An investigation into stylistic devices in english contemporary short stories

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY TRẦN ÁI VI AN INVESTIGATION INTO STYLISTIC DEVICES IN ENGLISH CONTEMPORARY SHORT STORIES Field: English Linguistics Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: HÀ THANH HẢI, Ph.D BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN TRẦN ÁI VI NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC BIỆN PHÁP TU TỪ TRONG TRUYỆN NGẮN ĐƯƠNG ĐẠI TIẾNG ANH Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8.22.02.01 Người hướng dẫn: TS HÀ THANH HẢI i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the substance of this thesis has not already been submitted for any degree and is not currently being submitted for any other degree or award I also declare that any help received to successfully complete this thesis, and all sources employed, have been acknowledged in this thesis Binh Dinh, 2021 Tran Ai Vi ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many individuals both academically and personally have been considered as important parts of my journey Without their support, the accomplishment of my study would have never been perfect First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my respectable supervisor, Dr Ha Thanh Hai for his considerable encouragement, timely enlightenment through valuable comments on every piece of my work Thanks to his great experience on Stylistic Devices, I have been expertly guided throughout the thesis And without his support, my study could not be perfectly completed I genuinely appreciate and learn a great deal from his intellectuality, dedication, and professionalism Additionally, I would like to thank all the lecturers of my master‟s course at Quy Nhon University, who helped me to upgrade my knowledge and my skills of Linguistics during my course They all definitely play a vital role in enriching my high interest in linguistic research to further explore other aspects of both the English and Vietnamese languages I am also indebted to the authors and experts whose works have been cited in the Literature Review part of my study Last but not least, my special thanks are extended to my family, my friends who always stand by me, motivate and support me to participate in this course, and fully concentrate on completing the course and my thesis, and confidently overcome all the challenges and obstacles during the time of my study iii ABSTRACT The thesis is a study of identifying the types and functions of figures of speech in English contemporary short stories.This study is aimed to examine types of figures of speech and investigate the significant of them into in English contemporary short stories A combination of descriptive, quantitative and qualitative methods is employed to use for data analysis The data of this research is 20 English contemporary short stories of the U.S and England from 2000 to 2019.The study points out that there are ten of twelve types of figures of speech found based on Perrine‟s theory, namely metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, symbol, paradox, overstatement, understatement, and irony Simile is the most frequently used, and metonymy ranks at the lowest point in the data of study As for the effects they create for the stories, there are four functions of these figures of speech found based on Perrine‟s theory: to afford imaginative pleasure, to bring an additional imagery, to add emotional intensity, and to say much in a brief compass.The study hopefully contributes to the procedure of teaching, and learning English in particular and encourages them to use the stylistic device in writing to make their written papers more beautiful and attractive iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.2.1 Aims 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance of the Study 1.6 Design of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Stylistic devices 2.1.1 The Definition of Figure of Speech 2.1.2 Types of Figure Speeches 10 2.1.3 Functions of figures of speech 19 2.2 Contemporary short stories 22 2.2.1 Definition 22 2.2.2 Features of short stories 23 2.3 Previous studies 26 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 29 3.1 Research methods 29 3.2 Research procedure 29 3.3 Data collection 30 v 3.4 Data analysis 31 3.5 Reliability and validity 32 3.6 Summary 32 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33 4.1 Findings 33 4.2 The types of stylistic devices in 20 English contemporary short stories 36 4.2.1 Metaphor 36 4.2.2 Simile 37 4.2.3 Personification 39 4.2.4 Symbol 41 4.2.5 Overstatement 41 4.2.6 Understatement 43 4.2.7 Irony 43 4.2.8 Paradox 45 4.2.9 Metonymy 45 4.2.10 Synecdoche 46 4.3 The functions of stylistic devices in 20 English contemporary short stories 47 4.3.1 To afford imaginative pleasure 47 4.3.2 To bring an additional imagery 48 4.3.3 To add emotional intensity 49 4.3.4 To say much in a brief compass 50 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 53 5.1 Summary of Findings 53 5.2 Implications 55 5.3 Limitations 56 5.4 Recommendation for further study 56 REFERENCES 57 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 General view of types and functions of figures of speech 33 Table 4.2 The frequency of figures of speech in 20 short stories 35 CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication The scientific study of language in any of its senses