Экзамен по стилистике Stylistics as a science and style as a main stylistic category

Stylistic syntax is one of the oldest branches of stylistics that grew out of classical rhetoric. Stylistic syntax has to do with the expressive order of words, types of syntax links (asyndeton, polysyndeton), figures of speech (antithesis, chiasmus, etc.). It also deals with bigger units from paragraph onwards.
Stylistic phonetics (or phonostylistics) is engaged in the study of style-forming phonetic features of the text. It describes the prosodic (relating to intonation) features of prose and poetry andvariants of pronunciation in different types of speech (colloquial or oratory or recital).
General notes on style. The word is applied to so many situations and contexts that it becomes vague and obscure. People talk about an individual manner of using the language, the ability to write compositions and etc. Here are some definitions of style:
Style is the man himself (Buffon)
Style is depth (Darbyshire)
Style is choice
Style is a quality of language which communicates precisely emotions or thoughts, or system of emotions or thoughts, peculiar to the author (J.MiddletonMurray)
Some linguists consider that the word "style" and the subject of linguistics-stylistics is con­fined to the study of the effects of the message, i.e. its impact on the reader. To a very considerable degreethis is true. Stylistics must take into consideration the output of the act of communication. Butit must also consider the ontological, i.e. natural, inherent and functional peculiarities of the means of communication which may ensure the effect sought. The most frequent definition of style is one ex­pressed by Seymour Chatman: "Style is a product of individual choices and patterns of choices among linguistic possibilities”.
There is no point in quoting other definitions of style. All of them point at some integral signifi­cance, namely that style is a set of characteristics by which we distinguish one author from another, or member of one subclass from members of other subclasses, all of which are members of the same general class.
Another point is that all of them concentrate on the form of the expression. In other words "style" is regarded as something that belongs exclusively to the plane of expression and not to the plane of content.
The term "style" is widely used in literature to signify literary genre. Thus, we speak of classi­cal style or the style of classicism, realistic style, the style of romanticism and so on. It is applied to various kinds of literary works: the fable, novel, story etc. The term is also used to denote the way the plot is dealt with, the arrangement of the parts of literary composition to form the whole, the place and therole of the author in describing and depicting events.
It is suggested that that the term style" be used to refer to pure linguistic facts, thus avoiding the possible ambiguity in its application.
It follows then that the term "style" being ambiguous, needs a restricting adjective to denote what particular aspect of style we intend to deal with.
E.g.: "individual style", meaning peculiarities of a writer's individual manner of using lan­guage means to achieve the effect he desires. Individual style can he defined as a unique combination of language units, expressive means and stylistic devices peculiar to a given writer, which makes that writer's works or even utterances easily recognizable.
The treatment of the selected elements brings up the problem of the norm.