A Stylistic Analysis of the Nadeem Aslam’s Novel The Golden

Legend
 Abstract
The present research will analyze Akhter’s novel “The Golden legend” by usin the tools

and devices of stylistics. Akhter is a prominent Pakistani writer of post-colonial literature. He

wrote many novels and realism is the main theme of his novels. Moreover, he uses the literary

and stylistics devices for describing the social issues of Pakistani community. Yet, the study will

describe the lingual deviations by applying the tools of the theory by Widdowson (2003). The

study will collect the data from the novel “The Golden Legend” By Nadeem Akhter. The data is

collected qualitatively by using the descriptive approach.

Keywords: Stylistic, Sentence structure, Parallelism, Semantic, Phonological patterns

1. Introduction
The study will analyze the Akhter’s novel “The Great Legend”. The present researcher will
use the stylistics devices for interpreting the text of the very novel. Leech (1969) claims that
Stylistics is study of style in writing which is depicted by the writers in their literary works. Every
writer uses different writing style in their works. Yet, all the writers deviate the rule of language.
The writer deviates the rules of code (Grammar) and context (situational meanings) for using the
different verity of language than the other writers. Khan and Tallat (2015) claims that stylistics
mean analyzing the literature, linguistically. Further, they have stated that Stylistics considers
different than the literary criticism. Longman (1997) argues that stylistics as a branch of linguistics
analyzes the language of the literature with the purpose of tracing the hidden meanings in it. Wales
(1990) depicts that “The goal of most stylistics is not simply to describe the formal features of
texts for their own sake but in order to show their interpretation of the text, or in order to relate
literary effects to Linguistics causes where there are felt to be relevant.”

Stylistics presents the systematic why to analyze the commentary of the writers that provide
the quantifiable information. Wales (1990) comments that stylistics as a branch of applied
linguistics analyze the literature not only for describing the language deviations, yet, it presents
the way to understand the reasons of these deviations as well, such as, It describes the technical
concepts and conditions of the science of language. For example, Leech & Short (1981) clear that
only non…native, child and poet can commit error in the English language. Child are immature in
language, so that, he could commit error and non-native also incompetent to use the language in
Hight way. However, the writer is a mature and competent writer then why he could commit error.
The writer has to set some linguistically patterns that is why he could commit error. For example,
he has to set the semantical patterns or phonological patterns and he uses some unconventional
language for that as well. The study will adopt the Widdowson (2003). Theory as a model of
research which would support to the current study. Widdowson (2003) in this book “stylistics and
the teaching of literature” describes the stylistics in very clear words. However, the theory is
appropriate to the current research that is why the study will depict the theory of above mentionable
writer. The theme of love fear at the sometime. However, this novel emphasis on love more death
of middle-aged man. His widow who wants to tell him about her secret, yet he died before she told
him the search. Moreover, the writer challenges the norm of the society in different ways. Nergis
is the main character of the novel is worried that her secret would be exposed. Such as she adopts
a child of non-Muslims Family which live near to her house. The novel is rich with the multi.
themes yet the present study analyzes it stylistically. The writer deviates the grammatical rules of
the language very broadly. For instance, the wrong us4e for noun phrase verbs and punctuation
marks. The writer deviates the grammatical rules as well as he uses the insensible words. While
the writer deviates the rules being a mature language uses. So, there are some reasons for deviating
the rules of the English language. For instance, he has to create the musical sounds or use the
implicit language for erotizing t someone need Aslam is a great Pakistani writer of English
literature. He wrote many books upon the social issues of the Pakistan. He mostly writes about the
terrorism, but some other themes are also depicted b him. His novel “The Waste Vigil” (2008) is
a master pick another prominent theme of his writings. The Waste Virgil is a novel about the
alarming condition of Afghan war. Moreover, in this novel he clears that the war is a reason of
loss for the both eastern and western. His fable of tragedy and terroir present the true mirror of the
war norms. Another novel. The Blinded Mans Garden (2013) is about the relation b/w Pakistan
and Afghanistan.
The Golden Legend
The Author wants to present the true mirror of Pakistani society. This novel is about the
historical realities of the Pakistan. The literary devices have been used by the writer such as
symbolism and realism. The writer represents the Pakistani society and their corruption. Yet, The
Lady (1996) argues that the stylistics do not consist of linguistically analysis of the language, yet
it analyzes the language of literature and situation in which the language would be right, but the
situation of that language is not clear. So that for understanding the situation of language we use
the tools for literary eroticism. Khan and Tallat (2015) claims that the stylistics and the literary
criticism are the different terms yet Widdowson neglects that view and claims that both are the
essential part of the stylistics. For instances he says that the writer sometime. Depicts the language
correct according to the rules of grammar but he deviates the sensible use of language. Such as he
gives the characteristic of the animate to the inanimate things. That is why the code of the language
is not enough and context of the use of that language is also matters. Further. He presents the why
for Teaching literature as well us teaching language with the of stylistics. He writes the love
chapters for giving the detail description of stylistics analysis. In the first chapter he presents the
way of tackling the literature linguistically

