When reading a book we mention a lot: the plot, the characters, different narrative perspectives, and also style. Everyone can more or less “feel” style, but that is why it is so difficult to define. Speaking about style from a linguistic and literary perspective we should think about choice of words, length and complexity of sentences, use of metaphorical expressions, but this is not what we are constantly aware of while reading. What makes us mention style and if we do that, what are the aspects to be named?
By asking this we want to crawl as it were into the reader’s head and reveal what jumps up out of the text which is then worthy to write about in a review. Because it is the reviews that let us take a look into the readers’ thoughts, although it is only a reflection of what goes on during the actual reading. To answer the question we go through hundreds of thousands Dutch online book reviews, where style is mentioned in about 40% of them.
Readers refer to style by means of different words. Think about “language”, “sentences”, “expressions” or simply “words”, and “style” itself. They also use different categories to modify such terms. One obvious category is time – old fashioned expressions. Others are region – Flemish words, and author – personal style.
We also find references to shared notions of style, which are more complex, for example a gothic style or a childish style. These references are socially determined and can be connected with social status and genre – chicklit, or a period – Victorian style. They also refer to other forms of arts. It is notable that music is often used to characterise style or sentences: the collocation staccato style/sentences is used rather often in online book reviews.
We also find references to shared notions of style, which are more complex, for example a gothic style or a childish style. These references are socially determined and can be connected with social status and genre – chicklit, or a period – Victorian style. They also refer to other forms of arts. It is notable that music is often used to characterise style or sentences: the collocation staccato style/sentences is used rather often in online book reviews.
One other category used by reviewers is normatively qualitative – well or poorly written, and quantitative evaluation – many or few words/phrases. In addition, some people notice textual features such as short or long words or compound sentences.
There is one more category which attracts our attention more than others. We have labelled it as “Reader’s experience” and see it as a cognitive reflection of style: is style experienced as difficult, can we say that style is heavy or light as an object, and which actions do we prescribe to the powers of words, unconscious though – catchy style? (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: The style perception model with eight adjective categories that each can go with the 6 style-related nouns, where the Reader Experience adjective category is further analysed in 6 sub-categories.
If we look closely at this last category, we inevitably conclude that most reviewers understand style in terms of difficulty: difficult or easy words, sentences, language. Only tone, a concept at the border of style and mood, is never considered difficult or easy but provides many metaphorical associations. Tone is often seen as an object: it can be light or heavy, pure, airy or cold. Such associations allow readers to articulate and understand a complex object like tone in familiar terms. It meshes well with the theory of cognitive metaphors that helps us understand complex concepts through familiar objects. Such metaphorical thinking is linked not only to tone but is also very common in characterisation of words, style, language and other style vocabulary. It is not just objects that can be metaphorical, but also actions. For example, style can grab readers attention, invite or persuade readers, but it can also flourish, portray or scream on its own.
The immediate reaction to style may otherwise also not be metaphorical and then the reviewers think about style as about something familiar or unfamiliar – one may write about a familiar style or recognise the style or language -, or react emotionally speaking about funny words, cheerful language, desperate sentences or serious tone.
This research will have a follow-up, but we can already say at this point that the direct response to style can support the theory of different types of readers, progress the work in cognitive stylistics, and may help make a step towards the analysis of Dutch literary texts in terms of style.