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In:Practising Stylistics: Essays in Honour of Paul Simpson
Edited by Clara Neary, Simon Statham and Peter Stockwell
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 45] 2026
► pp. 121–137

Chapter 10
Space oddities

Comparing function and style in two types of talk

 | Uppsala University
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Abstract
In recognition of Paul Simpson’s commitment to the application of critical and non-critical methods of stylistics and discourse analysis to non-literary texts, in this chapter Dan McIntyre offers an analysis of a conversation between Mission Control and the astronauts who landed on the moon and of an MTV interview with the musician David Bowie. Focusing on two quite different examples of dialogic texts through the prism of Jakobson’s (1960) six functions of language, McIntyre illustrates how an analysis of non-literary texts can incorporate the concerns of mainstream stylistics. By applying a classic model of communication to these examples, McIntyre shows that non-literary texts can be understood through a specifically stylistic focus and, in so doing, reminds us that non-fictional, non-literary texts remain a valid object for stylistic analysis.
Article outline
  • Non-literary stylistics
  • Stylistics, poetics and the six functions of language
  • Text 1: The Apollo 11 moon landing, 20 July 1969
  • Text 2: Mark Goodman (MTV) interviews David Bowie, 1983
  • Conclusion
  • References
References (26)
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