A Pragma-stylistic Analysis of John 3:16

The data for this study was extracted from the quarterly edition of Our Daily Bread (December 2007, January, February 2008) owing to its graphological layout. The aim of the study is to examine how a major stylistic meaning inducing technique in text composition manifests at the graphological level. John 3:16 in this devotional edition had been re-arranged by Anne Cetas to carry a lot of stylistic significance. The graphological study of this text featured the use of gothic printed letters, re-arrangement (verse paragraph), capitalization, and punctuation marks. Gothic printed and capitalization were graphically fussed together to coin VALENTINE out of this verse of the Scripture. Speech acts, presupposition, inference, implicature and mutual contextual beliefs (MCBs) were used to interpret the meaning of the text. The present analysis has widened the scope of knowledge in the area of stylistics and even that of pragmatics. The graphic representation of John 3:16 and the obvious images contained in it are a clear testimony to the fact that stylistics study and practice could be more than an academic gymnastics. The study validates the thesis which states that both style/form and context contribute in equal measure to any knowledge gained in the course of reading a text.