Style: Moods, Tropes, Values

Dale Larson
Grays Harbor College
This chart does for style what Descartes did for the analysis of geometry: it coordinates grammatical modes, or moods in writing, to reveal points — styles — in the larger universe of discourse. Centered on literary tropes and values, it’s a playful analogue coordinating mathematical with alphabetic symbol. Geoffrey Hartman (Criticism in the Wilderness, p. 263) has a definition of style suggesting something of the analogue, and its playful seriousness: "There exist, of course, specifically literary concepts that could be associated with the idea of playing — irony, equivocation, ambiguity, even allegory. None of these are really clear in separation. The question of style subsumes them all. Style is the ‘line play’ of the critic or artist."
 
Interrogative Mood (?)                             +
Synechdochical Trope                             —
Values: Concrete+/Non-Assertion—
 
 

Synechdoche

Part/Whole Substitution:  x is a part of x
"Have you brought your wheels today?"

          +                     Indicative Mood (.)
         +                     Metaphorical Trope
                                Values: Concrete+/Assertion+
 
 

Metaphor

Direct Identification:  x is y
"My car is a gem."
Indirect Negation: x is [not] y
"Your car is a gem: .  .  .  [you're a fool to think so]."

Irony





Subjunctive Mood (:)                                —
Ironical Trope                                            —
Values: Abstract—/Non-Assertion—
Associative Substitution: x is associated with  x
"Get that rattle-trap into the shop!"

Metonymy





        —                     Imperative Mood (!)
        +                      Metonymical Trope
                                Values: Abstract—/Assertion+