1.1 Significance of the Study

The present research will interpret the Akhter’s novel stylistically, which will make easy
to understand the novel at deep level. While, the study has the significant role in the field of
research, for example, its help to the students of both linguistic and literature, as it interprets the
language of the literature and analyze the meanings of the literature. This research will also be
helpful for the researcher in the future.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The researcher selects the latest novel of the Pakistani writer Nadeem Akhter. There has been
a little work done upon this novel “The Golden Legend” and according to my knowledge no one
analyze it stylistically yet. The analysis will present the deep level analysis of the novel. The main
problem of the novel is that why the writer deviates the rules of language. Henceforth, the study
will apply the theory of Widdowson (2003). That all will make the study different from all the
other works, which have been done by the other researchers.
1.3 Delimitations
The study will interpret the novel of Akhter’s novel “The Golden Legend”, wich is the
latest novel of the writer. Further the study analyzes it stylistically and ignore all the other themes
of the novel as well. The researcher further delimits the work by following the Widdowson model
of stylistics.

1.4 Objectives of the Study

1. To explore the deviations and the reasons of depicting these deviations by the Akhter in his
novel, “The Golden Legend”.

2. To analyze the novel stylistically and clears the deviations through stylistics devices.

2. Literature Review
The study reviews the literature through the extensive reading about the stylistic and the
works which is previously done on the novel The Golden Legend by Akhter. After the deep study,
the researcher depicts the following literature review. Leech (1981) has stated that Stylistic
highlights the importance of analyzing the literature linguistically. Hence, the writer uses the
unconventional sentence structure into their works.
Aarts and Aarts (1982) describes that stylistic devices are used to analyze the patterns of
the language which is used by the writers in the literature. It describes the deviations of the
language in deep level, which helps to the students of the linguistics to understand the rules of
language in very border level. According to Crystal (1981), stylistics analysis is used by the writers
for explain the meanings of implicit language of the literature. Freeman (1971) claims that, in the
literature, the writers deviate the set norms of the language for creating the good impression, which
attracts to the readers. Thomas (1983) has stated that the term stylistics could be devided into the
two parts style and istics, yet, style is a border term, for instance the living stander, weary cloth
haircuts and using the stylish cars and house is also called the style. But istics means the language,
so that the stylistics only means to analyze the style of langue use in the literature.
Lawal (1997), and Simpson (2004), clear that when we analyze the literature linguistically
in the literature and take the literature as a text. In the literature the text is depicted in three ways.
Firstly, ‘text’, a piece of chunk which is selected from literature for linguistically analysis.
Secondly, ‘co-text’, which is the nearby the selected text, such as, if analyze the second stanza
among the three stanzas of any poem then the first and third is called the co-text of the selected
text. And the last is a context in which the text is used by the writer. That is the basic tools of the
literary analysis stylistically. The stylistics presents the way of generative grammar which clears
the reasons to understand the changes into the grammar, such as Chomsky (1957, 1965, 1976,
1981, 1995, and 2002) has described the dynamic concepts in the grammatical rules like the
descriptive grammar.
According to Carter (2008) stylistics is a study of the deep level structure of literary
language. It explains the language of the literary works in scientific manners. The study analyzes
the novel of non-native writer south Asian writer and in south Asia like Pakistan, Bangladesh and
Afghanistan use the ‘South-Asian register’ and there are some social aspects also become the
reasons of these literary deviations. Baumgardner (1987 & 1995) claims that in the subcontinent
the writers deviate the rules of English language some due to describing the hidden meanings and
second due to the cultural difference between the native and non-native language users. Adger
(2003) argues that for understanding the language of different writers we might have the
knowledge of rule of language use.

