A Glossary of Basic Literary Terms

沉郁的在美学名词解释引言：美学作为一门探讨艺术与美的学科，涉及到众多的概念和名词。

其中，一个备受关注的概念就是"沉郁"。

本文将对"沉郁"在美学领域中的含义与解释进行深入剖析，以便更好地理解这一令人着迷的概念。

正文：什么是美学？美学是研究艺术、审美和感知的学科。

它探讨了什么是美，追溯着艺术如何触动人类内心的感受和情感。

美学以理性的思考和主观的体验为基础，尝试寻找审美感觉的根源以及如何评判艺术的好坏。

"沉郁"的意义：沉郁是一个具有复杂意义的美学概念，可用于描述一种特定的艺术风格或情感状态。

它源于德国浪漫主义文学和哲学，并且在19世纪晚期和20世纪初的现代主义时期得到广泛探讨。

从字面意义来看，"沉郁"指的是一种深沉而充满忧郁的情感。

它在文学、绘画、音乐等艺术形式中表现出来，如诗人托马斯·曼（Thomas Mann）的小说《魔山》（The Magic Mountain）中所体现的那种复杂而深奥的情感状态，以及爱德华·蒙克（Edvard Munch）的画作《呐喊》（The Scream）所传达的孤独和绝望。

沉郁的形式美感：沉郁的形式美感体现在艺术作品的形式、元素和表现方式上。

通常，沉郁的艺术作品表现为一种象征性的和富有意象性的表现手法。

色彩使用上更偏向于暗淡和压抑的调子，如冷色调和灰色调等，以传达出悲伤、孤独或忧郁的情感。

此外，沉郁的作品常常具有一定的模糊性和复杂性，让观者感受到一种令人融入其中的氛围。

这种氛围可能是由人物形象、场景设置或音乐声效等因素共同营造出来的。

一个例子是欧洲电影中常出现的黑白影调以及暗灰色的演员服装与背景环境的搭配，形成了一种独特的沉郁氛围。

思想与情感的反映：沉郁作为一种情感状态，常常与人物内心的思想和情感交织在一起。

艺术家通过描绘人物的内心世界或者艺术品本身所传递的情感，让观者产生共鸣。

★艾布拉姆斯和《镜与灯》当今时代，任何一个从事西方文学理论或浪漫主义文学或文论研究的学者大概都不会不知道M.H.艾布拉姆斯这个名字，尤其是他的经典性著作《镜与灯：浪漫主义文论及批评传统》(The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition)，这不仅是因为这本书自1953年出版以来就被翻译成多种文字在全世界范围内不断地重印，并且广为东西方学者们所引用和讨论，作者在书中提出的作为总结西方文论发展史的四要素至今仍不断地为学者们用于比较文学和文学理论研究。

在欧美现当代文学理论家中，艾布拉姆斯（Meyer Howard Abrams (1912- )算是一位大师级的人物，他于20世纪30年代考入哈佛大学，受过“哈佛文学史学派”的严格训练，其间曾赴英国剑桥大学师从I.A.理查兹，后于1940年毕业于哈佛大学，获博士学位，这种严格的训练为他日后的理论研究奠定了坚实的基础。

他在哈佛的博士论文就是那本经过不断修改扩充并在日后产生巨大影响的《镜与灯》。

艾布拉姆斯毕业后长期在康乃尔大学任教，现任1916级英文荣休讲座教授(Class of 1916 Professor of English Emeritus)。

他一生著述甚丰，其中最有代表性的著作除了《镜与灯》外，还有《自然的超自然主义：浪漫主义文学中的传统与革新》(Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature, 1971), 《相似的微风：英国浪漫主义文学论集》(The Correspondent Breeze: Essays on English Romanticism, 1984)，《探讨文本：批评和批评理论文集》(Doing Things with Texts: Essays in Criticism and Critical Theory, 1989)，《文学术语词典》(A Glossary of Literary Terms, 1957)等。

