Figurative Devices in Selected American Military Creeds
A Stylistic Study
Abstract
Military discourse has a considerable impact on the lives of people all over the world, yet only few scholars have paid considerable attention to this sort of discourse. This leads to an obvious need to investigate this genre from different perspectives including stylistics which is the main concern of this study. The study is intended to stylistically analyze a sample of three American military creeds. The study hypothesizes that American military creeds have their own figurative devices which make them distinct texts, and that the figurative devices employed in military creeds vary in terms of their frequencies and functions. The study also hypothesizes that, being written discourse, military creeds are figuratively based, and that the employed figurative devices have a complementary role. They all contribute together to fulfill the creeds’ aims and convey their intended messages. The selected samples are analyzed in the light of Leech and Short’s (2007) model which accounts for figurative devices. The results of analysis show that military creeds have their own distinctive stylistic features, and they are figuratively based. The results also show that the stylistic figurative devices characterizing military creeds have a complementary role in that they all contribute together to achieve the creeds' aims and convey their intended messages.
Downloads
References
Abdulxamitovna, S. H. (2022). Stylistics of Inspiration in the Artistic Text. International Journal of Innovative Analyses and Emerging Technology, 2(4), 51-56.
Airman. (2020). Military-history creed. fandom.com/wiki. https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Airman%27s_Creed
Archive. (2020). Army.mil. standto/archive. https://www.army.mil/standto/archive/2020/01/03
Ausa.org. (2020). History-nco-creed. Ausa. https://www.ausa.org/history-nco-creed
Bhinder, N. (2021). Leksychni osoblyvosti suchasnoho anhlomovnoho viiskovoho dyskursu [Lexical peculiarities of modern English language military discourse]. Problemy humanitarnych nauk: zbirnyk naukovych prats Drohobytskoho derzhavnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu imeni Ivana Franka. Seriia «Filolohiia» – Problems of Humanities «Philology» Series: a collection of scientific articles of the Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University, 45(5), 52–60.
Brendler, J. A. (1997). Physical Metaphor in Military Theory and Doctrine: Force, Friction, or Folly. Army command and general staff coll fort leavenworth ks school of advanced military studies.
Burke, M., & Coats, K. (2022). Stylistics and children’s literature. Language and Literature, 31(1), 3-10.
Burnett, H. (2019). Signalling games, sociolinguistic variation and the construction of style. Linguistics and Philosophy, 42(5), 419-450.
Bussmann, H., Kazzazi, K., & Trauth, G. (1996). Routledge dictionary of language and linguistics. London: Routledge.
Carter, R., & Stockwell, P. (2008). The language and literature reader. London: Routledge.
Defense, L. I. E. L. C. (2011). U.S. Military Culture and Training Environment: Defense Language Institute English Language Center.
Ellis, J. M. (1977). The Theory of Literary Criticism: A Logical Analysis California: University of California Press.
Enkvist, N. E. (2016). Linguistic stylistics. In N. E. Enkvist (Ed.), Linguistic stylistics: De Gruyter Mouton.
Flusberg, S. J., Matlock, T., & Thibodeau, P. H. (2018). War metaphors in public discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 33(1), 1-18.
Gray, M. (1984). A Dictionary of Literary Terms. London: Longman Press.
Hejal, A. J. J. (2006). Stylistics: A Contact between Linguistics and Literary Criticism. Journal of the College of Basic Education Al Mustansinyah University, 48, 1-10.
Hendricks, R. K., Demjén, Z., Semino, E., & Boroditsky, L. (2018). Emotional implications of metaphor: Consequences of metaphor framing for mindset about cancer. Metaphor and Symbol, 33(4), 267-279.
Hockett, C. F. (1955). A Course in Modern Linguistics (1958). New York: Manual of Phonology, Bloomington.
Johnstone, B. (2017). Characterological figures and expressive style in the enregisterment of linguistic variety. Language and a sense of place: Studies in language and region, 283-300.
Kemertelidze, N., & Manjavidze, T. (2013). Stylistic repetition, its peculiarities and types in modern English. European Scientific Journal, 9(10).
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago/IL: Chicago University Press.
Leech, G., & Short, M. H. (1981). A linguistic introduction to English fictional prose. New York: Longman.
Leech, G., & Short, M. H. (2007). Style in fiction: A linguistic introduction to English fictional prose. London: Pearson Education.
MacKenzie, M. (2020). Why do soldiers swap illicit pictures? How a visual discourse analysis illuminates military band of brother culture. Security Dialogue, 51(4), 340-357.
Mammadzade, A. F. (2013). Lexical features of English military discourse. Вісник Запорізького національного університету. Філологічні науки(1), 139-142.
McArthur, T. (1992). The Oxford Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nashruddin, N., Alam, F. A., Alam, Z., & Niskarlina, N. (2022). The Application of Visual-Pictures Sequence to Increase Students' Writing Ability. Ethical Lingua: Journal of Language Teaching and Literature, 9(1), 53-60.
Nørgaard, N., Busse, B., & Montoro, R. (2010). Key terms in stylistics: A&C Black.
Ogar, J. N., Nwoye, L., & Bassey, S. A. (2019). Archetype of globalization: illusory comfort of neo-colonialism in Africa. International Journal of Humanities and Innovation (IJHI), 2(3), 90-95.
Okongor, T. A. (2015). A Lexico-Semantic Analysis of Military Language. International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies, 2(3), 652.
Osgood, C. E. (1960). Some effects of motivation on style of encoding. In C. E. Osgood (Ed.), Style in language (pp. 293-306). London: Longman.
Oxford, D. (1933). Oxford Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press.
Paparone, B. C. R. (2008). On Metaphor We Are Led by. Military Review. Ph.D., U.S. Army, Retired. Military Review.
Parhankangas, A., & Renko, M. (2017). Linguistic style and crowdfunding success among social and commercial entrepreneurs. Journal of business venturing, 32(2), 215-236.
Park, M. (2020). Investigating Target Tasks, Task Phases, and Indigenous Criteria for Military Aviation English Assessment. Language Assessment Quarterly, 17(4), 337-361.
Punter, D. (2007). Metaphor: The new critical idiom. London and New York: Routledge.
Quirk, R. (1969). The Use of English. London: London Group Ltd.
Rosengren, I. (1972). Style as choice and deviation. Style, 3-18.
Semino, E., Demjén, Z., & Demmen, J. (2018). An integrated approach to metaphor and framing in cognition, discourse, and practice, with an application to metaphors for cancer. Applied Linguistics, 39(5), 625-645.
Short, M. (1996). Exploring The Language of Poems, Plays and Prose. London: Longman.
Stranzy, P. (2005). Encyclopedia of linguistics. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn.
Tannen, D. (2005). Conversational style: Analyzing talk among friends. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Verdonk, P. (2002). Stylistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wales, K. (2014). A Dictionary of Stylistics (3rd ed.). New York: Taylor & Francis Group.
Whiteley, S., & Canning, P. (2017). Reader response research in stylistics. Language and Literature, 26(2), 71-87.
Widdowson, H. G. (1975). Stylistics and the Teaching of literature. London: Longman.
.png)