is called linguistics It has brought to the subject of semantics a certain degree of analysis combined with a view of the study of meaning as an integrated component within the total theory of how language works When we study about linguistic, we will know about semantics which study the meaning In English we know that meaning has important position to study because it will create some effects when someone tries to understand what the speakers or the writers mean When creating a piece of writing as a literary text, the writer has to use words to express his denotative and connotative meanings To have good quality of art, a writer not only has to use words effectively, colorfully but also has to use stylistic devices to make his writing more interesting and more persuasive In literature and writing, using stylistic devices gives an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling Indeed, the frequent use of stylistic devices is an important element to make the literature more attractive and lively Particularly, the use of stylistic devices in their written papers has great impact on the readers Under stylistics, figure of speech is one of language style aspects commonly discussed Also under stylistics, language style can be seen as figurative language through figures of speech Leech & Short (2007) pointed out that figures of speech are the features which are foregounded by virtue of departing in some way from general norms of communication by means of the language code Indeed, many researches have been done on figures of speech of literary texts like poems (Perrine, 1987), prose texts (Leech & Short, 2007), and short stories (Abet, 2019) This domain of research is spread to the setting of education for student researchers as well (Simpson, 2004) It can be said that most of the studies made a great effort to understand the famous writer and their typical works like Hemingway‟s novels, O‟Henry‟s short stories, or Emily Dickinson „s poems It is clear that short stories not only use denotative meaning to express message from the author but also connotative meaning which is used to express agreement, disagreement, happiness, unhappiness, etc, conveyed to the listeners or readers Many kinds of figures of speech give us so much information in which they use non literal meaning of words For example, some sentences in the story use figurative language to make it more beautiful, interesting and imaginative Figurative language is language using figures of speech (a way of saying one thing and meaning another) There are many types of figurative language such as: metaphor, simile, symbols, hyperbola, irony, etc But in general, the figurative language is differentiated into groups in terms of their meanings by comparison, by association and by contrast These figurative languages are famous in society, and also in the field of education starting from elementary school up to the university level (Simpson, 2004) The proved importance of understanding the stylistic devices or figures of speech in literary texts and the insufficient analysis in contemporary short stories encouraged the author of this thesis to conduct the study on stylistic devices used in English contemporary short stories from 2000 to 2019 to 45 (Kennedy and Gioia, 2007: G16), an irony of situation 4.2.8 Paradox Paradox is a statement that at first seems as self-contradictory but it reveals some deeper sense on reflection There is one paradox in story of the data The example of paradox is presented in the following: We‟d been together for six weeks now, not long, but long enough for me to start to get to know her personality: playful yet pensive, jubilant but shy, magnanimous yet fickle (S3) This is a sad story about two main characters of the story titled “My Name Is Ian Z.Mcphee” On a sad day, their love story is over This story contains an paradox because the writer uses two opposite characteristics in one phrase to indicate opposite personalities in on person "playful yet pensive”, “jubilant but shy”, “magnanimous yet fickle" to express the contradictory but contains truth stated The main character is playful but pensive, jubilant but shy, magnanimous but fickle The writer uses this paradox to add emotional intensity to the story It helps the reader visualize a certain part of the main character's personality Paradox is also used in story 18 like: She slipped from the confining pressure of her skin and out into the endless night, once more, a whisper of nothing amidst a million stars (Paradox) (S18) This paradox adds emotional intensity to the story by the opposite picture of “a whisper of nothing” in the middle of “a million stars” 4.2.9 Metonymy Metonymy uses one entity or thing to indicate or to provide mental access to another entity The name of the thing is substituted with another thing that is closely associated And in some cases, metonymy can be 46 distinguished from synecdoche Kovecses (2001: 152) says that Synecdoche and metonymy are so much alike that it is hard to distinguish between them As seen in the following example taken from story of the data His wife Valorie looked up at her husband‟s remark, her blonde ponytail bobbing “I swear Saul can read my mind He seems to know what I‟m going to say before I say it.” (S8) The above sentence is a form of figurative language in metonymy form The use of the word “read” can make reader associate the relationship between “the