Stylistics is the study of styles of writing in texts from literary style to the style of a lawyer in giving evidence. The first edition of A Dictionary of Stylistics was published in 1990 and covers the core terms in stylistics and related disciplines of discourse analysis, literary theory and criticism, and text linguistics. Stylistics has continued to develop since the first edition was published, with new theories and approaches being absorbed from pragmatics; discourse analysis; relevance theory and cognitive linguistics, which are taken into account in this new edition. Katie Wales has rigorously updated the book, included many additional new terms to cover the new areas and has added an additional reading section.
Reviews of the first edition:
'...a work of high seriousness...manna from rhetorical heaven for students and researchers with a lot of hard graft ahead of them... '(English Today)
'...an impressive single-author reference work... '(English)
'...Not only is this volume indispensible for anyone, students or academics, working in any field related to stylistics, it is, like all the best dictionaries, a very good read...' (Le Lingue del Mondo)
Over the past ten years there have been striking advances in stylistics. These have given rise to new terms and to revised thinking of concepts and re-definitions of terms. A Dictionary of Stylistics, 2nd Edition contains over 600 alphabeticlly listed entries: fully revised since the first edition it contains many new entries.
Drawing material from stylistics and a range of related disciplines such as sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics and traditional rhetoric, the revised Dictionary of Stylistics provides a valuable reference work for students and teachers of stylistics, as well as critical discourse analysis and literary criticism. The new edition explains terminology clearly and concisely, and unravels many ambiguities. At the same time it provides a general picture of the nature, insights and methodologies of stylistics.
With numerous quotations; explanations for many basic terms from grammar and rhetoric; and a comprehensive bibliography, this is a unique reference work and handbook for stylistic and textual analysis. Students and teachers at secondary and tertiary levels of English language and literature or English as a foreign or second language, and of linguistics, will find it an invaluable source of information.
Katie Wales is Professor of Modern English Language, University of Leeds and Dean of Learning and Teaching in the Faculty of Arts.
