Fantastical Four - A Stylistics Study of Four Authors of Fantasy

Abstract: This essay is a stylistic investigation of four fantasy authors - Terry Pratchett, J. K. Rowling, Robert Jordan and George R. R. Martin. Three novels from each of their series were chosen, and the first 100 sentences of each one of these twelve novels were extracted and examined. The linguistic features investigated were the N/V-quota, the lexical density, the number of words/sentence, the use of perfect verb forms and the use of irregular sentences. The findings show that the perfect forms increase slightly from earlier novels to later novels, and that dialogue triggers the use of irregular sentences and a lower use of perfect forms. The N/V-quota and lexical density changes, due to variations in characters' point of view, descriptive parts and the use of verbs. Descriptions also seem to affect the number of words used. The lexical density seems to be higher in texts with much dialogue.