mind” and “the book” in reality However, by using “ the mind”, the writer may also means to indicate the whole person, so in this case the sentence can be understood as “… I swear that Saul can understand me” And if it is understood like this, it is a synecdoche because this is a figure of speech in which a part is used to present the whole or the whole for a part The use of this metonymy and synecdoche is to help the writer express his/ her meaning in a brief way 4.2.10 Synecdoche According to Kövecses (2010), synecdoche is a variation of metonymy in which a part of a thing is used to represent the whole thing Synecdoche simplifies what is being said by mentioning only essential details A whole can also represent a component in a synecdoche The example of using the part to indicate the whole is represented in story 20 A begrudging heart or stubborn mind will stop the room‟s workings dead (S20) In this example, the writer used the word “heart” and “mind” to indicate the whole person This figure of speech help the author of the story describe a person (the main character) in a very short phrase 47 4.3 The functions of stylistic devices in 20 English contemporary short stories 4.3.1 To afford imaginative pleasure Through the story, figures of speech help readers feel excited in their imagination From the images, the details create interest Personification is a figure of speech for the purpose of affording imaginative pleasure There are personifications in story of the data The example of personification is presented in the following: “A long walk down a meandering single-track lane that looked like it would fizzle out in the middle of nowhere Instead, there was a sizeable farm, this church, ensconced in shadow amongst mature trees and two cottages, ” (S5) The story is about the meeting between the author and an old man at a graveyard On the way, the author came across an ancient church deep in the Norfolk countryside, located in a hard-to-see location, surrounded by trees The road to get there is also very difficult Perhaps that day was also a gloomy day, so the church appeared in the dark The author uses personification in the phrase “mature trees” to trigger the reader to imagine the scene The young shoots have now grown into big trees, like a child growing up and becoming an adult These trees are big, the shade covering the whole sky, thereby enclosing the church in the dark The scene here is deserted, secluded as an expedition It stimulates an imagination for the readers, making them want to explore the place Three figures of speech in story appear in a series of sentences to express the character‟s excitement and they give the readers chance to imagine of an image of a very excited man when he is with his lover Specifically, the readers can sculpture the sensation via the metaphor 48 “electric”, the excitement inside via the overstatement “skipped a beat” and “forgot to breathe” “It was incredible and completely unexpected; the sensations as our fingers touched was electric; my heart skipped a beat and I momentarily forgot to breathe” (S3) These series of sentences can evoke an imaginative pleasure among the readers who will imagine a picture of a silly and sincere man in love The readers can capture the emotions of the characters The image in the mind of each reader will be different, but the emotions are definitely the same 4.3.2 To bring an additional imagery Imagery is the use of words or pictures in a literary work to describe ideas or situations Figures of speech serve a variety of purposes, one of which is to bring an additional imagery to the reader By additional imagery, an abstract thing becomes concrete It experiences reader‟s mind to create such imagination through the text The reader enhances a wider picture or idea upon the story with it It also creates a new perception other than its literal meaning, such as in the following: I strolled over, walking between rows of ancient, haphazardly-toppled and indecipherable gravestones, to a white stone tomb It outshone its neighbours like a supernova outshines the brightest star in the sky A colossal rectangular box of pure white marble with sporadic carved seals – a lion wearing a crown, and a unicorn And one simple date – 1877 No name, no motto, nothing (S5) This datum occurs in the story titled “The Tale of Tobias Squire” In this sentences the writer used two figures of speech The first one is simile to compare “a white stone tomb” and “a supernova” This sentence implies to give an additional imagery that is more affecting the humans‟ sense in visual 49 term by imagining the sky with many bright stars among which there was a supernova outshining the others The second one is paradox to contrast the carved picture of a lion and a unicorn and “one simple date” with “no name, no motto, nothing” This figure can bring the readers an additional imagery about the loneliness of the person in the tomb Another example of figure of speech which functions to bring an additional imagery to the readers is presented in the following: They heard a sound like steam escaping, and a door slid open (S8) A metonymy “a sound like steam escaping” is used in this sentence to give the readers an imaginative picture of a sound which is similar to that of steam going out of a container Furthermore, a personification is also seen in this example when the writer used the word “escape” - an action of a person or