文体学课件汇总

Topics covered

1. What is stylistics?

A. Definition, preferred object and caveats

B. Purpose of stylistics

C. Three Rs stylistic analysis conforms to

2. Developments in stylistics

A. A brief introduction

B. Foregrounding

C. Jakobson‘s ?poetic function‘

3. Is there a ?literary language‘?

A. A brief introduction

B. The ?literary language‘ issue

C. Probing ?literary language‘

Stylistics

Lecture One A Brief Introduction

What is stylistics?

?Stylistics is a method of textual interpretation in which a primacy of place is assigned to language. The reason why language is so important to stylisticians is that the various forms, patterns and levels that constitute linguistic structure are an important index of the function of the text.

?The preferred object:The preferred object of study in stylistics is literature

?Caveats: The first is that creativity and innovation in language use should not be seen as the exclusive preserve of literary writing.

The second caveat is that the techniques of stylistic analysis are as much about deriving insights about linguistic structure and function as they are about understanding literary texts.

Summary: In spite of its clearly defined area, methods and object of study, there remain a number of myths about contemporary stylistics. Most of the time, confusion about the compass of stylistics is a result of confusion about the compass of language. Moreover, stylistics is interested in language as a function of texts in context. So the more complete and context-sensitive the description of language then the fuller the stylistic analysis.

The purpose of stylistics

?To do stylistics is to explore language, and more specifically, to explore creativity in language use. Doing stylistics thereby enriches our ways of thinking about language and exploring language offers a substantial means on our understanding of text.

?But to do stylistics interest in language is always important in contemporary stylistics analysis, which is why you should never undertake to do stylistics unless you are interested in language.

Three Rs Practice of Stylistics should conform to

?stylistic analysis should be rigorous;

?stylistic analysis should be retrievable;

?stylistic analysis should be replicable.

Developments in Stylistics

?Important influence on Stylistics:

?1) The Greeks: there is indeed a case for saying that some stylistic work is very much a latter-day embodiment of traditional rhetoric.

?2) Russian Formalism and Prague School Structuralism: there is one particular field of academy inquiry, from the early twentieth century, that has had a more direct and lasting impact on the methods of contemporary stylistics. This field extends across two interrelated movements in linguistics, known as Russian Formalism and Prague School Structuralism.

?Among all the key figures in these two movements, one scholar, whose work actually links both movements, is Roman Jakobson, who moved from the Moscow circle to the Prague group in 1920. Many of the central ideas of these two schools have greatly influenced contemporary stylistics and two of the more durable theoretical contributions are the focus: the notion of foregrounding and the notion of the poetic function in language.

?1) Foregrounding:

?Definition: Foregrounding refers to a form of textual patterning which is motivated specifically for

literary-aesthetic purposes. Capable of working at any level of language, foregrounding typically involves a stylistic distortion of some sort, either through an aspect of the text which deviates from a linguistic norm or, alternatively, where an aspect of the text is brought to the fore through repetition or parallelism. ?Function of foregrounding: it should acquire salience in the act of drawing attention to itself. Furthermore, this

salience is motivated purely by literary considerations. In sum, if a particular textual pattern is not motivated for artistic purposes then it is not foregrounding.

?Issues raised by theory of foregrounding:

1) The most important is probably its reliance on the conce pt of a ?norm‘ in language.

2) A related issue concerns what happens when a once deviant pattern becomes established in a text.

Activity: Read the passage and come to the conclusion as to what is the author‘s written style and what kind of foregrounding is used here.

Analysis: The written style has been described by literary critics with epithets like ?flat‘, ?dry‘ ?restrained, ?journalistic‘ and even ?tough guy‘.

The language used is considered as marked non-adjectival pattern, which is foregrounded because it deviated fro our expectations about the ?normal‘ style of 20th century prose fiction.

Internal foregrounding:

Activity: read the following sentence in the novella Old Man and Sea and see what strikes you most. Foregrounding can be seen to work on two levels: both across and within texts. The type of foregrounding that works inside the text as a kind of deviation within a deviation is referred to as secondary foregrounding, known as internal foregrounding.

Jakobson’s ‘poetic function’

?J akobson‘s model of language comprises six key functions (Jakobson, 1960): conative, phatic，referential, emotive, poetic and metalingual functions of language.

?Alongside the referential function and the emotive function, there is one function that stands out particularly appealing to stylisticians. This is the poetic function, which Jakobson defines thus:‖the poetic function projects the principle of equivalence from the axis of selection into the axis of combination‖ (Jakobson, 1960).

?Activity for illustr ation of poetic function: read the opening line of W.H Auden‘s elegiac poem ?in Memory of W.B. Yeat‘ (1939) with the key verb removed and consider what sort of word would make an appropriate entry.?He __________ in the dead of winter.

?Analysis: there are a pool of possible lexical entries from which a choice is made, which is what Jakobson calls ?axis of selection‘. As to why one choice is made instead of others is up to whether the choice brings about a series of resonances across the line as a whole, re ferred to as ?axis of combination‘. In sum the way Auden uses language is a good illustration of Jakobson‘s poetic function at work: the particular language patterns he develops work to establish connections (a principle of equivalence) between the words he chooses from the pool of possible words (the axis of selection) and the words that are combined across the poetic line (the axis of combination).

Is There A ‘Literary Language’?

?Introduction: As far as most stylisticians are concerned, the short answer to this question is ?no‘. That is to say,

there exists no feature or pattern of language which inherently or exclusively ?literary‘ in all contexts. This may seem a curious stance to adopt given stylistics‘ close association with literary discourse. It is also the case that there have been, over the centuries, certain conventions in writing styles that mark certain literary epochs.

?The ‘literary language’ issue

?1) One of the most important concern in the practice of stylistics is that the language used in literary texts should

not be separated from its reflexes in the common resources of everyday discourse.

?2) If we describe this or that piece of discourse as ?literary language‘, we immediately place a linguistic boundary

around it. In fact it is the very freedom of linguistic possibility which is an index of creativity in language, not the presence of a fixed set of linguistic guidelines within which a writer must work.

?3) A third issue raised by the literary language debate is somewhat more ideological than methodological in its

general bearings.

Probing ‘literary language’

?Activity

?Tasks:

?1. How many speakers are there in the poem and how can we work this out from the text?

?2. When is the poem set, and how do we know?

?3. What sort of vocabulary is used in the poem? That is, is it modern or archaic, formal or conversational? ?4. Can you identify a rhyme scheme in the poem? If so, what sort of scheme is it?

?5. Can you spot any marked or unusual features of grammar in the poem?

?Read the poem and answer the above questions:

One Perfect Rose

?A single flow?r he sent me, since we met.

?All tenderly his messenger he chose;

?Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet –

?One perfect rose.

?I knew the language of the floweret;

?…My fragile leaves? it said, …his heart enclose.?

?Love long has taken for his amulet

?One perfect rose.

Now read the full version of the poem:

?One Perfect Rose

?A single flow‘r he sent me, since we met.

?All tenderly his messenger he chose;

?Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet –

?One perfect rose.

?I knew the language of the floweret;

??My fragile leaves‘ it said, ?his heart enclose.‘

?Love long has taken for his amulet

?One perfect rose.

?Why is it no one ever sent me yet

?One perfect limousine, do you suppose?

?Ah, no, it‘s al ways just my luck to get

?One perfect rose.

?Summary: A position which regards literary discourse as impervious to or resistant to linguistic analysis is utterly at odds with the rationale of modern stylistics. Stylistics is about interrogating texts, about seeing a text in the context of its other stylistic possibilities. Upholding the view that ?literary language‘ is somehow outside the boundaries of the overall language system does little to enable or facilitate the sort of textual intervention. It makes sense therefore to treat the concept of ?literary language‘ with a healthy degree of skepticism. ?Homework:

?Read the materials I assigned you and come to the conclusion what contributions both writers have made to Stylistics. Refer to your public mailbox: hdwyx2008@https://www.doczj.com/doc/db11793463.html, Password:8821520

The text by Hemingway

?He knelt down and found the tuna under the stern with the gaff and drew it toward him keeping it clear of the coiled lines. Holding the line with his left shoulder again, and bracing on his left hand and arm, he took the tuna off the gaff hook and put the gaff back in place. He put one knee on the fish and cut strips of dark red meat longitudinally from the back of the head of the tail. They were wedge-shaped strips and he cur them from next to the back bone down to the edge of the belly. When he had cut six strips he spread them out on the wood of the bow, wiped his knife on his trousers, and lifted the carcass of the bonito by the tail and dropped it overboard.

?…I don?t? think I can eat an entire one,? he said and drew his knife across one of the strips. He could feel the steady hard pull of the line and his left hand was cramped. It drew up tight on the heavy cord and he looked at it in disgust.

?…What kind of a hand is that,? he said. …Cramp then if you want. Make yourself into a claw. It will do you no good.??Come on, he thought and looked down into the dark water at the slant of the line. Eat it now and it will strengthen the hand. It is not the hand?s fault and you have been many hours with the fish. But you can stay with him for ever. Eat the bonito now.

?He picked up a piece and put it in his mouth and chewed it slowly. It was not unpleasant.

?Chew it well, he thought, and get all the juices. It would not be bad to wat with a little lime or with lemon or with

salt.

?…How do you feel, hand? ?he asked the cramped hand that was almost as still as rigour mortis. …I?ll eat some more for you.?

?He ate the other part of the piece that he had cut in two. He chewed it carefuylly and them spat out the skin.?…How does it go, hand? Or it is too early to know??

?He took another full piece and chewed it.

?…It is a strong full-blooded fish,? he thought. …I was lucky to get him instead of dolphin. Dolphin is too sweet. This is hardly sweet at all and all the strength is still in it.?

?There is no sense in being anything but practical though, he thought. I wish I had some salt. And I do not know whether the sun will rot or dry what is left, so I had better eat it all although I am not hungry. The fish is calm and steady. I will eat it all and then I will be ready.

?…Be patient, had,? he said. …I do this for you.?

?I wish I could feed the fish, he thought. He is my brother. But I must kill him and keep strong to do it. Slowly and conscientiously he ate all of the wedge-shaped strips of fish.

?He straightened up, wiping his hand on his trousers.

??the purple, formalized iridescent gelatinous bladder of a Portuguese man-of-war‘

Assignment for lecture 1 stylistics

Read the materials I assigned you and come to the conclusion what contributions both writers have made to Stylistics The Language of Literature by Roger Fowler and F. W. Bateson

Literature and Linguistics: Roger Fowler

Mrs Vendler, in her review (Vendler 1966) of my Essays on Style and Language(Fowler 1966) is apparently optimistic that ?descriptive linguistics will in the end be of immense use to literary criticism‘. If, however, we were to accept her generalizations about the critical attempts of linguists, we would have to doubt whether this prediction can come true; certainly it is doubtful that she wishes it. The hostility of Mrs Vendler‘s voice is depressingly familiar to those of us who have suffered from an unnecessary schism between ?language‘and ?literature‘which has so long marred English studies. Her tone betrays the fear, common among teachers of literature although perhaps less so among the great critics, that linguists may invade and ravage precious literary territory. I shall reserve my remarks on this opposition of linguists and critics until the end of this paper, commenting at the moment only that Mrs. Vendler‘s open invitation of confrontation in her first paragraph is a damaging strategy. […]

I hope that in these unsettled days linguists will be slow to claim too much, and literary critics for their part [will be] more patient than Mrs/ Vendler. One can agree on one level with some of her comments: ?that is what most linguists are – beginning students‘ (1966:458), ?linguists, who are simply undereducated in the reading of poetry, tend to take on, without realizing it, documents whose primary sense and value they are not equipped to absorb‘(460). In so far as this means that linguistics has only just started to attempt literary analysis, ad that linguistics has thus not yet finalized its methods, this is a just observation. But to turn it into an unkind accusation, as Mrs. Vendler does (as if ?linguists as a species are incapable of treating literature‘), is only harmful to the progress she pretends to welcome. True, sometimes linguists have approached literature with non-critical motives (e.g. Thorne 1965) and some work will probably be cited more often by linguists than by critics (Levin, 1962). I personally see no objection to a linguist deliberately advancing his linguistic research by the study of literary uses of language which really put his assumptions to the test. Critics and linguists […] should welcome the fact that we have at last turned to material which inevitably forces us out of our assurance. Although the ?use‘ of literature is really not the issue here, it needs comment because critics seem to consider that linguists doing such kinds of linguistic work with literature think it is critical work. The real allegation is that, perhaps because of their ?scientific‘ education, linguists are not equipped to know the difference between linguistic analysis and criticism, not indeed sensitive enough to be critics. This is nonsense. Many mathematicians and physical scientists are fine musicians and poets. There is no reason why a linguist should net be a humane, literate, sensitive person. He may write on literature (1) purely as a linguist for linguistic ends; (2) fro critical motives, using only a selection from his linguistic apparatus; or (3) no differently from the non-linguist, without appeal to linguistics at all. The there separate approaches are all valuable, and I would urge non-linguists to stay their conviction that a knowledge of linguistics must make only the first approach possible.