Glossary of Literary Terms 文学术语词汇表The definitions given below are not meant to be exhaustive. Indeed, whole books have been written to explain some of these terms, such as archetype , hero, realism, and symbolism. These notes are meant to provide basic definitions of frequently used literary terms; I hope these definitions will establish common ground for book discussions. Most of the examples given are works reviewed on this Web site.</glossary.html>-A-allegory"In literature, an extended metaphor in which characters, objects, incidents, and descriptions carry one or more sets of fully developed meanings in addition to the apparent and literal ones. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress , for example, is apparently about a man named Christian who leaves his home and journeys to the Heavenly City. However, it is clear that Christian stands for any Christian man and that the incidents of his journey represent the temptations and trials that beset any Christian man throughout his life on earth" (Source</glossary.html> : Benet's, 26).alternative historyalternate term: alternate history“A species of fiction - also called allohistory - in which much depends on some major reversal of known geography or history” ( Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 15).Examples: novels in which Germany won World War II.antagonistSee protagonist </glossary.html> .anticlimax"An arrangement of details such that the lesser appears at the point wheresomething greater is expected" (Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 246). The term may also refer to a resolution that does not deserve all the build-up it has received.Also see: climax </glossary.html> .antihero"A protagonist who lacks traditional heroic virtues and noble qualities and is sometimes inept, cowardly, stupid, or dishonest, yet sensitive" (Source </glossary.html> : Benet's, 40)."A protagonist of a modern play or novel who has the converse of most of the traditional attributes of the hero. This hero is graceless, inept, sometimes stupid, sometimes dishonest" (Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 30). Example: Parker in the novels by Richard Stark</starkrich.html> .Also see: hero </glossary.html> , protagonist</glossary.html> .archetype"Generally, a prototype or original pattern or a paradigm or abstract idea of a class of things that represents the typical and essential elements shared by all varieties of that class. In literature, myth, folklore, and religion, the term can be applied to images, themes, symbols, ideas, characters, and situations that appeal to our unconscious racial memory. T.S. Eliot explains this memory as civilized man's 'pre-logical mentality'…Archetypes can be primitive and universal and consist of general themes like birth, death, coming of age, love, guilt, redemption, conflict between free will and destiny, rivalry between members of the family, fertility rites; of characters like the hero rebel, the wanderer, the devil, the buffoon; and of creatures like the lion, serpent, or eagle" (Source </glossary.html> : Benet's, 46).Top </glossary.html>-B-bathos"A figure of speech which descends from the sublime to the ridiculous in an attempt to create a grandiose or pathetic effect. The term describes an unintentional anticlimax" (Source</glossary.html> : Benet's, 83).Bildungsroman“A type of novel, common in German literature, which treats the personal development of a single individual, usually in youth” (Source</glossary.html> : Benet’s, 109).black humoralternate terms: black comedy, dark humor, dark comedy"A substantial aspect of …much modern fiction. The term describes sardonically humorous effects derived from mordant wit and morbid or grotesque situations that deal with anxiety, suffering, or death" (Source </glossary.html> : Benet's, 112).Example: The Ax </westlake.html> by Donald E. Westlake.</glossary.html>“bookends”A narrative structure </glossary.html> that sandwiches a large central section (which usually makes up the bulk of the work) between two smaller sections that introduce and conclude the work. The two smaller sections thus stand on both sides of the main narrative, like a set of bookends propping up a row of books on a shelf. Authors may choose this type of structure for two reasons:1. to provide another perspective on the action. The narrator of the two bookend sections is often different from the narrator of the main section. This technique therefore offers another person’s perception of the events and their significance, or another character’s comments about the main narrator. Sometimes the narrator of the bookend sections offers information that the main narrator does not or could not know but that the reader needs to understand the full significance of the story.2. to indicate the passage of time. Many authors use this narrative structure to present a main narrative that occurred in the past; the bookend sections then provide a current comment on the main story, for example a person describing a diary written by an ancestor found in an old trunk.Sometimes the bookend structure serves both of these purposes. For example, an adult may provide a current commentary on a main narrative written from his point of view as a child.Examples: The Unburied by Charles Palliser, A Place of Execution</mcdermid.html> by Val McDermid, Strange Fits of Passion by Anita Shreve, The Turn of the Screw by Henry JamesTop </glossary.html>-C-caper"The subgenre in which the narrative interest is centered on a person or a group of people attempting to steal something, break in somewhere, or otherwise interfere with a seemingly impregnable stronghold has become known as a caper. There are comic capers and serious capers. Donald E. Westlake </westlake.html> writes the former under his own name in his novels about John Dortmunder; he writes the latter as Richard Stark </starkrich.html> in Parker novels" (Source </glossary.html> : DeAndrea, 401). caricatureSee characterization </glossary.html> . characterizationalternate term: character development"The creation of imaginary persons so that they seem lifelike. "There are three fundamental methods of characterization : (1) the explicit presentation by the author of the character through direct exposition, either in an introductory block or more often piecemeal throughout the work, illustrated by action; (2) the