animal- for an inanimate thing like “steam” With this, the writer has given the readers an additional picture of some kinds of movement like “escaping”.As can be seen, figures of speech can help to increase the attractiveness of a literary work 4.3.3 To add emotional intensity Figures of speech can be used to convey an object in creating an emotion It also helps to emphasize the meaning of the sentence Simile is a figure of speech which is used to express a deeper meaning that is more appealing, creates excitement for readers The example of using simile and paradox for this purpose is presented in the following: “I opened the door with trembling hands, closed my eyes and went in I could hear a sound like bellows Then a whisper, “Come over here, Martin.” I walked across the carpet with my eyes still tightly closed, afraid of what I might see” (S7) It is Martin's meeting with his grandfather Suddenly, his grandma 50 wants Martin to see him, so he is a little worried and scared His grandfather was sick and lying in the upstairs room This was a place he had never been before As he approached the room, his fear grew With trembling hands, he mustered the courage to close his eyes and pushed the door in The author uses the simile through the sentence “I could hear a sound like bellows” to emphasize the loudness of his grandpa‟s breath in the middle of a quiet space The sound is deep, loud and magical, which is similar to the sound created by bellows Then a paradox is used to contrast this loud sound - “a whisper”, the weak voice of the patient These two figures of speech imply the function of adding emotional intensity by creating a fearful and curious atmosphere It emphasizes the expression and makes the situation become full of tension The simile in story of the data also helps boost the readers‟ emotion Then, how you access your statements? You‟re stuffed Like a piglet in a chestnut factory (S10) This datum contains simile as the writer mentions “a piglet in a chestnut factory” which indicates for a status of the character in the story It functions to add emotional intensity to the readers by conveying an assumption of a person who is stuffed with the duties at working places in a overloading situation.By this function, the readers not only read his statement as an informative statement, but it also provokes the readers‟ emotion since the writer assumed that the character‟s life is so busy that he/she is overloaded with duties 4.3.4 To say much in a brief compass Another function of figures of speech is to say something much in a brief compass Through figures of speech, the writer expresses his thought without a complex explanation In this way, the reader pictures the intended meaning through the text in a brief way By this function, figures of speech 51 are means of concentration Two example of similes which function to say something much in a brief compass are presented in the following: Like a petrified mouse under the paw of a cat, the victim remains motionless More hair-stroking, then the killer places two large, strong hands on either side of the victim‟s head, a quick twist and … snap … over he goes, the lolling head smacking the floor, the lifeless body following like a piece of meat (S1) In the above sentences similes appear in two places First, the writer used a simile based on the similarity of the “petrified mouse under the paw of a cat” and the hopeless situation of the motionless victim Second, he used the simile “like a piece of meat” to indicate the situation of “the lifeless body” In both sentences, the writer of the story did not have to use much language of story telling or description, but the readers still catch the implicit meaning of the sentences Another example of understatement with this function is presented in the following: Well, seems the writer had financial problems of sorts, but this character he‟d encounter in his dreams would help out (S1) This is a detail in the story “Neck Snapping Time” The author uses the phrase “the writer had financial problems of sorts” to mean that the character in the story had a lot of financial problems but they were mentioned only in a brief way The writer uses an understatement to indicate different financial problems In this way, the reader can still picture the intended meaning through the text in a brief way with not many detailed descriptions Another example about this function can be seen in story of the data As he battled through the rain and the gloom towards the stern, he saw something dark on the deck A heavy black overcoat, lying on the wet planks, 52 empty sleeves blowing in the wind like a priest‟s supplicating arms, but its occupant … gone (S4) The use of overstatement “battled” indicates the difficulty of the character in moving in the rain This is like a battle where he has to fight against many enemies Using this word as an overstatement can help the writer avoid using too much language to describe the setting because every difficulty of moving in the rain has been briefly expressed in the word “battled” In short, this chapter has unveiled some findings about the figures of speech used in 20 contemporary short stories More specifically, it has identified different types of speech figures and discussed their functions in detail Generally, the chapter has successfully answered the research questions raised in chapter of the thesis 53 CHAPTER CONCLUSION This chapter will give an