The primary justification for the use of the methods of linguistics in literary study is that noted by Mrs. Vendler

(1966: 458):‖any information about language is useful in studying an art-form whose stuff is language. If linguistics is defined as ?the study of language‘ tout court, then its contribution is unchallengeable. But this bleak logic doesn‘t allow that all specific brands of linguistics are admissible. Briefly, this means that, in the first case (1), although literature is language and therefore open to ordinary formal linguistic investigation, it has, like other formally distinctive texts, essentially distinctive contexts which the linguist no less than the critic must study. That is, the investigator must be curious about he extra-linguistic features which condition the distinctive style of a literary work. As for the applicability of different linguistics models (2), this is obviously variable., The appropriateness of the model is a concern for the individual analysts; just as important for this general discussion is that all those who engage in it realize that bland undefined accounts of ?linguistics‘ lead nowhere. There is no one linguistics except in community of certain basic and general ideals held since Saussure‘s time. We cannot switch on a standardized linguistic analysis machine and stand by while it puts out a definitive breakdown of a text. Doubtless the lack of such a device has its advantages.

My third prescription for a successful linguistic criticism is that it should proceed not merely from a theory of language but also from a respectful consideration of the demands and peculiarities of the many kinds of literary study. Now, the substance of this remark is addressed not only to linguists. There is no single thing ?criticism‘ any more than there is ?linguistics‘, although literary people, faced with the imagined threat of linguistics, tend to talk as if there is. (this impression is gained partly from the tendency to use ?criticism‘ and ?critical‘ as treasured value terms/ ) […] In the real world, we are dealing with , above all, teachers of literature whose pedagogical relations with their subject matter and with their students are much more vital than the role of the public critic. Most often literature teachers are involved in nothing more mythical than, at various degrees of sophistication, showing the ways to efficient reading of literature. Many a time literary study comprises historical, stylistic or openly technical investigation: genre description, stylistic tests of authorship, metrical analysis, for example, For some reason, ?interpretation‘(an exceedingly difficult term) and ?evaluation‘have come to be regarded as the only activities which are worth doing and which are actually done. Just as we need to be wary in our use of ?linguistics‘ as a term describing all procedures involving the study of language, so we should give careful scrutiny to terms like ?criticism‘, ?interpretation‘, ?evaluation‘, ?explication‘, ?stylistics‘, ensuring that we do not think that there is just one objective (of whatever kind0 in studying literature, with ?linguistics‘straightforwardly an alternative ?technique‘ for reaching that goal.

Literature and Linguistics: a reply by F. W. Bateson

Roger Fowler is in effect proposing --- both here and in the collection of essays he edited (Fowler 1966) which was reviewed by Mrs. Vendler--- an academic alliance between post-Saussure linguistics and post-I.A. Richards criticism. And why on earth shouldn‘t he? A priori, as it were, it sounds a good idea. After all, even if a literary masterpiece is more than the sum of its words, still when the words are taken away, what is left? Blank pages! To invite the reader to look hard, really hard, at the words on the page is indeed what the modern critical doctrine of close reading amounts to, when it is reduced to its simplest terms. And, since a similar concentration is the initial premise of modern descriptive linguistics, some degree of amicable cooperation that Mr. Fowler and his colleagues are pleading for is a vain hole.

[…]

Descriptive linguistics is always at least headed towards total description --- a detached, objective, universally available discipline (whatever the user‘s age, sex, nationality, or culture). Literature, on the other hand, has its ineradicable subjective core, which tends to define the range and effectiveness of its uses. The point of departure between the two specializations from the vulgar tongue can also be put in strictly linguistic terms. It is a mater either of breaking down the sentence into its separable parts --- or else of taking the sentence as the unit and building u[ larger units as the sentences accumulate. The close reader conscientiously intent on the words in front of him, can opt either way. If he is a natural grammarian he will divide and subdivide the verbal material; if he has been born a literary critic he will synthesize and amalgamate it/ What is it, then, in the words of literature that encourages the literary reader to amalgamate and not to subdivide? The answer to this question is a crucial one in my argument with Mr. Fowler, though to prove it as a case is proved in a court of law would require a book instead of a short article. But I can at least summarize the theoretical objections to the mating of the language of description and the language of evaluation. Grammar, for one thing, is essentially logical in its linguistic presuppositions, and as such it is governed by the principle of non-contradiction; literary criticism, on the other hand, assumes in the verbal material criticized the presence of opposite and discordant qualities whose provisional

balance and reconciliation the common reader will agree under certain circumstances to accept. Those circumstances, considered linguistically, can be summed up in the word ?style‘ --- a term that includes the whole armoury of rhetorical devices, phonetic and semantic, with their larger structural extensions such as tragedy and comedy. The function of style is to unify --- or at least encourage the reader to attempt to unity --- literature‘s disparate linguistic parts. As such it is the exact opposite of grammar, whose function is not primarily to unite but to divide. (A sentence is grammat6ical when it separate parts have been found subject to classification, the ?parsing‘ process, and then shown to cohere.) Although some grammaticalness certainly survives in literature, it is as it were accidentally and incidentally, a left-over of logic from the common speech of which the language of literature is one derivative. The reader is scarcely aware of it. What he is aware of – especially in poetry but also in prose with any literary pretensions --- is the style (in the wider sense already indicated). If my attention is drawn to breaches of grammar in a work of literature, I can always invoke the magic word ?ellipsis‘ --- a term apparently invented to save grammar‘s face when we really ignore it.

May I offer Mr. Fowler a definition of literature? A work of literature is successful linguistically, the best words in the best order, when appropriate stylistic devices co-operate to unify humane value judgments, implicit or explicit, on some aspect of life as it is lived in the writer‘s own society. As for the reader of such a work, he will only be successful if he registers, consciously or at least semiconsciously, the unifying stylistic devices that enable him to respond to the human situation available to him in it. In a word, the role played by grammar in description is comparable to that of style in evaluation. But if comparable they are also mutually incompatible, because grammar is primarily analytic in its methods and premises, whereas style is essentially synthetic.

To Mr. Fowler‘s op0timistic escape-clause that, because ?some mathematicians and physical scientists are fine musicians and poets‘, therefore a linguistic training will sometimes be useful for the literary critic, the answer is simple and obvious: musical physicists do not improve as physicists by learning to play the piano. I am not sure who Mr. Fowler‘s mathematicians and physicists are who are what are also fine poets, but these ambidextrous geniuses certainly don‘t grow on blackberry bushes. I can‘t think of one/ On the other hand, it is common knowledge that most structural linguists don‘t write particularly good English prose. Why indeed should they as long as they are intelligible? The temperamental predisposition that results in Smith becoming an eminent grammarian is normally very different from that which turns Brown into a good critic. Let us agree to be different. Stylistic discrimination is the one indispensable prerequisite for the aesthetic appreciation of great literature. That some knowledge of linguistics, historical and descriptive, has certain minor uses in literary studies is not to be denied, but for the native speaker of English this additional knowledge is, as it were, supplementary either in eking out one‘ birthright by the help available in the OED for an unusual word or idiom, or in saving one from incidental errors outside on e‘s immediate range of linguistic experience. Such information may be compared to the odds and ends of social and political history with which the scholar-critic will also have to equip himself. A little learning of this kind will go a long way, though with none at all the reader‘s fingers can sometimes be badly burnt. But for the literary beginner the best way to acquire such information --- including the sign-posts to the topic‘s more sophisticated levels --- is ad hoc; in other words, by consulting a glossary or an editor‘s notes only when he needs them. What he naturally resets is the traditional compulsory spoon-feeding with grammar or history most which he will never need. Of course, if he is interested in either descriptive linguistics or the history of the language or social history for its own sake, that is another matter. My real quarrel with Mr. Fowler --- or rather with the cause for which he is pleading --- is that he is presenting the study of language as a necessary concomitant to the study of literature. For the native speaker, except occasionally and superficially, this is simply not true. It is not even for the reading of Chaucer.

This has been a fighting retort and I hope the words I have used will not seems unnecessarily offensive. But pace Mr Fowler, the things I have said do need to be said.

Language and literature: Roger Fowler

Mr Bateson‘s attempt to disquality linguistics as a discipline of relevance to literature comprises a very cunning and apparently substantial argument interwoven with a misleading line of polemic. In his usual masterly fashion, he has constructed a case against which it is very difficult to argue in an organized way. I will try to show that his argument (1) rests on premises which cannot provide an adequate aesthetic for literature, (2) is ineffective as a disqualification of linguistics because of misconceptions about the nature of linguistics, (3 is motivated by a set of prejudices which inhibit constructive discussion of the present issue. […]

(1)Mr bateson‘s case is basically a somewhat complicated version of ideas he has offered linguists and

medievalists for at least the last ten years. He compounds (a) Coleridge‘s?homely definition‘ of poetry as ?the best words in the best order‘; (b) I.A. Richards‘ distinction between langue and parole. Theses formulae are jumbled together to support an assertion of a unique and exclusive aesthetic so constructed as apparently to make literature inaccessible to objective study […]

(a)?The best words in the best order‘ is, except in Mr Bateson‘s first book, an empty catch-phrase. Coleridge

used it to distinguish verse from prose, and his requirement that ?the words, the media, must be beautiful, and ought to attract your notice‘ becomes impertinent when the phrase is employed to mark off literature from non-literature, as Mr Bateson uses it currently. It is obviously at best incomplete when applied to most kinds of poetry, and quite wrong for narrative verse ad for drama and the novel. […]

(b)I. A. Richards‘distinction between emotive and scientific language is generally agreed to be without

reasonable foundation: it is much too simple to serve as a linguistic theory or to provide a isolation of the characteristics of ?literary language‘. […]

(c)I do not think the reference to de Saussure is merely a sop to the linguists. Unfortunately, taken as a

serious proposal it doesn‘t make sense. Langue and parole together, according to de Saussure, make up the faculte du langage. Langue is the abstract system of rules which enables a speaker to communicate with others. Parole is a particular concrete act of speech, or a corpus collected from many such acts.

Chomsky has recently revived and adapted the distinction using the terms competence and performance.

Mt Bateson, like de Saussre ad Chomsky, sayd that linguists study langue, which is true in so far as linguists write grammars of languages and enquire into the linguistic mental capabilities of speakers. But, Mr Bateson says, […] the study of literature is the study of parole– or rather, the study of a special kind of parole of which the langue but ?style‘ […] This is an illegitimate and meaningless adaptation of de Saussure. It is illegitimate because the original scheme works only if it applied in the same way for all uses of language; it is meaningless because of the poverty of Mr. Bateson‘s definition of the linguistic components of style and because of his misunderstanding of the interests and procedures of grammatical study in relation to langue and parole.

(2)[…] we should not regard the linguistic description of a text as the discovery of structure. A linguist ought only

to claim to make articulate what a native speaker tacitly knows about a text he understands. In this way, linguistic description is a representation of 9part of0 the process of understanding: it shows how a native speaker encounters and interprets sentences generated by the grammar (langue) that he knows. The ?linguistic analysis‘of literature is an attempt to make explicit part of the process of reading by the use of terms and concepts which have psychological reality (are humane even if they are scientific) through being appropriate to the reader‘s individually internalized yet culturally shared grammar of the language. Some such description is necessarily because speakers do not know about their language anything like as efficiently as they know it. I see no reason derived from either the supposed opposition of science and literature, or the theoretical potential of linguistics (as distinct from the claims of many linguist and some linguist critics), why such a linguistics should be intrinsically alien to certain parts of literary study.