presentation of the character in action, with little or no explicit comment by the author, in the expectation that the reader can deduce the attributes of the actor from the actions; and (3) the representation from within a character, without comment by the author, of the impact of actions and emotions on the character's inner self."Regardless of the method by which a character is presented, the author may concentrate on a dominant trait to the exclusion of other aspects of personality, or the author may attempt to present a fully rounded creation.If the presentation of a single dominant trait is carried to an extreme, not a believable character but a caricature will result…On the other hand, the author may present so convincing a congeries of personality traits that a complex rather than a simple character emerges; such a character is three-dimensional or, in E.M. Forster's term, 'round'…"Furthermore, a character may be either static or dynamic. A static character is one who changes little if at all. Things happen to such a character without things happening within …A dynamic character, on the other hand, is one who is modified by actions and experiences, and one objective of the work in which the character appears is to reveal the consequences of these actions" ( Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 89).climax"A rhetorical term for a rising order of importance in the ideas expressed…In large compositions-the essay, the short story, the drama, or the novel-the climax is the point of highest interest, whereat the reader makes the greatest emotional response. In dramatic structure climax designates the turning point in the action, the crisis at which the rising action reverses and becomes the falling action" ( Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 99).Also see: anticlimax </glossary.html> .coherence"A principle demanding that the parts of any composition be so arranged that the meaning of the whole may be immediately clear and intelligible. Words, phrases, clauses within the sentence; and sentences, paragraphs, and chapters in larger pieces of writing are the units that, by their progressive and logical arrangement, make for coherence or, contrariwise, by illogical arrangement, result in incoherence. Literature has no need, however, of unilateral coherence in all its particulars. Occasional incoherence-or even unsuitable coherence-may perfectly register uncertainty, anxiety, terror, confusion, illness, or other common states" ( Source </glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 102). conflict"The struggle that grows out of the interplay of two opposing forces. Conflict provides interest, suspense, and tension. At least one of theopposing forces is customarily a person. This person, usually the protagonist, may be involved in conflicts of four different kinds: (1) a struggle against nature…(2) a struggle against another person, usually the antagonist…(3) a struggle against society…or (4) a struggle for mastery by two elements within the person…Seldom do we find a simple, single conflict, but rather a complex one partaking of two or even all of the preceding elements… Conflict implies not only the struggle of a protagonist against someone or something, but also the existence of some motivation for the conflict or some goal to be achieved thereby. Conflict is the raw material out of which plot is constructed" ( Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 115-116). Also see: plot </glossary.html> .cozyalternate term: English drawing-room mysteryThis type of mystery characteristically involves a group of people brought together, usually in a large house, for a specific purpose. When one member of the group turns up dead, all the others immediately are suspects and become suspicious of each other. The detective, frequently an amateur sleuth, deduces the murderer's identity through shrewd observation of the participants. The story often ends with all participants gathered in the drawing room; the sleuth examines in turn each one's motives for the murder, saving the guilty party for last.In a cozy, the unpleasant business of the murder usually occurs "off stage." Someone discovers a corpse, but readers are spared the details of how the killing and death occur."This term describes the underlying attitude behind a certain type of mystery story. Although it is frequently treated as the opposite of hard-boiled, that impression is inaccurate. The proper antonym of cozy is noir </glossary.html> . A cozy supposes a benign universe: These murders we have before us are unsettling, but once we figure out who the killer is, we can get back to living our decent and pleasant lives" (Source </glossary.html> : DeAndrea, 401).Top </glossary.html>-D-dénouement"Literally, 'unknotting.' The final unraveling of a plot; the solution of a mystery; an explanation or outcome. Dénouement implies an ingenious untying of the knot of an intrigue, involving not only a satisfactory outcome of the main situation but an explanation of all the secrets and misunderstandings connected with the plot complication" ( Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 146).Top </glossary.html>-E-Edgar Awards"…the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, named for the inventor of the detective story, are given by the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) to honor outstanding achievements in mystery writing" ( Source</glossary.html> : DeAndrea, 395).epistolary novel“A novel told as a series of letters written by one or more of the characters. [. . .] One of the earliest types of the novel, it offered readers an immediate entry into the world of the characters through the inherently social medium of correspondence. [. . .] Contemporary use is rare, perhaps related to the waning of letter-writing as a social phenomenon” (Source </glossary.html> : NYPL, 642).Examples: ’Alices Tulips </dallas.html> by Sandra Dallas is an example of a traditional epistolary novel, in which all the letters are written by the same person. FanMail </munson.html>by Ronald Munson illustrates a contemporary twist on the genre by employing several forms of written communication: memos, faxes, telephone messages, e-mail, reports, newspaper clippings.existentialism"A 20th-century movement in philosophy…All existentialists are concerned with ontology, the