Mönnink (2000) study of literature helps the students for understanding the language of
the literature. It clears the meaning and use of bout with the help of stylistics analysis. According
to Quirk et al. (1972), the right use of language in might necessary in the high level study, yet, the
literary works are depicted some deviations linguistically by developing the ideas in interesting
manners which draw the attention of the readers.
Kalpana (2018) employs the stylistics and clears the literary language with some devices
of stylistics. For instance, some writers during their writings deviate from the rules of grammars
for making in interesting, such as, “Mary boyed her hair” (Widdowson, 2003, p. 11), in this
sentence he uses the noun “Boyed” as a verb.

2.1 Theoretical Framework

The study will depict the stylistics theory of teaching literature by the native English writer
Widdowson. In his theory he discus the feature of stylistics in very brief detail which would be
discussed in the present chapter in brief detail. In his first chapter the writer clears the perspective
and aims of the stylistics as a discipline as well as a subject. According to him it’s a combination
of both, while discipline is a wider term, but subject is a sub field of it. Linguistical elements and
literary criticism are the disciplines of stylistics, such as, linguistics contributes in literary criticism
and literary criticism contributes in linguistic and stylistics clear the relationship between the two
different branches of the domino of knowledge.

In the next chapter he has discussed the literary analysis linguistically. As, he commented
that literature conceded as a text, when we analyzed it according to its language. Moreover, its
judge the stander of literature according to rule-based structure of the text. For example, he gives
the example of some deviations from the selected text of the Keats work. First of all, he depicts
the three types of use of definite article “The”, which are as follow;

2.1.1 Cataphoric/Anaphoric Reference

This reference is used when we depict the definite article first time to refer the noun.
Further it may have the premodifier and postmodifier for modifying the head noun, For example,
The White Goddess in The Temple, p. 8.). Anaphoric; In this type of article, we refer the previously
mentioned noun. The goddess in the temple.

2.1.2 Homophoric
In this type of references the head noun is self-sufficient. For example, the moon the sun.
Then he depicts some lines from Keats poetry for checking the deviations of these references, for
instance, Leda & the Swan “the bellow, great wings beating ….. the staggering girl, the thigh
crashed” (p. 7).

In the above-mentioned text the writer violates the rules of grammar by depicting the
unconventional use of definite article. Such as, he uses article the with wings and also uses the
premodifier great for it, yet, wings would not be great, but the writer is referring the Swan which
is already mentioned previously. So that the writer using the anaphoric reference there but using
the premodifier which could only be used with the cataphoric reference. So here, the poet is
deviating the rule of grammar.

In the next chapter, Widdowson gives the detail of literary criticism of literature through
the stylistics analysis. Moreover, he claims that, when the literature is analyzed through literary
criticism, we depict it as a discourse. While, in discourse we analyze the both code of the language
and context in which language is depicted. However, he says, the deviations in the literary work
not depicted randomly but with some certain patterns. So that it could not be depicted or
understood in isolated code of language, yet, it has the deep relation with the other grammatical
features of the language. The writer gives the example of Hugues’s poem wind and clears that who
and why he uses the deviation as tool of literary criticism. For example, Wind, “this house has
been far out at sea all night, the wood crashing …. The booming hills… Wind stampeding the
fields under the window”.

Through the above-mentioned text, Widdowson claims that the writer violates the rules of
language, syntactically, semantically, lexically, and phonologically. Such as, he deviated the
syntactical elements, as, he uses the fourth form of the verb without using any tense. He violates
the lexical elements as he gives the characteristics of the animate to the in animate things. He also
violates the semantical elements as he uses the unclear words, that are difficult to understand. So
that we could say that every writer deviates the grammatical rules of language for creating the
relation between code and context of the language.