(3)The ?misleading line of polemic‘derives from Mt. Bateson‘s feelings about the old and disgraceful

?language-literature controversy‘. There are still large numbers of people in English departments who, for reasons of academic politics, feel obliged to parcel the world into two intractably opposed groups. This is not the proper place to make a fuss about that issue, since only by association does it affect the dispute between Mr.

Bateson and me. Modern linguistics is only accidentally the ?successor‘ of the old philological medievalism.

Linguistics lays fair claim to be an autonomous discipline in its central concern, the theory of langue; it provides a theoretical status for parole, bur needs augmenting by other disciplines in the study of parole. In places where parole is studied (e.g. English departments) linguistics has obvious uses. But its value cannot be appreciated while people‘s words and votes are governed by oversimplified and historically irrelevant ?sets‘towards imagined opponents. Reciprocal ignorance about literary criticism and linguistics is also, as I have several times argued deeply inhibiting.

We can now attempt to rebuild the theory of style. I will argue that linguistic theory provides a definition for a level of language which we may call ?style‘. Since no workable theory has ever been constructed which uniquely isolates a category of language ?literature‘, there seems no good reason why the concept of style should be exclusively literary. (Whether or not a particular text Is regarded by its readers as being literature is an important cultural fact, but an irrelevant fact from our point of view) The linguistic theory which provided a definition of style by the same

definition establishes the contribution, and the limitation of contribution, of grammar to the study of style. […]

I hope the general strategy of my reorientation is clear. The distinction between competence and performance provides the only fruitful way of understanding the special formal qualities (style among them) or texts. Wellek and Warren speak if ?the contrast of the language system of a literary work of art with the general usage of the time‘(1949:177). The contrast attempted is evident from the mention in the next line of ?common speech, even unliterary speech‘: the false norm of non-literary language is being invoked to provide background for a spurious category ?literary language‘. But in reality the sense in which there is a gap between the ?normal language‘and any distinctive text is the same for all texts: there is the grammar (langue, competence) and what you do with the grammar (parole, performance, e/g. texts identified stylistically). In the light of this fundamental tenet of linguistic theory there is no formal category ?literature‘. In my opinion no study of text which recognises the critical importance of ?style‘ can afford to define ?style‘ against any background other than that provided by a linguistic theory of this kind.

Language and literature: a reply by F. W. Bateson

Would I allow my sister to marry a linguist? It is a good question, And I suppose, if I am hones, I must admit that I would much prefer not to have a linguist in the family. But at least I would not forbid the banns --- as Lincoln Barnett, for example, would certainly do. Here is a specimen passage from Barnett‘s informative if unprofessional The Treasure of Our Tongue:

To almost everyone who cherishes the English language for its grace ad beauty, its combination of precision and flexibility, the social philosophy of the Structural Linguist seems past comprehension --- epitomizing indeed the …anti-intellectualism of the intellectual?. Among all the forces of cultural vandalism at work in the country, their influence had been, perhaps, the most insidious. The vulgarities of advertising and mudflows of jargon can be shoveled asked. But the impact of the Structural Linguists is like that of slow atomic fallout: through their influence on teacher s? colleges and teachers, hence on the schools and the pupils within them they are incapacitating the coming generation. (Barnett 1964: 85-86)

Mr. Barnett is, of course, an American and the linguists who supply him with the monstrosities of prose style that he has collected in his book are also Americans. But one knows what he means, and the vandalism has, I am afraid, begun to infect some English linguists too.

Mr. Fowler is not a vandal and I have no faults to find with his English. What I do find disturbing is in his attempt to woo the literary critic and student is his inability to provide actual, concrete examples of the usefulness of the linguistic approach to a proper understanding and appreciation of particular poems, plays, or novels --- or even particular parts or aspects of such works. Instead all that we get is theorizing --- often of much interest simply as theory --- and some skillful linguistic propaganda.

[…]our two disciplines do not overlap. Under the condition that I have been assuming --- viz. that the literary students is a sensible native speaker of the language whose literature he is studying --- the linguistic assistance he will need is surely minimal. Occasionally, in the case of the long historical continuum that we think of as English literature (which gets spatially more extensive each year as well as temporally older), a glossary, dictionary or grammar will have to be consulted, but linguistically English literature remains essentially homogeneous. Once you have got used to Chaucer‘s spelling an pronouns, or the oddities of vocabulary employed by some Scotch, American or Australians writers, there are really next to no language problems for an English reader that the context of the passage will not solve. Style, however, is different; its complexities and implications are almost infinite. Language, as we say, is ?picked up‘. Style, on the other hand, has to be learnt --- and taught. It should not be forgotten that ?rhetoric‘ was the intellectual core of Greek and Roman education, and that the only languages the school-boy acquires by a conscious and deliberate process, then and now, are foreign languages. In an English-speaking country English is breathed in as part of the cultural atmosphere. […]

The student of literature cannot be content with a description of the external mechanics or mere structure of langue. As he reads a work of literature he will have to almost identify himself with the author he is reading or with his various dramatis personae. Now the critical controls to be applied to prevent any misreading of this or that particular passage or work are the inter-subjective phenomena of style. Whatever Coleridge may or may not have meant by his ?homely definition‘, the study of literature written in one‘s native language reduces itself to a recognition that the words with which the reader is confronted are (or are not) really in their context, approximately the best words in the bet order. In the case of the author a style precedes the words. He knows more or less what he wants to say and how he proposes to say it before the final verbal formulation on paper. The reader, on the other

hand, finds the process reversed, beginning with the specific individual words and working his way through them as it wee, to reach the style. And it is only via the style that he becomes capable of a proper literary response to what he is reading.

[…]Mr. Fowler finds it difficult to pass from the linguistic to the stylistic phase, as I have described them. And as a consequence the full aesthetic response is apparently denied to him. Other linguists, of course, remain solidly stuck at the level of langue. Ultimately it is, I suggest, because of this verbal immobility, this failure to recognize that in literature language is for the reader a mere preliminary to style --- as style itself is a preliminary to the literary response in its fullest sense --- that the critic finds so little nourishment in modern linguistics in any of its forms. Not here, O Appolo, are haunts meet for thee.

Lecture 2 Stylistics and Levels of Language

Topics covered

1. Stylistics and levels of language

A. Levels of language

B. Illustration of levels of language in stylistic analysis

2. Levels of language at work: an example from poetry

A. Choosing models for analysis

B. Exploring levels of language in the poem

C. Stylistic analysis and interpretation of the poem

3. Style, register and dialect

Levels of Language

Levels of language Branches of language study

1)The sound of spoken language; the way words are pronounced Phonology, phonetics

2)The pattern of written language; the shape of language on the page Graphology

3)The way words are constructed; words and their constituent structures Morphology

4)The way words combine with other words to form Phrases and sentences Syntax, grammar

5)The words we use; the vocabulary of a Language Lexical analysis, lexicology

6)The meaning of words and sentences Semantics

7)The way words and sentences are used in everyday situations; Pragmatics,

the meaning of language in context discourse analysis

Illustration of levels of language

?Activity 1: analyze the following simple sentence.

?E.g. That puppy‘s knocking over those potplants!

?Task: Try to see what linguistic operations are included in the production and delivery of such a simple sentence. ?Comments:

?1. graphology, and phonology (written and spoken)

?2. Lexicography (knock)

?3. Morphology (potplants)

?3. Grammar (S: subject, predicator, complement)

?4. Semantics (puppy, that, those etc.)

?5. Discourse (context sensitive and its domain of reference includes pragmatic, ideological, social and cognitive elements)

?Summary: This sentence is no more than a brief sketch of the core levels of language organization. The account of levels certainly offers a useful springboard for stylistic work, but observing these levels at work in textual examples is more the starting point than the end point of analysis. So it is fair to say that contemporary stylistics ultimately looks towards language as discourse: that is, towards a text’s status as discourse, a writer’s development of discourse strategies and towards the way a text ‘means’ as a function of language in context. ?Notice: The interconnectedness of the levels and layers also means there is no necessarily natural starting point in a stylistic analysis, so we need to be circumspect about those aspects of language upon which we choose to concentrate. Interaction between levels is important: one level may complement, parallel or even collide with another level.

?Activity 2:

?You are the sun

?in reverse, all energy

?flows into you… (Atwood 1996: 47)

?Task: what is the collision of one level of language against another?

?Comment: level of grammar against the level of graphology

?Ending the first line, she develops a linguistic trompe l?oeil where the seemingly complete grammatical structure ?You are the sun‘ disintegrates in the second line when we realize that the grammatical complement should be ?the sun in reverse‘. while the initial, positive sense engendered in the first line is displaced by the grammatical ?revision‘ , you can find that this is a kind of ?anti-lyric‘.

?The subject of the direct address does not embody the all-fulfilling radiance of the sun but is rather more like an energy sapping sponge which drains the life-forces of nature. Indeed this particular stylistic pattern works literally to establish, and then reverse the harmonic coalescence of subject with nature.

Levels of language at work: an example from poetry

?Read the poem below and answer the following question:

?What can you see from this poem the familiar stylistic imprints of the author?

On e e cummings’s ‘love is more thicker than forget’

?love is more thicker than forget

?more thinner than recall

?more seldom than a wave is wet

?more frequent than to fail

?it is most mad and moonly

?and less it shall unbe

?than all the sea which only

?is deeper than the sea

?love is less always than to win

?less never than alive

?less bigger than the least begin

?less littler than forgive

?it is most sane and sunly

?and more it cannot die

?than all the sky which only

?is higher than the sky. (cummings,1954 1939):381)

Analysis:

1. The most notable is the noticeable spelling and orthography resulting from the removal of standard punctuation devices such as commas, full stops and capital letters.

2. It contains a number of invented words, neologisms, like ?sunly, moonly, unbe etc‘.

3. Perhaps even more markedly, the poem treats existing words in the English lexicon, esp. adjectives and adverbs, in a striking and colorful way.

4. Contrary to this more ?deviant‘ strand of textual structure, there is nonetheless a high degree of regularity in the way other aspects of the poem are crafted.

?Choosing models for analysis

?Adjectives: Constituting a major word class in vocabulary of English, adjectives ascribe qualities to entities, objects and concepts.

?Grammatical aspects related to the poem:

?1) A notable grammatical feature of adjectives is their potential for gradability.

?2) Another notable feature of adjectives is the way the grammar of English allows for material to be placed after the adjective in order to determine more narrowly its scope of reference.

?Exploring levels of language in ?love is more thicker‘:

?1) Deviation: Formation of comparative and superlative degree of adjectives

?2) Deviation: Scope element of the adjectives

?3) Replacement of adjective phrases with adverbs of time

?4) Tautology and lexical antonyms in the adjective framework

?Stylistic analysis and interpretation

?The poem still does communicate. 1) A case could be made for arguing that it is the very opacity, the very indeterminacy of its linguistic structure which acts out and parallels the conceptualization of love that cummings seeks to capture and portray. The individual stylistic tactics used in the poem, replicated so vigorously and with such consistency, all drive towards the conclusion that love is incomparable.

?2) And a case might also be made for suggesting that many localized stylistic features hint at the struggle of an innocent trying to find some resource in the language system that adequately captures this aspect of felt emotion. ?Summary: Much of the internal dynamic of Cummings‘s poem is sustained by the subversion of simple and everyday patterns of language, and it is the distortion of these common routines of speech and writing that deliver the main stylistic impact. In a sense there is nothing to be scared of in a text like ?love is more thicker‘ because t he grammatical patterns of English the poem is based on are in themselves straightforward. That is why it is important to be precise in stylistic analysis and indeed it is an important part of the stylistic endeavour that its methods probe the conventional structures of language as much as the deviant or the distorted.

?Foregrounding never stays still for long, and once a striking pattern starts to become established in a text, it begins to drift towards the background as new pattern take its place. There is also a high level of symmetry in the poem, which means that the technique of foregrounding-through-deviation is supplemented by foregrounding-through-more-of-the-same. So this exercise has demonstrated the importance of making the analysis retrievable by showing how not just one level, but multi levels of language organization simultaneously participate, some in harmony and some in conflict, in creating the stylistic fabric of a poem.

