- and intra-textually — be it the frequency of occurrence of a particular punctuation mark or co-occurrence of definite words, re-occurrence of certain word clusters, repetition and deviation patterns. By means of Internet-based language corpora it is possible to pinpoint whether words or word combinations of a certain author are unique for him/her, i. e., with one hundred percent certainty detect the writer's idiolect. Such arithmetic appraisal, when allowed, implemented even without IT technologies (in case of short texts) discloses those shades of texts which are hard or even impossible to notice through merely empirical observation. These unfolded features of a text complement our understanding of the true style of the author and serve as indicators of its uniqueness or commonness Carter, 2010 [1].
Research
Our study hypothesized that thoroughly developing in students of stylistics skills of quantitative analysis of a text enhances their ability to objectively evaluate literary and non-literary texts, to better detect their true merits in synthesis with qualitative research. For the purpose of verifying truthfulness of the above statement during a term ofteaching stylistics to future specialists of English at the faculties of Humanities, specialty- English Philology, International Black Sea (IBSU) and Sokhumi State University (SSU) an experiment was staged and conducted in the following mode: during the term the students of the experimental group (IBSU) were trained to be stylistically competent by teaching them both quantitative and qualitative methods ofanalysis, while in the control group (SSU) during the same semester among the methods of stylistic analysis taught there prevailed qualitative ones as it is done traditionally. However, at the end of the term even the students of the control group were taught methods of quantitative analysis of any text according to the syllabus requirements. The experiment was designed in order to enable us to observe how gradually skills of stylistic analysis developed in students and which methods enhanced students' skills of decoding any text more comprehensively. The mechanism of understanding whether
progress has been achieved in terms of the targeted knowledge and competence among the students ofboth groups was the quality of the assignments and of a course work prepared by them, results of quizzes and a midterm written during the term and finally, results of the final exam.
From the start of the term in the experimental group the students were introduced to innovative mostly quantitative methods of text analysis, e. g., they were taught how to use Google corpora of both British and American Englishes for understanding whether certain new formations, collocations, etc. really belong to a particular writer; furthermore, it was explained to them how to conduct elicitation of statistical information concerning the text by means of various tools of Word document, e. g., find, word count, etc. and most importantly, how to interpret their findings and combine them with the results of qualitative empirical examination ofthe text for obtaining a thorough analysis of it.
Below is given an extract from a poem, thus a short piece of writing for stylistic analysis. To better illustrate how qualitative analysis can be conducted it is noteworthy to state that students are required to count the number of "onion" words, first, as independent lexical items, then, as stems of derived words; later students will have to count frequency of [n] and [a] sounds in the poem; it will enable them to clearly see parallelism patterns in the poem; furthermore, all the derived words in the poem can be checked by means of Google search or Google corpora whether they are created by the author (in this case by the translator of the poem) or they already exist in the English language. Information obtained in the above way later is used for thorough stylistic analysis. the onion, now that's our skin is just a
something else coverup
its innards don't exist for the land where
none dare to go
nothing but pure an internal inferno
onionhood
fills this devout onionist
oniony on the inside
onionesque it appears
it follows its own daimonion
without our human tears
(Wislawa Szymborska, The com/Wislawa-szymborska-the
the anathema of anatomy
in an onion there's only onion
from its top to it's toe
onionymous monomania
unanimous omninudity Onion, http://genius. -onion-annotated)
Table 1. - Results of the experimental group
Home assignments (10*1,5=15 points) Quiz 1 (5 points) Quiz 2 (5 points) Midterm exam (20 points) Final exam (40 points) Course work (10 points) Total (95 points)
Student 1 14 4 5 18 37 10 88
Student 2 15 5 5 17 38 9 89
Student 3 12 4 4 16 37 8 81
Student 4 12 4 4 18 37 9 84
Student 5 13 4 4 17 36 8 82
Student 6 15 5 5 19 39 9 92
Student 7 10 3 4 16 33 7 73
Student 8 11 3 4 15 36 8 77
Student 9 14 5 5 19 39 10 92
Student 10 12 4 4 17 37 8 82
Average 12.8 4.1 4.4 17.2 36.9 8.6 84
Table 2. - Results of the control group
Home assignments (10*1,5=15 points) Quiz 1 (5 points) Quiz 2 (5 points) Midterm (20 points) Final exam (40 points) Course work (10 points) Total (95 points)
Student 1 9 3 3 15 32 7 69
Student 2 9 4 4 16 34 7 74
Student 3 10 4 3 14 28 8 67
Student 4 8 3 3 13 25 7 59
Student 5 12 4 4 17 34 8 79
Student 6 11 3 3 14 25 7 63
Student 7 11 3 4 16 29 7 70
Student 8 10 4 5 18 34 8 79
Student 9 12 4 3 16 33 7 75
Student 10 9 3 4 14 32 8 70
Average 10.1 3.5 3.6 15.3 30.6 7.4 70.5
The results of the experiment demonstrate that the students of the experimental group exceeded their control group peers in all aspects and criteria, the difference between their midterm exam, final exam and total points is 2, 3.6 and 13.6 respectively in favor of the former. This sort of higher achievement can be ascribed solely to the methodology difference as the initial level and other conditions for teaching and learning were absolutely similar for both groups.
