Towards A Discourse Stylistics Of Pygmalion

Stylistics, a linguistic approach to the study of literary texts, explores language in different genres, including prose, poems and plays, resting on the assumption that the linguistic theories and methods can be applied to the study of literature. As the research advances, how dramatic effect is reached through dialogues and how the playwrights achieve the aesthetic values of language have been gradually uncovered. This thesis, a stylistic analysis of Pygmalion, tries out register and turn-taking model on this text, in the hope of interpreting what lies behind the humor and laughter so as to explain the properties of characterization, personal relationship, plot development and theme construction, and to gain a better appreciation of its peculiarities.Comedy, a main type of drama, is mostly appreciated from a variety of perspectives, but it is seldom systematically studied from the perspective of discourse stylistics, namely, via register and turn-taking, which, among many linguistic theories that could govern conversations, are distinct and powerful in organizing dramatic dialogues. This thesis tries to solve the following problems:1) how a perspective of register analyis can explain the artistic accomplishments made by George Bernard Shaw in his comedy Pygmalion in light of the insights drawn from a deepened and enriched discourse analysis of drama texts; 2) how will the theory and methods provided by Sacks et al's turn-taking model facilitate the scientific interpretation of George Bernard Shaw's comedy Pygmalion; 3) should the present dramatic discourse stylistic analysis go further to integrate the achievements made in the domain of Conversational Analysis with those made in the domain of Systemic Functional Linguistics? 4) what different roles do they play respectively in serving as a supplement of comedy interpretation?The discoveries of the thesis: 1) the discourse stylistic framework of register and turn-taking offers a new perspective of play analysis and serves as a better supplement of comedy interpretation. It enhances the explanations of literary meanings of Pygmalion written by Shaw, who uses comedy to explore social foibles and who, adopting the ironic comedy tone that would characterize all his works, deals with social and economic issues. Register analysis indeed facilitates the interpretation of the ironies and the social problems in Pygmalion which the theme and plot of the play suggests. Turn-taking model also contributes to better understanding of Shaw's comedies but it focuses on characterization and power relations among the characters. 2) The dramatic discourse stylistic analysis integrates the achievements made in the domain of Conversational Analysis with those made in the domain of Systemic Functional Linguistics, and the model well demonstrates the properties of characterization, personal relationship, plot development and theme construction of the play with a better appreciation of its peculiarities. 3) The author of the thesis has discovered a new method to measure the length of a turn: instead of measuring by words, she suggests measuring turn length by syllables, which proves more scientific. 4) Another discovery is a more detailed analysis of unit-type and its application to the text. The author focuses on sentential construction and lexical construction, and by analyzing the clauses of the sentences and measuring the length of the words of the turns in Pygmalion, she successfully reinterprets Liza's transformation from a new perspective, which reaches the similar conclusion as register analysis does.The study is significant in two aspects: theory and practice. On the one hand, a systematic discourse stylistic approach to drama can demonstrate its strong interpretative power of the literary meanings of the play. Register and turn-taking framework used in dialogue analysis is powerful in analyzing comedies and the combination of the two approaches deepens the study of the literary work, which contributes to the academic exploration by adding comprehensiveness to the study of register and turn-taking and help to gain deeper insights into the nature of comedies and thus enhancing the research in the area of register analysis and turn-taking model. On the other hand, the study contributes to the teaching of such courses as linguistics, literature, stylistics and English language teaching. Students can better understand and evaluate the literary text through linguistic cues and evidences. Thirdly, the study offers the readers a new perspective of comedic understanding, which serves as a supplement of comedy interpretation. In addition to teachers and students, the study also benefits the readers and audience.