Style, register and dialect

?Varieties of language:

?1) Sociolinguistic code is a term referring to the pool of linguistic varieties that both derive from and shape the social and cultural backdrop to a text.

?2) Code-switching is normally used to explain transitions between distinct languages in a text, and literary code-switching is a sophisticated technique which signals movement between different spheres of reference and has important consequences for a range of thematic intentions.

?Key dimensions of intra-lingual variation:

?1) Idiolect is the term reserved for an individual‘s special unique style.

?2) Influenced and shaped by the regional origins and socioeconomic background of their speakers, dialects are distinguished by patterns in grammar and vocabulary while accents are distinguished through patterns of pronunciation.

?3) A register is defined according to the use to which language is being put. In other words, a register shows, through a regular, fixed pattern of vocabulary and grammar, what a speaker or writer is doing with language at a given moment. Registers are often discussed in terms of three features of context known as field, tenor and mode. Field of discourse refers to the setting and purpose of the interaction, tenor to the relationship between the participants in interaction, and mode to the medium of communication.

?Activity:The field of discourse here is chemistry; the language event takes the form of written interaction between teacher and a student. Now read the sequences and decide which is appropriate to the discourse context: ?(1) A quantity of copper sulphate crystals was dissolved in a beaker containing 200ml of H2O. The aqueous solution was then heated.

?(2) I was just sayin‘, Jimmy, that me and my mate Will were putting some copper sulphate stuff into a jug of water the other day. It was bloody great fun.

?4) Antilanguages are the semi-secretive languages born out of subcultures and alternative societies. Antilanguages are typically characterized by references to proscribed drugs, to alternative sexual behaviours or more generally to the various activities of a criminal underworld. (Halliday 1978) The most important process in the formation of an antilanguage is relexicalization which involves recycling established words in the language into new structures and meanings.

?Homework: Read the extract below from the beginning of the novel No Mate for the Magpie by Frances Molloy and then answer the questions. We have numbered the sentences for ease of reference. Please refer to the assignment in your public email box.

Assignment for lecture 2

Read the extract below from the beginning of the novel No Mate for the Magpie by Frances Molloy and then answer the questions. We have numbered the sentences for ease of reference:

(1) Way a wee screwed up protestant face an' a head of black hair a was born, in a state of original sin. (2) Me ma didn't like me, but who's te blame the poor woman, sure a didn't look like a catholic wain at all.

(3) The state of original sin didn't last long. (4) That's wan good thing about me ma, she maybe didn't like me but by god she done hir duty by me an' didn't lave me lyin' there in the clutches of the divil. (5) That very day a was took te the chapel at the tap of the town be me godmother, that me ma didn't like either, an' hir husband who could have been me uncle if me ma hada married hes brother who was handsome an' beautiful an' iverythin' me da wasn't. (6) But me ma, on a point of principle, jilted him, an' he went te England way a broken heart an' married an oul' woman an' made a lot of money.

(Frances Molloy, No Mate for the Magpie, p. 1)

1.Translate this passage into SE, noting the change you make as you go.

2.What dialect do you think is being represented?

3.Why is SE not being used?

https://www.doczj.com/doc/db11793463.html,pare the original text with the ?translation‘you made in answer one. What linguistic features mark the

dialect (look at each sentence carefully in turn)? How many different linguistic levels are involved?

5.How realistic do you think the interpretation of the dialect is?

Answers:

1. We have highlighted / emboldened the words we have changed for ease of reference.

(1) With a small screwed up protestant face and a head of black hair I was born, in a state of original sin. (2) My mother didn't like me, but who's to blame the poor woman, because I didn't look like a catholic child at all.

(3) The state of original sin didn't last long. (4) That's one good thing about my mother. Maybe she didn't like me but by god she did her duty by me and didn't leave me lying there in the clutches of the devil. (5) That very day I was taken to the chapel at the top of the town by my godmother, who my mother didn't like either, and her husband who could have been me uncle if me ma had married his brother who was handsome and beautiful and everything my dad wasn't. (6) But my mother, on a point of principle, jilted him, and he went to England with a broken heart and married an old woman and made a lot of money.

The grammar of sentence 5 in particular is also rather loosely structured, but this does not seem to be a regional dialect feature as such. Rather it is probably an attempt to indicate that the narrator is not well educated.

2. The novel is set in Belfast and the dialect is working class Catholic Northern Irish.

3.Because the novel is a 1st-person narration on the part of a woman who comes from a working class, Northern Irish background, it needs to be narrated in this marked dialectal form. If the novel had been a 3rd-person narration, no such character-related reason could be given and readers would be much more likely to assume that a political point was being made - the writer would be making a point of not writing in Standard English for some reason.

4.Sentence 1: Way a wee screwed up protestant face an' a head of black hair a was born, in a state of original sin.

Graphology and Pronunciation

'Way' is a graphologically deviant of 'with', indicating a rough approximation to Northern Ireland pronunciation. The same is true of 'a' instead of 'I'. 'And' without the final 'd' pronounced is common in many non-standard dialects, including Northern Ireland English, and even of Standard English in some circumstances.

Lexis

'Wee' is dialect form for 'little' in many Irish and Scots dialects.

Sentence 2: Me ma didn't like me, but who's te blame the poor woman, sure a didn't look like a catholic wain atall.

Graphology and Pronunciation

Pronunciations associated with the graphologically deviant 'me' instead of 'my' is typical of a number of non-standard dialects, including Northern Irish. The same could be said of 'te' for 'to', as well as 'a' for 'I'. The graphologically deviant omission of the space between 'at' and 'all' suggests a dialect form because of this deviation, but in rapid speech there are usually no spaces between words anyway, whatever the dialect - the assumption that there are gaps between words in speech comes from the mistaken idea that speech is always like writing.

Lexis

'Ma' instead of 'mother' or 'mum' is common in a variety of non-standard dialects, including Northern Irish. 'Wain' instead of 'child'/'baby' is common in Northern Irish.

Sentence 3: The state of original sin didn't last long.

No dialect markers at all in this sentence.

Sentence 4: That's wan good thing about me ma, she maybe didn't like me but by god she done hir duty by me an' didn't lave me lyin' there in the clutches of the divil.

Graphology and Pronunciation

There are a number of good graphological indicators to suggest a Northern Irish accent here: 'wan' for 'one' (though the initial consonant is common for all English pronunciations of this word), 'hir' for 'her', 'lave' for 'leave' and 'divil' for 'devil'. 'Me' for 'my' is common to many dialects.

Grammar

'Done' is a Northern Irish variant of the auxiliary verb 'did'.

Sentence 5: That very day a was took te the chapel at the tap of the town be me godmother, that me ma didn't like either, an' hir husband who could have been me uncle if me ma hada married hes brother who was handsome an' beautiful an' iverythin' me da wasn't.

We will not bother to mention those indicators which are repetitions of indicators we have seen in previous sentences.

Graphology and Pronunciation

There are some extra graphological deviant indicators of dialect pronunciation, though: 'tap' for 'top', 'hada' for 'had have', 'iverythin' for 'everything' and 'da' for 'dad'.

Sentence 6: But me ma, on a point of principle, jilted him, an' he went te England way a broken heart an' married an oul' woman an' made a lot of money.

All of the dialect indicators in this sentence are repetitions of what we have seen in previous sentences except for 'oul' as a representation of 'old'. Omitting the final 'd' is a common way of indicating a dialect pronunciation of this word, but the 'ou' vowel representation is much more unusual. Whether it marks a specially Northern Irish vowel is not so clear, however.

5.There is a tendency for ordinary readers to assume that dialect representations like this are accurate representations of dialect reality. But this is actually rather unlikely. The grammatical and lexical features will often be reasonably accurate. We have seen already that many of the spellings can indicate other dialects, depending on the context, and that some features (e.g. the removal of spaces between words) do not seem to relate to any phonetic reality at all. Molloy is consistent in her use of dialect-suggesting features, though. Other writers are often inconsistent in their application of the conventions they introduce.

Finally, it is instructive to note how many of the 'dialect features' here are graphological indicators of pronunciation. This will be easier for people who do not have knowledge of the relevant dialect to understand than intensive use of non-standard vocabulary and grammar.

Stylistics Lecture Three Grammar and Style

Topics covered

1. Grammar and style

A. A basic model of grammar

B. Variations in basic clause structure

2. Sentence styles: development and illustration

A. Sentence types

B. Trailing constituents, equivalent constituents and anticipatory constituents

C. Illustration of grammar in action

3. Grammar and genre: a short study of imagism

A brief introduction

?When we talk of the grammar of a language we are talking of the rules of that language. In the academic study of language, the expression ?rules of grammar‘ does not refer to prescriptive niceties. These so-called ?rules‘ are nothing more than a random collection of special and prejudiced strictures about language use. On the contrary, the genuine grammatical rules of a language are the language that stipulate the very basis of its syntactic construction in the same way that the rules of tennis or the rules of chess constitute the core organizing principles of those games.

A basic model of grammar

?Most theories of grammar accept that grammatical units are ordered hierarchically according to their size. This hierarchy is known as a rank scale.

?Sentence (clause complex),

?clause, phrase (or group),

?word,

?morpheme

Four basic elements of clause structure

?The examples highlight grammar‘s capacity to embed units of different sizes within one another. Indeed it is a distinguishing characteristic of clause structure that its four basic elements are typically realized by certain types of phrases. The rule which stipulates that a verb phrase must fill up the P slot is a hard and fast one, whereas the rules about what sorts of phrases go into the other three slots are less absolute and are more about typical tendencies.

Test for clause constituents

?1) by asking various questions around the verb

?S finding who or what placed in front of the verb

?C finding who or what placed after the verb

?A finding how, when, where and why placed after the verb

?2) by adding a ‘tag’ to the declarative form of a clause

?The tag test can usefully differentiate between other types of grammatical structures.

?E.g. 1) my aunt and my uncle (coordination)

?2) the winner, a local business woman (apposition)

Variations in basic clause structure

?Different types of clausal patterning:

?Imperative (PC)

?Interrogative (partial P movement)

?Declaratives even (SP, SPCC, Even ellipsis of P sometimes)

Sentence styles: development and illustration

?Sentence types:

?1) The most simple type of sentence structure is where the sentence comprises just one independent clause, thus the term simple clause.

?A good technique to conceptualize its sentence structure is to use a box whose housing forms a grammatical boundary with contents variable.(listing)

?Read the following example and see the stylistic function of simple sentences:

?Example: I tried to examine myself. I felt my pulse. I could not at first feel any pulse at all. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed to start off. I pulled out my watch and timed it. I made it a hundred and forty-seven to the minute. I tried to feel my heart. I could not feel my heart. It had stopped beating.

?Function of simple sentences: one of the stylistic functions of the simple sentence is often to engender a frenetic or fast-paced feel to a passage of description. Simple sentences are usually associated with simple and straightforward styles.

?2) C ompound sentence is used to describe structures which have more than one clause in them, and where these clauses are of equal grammatical status. Compound sentences are built up through the technique of coordination. ?The best way of conceptualizing the structure of compound sentences, using the ?boxes‘ analogy, is to imagine them as linked together like square beads on string.

?They can perform a variety of functions, and the symmetrical nature of the connection between their units makes them a favored style in materials designed for junior readers. Overuse of compounding with little nesting often produces the effect over-simplistic, childlike style. E.g.

?He huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down.

?Complex sentences involve two possible structural configurations, but their main informing principle is that the clauses they contain are in an asymmetrical relationship to one another.

?A. The first type is with one configuration involving subordination.

?The conceptual structure for the subordinate relationship is to imagine that one box leans on another.

?B. The second type of complex sentence involves the embedding of one structure inside another, that is, this pattern involves taking a unit at the rank of clause and squeezing it inside another clause, meaning the embedded clause had had to be pulled down a rank in order to fit it inside a structure of equal size. (nesting)

?The conceptual structure for this is to imagine that one box is inside another box. The outside box is the main clause and nested inside it is any number of downranked clauses.