Conclusions, discussion and recommendations
The experiment conducted with the aim to understand whether developing in students of stylistics methods of quantitative text analysis contributes to better decoding of it, whether they enhance students' appreciation of any medium ofverbal expression- written and spoken, literary and non-literary led to the confirmation of our hypothesis that the above approach in combination with the qualitative analysis is highly efficient.
During the term in the experimental group we observed that students willingly embraced quantitative methods of text analysis as they considered this approach sound and relevant for stylistic analysis, they demonstrated great enthusiasm and enjoyed the process of this sort of research. When during the term they were requested several times to comment on the effectiveness of the quantitative method their responses were unanimously positive.
Thus, lecturers of stylistics and, in general, all those who teach text analysis from various angles and perspectives are advised to use quantitative analysis as a powerful means of uncovering true characteristics of any text. Different computer programs, language corpora whether Internet-based or functioning without it are absolutely necessary for developing in students' competence of quantitative analysis.
The transformation of hagiographical stories in the artistic world of N. S. Leskov and L. N. Tolstoy: motifs of early Christianity
References:
1. Carter R. "Methodologies for stylistic analysis: practices and pedagogies", in D. McIntyre and B. Busse (Eds). Language and Style - 2010. - P. 34-46. Basingtoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
2. Jeffries L. and Mclntyre D. Stylistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - 2010.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20534/EJLL-17-1-67-68
Filimonova NataliyaYuryevna, associate professor, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Volgograd State Technical University, E-mail: filimonova-n@rambler.ru
The transformation of hagiographical stories in the artistic world of N. S. Leskov and L. N. Tolstoy: motifs of early Christianity
Abstract: This article analyzes various approaches to use of motifs of early Christianity in N. S. Leskov's and L. N. Tolstoy's creativity.
Keywords: Christian motifs, a genre of a legend, artistic devices.
The ancient lives of saints is an integral element of Russian culture.
The Old Russian myths are the brightly expressed precedent texts, their plots, images and ideas, served as material for many writers [1], among whom there were N. S. Leskov and L. N. Tolstoy.
The idea that people need to be educated in the spirit of early Christian morality, came to Leskov earlier than to his great contemporary.
In a letter to A. S. Suvorin, he admitted: "Our century is the triumph in the explanation of the teachings of Christ" [2, P. 340].
Both Leskov and Tolstoy considered Christianity as a vital doctrine that can indicate "not so much the way to heaven» but "the meaning of life" [2, P. 287].
Leskov highly appreciated the efforts of Tolstoy in the "humanization" of the Gospel: "to humanize evangelical doctrine — is the most noble and quite timely task" [2, P. 456)].
In search of a form of the realization of the moral life issues Leskov and Tolstoy simultaneously and independently from each other come to the development of the genre of legend.
Both take themes from ancient sources, in particular from "the Prologue" — the Old Russian hagiographic collection of the 12-13th centuries.
Speaking of heroes of "folksy stories" by Tolstoy, Leskov confidently says: "the Prototypes of all of them are in the Prologues" [2, P. 109)].
You can talk about the proximity of the works of these writers not only because the stories were written on the basis of a common source, but also because the writers had a common goal ("to teach active morality" with maximum simplicity and accessibility) [2 P. 101], one source, one reader (Tolstoy's folk tales and Leskov's many legends were published in the "Mediator» editions).
However, common characters, themes and plots do not exclude differences of artistic techniques. A different approach to the use of the same source by Tolstoy and Leskov, first of all is explained by the differences in their perception of the world.
In the beginning of their work on materials of "the Prologue» this was hardly felt. Tolstoy always objected to the very free interpretations of hagiographic stories. Leskov also initially did not consider it necessary to deviate from the plots of the source, nor even from the interpretation of ideas.
In a letter dated 14 April 1888 to P. I. Biryukov, Tolstoy praised the "Beautiful Aza" by Leskov: "I read Leskov's legend on the same day, as it was published. This is even better than the one (we are talking about the legend of "Conscientious Danila»). Both are beautiful. But that is too curly, and this is simple and lovely. God helps him" [3].
Later Leskov increasingly begins to see in "the Prologue" the source of information regarding the right to him "situation." From a letter to Suvorin: "You rightly said, we take only themes" [2, P. 451].
