Style and Computation

Style can be considered as the way or technique in which an author communicates a message. Style concerns the way a text presents itself, or the form and shape of a text as different from its content, even though style also, in various ways, is inseparable from content. The style of a text concerns the way a text presents itself through sounds, visual impression, words, sentences, figures, and content, thereby creating a unique voice, tone, feeling, and atmosphere of the text. Style could also be considered as the how of a text as different from its what. “What” concerns the content of a text; “how” concerns the style, way, or technique in which the text presents itself. If an author chooses to delete all elements of style in order that the text has no style, it nonetheless is a stylistic choice which effects the meaning of the text. Even a shopping list exhibits a certain style, though it may try to reduce all stylistic choices in favour of a focus on content. Style cannot be annulled or cancelled, but some texts are more prone to stylistic analyses than others. In this volume, the contributors theorise five distinct levels of style, and analyse style in New Testament texts and contemporary Greek and Latin literature.