?Nesting structures which hold up the development of a sentence lead to a style which is often characterized as being "tight" or "parenthetical". This style of writing tends to lead to a climax point towards the end of the sentence when the overall construction is completed,

Trailing constituents, equivalent constituents and anticipatory constituents

?Coordination can be performed on other grammatical ranks. Words and phrases, as opposed to clauses, may also be coordinated. E.g.

?Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

?Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.

?The point leads to another issue about grammatical patterning concerning the positioning of various elements of clause structure in a particular text:

?Imagine the S, P and C elements of a main clause as the hub. If Adjuncts are placed on either side of that hub, we use the term equivalent constituents to explain this stylistic technique. However, trailing constituents is the term used in stylistics when the adjuncts or subordinate clause come after the hub of the clause. When Adjuncts and subordinate clauses are placed before the main S-P matrix, the initial elements are known as anticipatory constituents.

Illustrating grammar in action

?Activity: read the following and find the stylistic features in terms of grammar.

?(1) Fog everywhere. (2)Fog up the river, where it flows among green airs and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping, and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. (3) Fog on the Essex Marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. (4) Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats.

?(5) Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the fireside of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and finders of his shivering little ?prentice boy on deck. (6) Chan ce people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging in the misty clouds.

?Task: Instead of attempting to tease out every significant stylistic feature of this famous paragraph, please restrict yourself to analysis of five noteworthy grammatical patterns: verb, noun, types of constituents, characteristics of adjuncts and foregrounding. You can discuss with each other.

?Comments:

?Feature one:A key stylistic feature is the way the central noun ?fog‘ is elaborated or perhaps unelaborated throughout the passage: marked absence of grammatical modification makes the central noun emerge as ?stark, undifferentiated and (literally) undetermined. Its characterless quality is reinforced by comparison, in that many other nouns in the passage receive precisely this sort of grammatical modification.

?Feature 2: A more rigorous stylistic description would therefore stipulate that the passage displays a restricted verbal development in its main clauses. So though the clause patterns indicate both a basic verbal process and the location of that process, they offer no indication of tense, with a consequence that it is difficult to establish a time frame for the events narrated. Wherea s the fog‘s omnipresence in the spatial context is well grounded, there is little sense of concrete anchoring in the corresponding temporal context.

?Feature 3:The passage abound in one kind of constituents ?trailing constituents‘ (numerous subordinate cl auses and Adjuncts of location), indicating the very sparseness of the material that is positioned to the left of the P slot and facilitating an interesting textual ambiguity. It seems that the ambiguity is motivated, and that it works to emphasize the very blurring and indeterminacy that is ascribed to the core visual elements in the scene.

?Feature 4: There is a gradual narrowing of spatial focus as the passage progresses. In tandem with this progressive narrowing through Adjuncts, the processes embodied by the related verbs in the main clauses undergo an interesting change: from intransitives not impacting a Goal (S4) to a Goal-directed one (S5). It seems that the longer the passage goes on, the more menacing and spiteful the fog becomes.

?Feature 5: The final sentence of the passage offers a good illustration of internal foregrounding. The pattern established from sentence 1 through to 5 gradually forms its own text-internal norm, is destroyed completely in the 6th sentence. By showing how a pattern initially built through parallelism and repetition can ultimately be turned on

its head, this fifth stylistic feature illustrates well the fluid and dynamic properties of foregrounding.

?Summary:

?As one works through a text like the Bleak House passage, it is always important to remember that style comes from the totality of interrelated elements of language rather than from individual features in isolation.

Grammar and Genre

?A. From felt experience to language

?Activity 1: Read the following felt experience carefully and try to construct a poem inspired by it.

?For well over a year I have been trying to make a poem of a very beautiful thing befell me in the Paris underground. I got out of a train at, I think, La Concorde, and in the jostle I saw a beautiful face, and then, turning suddenly, another and another, and then a beautiful child?s face, and then another beautiful face. All that day I tried to find out words for what this made me feel. That night, as I went home along the Rue Raynouard I was still trying. I could get nothing but spots of colour. I remember thinking that if I had been a painter I might have started

a wholly new school of painting.

?Activity 2: Read the following grammatical scrambled phrases and then resemble the poem into some form of coherent unit.

?in the crowd

?the apparition

?in a station

?petal

?of these face

?of the metro

?on a wet black bough

?The original poem:

In a Station of the Metro

?The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

?Petals on a wet, black bough. (Pound 1969)

?Comments:

?Feature 1: One important aspect of the grammar of this short couplet, which is based loosely on the seventeen syllable Japanese haiku poem, is that it contains no verbs.

?Feature 2: Notice that the repetitions and parallel formations of the letter give way to the most minimal and sparsest of lexis in the poem. But this is not to say that the absence of verbs means that there are no processes in the poem. There is one clear example of nominalization, where a noun embodies a process of action. You can test a te xt for nominalization by asking the question ?what happened?‘ and seeing if any nouns slot into the frame ?there was a(n) …‘.

?Summary:

?So what remains, in the light of these grammatical operations, is the sparest juxtaposition of a statement of experience and a statement of interpretation. The relationship between the two is a metaphorical one in that it involves a conceptual mapping between two domains: the perceived experiences encoded in the first line, and its mapping in the second onto a metaphorical plane. The result is a frozen crystallized moment, cut adrift from time but very much instantiation of things and place. An ?image‘, rather than a proposition.

?Assignment:

Task A - linking

(i) Identify the LINKED (co-ordinated) units in the highlighted part of the extract below.

[Tip: linking occurs at more than one grammatical level in this example, and so you should be prepared to find examples of linking inside other examples of linking.]

(ii) Why do you think Steinbeck uses linking structures here: what effect/meaning does he create?

[Tip: the speaker is a simpleton, describing the dream farm that he and his friend, George, hope to own one day.] We gonna have a little place," Lennie explained patiently. "We gonna have a house an' a garden and a place for alfalfa, an' that alfalfa is for the rabbits, an' I take a sack and get it fulla alfalfa and then I take it to the rabbits." (John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men)

Task A Answer:

Let's first notice that we have five clauses linked together by coordination. We have indicated this below by putting

each clause on a separate line and using one colour for each of the clauses and another for the 'and' coordinating conjunctions which link them together:

We gonna have a house an' a garden and a place for alfalfa,

an' that alfalfa is for the rabbits,

an' I take a sack

and get it fulla alfalfa

and then I take it to the rabbits.

If we then examine the first clause separately, we can see that the Object NP itself consists of three linked NPs:

S P C

We | gonna have | a house an' a garden and a place for alfalfa,

Finally, we need to consider what sort of effect Steinbeck is trying to achieve with this marked use of linking structures. Compared with nesting, linking is a very simple way of joining simple sentences together to make longer sentences. People often associate heavy use of linking structures with the speech of small children (not surprisingly, they learn the simpler rules for grammatical combining before the more complex ones). Here, because the speaker is an adult, the consistent grammatical choices help us to see him as childlike and na?ve. These are appropriate style features for someone who is educationally subnormal.

Task B - listing

Examine the LISTING in the highlighted part of the passage below.

What effect does it have? What would the difference be if you inserted 'and' between each if the items in the list, thus changing it from a listing to a linking structure?

When I think of my condition at the age of fifty-five when I bought the ticket, all is grief. The facts begin to crowd me and soon I get a pressure in the chest. A disorderly rush begins - my parents, my wives, my girls, my children, my farm, my animals, my habits, my money, my music lessons, my drunkenness, my prejudices, my brutality, my teeth, my face, my soul! (Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King)

Task B Answer:

The listing construction here consists of a listed series of 15 NPs, all of which have the internal same construction ('my' + head noun), and so are also parallel to one another internally. Lists of nouns are prototypical for lists, of course (this is where Leech, Hoogenraad and Deuchar 1982 get the term from). But it is interesting to notice that this list is not just very long. It also continues the list structure to the very end (most English lists, in the normal sense of the term, use grammatical linking for the last two items in the list). So it is both very long and very 'listy', helping to create grammatically a prolonged sense of the 'rush' part of the NP 'a disorderly rush' which introduces the list.

The 'disorderly' aspect of the list is achieved by the variety of the items in the list. We could group them

Thus there are lots of different sorts of things in this list (most lists are lists of the same sort of thing, e.g. shopping lists, 'to do' lists, and so it is difficult to think of them as an orderly whole. The fact that some of the above groupings are not adjacent in the list construction also helps this effect. The one that fits least well with the rest is the climactic NP at the end of the list, of course: 'my soul'.

Overall, note how the grammar and the lexis combine here to make the writing 'structurally symbolic' of what it describes.

A stylish note on listing and linking

There is a choice, in most circumstances, between using LISTING and LINKING, or a mixture of the two. So we can ask what would be the effect

(a) if ands were omitted in linking structures

(b) if ands were inserted in listing structures?

Note how the list in the Saul Bellow example use in Task B would be slowed down, and so appear less rushed, if listing structures were replaced by linking structures.

Task C - nesting

What is the effect of describing an action in a main clause, as opposed to describing it in a nested or subordinate clause? Compare the sentences below in this respect. Which is the most prominent action in each sentence?

(i) Curley's fist was swinging, when Lennie reached for it.

(ii) As Curley's fist was swinging, Lennie reached for it.

Task C Answer

Other things being equal, putting material in a main clause makes it more prominent than if it is put in a nested clause. So in this respect the prominence of the two propositions is reversed in the above two sentences. That said, other factors affect prominence too. In particular, there is a tendency for important information to be placed towards the ends of clauses, sentences and larger structures like paragraphs. This is usually called the principle of end-weighting. This means that 'Lennie reached for it' is end-weighted in both of the sentences.

The first sentence ('Curley's fist was swinging, when Lennie reached for it.') is a sentence that actually occurs in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. You will remember that we met the character Lennie in Task A. In the novel, Lennie, a man who is like a child but also immensely strong, commits a mounting series of transgressions which are not really his fault. Here, the character called Curley picks a fight with Lennie to demonstrate to the other men on the ranch what a good boxer he is. Lennie is afraid, and when Curley attacks him he grabs Curley's fist and hangs on, accidentally crushing it with his enormous strength, and ending Curley's boxing career.

We can now see more easily why the sentence is structured as it is. 'Lennie reached for it' is end-weighted because it is the important new piece of information - the situation in the fight is about to change. So far Curley has hit Lennie and Lennie has not responded. Now he does. But at the same time Lennie's action is coded as less prominent than Curley's through its placement in the nested clause. This structuring thus helps to reduce the salience of Lennie's action, and his culpability for what happens.

There are other important factors which reduce Lennie's culpability. We have already pointed out that Curley is the aggressor, not Lennie. And it is also important to notice the sequencing of the clauses in this respect. Other things being equal, we expect the sequence in which actions are presented to us in texts to correspond with the sequence of actions in the world of the fiction. So the sequencing here underlines what readers already know in more general terms - namely that, even though he is the one who is injured, Curley attacks Lennie, not the other way round, and so is himself at fault for what happens to him.

Towards the end of the novel, Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife, and Curley, who already bears a significant grudge, leads a lynch mob who will execute him if they find him. To prevent Lennie dying in terror at the hands of the lynch mob, his friend George, who knows he is not culpable, sits behind Lennie, who is looking out across the Salinas valley, and tells him about the dream farm that they are going to own. Then, when he is certain Lennie is happy, George shoots his friend in the back of the head. Lennie is certain to be killed, and George ensures he is killed in the most humane way possible in the circumstances.

Lecture 4 Sounds and meaning

Topics covered

?1. Rhythm and metre

?A. Spelling and sounds

?B. Rhymes and Eye Rhymes

?C. Metre and rhythm

?2. Interpreting patterns of sound

?A. Onomatopoeia

?B. The ?phonaesthetic fallacy‘

Sound and Spelling

?A brief introduction:

?When we talk about patterns of alliteration, assonance and rhyme, we are talking about patterns of distinctive speech sounds (phonemes). But people often confuse sound patterns with spelling patterns. The English writing system is based on the idea that a spelling letter represents a phoneme. There are 26 letters (21 consonants, 5 vowels) in the English alphabet, but approximately 45 phonemes (22 consonants, 3 approximants, 12 pure vowels and 8 diphthongs) in English.

?Some terms :

?1) Alliteration is the repetition of the initial consonant in two or more words. E.g. Mick mutilated mice in his

madness.

