2.1 Introduction of Pragmastylistics

Pragmastylistics, as the common area that is studied in both literary stylistics and theoretical stylistics, is a relatively new area in linguistics. Pragmastylistics, a combination between pragmatics and stylistics, is regarded as a discourse-oriented approach of literary study. The concept of pragmastylistics was first put forward by Van Dijk (1976:23-24). Many linguists made a great attach to the feasibility and significance of applying Speech Act Theory to the domain of literary criticism and used Grice’ s implicature to interpret literary text, which is regarded as a preliminary discussion of pragmastylistics. The 1980s was the prosperous time of the development of pragmastylistics. In 1988, the first international symposium on pragmastylistics was held in Abo Akademi University, Finland. Moreover, the discipline orientation, theoretical principles, methodology and the application of the pragmatic theories to the specific case study on various literary genres such as novel, drama and poetry are embraced in the scope of the study. Since 1990, a great number of books and papers related to the discipline have appeared: The Pragmatics of Style (Hickey, 1990), Pragmatics: An Introduction（Mey. J. ，2001）, etc. 

China also does some researches in the field of pragmastylistics: Feng Zongxin (1997, 1998, 2002) applies the cooperative theory and politeness theory in the dramatic dialogue analysis; Zhao Chaozhu (2001) studies, from the pragmatic perspective, on the stylistic implicature of the English novel conversation. Chen Haiqing (2009) elaborates that the nature of interaction in literary text as a process is actually the transmission of author’s intention and the reader’s active uptake, gap-filling and response to it. Chen considers the gap-filling as the ways of realizing the perlocutionary act.

2.2 Theories of Stylistics

As an important part of pragmastylistics research, stylistic analysis is a key. Stylistics, as is defined, is a branch of linguistics which studies style in a scientific and systematic way concerning the manners/linguistic features of different varieties of language at different levels (Dong Qiming, 2008). To analyze the text, people must make it clear the procedure of stylistic analysis, which mainly includes linguistic description and contextual factors analysis that is also called register in linguistics. The stylistic analysis is the concrete aspect of pragmastylistics.

2.2.1 Linguistic Description

Linguistic description is a way to analyze a text from lexical, syntactic, semantic perspectives, etc. It mainly focuses on what people speak, how they express ideas with various words, sentences and tones. Some excellent utterances is worthy of exploring and learning. For instance, words can be pided into dynamic words and static words, or formal words and informal words. Different words show different emotions. For example, “Female” and “male” are more formal than “women” and “men”, and the former ones seem more objective.

Syntax is about sentences. It studies the sentence length, sentence types, tenses as well as voices. The sentence structure is the foundation of language expression. A complete sentence gives a complete meaning. Interestingly, people express the same idea with different sentences; people use the same sentence to show different ideas. “ I like playing the piano” and “ I like to play the piano” indicate the same meaning but imply different degrees of feeling. The former is evidently a long-term hobby, the latter a whim.

Semantics is about meaning—the effectiveness of expression. For the purpose of achieving the desired effect of expression, inpiduals will employ some skills and devices to make their words more plentiful and vivid. Rhetoric is an important method.

2.2.2 Register

Register is to use an appropriate type of language according to the context. If the context of situation is talked about, “field”, “tenor” and “mode” should be taken into consideration. Register is mainly about the basic information about an event, involving time, place, characters and events. Register gives an overall view for people about the events and context of situation.