Framework of Salah and Al-Ali (2025) for Cognitive Stylistic Analysis

Abstract

This study explores the Framework of Cognitive Stylistic Analysis by Salah and Al-Ali (2025) that unites the ideas of the Schema Theory ST and Deictic Shift Theory DST to explain the reading comprehension process, which usually relates to schema activation, inferencing, tracking the discourse and memory integration in dual mental usage, namely short and long-term memory. In contrast, reading experiences that affect the reader's immersion, emotional response, engagement, and narrative shifts. The framework begins with three basic schema elements, namely, world, text, and language schemas, which guide the interpretation. These schemas are activated and restructured through cognitive processes such as accretion, tuning, and restructuring. The model further explains the processes through which discourse may preserve, reinforce, or disrupt the expectations of the readers, thereby influencing the emotional and intellectual engagements in the process of reading. The deictic shifts in perspective, time, and space also affect the relationships between readers, characters, and events, fostering empathy and immersion. The framework is an integrated set of cognitive elements for research on the interaction between linguistic selections and mental processes in the meaning-making process. The model not only describes the stylistic features but also relates them to the thinking, feeling, and imagining process of the readers in the process of reading. It therefore provides a detailed and elaborate perspective of the interaction between the thoughts and the style within the narrative comprehension. Moreover, it reveals a potential to be expanded to the digital and multimodal texts, thereby becoming a precious contribution to literary studies, as well as cognitive science studies in the modern world.