?2) Assonance is a bit like alliteration for vowel sounds, the stressed vowel is repeated in 2 or more words e.g. lean mean fighting machine.

?3) Rhyme refers to the repetition of the same phoneme or group of phonemes e.g. soul/coal.

?Other types of rhyme:

?A. Similar but not identical phonemes or groups of phonemes may be used to create what is termed half rhyme. ?B. Rhyme which is created to cause a visual effect utilizing associations formed by repetition of groups of graphemes is referred to as eye rhyme.

?C. In English it is most common to rhyme words at the end of lines in a poem or song. This is called end rhyme. ?D. It is also possible to rhyme words in other positions. This is called internal rhyme.

?Rhymes and Eye Rhymes

?It is this 'lack of fit' between the spelling and sound systems that gives rise to the distinction between rhymes (a property of sounds: what you can hear) and eye rhymes (a property of letters: what you can see). So:

?'fine' (/fain/) and 'line' (/lain/ are rhymes and also eye rhymes

'scoff' (/sk?f/) and 'trough' (/tr?f/) rhyme, but are not eye rhymes

'bough' (/bAU/) and 'cough' (/k?f/) are eye rhymes but do not rhyme

Meter and Rhythm

?1) Metre refers to an organized pattern of strong and weak syllables. Key to the definition is the condition that metrical patterning should be organized, and in such a way that the alternation between accentuated syllables and weak syllables is repeated.

?2) Rhythm is a patterned movement of pulses in time which is defined both by periodicity and repetition . ?3) Foot refers to the span of stressed and unstressed syllables that form a rhythmical pattern.

?Different sorts of metrical feet: they can be determined according to the number of, and ordering of their constituent stressed and unstressed syllables. An iambic foot, for example, has two syllables, of which the first is less heavily stressed than the second (a de-dum pattern for want of a more formal typology). The trochaic foot, by contrast, reverses the pattern (dum-de).

?Look at the example and decide which type of foot it belongs to:

?The ploughman homeward plods his weary way.

?Analysis:

?The ploughman homeward plods his weary way.

?w s w s w s w s w s

?de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum

?This is a well-known example of the first type, iambic pattern.

?1. Iambic pattern is a typical metrical patterns

?An iamb refers to a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable or a short syllable followed by a long syllable.

?Iambic pentameter is the metrical scheme that has five iambs, like the example above.

?Look at the following line of verse and decide what metrical patterning it has got using the model of analysis: ?By the margin, willow veiled.

?Analysis:

?By the margin, willow veiled

?S w s w s w s w

?2. This is a good illustration of trochaic pattern, another type of metrical pattern.

?A trochee refers to a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.

?A trochaic tetrameter refers to the metrical scheme that has four trochees.

?Offbeat: is an unstressed syllable which, depending on metrical structure of the line as a whole, is normally placed at the start or the end of a line of verse.

?O what is that sound that so thrills the ear.

?w s w w s w w s w w

?In the initial position, an offbeat can act like a little phonetic springboard that helps us launch into the metrical scheme proper.

?3. The line as a whole is a typical example of dactyl pattern.

?Dactyl: refers to a metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented or of one long syllable followed by two short syllables in a strong-weak-weak configuration. If a line has three feet like this, it is called a dactylic trimeter, like the example here.

?Summary: What is esp. important about metre is that it transcends the lexicogrammar. Metrical boundaries are no respecters of word boundaries, a consequence of which is that rhythm provides an additional layer of meaning potential that can be developed along Jakobson‘s ?axis of combination‘. That extra layer can either enhance a lexicogrammatical structure, or rupture and fragment it.

?Some issues concerned:

?Basically conventional phrasing dictates certain types of metrical scheme, but readers of poetry have a fair amount of choice about exactly how and where to inflect a line of verse.

?1) A contributing factor in reader choice is that the distinction between strong and weak syllables is relative, and not absolute. E.g.

?Shall I / compare / thee to / a sum / mer‘s day?

?Analysis: This iambic pattern assumes that all accentuation is equal, but this interpretation is not necessarily borne when reading the line aloud.

?So in spite of the various degree of contrast within metrical feet, what is important in metrical analysis is that the contrast itself does exist in the first place whatever the relative strength or weaknesses of its individual beats.?2) While verse (obviously) characterized by its use of metre, it does not follow that all meter is verse; and it is important not to lose sight of the fact that metre has an existence outside literature. E.g.

?Never undress

?s w w s

?for anything less!

?w s w w s

?Analysis: This example is a jingle; a phonologically contoured text designed by advertisers as an aide memoire. A simple text but nonetheless makes use of an interesting metrical scheme.Notice how the couplet employs an offbeat at the start of its second line. Line-initial offbeats are commonly used to help galvanize so-called …four-by-four? sequences, and the example does indeed contain two lines of four syllables each. The scheme is also organized into a chiasmus, which is a symmetrical …mirror image? pattern where the strong to weak pulse (dum de) is paralleled by a weak to strong pulse (de dum).

Interpreting patterns of sound

?Onomatopoeia: is a feature of sound patterni ng which is often thought to form a bridge between ?style‘ and ?content‘. It can occur either in lexical or a nonlexical form

?Lexical onomatopoeia draws upon recognized words in the language system, words like ?crack, slurp, buzz etc‘ whose pronunciation acts out symbolically their referents outside language.

?Nonlexical onomatopoeia, by contrast, refers to clusters of sounds which echo the world in a more unmediated way, without the intercession of linguistic structure.

?The role that lexical onomatopoeia plays in the stylistic texture of poetry makes for an important area of study.

文体学的发展史

文体学发展史 文体学首先来自于古代的修辞学，来自于亚里斯多德的修辞论。现代文体学创始人是法国文体学家巴利（索绪尔的学生），文体学的性质是一门结合文学和语言学的交叉学科，适宜于对文学和语言学很感兴趣的学生学习的一门课程。简单地说，文体学就是运用语言学的理论去阐释文学内容和写作风格的一门学科。帮助学生理解作品的深刻内涵和写作技巧。同时，激发学生开展批评性阅读，尝试建立自己的见解。 发展历程 西方文体学的研究可上溯到古希腊、罗马的修辞学研究，早在公元100年就出现了德米特里厄斯的《论文体》这样集中探讨文体问题的论著。但在20世纪之前，对文体地讨论一般不外乎主观印象式的评论，而且通常出现在修辞学研究、文学研究或语法分析之中，文体研究没有自己相对的地位。20世纪初以来，在采用现代语言方法之后，文体分析方法摆脱了传统印象式直觉分析的局限，逐渐深入和系统化、科学化。欧洲历史语言学和普通语言学在20世纪初发展成为较有影响的独立学科，与语言学相结合的文体学也逐渐成为一门具有一定独立地位的交叉学科。

现代文体学创始人是法国文体学家巴利（Bally,1865-1974）（索绪尔的学生），他借用索绪尔的结构主义语言学反思传统修辞学，力图将文体学作为语言学的一个分支建立起来，使文体分析更为科学化和系统化。巴依的研究对象是口语体的文体。他认为一个人说话时除了客观地表达思想外，还常常带有各种感情色彩。文体学的任务是探讨表达这些感情特征的种种语言手段，以及它们之间的相互关系，并由此入手，分析语言的整个表达方式系统。虽然巴依没有特别关注文学文本，但他们的普通文体学对于文学文体学的形成有直接的推动作用。稍晚于巴利的德国文体学家斯皮泽（Spitzer, 1887-1960）被普遍尊为文学文体学之父，斯皮泽的研究对象不是口语，而是文学作品。斯皮泽认为文学作品的价值主要体现在语言上，因此他详细分析具体语言细节所产生的效果，从而有别于传统印象式批评。此外，他提出了一种适用于分析长篇小说的被称为“语文圈”的研究方法，即寻找作品中频繁出现的偏离常规的语言特征。然后，对其作出作者心理根源上的解释，接着再回到作品细节中，通过考察相关因素予以证实或修正。受到德国学术思想的影响，斯皮泽将文体学视为连接语言学与文学史的桥梁，旨在通过文体特征的研究来考察作者心灵以及民族文化和思想澶变的历史。 学科历史 50年代末以前

12年12月新闻文体学作业及答案

12年12月新闻文体学作业 及答案 -标准化文件发布号：（9456-EUATWK-MWUB-WUNN-INNUL-DDQTY-KII

《新闻文体学》作业 本课程作业由两部分组成。第一部分为“客观题部分”，由15个选择题组成，每题1分，共15分。第二部分为“主观题部分”，由简答题和论述题组成，共15分。作业总分30分，将作为平时成绩记入课程总成绩。 客观题部分： 一、选择题（每题1 分，共15题） 1. 选择下面说法正确的（） A、狭义的新闻，是指未在报刊上发表的新闻。 B、狭义的新闻，是指不包括新闻评论的新闻报道。 C、狭义的新闻，即等于消息这一文体。 2. 选择下面说法正确的（） A、简讯，是不大重要的简单的新闻消息。 B、简讯，是与消息、通讯等同的新闻报道的典型体裁。 C、简讯不是新闻报道的典型体裁。 3. 选择下面说法正确的（） A、运用某些属性相同的例子，推论出其他事物也可能有相同的属性的论证方法，叫例证法。 B、运用某些属性不同的例子，推论出其他事物也可能有相同的属性的论证方法，叫对比法。 C、运用某些属性相同的例子，推论出其他事物也可能有相同的属性的论证方法，叫类比法。 4．以下正确的是（） A、新闻标题是在一篇文章前，将新闻的内容或主题加以概括以后单独出的简短文字。 B、新闻标题是在一篇或一组新闻本文前面，将新闻的内容或主题加以概括以后单独标出的简短文字。

C、新闻标题是在一篇或一组新闻的较前面，将新闻的内容加以概括以后单独标出的简短文字。 5．以下正确的是（） A、新闻，是广大群众欲知、应知而未知的事实。 B、新闻，是新近发生的事实的报道。 C、新闻，是报道或评述最新的重要事实以影响舆论的特殊行为。 6．以下正确的是 ( ) A、“日本朋友×××见义勇为烟台挽救落水儿童”，是目的关系 B、“日本朋友×××见义勇为烟台挽救落水儿童”，是后续关系。 C、“日本朋友×××见义勇为烟台挽救落水儿童”，是因果关系。 7．以下正确的是（） A、消息写作滞后的原因是没有向散文学习。 B、消息写作滞后的原因是消息不真实、不典型、审美性差。 C、消息写作滞后的原因是消息写得不及时、不够真实、不客观。 ８．大众传播应具备的三要素不包括的是（） A、传者（信息源） B、媒介（通道） C、受者（发布者） 9．以下正确的是（） A、解释性报道，就是揭丑性或揭漏性报道。 B、解释性报道，就是分析性报道，回答为什么，关心“为何”。 C、解释性报道，就是大量提供背景材料，作者不带倾向，让受众自己去思考并得出结论。 10．选择下面说法正确的（） A.我国最早的电视台叫北京电视台，1958年9月2日开播。 B.我国最早的电视台叫中央电视台，1958年9月2日开播。 C.我国最早的电视台叫北京电视台，1958年10月1日开播。 11. 选择下面说法正确的（） A.新闻主体的人文修养，包括政治觉悟、道德水准、忧患意识。 B.新闻主体的人文修养，包括政治觉悟、道德水准、广博知识。

文体学概述

Chapter One: Brief Introduction to Stylistics Part 1: What is Stylistics about? 1.A Glance at Style Sample 1: The Year's at the Spring ! 一年之计在于春 ～Robert Browning The year's at the spring 正值一年之春， And day's at the morn; 又逢一日之晨； Morning's at seven; 晨光走到了七点； The hill-side's dew-pearled; 山腰挂着露珠； The lark's on the wing; 云雀展翅高飞； The snail's on the thorn: 蜗牛爬上了荆棘: God's in his Heaven -- 上帝在自己的天堂里—— All's right with the world! 尘世间一派井然！ Sample 2: The Regulation is enacted in accordance with pertinent laws and regulations and in light of the concrete conditions of this Municipality, with the purpose of strengthening the administration of cityscape and environmental sanitation, creating and maintaining a clean, beautiful cityscape and environment, protecting people's health, promoting economic growth, civilization and progress of society. 为了加强市容和环境卫生的管理，保持干净美观的市容环境，保护人民群众的健康，推动经济发展和社会文明进步，根据相关法规和本市的具体情况特此制定本规定。 Sample 3: Hi-Fi, Hi-Fun, Hi-Fashion, only from Sony (alliteration) （高保真，高乐趣，高时尚，只来自索尼）

