The prose style of Addison and Steele in the periodical essay
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Abstract
Readers of the Tatler, the Spectator, and the Guardian have made two kinds of statements about the styles of the chief contributors, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. On one hand, readers and editors have conceded the difficulty of distinguishing between the essays written by Addison and those written by Steele. On the other hand, they have generally agreed that Addison's style was noticeably superior to Steele's, although there have been some, especially in recent years, who have expressed a preference for Steele's
prose. The purpose of the present study has been to analyze the periodical essays of these two very similar writers in order to isolate any observables differences in their styles. Thus we are looking for linguistic features which are the result of a fairly high degree of stylistic choice, although such stylistic choice is always subject to limitations
within certain dimensions: linguistic, historical,
subject matter, and genre.
The study begins with an analysis of the lexicon, using three sample essays by each of the writers. The distribution of monosyllables and of form-classes, particularly nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, is very similar in the two writers; however, the pattern of recurrence of nouns, especially in
Steele's essays, is noteworthy. The total number of verbs is also similar, but there are significant differences in the kinds of verbs used and in the use of verbals. More important than a count of words is an analysis of the quality of words; that is, the figurative language, the proportion of
abstract and concrete words, and the stereotypic nature of qualifiers.
Since the style of these two men, and that of many of their contemporaries, has often been described as "conversational," an attempt has been made to isolate syntactic and rhythmic patterns which account for th1s description. Factors
considered are the relationships established between the writer and the reader; the effect of right- and left-branching, self-embedded, and mid-branching clauses; the size of breath-groups;
and the repetition of stress patterns. An analysis
of these factors shows that Addison usually addresses the reader from a position of authority, and Steele puts himself on an equal footing with the reader. Addison's sentences are often right-branching, while Steele more frequently
uses self-embedded or mid-branching structures. Moreover, the rhythm of Addison's prose is characterized by fairly regular breath-groups and a tendency to use the prepositional phrase to establish a rhythmic pattern. Steele's breath-groups
are often long or else broken up into short, jerkry
stress patterns, utilizing infinitives or doublets (word-pairs).
The study concludes with an investigation of sequence-signals and other syntactic, semantic, and rhythmic features which bind the total discourse. The concluding chapter is an analysis of an essay (Tatler No. 219) which has been assigned
to Steele, but has sometimes been claimed for Addison. An application of the findings of this study shows a high probability that the essay was written by Steele, not Addison.
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