STYLOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF MAIK ORTSERGA’S ‘SEASON OF RAIN’

Abstract

Stylistics of counting which is widely known as stylometry or stylostatistics has been effective in identifying authors of disputed texts or authors’ idiosyncrasies. This study examines recurrent linguistic stylistic features in ‘Season of Rain’ under graphology, phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics.  The authors adopted Enkvist’s (1973) Statistical Universals’ approach for analysing ‘Season of Rain.’ This approach entails that a stylolinguist or stylostatistician should select dominant features that texts have in common. These universal features establish that such works belong to a particular author. The primary datum is Ortserga’s ‘Season of Rain’ which was posted on his Facebook wall on the 27th May, 2022. The instrument for data elicitation involved critical reading of the select poem; classifying these style markers into graphology, phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics then counting and discussing their stylistic relevance. It has been discovered that grapho-phonological style markers produce sound-meaning nexus. The repetition of phonic devices and sentential structures brings about phonological and syntactic foregrounding. Semantic features enhance the understanding of the poem under study and have allegorical and metaphorical interpretations.