The Logical Functions of Language as Literary Style Markers

Abstract

This paper proposes a method of investigating the intentional structure of dialogue discourse as a means of literary style marking. to accomplish this, a classifactory system of five logical functions of language is postulated: the Logical function, the Practical function, the Poetic function, the Expressive function, and the Ceremonial function. Random sampling and tests of significance were used to investigate the proportional frequencies of occurrence of these sentence functions in selected texts: Camus's L'Etranger, La Chute, and La Peste. Results obtained by this inquiry show that the different language functions vary significantly in proportional use in the three novels in question. an analysis of such stylolinguistic data sheds light on the underlying semantic structure of literary discourse, and on the compositional and stylistic design of the author's message. Each author will be found to have his or her own characteristic range of varying proportional occurrences of the different language functions which, it is shown, corroborate or refute impressionistic notions of character.