overview of the findings in terms of answering the two research questions stated in the introduction of the thesis together with its implication Moreover, it points out some limitations and suggestions for the further research 5.1 Summary of Findings The study discussed the types as well as the functions of figures of speech collected from 20 English contemporary short stories from 2000 to 2019 Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are used with the assistance of descriptive method for the validity and reliability of the study The major conclusions drawn to answer the two research questions are presented as follows First of all, three categories of figures of speech classified by comparison, by association, and by contrast occur in the data at a different ratio.More specifically, there are ten of the twelve types of speech figures found in the data of the research study Through the quantitative analysis, the frequencies of occurrence of some commonly used stylistic devices have been displayed, from the highest to the lowest, as follows: Simile, personification, overstatement, metaphor, understatement, symbol, paradox, irony, and metonymy The writer of 20 short stories used simile as the most frequent figure of speech Overall, the writer uses simile to compare two things which have similar characteristics to give a better emotional intensity to the readers and imagine the scene in the story through the text briefly Another style of figure of speech that is also popular is personification, which gives human ability to 54 non-human things, although it accounts for one third of the simile Ranked the third is metaphor, used to add more additional imagery to the story Although the other types of figures of speech appear in the data with a quite modest number, they function as the tools to make the stories more interesting and vivid Allegory and apostrophe are not employed in the stories in question The second conclusion is about the function of these figures of speech It is concluded that each type of stylistic devices has its particular function Among the four ones: Affording imaginative pleasure, bringing an additional imagery, adding emotional intensity, and saying much in a brief compass Simile and understatement function in both adding emotional intensity to the readers and saying much in a brief compass Meanwhile, metaphor functions in bringing an additional imagery to the readers and adding emotional intensity in the story Personification functions in affording imaginative pleasure and adding emotional intensity Overstatement/hyperbole, paradox and irony only has one function - adding emotional intensity to the readers Metonymy and synecdoche only function in saying much in a brief compass Symbol also has only one function- bringing an additional imagery From the results of the research, the use of figures of speech in short stories in question can influence readers' minds, cause them to enjoy, and construct their imaginations In particular, personification is the figure of speech that contributes the most numerous imaginative pleasures due to the its nature Therefore, it can give the readers pleasure through imagination In addition, the function of bringing additional imagery can create a mental picture in the readers„ mind Metaphor has a significant contribution to the creation of images in the minds of readers since it produces depictions through comparison and illustration To add emotional intensity to the readers, metaphor, simile, 55 personification, overstatement/hyperbole, paradox, understatement, and irony also function well by presenting a typical feature of them In terms of saying something in a brief way, the writers used some types of figures of speech, such as simile, metonymy, synecdoche, and understatement Simile is the most dominant type of figure of speech which functions to say something in a brief way 5.2 Implications This study contributes many values, bringing a great number of benefits to both teachers and learners Firstly, the findings of the study have helped readers have a deeper insight into the contemporary short stories, and the hidden or connotative meanings of the language of these stories have been revealed Secondly, the research also cultivates knowledge about the field of literature, specifically the types of figures of speech Learners, especially students majoring in linguistics who are interested in stylistics, can use knowledge about figures of speech to analyze the literary works more precisely In addition, the searched data will be a tool to support learners, helping to enhance their ability to analyze and stimulate thinking This thesis will help learners improve their writing through the use of styles of figures of speech They can be applied not only in learning but also in learners‟ daily life communication Last but not least, this study helps English teachers to learn and know more about English stylistics in general and figures of speech in English contemporary short stories in particular Stylistic devices seem indispensable in daily use and in literature As a result, it is quite necessary for a teacher to master the knowledge that students can ask for The teacher should help his students clearly understand when they study stylistics It is also suggested that 56 the teacher should encourage his students to practice using stylistic devices in writing their compositions 5.3 Limitations The