COGNITIVE STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF ASYMMETRY BY LISA HALLIDAY

Abstract

There are various methods that have been used to discover the sublime mysteries of literary texts, cognitive stylistics is one of most valuable methods. Its focus is to deduct meanings though these meanings of the texts are located in the formal construction of the literary text, readers can approach meanings by using some aspects of their prior knowledge (schema). This study is a cognitive stylistic analysis of Lisa Halliday’s “Asymmetry”. The novel contains three parts. In this research, the researcher’s main objectives were; to explain how writer goes beyond the words to set up rich representation of alternate worlds, to employ figures of speech as features of creativity and novelty and to understand certain types of conceptual metaphors used by writer to create certain cognitive representation. The researcher has used two theories; schema theory and conceptual metaphor theory to analyze the text. Schema theory is the collection of individual’s background knowledge and their experiences that provide interpretation of new information. Cognitive Metaphor Theory facilitates its readers and writers with a set of tools to consider metaphor within mental functioning. This theory deals with mapping between source domain and target domain. The researcher has used qualitative method in this study. The data has selected in forms of chunks. The researcher found how a writer used figurative language in order to show the novelty of her novel. Hence, the researcher has concluded her research by saying that the novel is highly creative and the writer has used many of figures of speech.