Stylistic Functions of Deictics and Clauses in Charles Dickens ’ "Little Dorrit”

The paper attempts to offer a model of stylistic investigation by focusing only on two functions related to style, namely the role of deictics and the role of clauses within the morphological and syntactic system as displayed by and within the Dickensian text. Thus, our analysis will be particularized onto the study of fragments from one of Dickens’ novels, Little Dorrit, in an attempt to unfold the stylistic peculiarities and constancies of the Dickensian writing. We will first try to briefly outline the specificity of any stylistic analysis within the domain of Stylistics and then we will contextualize Dickens’ writing within the larger frame of the history of English writing. The study of deictics and clauses finds its motivation in the endeavour to record Dickens’ fervour to clearly show what his fictional universe constitutes (the function of deictics) and to explain minutely what it consists of (the function of clauses)