英语文体学教程

Chapter1 1, what is style in your opinion according to what we have studied in this chapter? Anwser1 , from the perspective of the content, the events and activities described ,style is saying different things in different ways ;from the perspective of the ways of expression used ,styled is same thing in different ways; from the perspective of the users of language ,style is different speakers using language in different ways; and from the perspective of the text ,style is the functions of texts for different purposes. Anwser2, the definition of style is the concept of style as choice .this definition can have at least too interpretations .one is that first we have a pre-existing thought ,and then we choice the appropriate type of expression to express it in language. The chosen expression is the style .another is that the choice refers to the choice of meaning. The choice of language is at the same time a choice of meaning and a choice of style . 2,what is the significance of studying the style of language in learning and teaching English? Anwser, the answer is that if we want to use language appropriately in different situations , we need to study style .as foreign language learners, if we disregard the rules of using what variety of language in what occasion , or fail to obey them through ignorance , language can become instead a barrier to successful communication . Therefore its necessary to have a clear awareness of how language should be used in different types of situations especially in unfamiliar situations. 3, what factors can result in differences in style ? Answer , 1, the different types of vocabulary create different images of the events in the rea der’s mind, so they can result in different styles.2,people living in different periods of time in history will also speak differently ,and that will result in a different style. Chapter2 1, explain the following terms 1),foregrounding: the stylistically significant features have to be prominent and motivated ,that is ,foregrounded. 2),incongruity: the linguistic features depart from the normal use of language ,breaking the rules grammar ,spelling ,pronunciation. 3)deflection : the linguistic features don’t depart from the established grammatical, lexical and logical rules and principles ,but have an unexpected high frequency of occurrence. 4),field; its concerned with what is happening ,including the subject matter,the events happenings,going-ons, the content ,etc 5)tenor: its concerned with who is taking part in the exchange of meaning ----the relationship between the speaker and the listener ,their relative status,their attitude,and their role relations . 6)mode: its concerned with how the interaction is conducted ,that is whether it is written or spoken ,or whether it is expressed by phonic substance or graphic substance. 2,question for discussion 2)in rhetorical series,the number of items can influence the stylistic effect.try to analyze the causes on the basis of social culture. Answer :different numbers of words can produce different stylistic effects in the appropriate contexts. Two items express assertion ,that is ,it is just this ,not that .In appropriate situations three items can produce ethic ,persuasive, and representative effect. Four or more items in a series

_好人难寻_的功能文体学分析_杜丽霞

语 言理论研究 ｏｄｅｒｎ　ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅＭ ２００７．１２ 一、引言 功能文体学是以韩礼德的系统功能语法理论为基础的文体学理论（韩礼德，２００５：９）。韩礼德的功能文体学理论强调语言功能与文学研究文体之间的相关性问题。他主张利用三大元功能——概念功能、人际功能和语篇功能在语言中的体现来剖析文本。１９６９年，韩礼德在意大利召开的“文学文体讨论会”（Ｓｙｍｐｏｓｉｕｍ　ｏｎ　Ｌｉｔｅｒａｒｙ　Ｓｔｙｌｅ）上宣读了《语言功能与文学文体》（Ｌａｎｇｕａｇｅ　Ｆｕｎｃｔｉｏｎｓ　ａｎｄ　ＬｉｔｅｒａｒｙＳｔｙｌｅ）（Ｈａｌｌｉｄａｙ，１９７３）一文，至此功能文体学诞生。在这篇文章中，韩礼德利用体现概念功能的及物性系统对戈尔丁（Ｇｏｌｄｉｎｇ）的小说《继承者》（Ｔｈｅ　Ｉｎｈｅｒｉｔｏｒｓ）进行了文体分析，并成为典范。在三大系统中，人际功能中的语气和情态系统、语篇功能中的主位结构在文本分析中也同样起了很大作用。国内学者任绍曾对密勒（Ｎ．Ｍａｉｌｅｒ）《夜幕下的军队》（Ｔｈｅ　Ａｒｍｉｅｓ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　Ｎｉｇｈｔ）和毛姆（Ｓ．Ｍａｎｇｈａｍ）《午餐》（Ｔｈｅ　Ｌｕｎｃｈｅｏｎ）等文学著作做过研究。翻阅近年来有关功能文体学的论文我们发现，从上世纪末至今，功能文体学研究的成就显著，但有一个问题不容忽视，即盲目注重语言形式三大功能的分析而忽略了文学作品本身在主题层面的社会意义，把语篇中的语言特征与风格看作是孤立的现象。本文在借鉴前人研究的基础上，尝试利用功能文体学的理论分析２０世纪美国著名小说家奥康纳（Ｆｌａｎｎｅｒｙ　ｏ’ｃｏｎｎｏｒ）的代表作《好人难寻》（Ａ　Ｇｏｏｄ　Ｍａｎ　Ｉｓ　Ｈａｒｄ　ｔｏ　Ｆｉｎｄ），希望再次验证功能文体学在文学分析中的重要贡献，同时也希望换一个新角度，重新解读这部经典短篇小说。 二、功能文体学的三大元功能 “功能思想”是韩礼德文体学理论的核心。正是功能思想把语言形式和情境语境联系起来，并通过分析三大功能来解释语言结构。功能语言学把语言的功能归纳为三大元功能：概念功能（Ｉｄｅａｔｉｏｎａｌ　Ｆｕｎｃｔｉｏｎ）、人际功能（Ｉｎｔｅｒｐｅｒｓｏｎａｌ　Ｆｕｎｃｔｉｏｎ）和语篇功能（Ｔｅｘｔｕａｌ　Ｆｕｎｃｔｉｏｎ）。三大元功能分别由以下三大系统体现：及物性系统、语气和情态系统及主位结构和信息结构。与语言的三大元功能相对应，韩礼德概括出情景语境的三个组成部分：语场（ｆｉｅｌｄ　ｏｆｄｉｓｃｏｕｒｓｅ）、语旨（ｔｅｎｏｒ　ｏｆ　ｄｉｓｃｏｕｒｓｅ）和语式（ｍｏｄｅ　ｏｆｄｉｓｃｏｕｒｓｅ）。受情景语境的三个组成部分制约，语篇被看作是由概念意义、人际意义和语篇意义组成的语义单位。本文主要从语境及三大意义的角度来分析小说《好人难寻》。 （一）小说的情景语境 语场：对话发生在一个刚从美国联邦监狱中越狱的歹徒和一位南方普通祖母之间，祖母希望通过对话挽救一家人。 语旨：对话的双方社会地位悬殊：一个是高贵优雅的老妇人；一个是处在社会下层的逃犯。但老妇人的生命掌握在逃犯手中。歹徒并没有明确的交谈目的，而祖母希望唤起歹徒的良知，不要杀人灭口。 语式：对话以口语形式进行，并随着形势的变化而发展。（二）概念意义中的经验意义及其表现形式—及物性系统在功能语言学中，韩礼德认为及物性（Ｔｒａｎｓｉｔｉｖｉｔｙ）由六大过程组成，分别是物质过程（Ｍａｔｅｒｉａｌ　Ｐｒｏｃｅｓｓ）、心理过程（Ｍｅｎｔａｌ　Ｐｒｏｃｅｓｓ）、行为过程（Ｂｅｈａｖｉｏｒａｌ　Ｐｒｏｃｅｓｓ）、关系过程（Ｒｅｌａｔｉｏｎａｌ　Ｐｒｏｃｅｓｓ）、言语过程（Ｖｅｒｂａｌ　Ｐｒｏｃｅｓｓ）和存在过程（Ｅｘｉｓｔｅｎｔｉａｌ　Ｐｒｏｃｅｓｓ）。为了便于分析，笔者把祖母和Ｔｈｅ　Ｍｉｓｆｉｔ之间的情节发展分为三个阶段，各阶段的物质过程、心理过程、行为过程的句子数量参见下表。其中六大过程中的言语过程描写最多，其分析将放在人际意义中详细讨论，另外关系过程和存在过程并没有出现，笔者暂不予以考虑。 物质过程　行为过程心理过程祖母 ２ ７ ７Ｔｈｅ　Ｍｉｓｆｉｔ ６ ４ ０ 从总体上看，Ｔｈｅ　Ｍｉｓｆｉｔ手里有枪，在整个事件中占主动，他可以在他的两个帮凶的配合下为所欲为。Ｔｈｅ　Ｍｉｓｆｉｔ非常明白自己占据主宰的地位。因此，即使拿着枪，他也可以非常随意地做其他动作，这就使得及物性系统中的物质过程占大多数，而行为过程是在不经意间流露出来的内心世界的体现。与Ｔｈｅ　Ｍｉｓｆｉｔ　相反，作者在描写祖母的表现时主要用了心理过程，其次才是行为过程，她很少做出带有目的性并对别人产生影响的动作。具体来说，祖母和Ｔｈｅ　Ｍｉｓｆｉｔ之间的情节发展可分为以下三个部分：第一部分是偶遇到她的儿子和孙子被带到树林里杀掉；第二部分是她的儿媳和另外两个孩子被枪杀；最后一部分是祖母被杀。 第一部分：祖母在回忆起Ｔｈｅ　Ｍｉｓｆｉｔ　的真实身份之后，Ｓｈｅ　ｓｃｒａｍｂｌｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｈｅｒ　ｆｅｅｔ　ａｎｄ　ｓｔｏｏｄ　ｓｔａｒｉｎｇ。这一个本能行为表现了祖母的震惊，而这个歹徒似乎并不在意被人认出：Ｔｈｅ　ｍａｎ　ｓａｉｄ　ｓｍｉｌｉｎｇ　ｌｉｇｈｔｌｙ　ａｓ　ｉｆ　ｈｅ　ｗｅｒｅ　ｐｌｅａｓｅｄｉｎ　ｓｐｉｔｅ　ｏｆ　ｈｉｍｓｅｌｆ　ｔｏ　ｂｅ　ｋｎｏｗｎ。从这一行为过程中，可以看出歹徒在逍遥法外之后，仍旧蔑视法律、胆大妄为的内心世界。同时也嘲弄了美国的法律制度，我们不禁要问，在这样一个自恃法律制度非常完备的社会，法律制度在美国人心目中到底占多重地位？在Ｔｈｅ　Ｍｉｓｆｉｔ向祖母一家摊牌之后，祖母在这一部分中的唯一一个物质过程的动作，充分体现了她的无助：Ｔｈｅ　ｇｒａｎｄｍｏｔｈｅｒ　ｓａｉｄ　ａｎｄ　ｒｅｍｏｖｅｄ　ａ　ｃｌｅａｎｈａｎｄｋｅｒｃｈｉｅｆ　ｆｒｏｍ　ｈｅｒ　ｃｕｆｆ　ａｎｄ　ｂｅｇａｎ　ｔｏ　ｓｌａｐ　ａｔ　ｈｅｒｅｙｅｓ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｉｔ。手无缚鸡之力的祖母只能拿出手绢来拭眼泪。 《好人难寻》的功能文体学分析 □杜丽霞