Then the writer describes the types of deviations that are depicted by the writers and poets
into their works;

a. Category rule violation

The writers deviate the rule of using the appropriate part of speech during the literary
communication, for instance, Mary boyed her hair, the writer uses the noun as a verb.

b. Sub category rule violation

In this the writer sues the grammatically wrong words inside the part of speech, such as, the
depicts the word Sands and sand always is sued without the use of ‘s’ or ‘es’.

c. Selection and restriction

The writers sometime use the words in the language without caring the restriction of the
language, such as, ‘great wings’ is used by Keats and the word great is no appropriate for the
wings. Then the writer differentiates the nature of literary communication and formal
communication. Such as, in literature the writer uses the first-person narrator as third person and
second person narrator. For instance, in the line “He is not yet born” the writer describing the
feelings of the third person even he is not born.

3. Research Methodology
The researcher will adopt the qualitative method to analyze the text of the novel by Akhter.
The study will aim to highlight the semantical, syntactical, graphological, phonological deviations
by using the stylistics devices with an analytical approach, especially, in Akhter’s novel “The
Golden Legend”.

3.1 Sampling and data collection

The data would by collected randomly by Akhter’s novel “The Golden Legend”,
especially, according to questions of the present research. Some suitable citations of some
researcher for supporting the research. Moreover, another source of data collection is the stylistic
theory of the Widdowson.

3.2 Instruments
The theory of Widdowson (2003) would be apply for approving the arguments of the study.
Further, the tools of stylistics which is depicted by the Widdowson in his work stylistic and
teaching the literature for interpreting the deviations of the work of very writer. Yet, the following
devices would be used by the researcher syntactical level, lexicography, semantical levels,
phonological levels and pragmatical levels analysis of the very novel.

Chaptalization
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
3 Theoretical Framework
4 Research Methodology
5 Data Analysis
6 Conclusion
References
Aarts, F. and J. Aarts (1982): English syntactic structures. Functions and categories in sentence
analysis. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 2nd edition (1988). New York: Prentice Hall.
Adger, D. (2003): Core Syntax. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Akhter, N. (2017). “The Golden Legend”. Knopf Publishing Group.

Carter, R. (2008). The Language and Literature Reader. New York: Routledge.
Chomsky, N. (1957): Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton.
Chomsky, N. (1965): Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1976): Studies on semantics in Generative Grammar. The Hague: Mouton.
Chomsky, N. (1981): Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
Chomsky, N. (1995): The Minimalist Program. Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (2002): Syntactic structures (2nd ed.). The Hague: Mouton.
Crystal, D. (1981). Directions in Applied Linguistics. London: Academic Press.
Freeman, D. C. (ed.) (1971). Linguistics and literary Style, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston
Kalpana, R. (2018). A Stylistic Analysis of Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.
Studies in Literature and Language , 16 (2), 19-21. Available from:
http://www.cscanada.net/index.php/sll/article/view/10257 DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/10257

Khan & Tallat (2015). “Stylistics Analysis of The Poem ‘To Autumn’ By John Keats”,
International Journal of Academic Research and Reflection, 3(1), 127-137

Lawal, R. A. (1997), Pragmatics in Stylistics: A speech Act Analysis of Soyinka‘s Telephone

Conversation R. A Lawal (ed.) Stylistics in theory and practice, Ilorin: Paragon books.
Leech, G. (1969), A linguistic guide to English Poetry‖, London: Longman.
Leech, G. and Short, M. (1981). Style in Fiction, London: Longman
Mönnink, I., (2000): On the Move: The Mobility of Constituents in the English Noun Phrase: a
Multi-method Approach. Atlanta: Rodopi.

Quirk, R., S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, and J. Svartvik (1972): A grammar of contemporary

English. London: Longman.
Simpson, P. (2004). Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students. Psychology Press.

Wales, K. (1990). A Dictionary of Stylistics. London: Longman.

Widdowson, H.G. (1992) Practical Stylistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Widdowson, H.G.(1975). Stylistics and the Teaching of literature. London: Longman