Lesley Jeffries' CRITICAL STYLISTICS: The Power of English: Jason Reeve

Lesley Jeffries’ CRITICAL STYLISTICS: The Power of English
Jason Reeve
We tend to think that politicians, copywriters

and journalists can affect us by their use of
language, but how does this happen, exactly?
Critical Discourse Analysis provides us with
general theories for explaining the impact
texts can have, considering the social and
political contexts in which texts are produced
and read. Stylistics provides detailed tools of
analysis for understanding how texts work.
Critical Stylistics combines the strengths of
these two approaches to uncover the deep-
seated ideologies of everyday texts.
The back-cover summary signals the author’s intent to draw together
two established linguistic methodologies in order to forge a new
approach, Critical Stylistics. In doing so, Jeffries strives to provide
undergraduate students of English with the tools required to delve
below surface level syntactical forms into the textual fabric of
meaning and meaning creation.
บทวิจารณ์หนังสือ 247
Part of the Palgrave Macmillan series Perspectives on the

English Language, this 202-page textbook provides eleven self-ed-
ifying chapters—a caveat to the usage of ‘textbook’ in the previous
sentence would establish the stylistic pedagogy of student centered
research and discovery to be the underlying principle supporting both
this particular usage and Jeffries’ pedagogical approach to language
study emphasized in Critical Stylistics. A short introduction rationalizes
Critical Stylistics as providing a comprehensive toolset enabling students
of English language or linguistics with a framework for studying and
exemplifying the processes by which texts are ideologically crafted
and textual choices made. Chapter 1 sets the background by
substantiating ideological and rhetorical practices through a social-
linguistic lens focusing on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as
practiced by such flag bearers as Fowler and Fairclough, questioning
the rigor and lack of comprehensive coverage afforded by CDA at the
micro-linguistic level—the forte of Critical Stylistics.
The next ten chapters each introduce one Critical Stylistic
tool and are structured to methodically scaffold student endeavor by:
1) introduction of the tool; 2) outlining a linguistic method for using
the tool; 3) considering form and function; 4) discussing ideological
effects; 5) offering practice exercises; 6) providing links to further
reading. This approach sensibly enables students a foothold into
Critical Stylistics well before a full understanding of the methods and
practices are developed—vital for EFL students. So, in chapter 2:
248 ดำรงวิชาการ
Naming and Describing, the linguistic model develops the notions of

noun phrases, prominence of subject position noun phrase, noun
choices (‘a cup’ or ‘a gorgeous Ming dynasty teacup’), noun modification
and nominalization. The last of which is particularly powerful as seen
by recent government controlled broadsheets in Thailand where the
nominalization ‘red shirt terrorists’ (instead of the typical SVO formation:
‘the red shirts are terrorists’) was consistently used as an ideologically
manipulative resource to name the anti-government protesters. As
Jeffries states in form and function (P25): ‘when we turn a process into
a nominal, just as when we use the passive voice, we are syntactically
able to discard the actor’, as such the truth or process isn’t available for
analysis; the act of naming becomes a baptism of ‘truth’, regardless of
the facts—as further exemplified in the ideological effects section where
detailed analysis breaks down sentences to their constituent parts
and considers the ideological effect of the textual feature described.
Chapter 2 is completed by five student exercises to reinforce the chapter
knowledge and encourage further reading (books by Fairclough, Fowler,
Jeffries and Chapman are proposed, as well as further reading in
the Guardian newspaper and Discourse and Society journal).
Jeffries states, several times, that she is ‘in favor of eclecticism’,
as can be observed from the list of tools, which also act as chapter
headings through two to eleven: Naming and Describing, Representing
Actions/Events/States, Equating and Contrasting, Exemplifying and
Enumerating, Prioritizing, Implying and Assuming, Negating, Hypothesizing,
บทวิจารณ์หนังสือ 249
Presenting Others’ Speech and Thoughts and Representing Time,

Space & Society. Despite the unfamiliar names, the chapters cover
areas common to English language, English literature and linguistics
students, such as: phrase and clause structure, synonyms and
antonyms, modals, tense, voice and aspect, point of view, deictic
projection and pragmatics. Of course, the text itself and textual meaning
bind the tools in a functional approach that affords significant benefits
for students who have, for far too long, been restricted by formal
grammars, adherence to hierarchal pressures, unconsidered repetition
of rules (transitional learning techniques) and generally been dissuaded
from critical approaches to discourse—often ideologically coerced at
the institutional level.
Critical Stylistics is part of a growing paradigm that aims to
empower students with critical linguistic, critical discourse and critical
thinking skills, and Jeffries ably demonstrates the worth of enabling
students to delve beyond the grammatically superficial to ‘uncover
the deep-seated ideologies of everyday texts’. Other offerings in the
series, for instance English Literary Stylistics by Christina Gregoriou,
further compliment Critical Stylistics, and it can only be hoped that
language teachers and education facilitators take advantage of these
excellent new textbooks to provide students a path towards developing
vital critical thinking skills.
250 ดำรงวิชาการ
Bibiography
Jeffries. L (2010) Critical Stylistics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

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Lesley Jeffries’ CRITICAL STYLISTICS: The Power of English

We tend to think that politicians, copywriters

Part of the Palgrave Macmillan series Perspectives on the

Naming and Describing, the linguistic model develops the notions of

Presenting Others’ Speech and Thoughts and Representing Time,

Jeffries. L (2010) Critical Stylistics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

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