study is a long process that demands time as well as space It requires the researcher to have full knowledge and support from the available data However, research conditions are still limited, so that there are some particular limitations in the study is unavoidable First of all, stylistics is classified into four categories which are definitely lexical categories, grammatical categories, cohesion and context, figures of speech The scope of the thesis is only about figures of speech Another limitation is that the sample source for analysis are rather limited The figures of speech are collected from only 20 English contemporary short stories from 2000 to 2019 Therefore, data might not be abundant and adequate For these limitations, I am very interested in honest opinions, fair assessments on this thesis Through that, we can make it more validity and reliability 5.4 Recommendation for further study As clarified above, the research could not cover all of the dimensions of stylistic devices Therefore, there remain certain appealing areas which can be developed for further research and studies, as followed: The future researcher is expected to develop this analysis with the same theoretical framework on different genres which can vary in the forms of movie, poem, and other literary works It is also suggested that the future researcher conduct a research with other kinds of categories of stylistics, such as lexical deviation or grammatical deviation in English and Vietnamese literature 57 REFERENCES Abet, A.Z ( 2019) Stylistic Analysis of the Selected Short Stories by Mary Flannery O'Connor and William Sydney Porter MA Thesis Middle East University Abrams, M H., & Harpham, G G (2012) A glossary of literary terms (10th ed.) USA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning Amare, A (2002) Some selected poems in English by Ethiopian poets: a stylistic analysis, Addis Ababa: AAU Libraries Adane, S (2012) A stylistic analysis of the beautiful things that heaven bears, (unpublished MA thesis), AAU Libraries: Addis Ababa Dancygier, B., & Sweeter, E (2014) Figurative language Cambridge: Cambridge University Diribu, A (2012) Stylistic analysis of selected short stories of Edgar Allan Poe Addis Ababa, AAU Libraries Elfrida, R (2018) Figure of speech in the book of angka ende in batak toba bible Medan: The Episteme Fournal of English Literature and Linguistics Eubanks, P (2011) Metaphor and writing: Figurative thought in the discourse of written communication Cambridge: Cambridge University Galperin, I.R (1977) Stylistics (2nd Ed.) Moscow “Higher School” Gill, R (2004) Mastering English Literature London: Palgrave Macmilan Klarer, D.M (1988) The role of a freshwater estuary in mitigating storm water inflow Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve Tech Ropt No Ohio Dept National Resources, Columbus, Ohio 58 Klarer, D.M (1998) An Introduction to Literary Studies Second Edition New York: Routledge Kennedy, X J and D Gioia (2007) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing (10th Ed) New York: Pearson Longman Kövecses, Z (2001) Metaphor: A Practical Introduction New York: Oxford University Press Kövecses, Z (2002) Metaphor: A Practical Introduction New York: Oxford University Press Kövecses, Z (2010) Metaphor: a Practical Introduction (2nd Ed) New York: Oxford University Press Leech, G N (1969) A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry Edinburgh: Longman Leech, G N and M H Short (2007) Style in Fiction: a Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose (2nd Ed) Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited Li, X & Shi, M (2015) A Stylistic study on linguistic deviation in E.E.Cumming's poetry Journal of Pan Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 19(2), 23-54 Marshall, C., & Rossman, G B., (1995) Designing qualitative research London: Sage McArthur, J (1996) The Concise Oxford Comparison to the English Language Oxford: Oxford University Press Ogunsiji, A (2000) Introductory semantics In Babajide, A.O (ed) Studies in English language Ibadan: Enicrownfit Perrine, L (1987) Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry 7th Edition New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 59 Rozakis, L E (1995) How to interpret poetry New York: A Simon & Schuster Macmillan Short, M (1996) Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose London: Addison Wesley Longman Ltd Simpson, P (2004) Stylistics: a Resource Book for Students London: Routledge Stanley, J (2007) A guide to figures of speech used in scripture Retrieved from http://www.biblicalresearchjournal.org Widdowson, H.G (1975) Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature London: Routledge Znamenskaya, T A (2004) Stylistics of the English language:Fundamentals of the course Mocba: University Ekaterinburg ... has to use stylistic devices to make his writing more interesting and more persuasive In literature and writing, using stylistic devices gives an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling Indeed, the... stylistics in general and of stylistic devices in English contemporary short stories in particular Through the study on the use of stylistic devices in English contemporary short stories, the... and effectively Stylistic devices are used not only in English contemporary short stories but also in everyday life as well Understanding stylistic devices in contemporary short stories help both