文体学

一、Outline of this course: The name of this book is English Stylistics. Generally it is about the study of styles in language and variations in language, but in this course, we focus on modern stylistics, which has two branches, literary stylistics and general stylistics. The course introduced us an influential theoretical framework of stylistics and applied the theory in the concrete analysis of the main varieties of Modern English. 二、Terms definition. Stylistics: Stylistics is a b ranch of linguistics which applies the theory and methodology of modern linguistics to the study of the style. It studies the use of language in specific contexts and attempts to account for the characteristics that mark the language use of individuals and social groups. Style: 答案一：Style can be taken as the language habits of a person or group of persons in a given situation. (老师课堂讲授) 答案二：Style may be seen as the various characteristic uses of language that a person or group of persons make in various social contexts.(个人整理) Variety: Variety can be taken as the different types or styles of a language. Dialect: Dialect is the language variation that is associated with different users of the language. Register:答案一：Register is the language variation that is associated with different use to which they are put. (教材) 答案二：①Register can be taken as the varieties in which different situations with different situations with different occupational or social group.②Register can be taken as the distinctive varieties of a language used in different types of situation.(老师课堂讲授) 答案三：Registers are language varieties which are appropriate for use in particular speech situations, in contrast to language varieties that are associated with the social or regional grouping of their customary users. For that reason, registers are also known as situational dialects. (个人整理) 四、This term we covered Chapter1、2、3、4、5 and 9. In Chapter1(the aims and concerns of stylistics), we talked about the definitions of stylistics, modern stylistics, language, speech act, variety and style, 3 terms in language use, 4 influencing factors (regional variation, social variation, situational variation, topic variation), 5styles of formality. In Chapter 2(the necessity for stylistic study), we gave an introduction and analyzed the 3 need for stylistic study, i.e. stylistic study helps cultivate a sense of appropriateness; stylistic study sharpens the understanding and appreciation of literary works; stylistic study helps achieve adaptation in translation. In Chapter 3(the classification of varieties of English), we revealed two main kinds of situational varieties: dialectal varieties(dialects) and diatypic varieties(registers). We’ve 5 categories of the former, they are individual dialect(personal linguistic features); temporal dialect(dialect of time/ age/ epoch); regional dialect(origin of birth and grown-up) and social dialect(social groups and social background) and standard dialect. As to the latter, the field, mode and tenor of discourse and their relationships were covered. In Chapter 4(the levels of linguistic description & the content and procedure of stylistic analysis), we mentioned the aim of stylistics in linguistic description, which is to give an analytical tool. We also covered the 3 levels language, namely the level of phonology (to study the writing system);

文体学答案

文体学答案 集团文件版本号：（M928-T898-M248-WU2669-I2896-DQ586-M1988）

文体学课后题 1、2单元 1Identify and classify patterns of sound repetition in the following examples. 1）Words and phrases shilly-shally = pararhyme super-duper = rhyme high and mighty = assonance fair and square = rhyme kith and kin = reverse rhyme toil and moil = rhyme part and parcel = reverse rhyme by hook or by crook = rhyme 2）Pride and Prejudice = alliteration The Love’s labour Lost = alliteration Of Mice and Man = alliteration Bill Rogers, Marvelous Marathon Man = alliteration Father in a Fix = alliteration Witch Watch = alliteration The Wonder of Waterfall = alliteration 3)Advertisements --Drinka Pinta Milka Day = sound elision --Extra Pintas Warma Winta = sound elision --Be different daily. Be dreamy or dramatic. Experiment, but still economise. Be bold and be beautiful—but don’t break the bank. = (in order) alliteration; alliteration; reverse rhyme; alliteration 2 The underlined word(s) in each of the following examples 1)Nim Chimpsky sounds like Noam Chompsky, who believes that man has a language learning device in the mind, which enables the child to learn the language however badly it is taught. This makes man different from animal, which does not have such a device. That is why chimpanzee (who is considered to be the most intelligent animal) can never learn the language however hard it is taught. 2）Romeow is a word imitating the sound made by a cat and shares the same pronunciation with the main character in Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Romeo has deep love for Juliet. It indicates that Romeow the cat has affection for the master. 3) Record shop named Moby Disc, which implies it is a huge shop of its kind, for it reminds one of the Moby Dick, a book which depicts people hunt a huge whole called Moby Dick. 3 1)phonological devices in the following extract. A creak of hinges...aisle. In this passage the authors uses alliteration high-heeled, assonance tiled surface of the central aisle. What is more conspicuous is the use of onomatopoeic words such as creak, booming thud, flutter, tiptap, which present the different kinds of noises heard in the church. The use of such words help the reader share the same experience of the writer and make the description vivid and believable. 2）Read the following extract from the novel Adventures of Tom 3）Sawyer and comment on the graphological forms. “TOM!” No answer. ...--Mark Twai This is one episode of the novel Adventures of Tom Sawyer, depicting how Granny is looking for Tom, who is naughty and hiding under the bed. The different form of letters with punctuation marks indicates how Granny speaks. When we read it, we have the feeling of watching Granny on a stage play. For example, “TOM!” is said louder than “Tom!”. “Y-o-u-u, Tom!” indicates Granny drawls her voice and with unusual loudness so as to be heard far away. The exclamation marks “!” show her emotion, and the dash “— “ impl ies her sudden stop. The italicized through emphasizes the contrast with “over” and “under”, humorously implying her glasses are intended for ornament rather than practical use. In the whole passage, we see the only character Granny, who is speaking to herself. It is very much like a stage monologue. After reading, we have a vivid image of Granny in our mind. And there is a touch of humour all through. 3单元 1 What are thethree ways of clause classification classification according to constituents, verb phrase and functions. By constituents clauses can be grouped into SV(A), SVO(A), SVC, SVOO, SVOC. By verb phrase we have finite clause, non-finite clause and verbless clause. By functions clauses can be categorized either as independent clause or dependent clause. 2 how do we distinguish situation types By according to meaning or sense of the verb. 3 Name the participant roles in action types The participant roles in action types are: agentive role (doer of the action), external force (causer of the action), intrumental role (tool to do the action with), recipient role (receiver of the action) and objective role (the affected or the result of the action). 4 What is a simple sentence What is a multiple sentence Directly/indirectly A simple sentence conforms to the basic clause structure SV(O) (C) (A). A multiple sentence consists of more than one clause. It may be either a compound sentence,a complex sentence, or a mixed sentence. D :nominal clauses function as S O C .I:relative clauses function as modified in NP and comparative c f as m in NP ADJP 5 What is the difference between a minor sentence and an incomplete sentence

整理文体学答案

文体学课后题1、2单元 1Identify and classify patterns of sound repetition in the following examples. 1）Words and phrases shilly-shally = pararhyme super-duper = rhyme high and mighty = assonance fair and square = rhyme kith and kin = reverse rhyme toil and moil = rhyme part and parcel = reverse rhyme by hook or by crook = rhyme 2）Pride and Prejudice = alliteration The Love’s labour Lost = alliteration Of Mice and Man = alliteration Bill Rogers, Marvelous Marathon Man = alliteration Father in a Fix = alliteration Witch Watch = alliteration The Wonder of Waterfall = alliteration 3)Advertisements --Drinka Pinta Milka Day = sound elision --Extra Pintas Warma Winta = sound elision --Be different daily. Be dreamy or dramatic. Experiment, but still economise. Be bold and be beautiful—but don’t break the bank. = (in order) alliteration; alliteration; reverse rhyme; alliteration 2 The underlined word(s) in each of the following examples 1)Nim Chimpsky sounds like Noam Chompsky, who believes that man has a language learning device in the mind, which enables the child to learn the language however badly it is taught. This makes man different from animal, which does not have such a device. That is why chimpanzee (who is considered to be the most intelligent animal) can never learn the language however hard it is taught. 2）Romeow is a word imitating the sound made by a cat and shares the same pronunciation with the main character in Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Romeo has deep love for Juliet. It indicates that Romeow the cat has affection for the master. 3) Record shop named Moby Disc, which implies it is a huge shop of its kind, for it reminds one of the Moby Dick, a book which depicts people hunt a huge whole called Moby Dick. 3 1)phonological devices in the following extract. A creak of hinges...aisle. In this passage the authors uses alliteration high-heeled, assonance tiled surface of the central aisle. What is more conspicuous is the use of onomatopoeic words such as creak, booming thud, flutter, tiptap, which present the different kinds of noises heard in the church. The use of such words help the reader share the same experience of the writer and make the description vivid and believable. 2）Read the following extract from the novel Adventures of Tom 3）Sawyer and comment on the graphological forms. “TOM!” No answer. ...--Mark Twai This is one episode of the novel Adventures of Tom Sawyer, depicting how Granny is looking for Tom, who is naughty and hiding under the bed. The different form of letters with punctuation marks indicates how Granny speaks. When we read it, we have the feeling of watching Granny on a stage play. For example, “TOM!” is said louder than “Tom!”. “Y-o-u-u, Tom!” indicates Granny drawls her voice and with unusual loudness so as to be heard far away. The exclamation marks “!” show her emotio n, and the dash “—“ implies her sudden stop. The italicized through emphasizes the contrast with “over” and “under”, humorously implying her glasses are intended for ornament rather than practical use. In the whole passage, we see the only character Granny, who is speaking to herself. It is very much like a stage monologue. After reading, we have a vivid image of Granny in our mind. And there is a touch of humour all through. 3单元 1 What are thethree ways of clause classification? classification according to constituents, verb phrase and functions. By constituents clauses can be grouped into SV(A), SVO(A), SVC, SVOO, SVOC. By verb phrase we have finite clause, non-finite clause and verbless clause. By functions clauses can be categorized either as independent clause or dependent clause. 2 how do we distinguish situation types? By according to meaning or sense of the verb. 3 Name the participant roles in action types? The participant roles in action types are: agentive role (doer of the action), external force (causer of the action), intrumental role (tool to do the action with), recipient role (receiver of the action) and objective role (the affected or the result of the action). 4What is a simple sentence? What is a multiple sentence? Directly/indirectly A simple sentence conforms to the basic clause structure SV(O) (C) (A). A multiple sentence consists of more than one clause. It may be either a compound sentence,a complex sentence, or a mixed sentence. D :nominal clauses function as S O C .I:relative clauses function as modified in NP and comparative c f as m in NP ADJP 5 What is the difference between a minor sentence and an incomplete sentence? Neither type conforms to the basic clause structure. But a minor sentence is supposed to be “complete” in the s ense that it is finished. An incomplete sentence never comes to its end because of sudden interruption or other reasons. For example, (1) Attention, please. (2) Help! (3) Going to the lecture? (4) Why are you late? Because I—Of the four sentences, (1) (2) (3) are minor sentences whereas (4) is an incomplete. 6 What are the major components of a noun phrase?What is the use of pre-modification? What is the function of post-modification? A complete noun phrase consists of four constituents: determiner, pre-modifier, head and post-modifier. The determiner can be an article, numerals, numeral pronouns; all the words between the determinative and the head are pre-modifier, whatever part of speech they belong to; the head can be a noun or a pronoun; the post-modifier is usually a prepositional phrase, a noun phrase, a non-finite clause, a relative clause, etc. Frequent use of pre-modification in newspaper headlines can economize space, and arouse the reader’s interest as well because pre-modification is usually short, thus cannot spell out details. This keeps the reader in suspense and kicks up their eagerness to find out. Pre-modification tends to be informal and appears in less formal style. Post-modification can be very long and complicated. Using post-modification can give enough room for details and for further information. Therefore, it is frequently used in more formal contexts, for instance, written language. Written legal English prefers post-modification in noun phrases, because the composer of a legal document must ensure that it conveys meaning exactly and explicitly, guarding against any possible misinterpretation. 7 What are the three basic factors in the formation of written texts? For effective presentation of information and language processing on the part of the reader, we usually attach importance to sequence, segmentation and salience in the formation of texts, both spoken and written. 8 Which type of branching is common in informal speech? Which type of branching is preferred in written styles? Right-branching is common in speech, in relaxed and informal presentation of ideas.A writer may favor right-branching and use short, simple sentences to represent a narrative style of simplicity, directness and intensity. Left-branching, however, is better adapted to writing because it is structurally more compact and logical, and it is usually more formal. Since subordinate ideas are presented first, postponing the main idea, readers often feel in suspense and try to read on to obtain the main idea towards the end of the sentence. 9 What is the basic phrase order?What are the stylistic effects of fronting and postponement? The basic phrase order in an English declarative clause is more or less fixed: SV(O)(C)(A), with A being mobile in position. The change of the order can make a particular language unit more salient. Fronting refers the movement of a sentential element from its usual position to the front, and postponement refers the movement of a linguistic unit from its normal place towards the end of the sentence. In both cases the elements moved are highlighted. For example, (1) Talent Mr. Micawber has, capital Mr. Micawber has not. (fronting talent and capital for emphasis) (2) A car stopped and out stepped the President of the University. (Postponing President of the University again for emphasis) 10 What is syntactic parallelism and its function?