Significance of Studies of Stylistics and Rhetoric

孫越

Abstract：Stylistics is a scientific study of style. It is a mode of encoding and decoding language and can be associated with various fields. In this paper，we talk about the great significances of stylistic and rhetoric studies. It refers to great help in expressing and understanding languages;in combining the linguistics and literary criticism and linguistics;great help in promoting and developing computer science and information technology;great significance in sharing heritage of human civilizations.

Key Words：significance;stylistic and rhetoric studies

To talk about the significance of stylistic studies is to briefly examine how the field has been defined. Wales defines stylistics simply as the study of style . This definition is clear and concise. The word style used in the definition refers to a distinctive or characteristic ?manner of expression in language. By identifying and analyzing both the effects and processes in employing the devices in languages. Stylisticians lay stresses on the analyses of the style of eventually composed texts and discourses. While Widdowson provides a more informative definition By stylistics，I mean the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation and I shall take the view that what distinguishes stylistics from literary criticism on the one hand and linguistics on the other is that it is essentially a means of linking the two. And for rhetoric is the art（practice）or science（the study）of communication in words（From Long-Man Modern English Dictionary）By identifying the figures and rhetoric devices in languages，the rhetoricians emphasize the composing processes of the texts and discourses.So we can see that the definitions take literary texts and languages as the objects of study and use linguistics as a means to that end. Meanwhile the stylistics can be related to many different fields，such as the language system，the linguistics and literary criticism and the foreign language teaching.

The relationship between stylistics and rhetoric is very closely.Rhetoric can be defined either as an extended study of discourses，a science，which covers all the devices of the verbal and non-verbal elements to make human communications effectively，while stylistics is the study of style by identifying the devices in languages that are considered to produce expressive and literary style.It is an extensive study of art in using language effectively.So rhetoric is taken as the art of composition，stylistics is one of the linguistic disciplines，study the various styles of the discourses.The definitions and the relationship between stylistics and rhetoric are so important.So we should spare no efforts to know the significance of studies of rhetoric and stylistics.It includes four parts.Firstly，it is the great help in expression and understanding of languages;Secondly，it is the great help in employing achievements in literary criticism and linguistics.Furthermore，it is the great help in promoting and developing computer science and information technology.Finally，It has a significant effect on sharing heritage of human civilizations.

Stylistics plays a significant effect on sharing the heritage oh human civilizations and the civilizations of other nations，thus compose the entire human civilization.

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