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 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1

1.1. Rationale ................................................................................................. 1

1.2. Aims and objectives of the study............................................................ 3

1.2.1. Aims.................................................................................................. 3

1.2.2. Objectives ......................................................................................... 3

1.3. Research questions.................................................................................. 3

1.4. Scope of the study................................................................................... 3

1.5. Significance of the Study........................................................................ 4

1.6. Design of the study ................................................................................. 5

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................... 6

2.1. Stylistic devices....................................................................................... 6

2.1.1. The Definition of Figure of Speech.................................................. 7

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 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................... 29

3.1. Research methods ................................................................................. 29

3.2. Research procedure............................................................................... 29

3.3. Data collection ...................................................................................... 30