1
Proper words in proper places, make the true
definition of a style

• Jonathan Swift, Letter to a young clergyman

2
End-focus is based on the general fact that
different parts of utterances have different
communicative values and that normally new or
important information is reserved for the end
e.g. Good food costs less at Sainsburys Katie
Wales, Dictionary of Stylistics, p. 144
3
Ours was the marsh country

• ??The marsh country was ours

4
End-weightcomplex or heavy constituents
will tend to follow simpler or lighter ones.
Katie Wales, Dictionary of Stylistics, p. 145
5
Ours was the marsh country, down by the river,
within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the
sea.

• ??The marsh country, down by the river, within,
  as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea, was
  ours.

6
The small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it
all and beginning to cry, was Pip.

• ??Pip was the small bundle of shivers growing
  afraid of its all and beginning to cry.

7
that this bleak place overgrown with nettles
was the churchyardand that
Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also
Georgiana wife of the above, were
dead and buriedand that Alexander,
Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant
children of the aforesaid, were
dead and buriedand that the dark flat
wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected
with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered
cattle feeding on it, was the
marshes
8

• and that the low leaden line beyond
• was the river
• and that the distant savage lair from which the
  wind was rushing
• was the sea
• and that the small bundle of shivers growing
  afraid of it all and beginning to cry,
• was Pip.

9
the sea the marshes

• Ours was the marsh country, down by the river
• the dark flat wilderness
• the distant savage lair...
• the small bundle of shivers...
• NP1 was NP2

10
that dark flat wilderness beyond the
churchyard... was the marshes

11
Viewpoints

• The viewpoint of the author (Dickens) addressing
  the reader
• The viewpoint of the adult Pip
• The viewpoint of the young Pip

12
The end approaches.

• The end is here.