study of being. The point of departure is human consciousness and mental processes. In contrast to most previous philosophical systems, which maintain that an a priori essence precedesor transcends the individual existence of people or of objects, the existentialists conclude that existence precedes essence. The significance of this for human beings is that the concept that one has an essential self is shown to be an illusion. A man's self is nothing except what he has become; at any given moment, it is the sum of the life he has shaped until then. The 'nothing' he begins with is thus the source of man's freedom, for at each moment it is man's will that can choose how to act or not to act. However, each such decision affects the future doubly: a man is or should be responsible for the consequences of his actions; and each action necessarily excludes the other potential actions for that moment, and their consequences, and thus at least partially limits the potentialities for future actions."By what standards, then, should a person make decisions? The mind cannot discern any meaning for this existence in the universe; when a person abandons his illusions, he finds himself horrified by the absurdity of the human condition…a person must create a human morality in the absence of any known predetermined absolute values" ( Source</glossary.html> : Benet's, 334-335).exposition"…the introductory material that creates the tone, gives the setting, introduces the characters, and supplies other facts necessary to understanding" a work of literature ( Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 204).Top </glossary.html>-F-flashback"A device by which a work presents material that occurred prior to the opening scene of the work. Various methods may be used, among them recollections of characters, narration by the characters, dream sequences, and reveries" ( Source </glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 215).</glossary.html>foreshadowing“The presentation of material in a work in such a way that later events are prepared for. [. . .] the purpose of foreshadowing is to prepare thereader or viewer for action to come” (Source</glossary.html>: Harmon & Holmon, 219).Top </glossary.html>-G-</glossary.html>genre“Used to designate the types or categories into which literary works are grouped according to form, technique, or, sometimes, subject matter. The French term means “kind,”“genus,” or “type.” The traditional genres include tragedy, comedy, epic, lyric, and pastoral. Today a division of literature into genres would also include novel, short story, essay, television play, and motion picture scenario. [. . .] Critics today frequently regard genre distinctions as useful descriptive devices but rather arbitrary ones. Genre boundaries have been much subject to flux and blur in recent times, and it is almost the rule that a successful work will combine genres in some original way” (Source</glossary.html>: Harmon & Holmon, 231).The related term genre fiction refers to several types of popular fiction such as thrillers, westerns, mysteries, romance novels, and science fiction. Each type has its own set of standard characteristics that most novels of the type exhibit. Genre fiction is often used pejoratively to mean something like “mere genre fiction,” which refers to a formulaic novel that rigidly follows the conventions of its type and exhibits little creativity.gothicalternate terms: gothic novel, gothic narrativeA type of fiction that arose in the 18th century. “It was characterized by horror, violence, supernatural effects, and medieval elements, usually set against a background of gothic architecture, especially a gloomy and isolated castle” ( Source </glossary.html> : Benet’s, 417). In addition to the gloomy, isolated castle, other common gothic trappings include insanity (often in the form of a mad relative kept locked in a room in the castle), ghosts and spirits, and dramaticthunder-and-lightning storms.See also: Southern gothic </glossary.html>Examples: Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier epitomizes the gothic novel. Other works by duMaurier, including Jamaica Inn, also include gothic elements. Top <file:///C:\Notes%20in%20the%20Margin\glossary.html>-H-Hammett PrizeThis prize is awarded annually by the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers for the best work, either fiction or nonfiction, of literary excellence in crime writing.hard-boiled"A type of 20th-century American crime story, which combined the style of realism with a subject of increasing interest: urban crime. Hard-boiled fiction gained a reputation for laconic, witty, and sometimes realistically crude dialogue; the graphic and objective depiction of violence; and the introduction of seedy, corrupt, and sordid settings" (Source </glossary.html> : Benet's, 446). Example: The Last Good Kiss </miscmyst2.html> by James Crumley.hero or heroine"The central character (masculine or feminine) in a work. The character who is the focus of interest" (Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 246).A hero traditionally has positive qualities such as high ethical standards, commitment to duty, perseverance, and courage. An antihero possesses negative qualities such as cowardice and dishonesty. Protagonist is a neutral term denoting simply the main character of a work.Top </glossary.html>-I-irony"In rhetoric, a deliberate dissembling for effect or to intensify meaning. In the most general sense, two categories of irony can be identified: verbal irony, in which it is plain that the speaker means the opposite of what he says, and circumstantial, or situational, irony, in which there is a discrepancy between what might reasonably be expected and whatactually occurs-between the appearance of a situation and its reality. One of the most common forms of verbal irony is the use of praise when a slur is intended…Tragic irony results from a perception of the intensity of human striving and the indifference of the universe…In dramatic irony, a speaker may utter words that have a hidden meaning intelligible to the audience but of which he himself is unaware…" ( Source </glossary.html> : Benet's, 510).Top </glossary.html>-M-magical realismalternate term: magic realism"A worldwide twentieth-century tendency in the graphic and literary arts, especially painting and prose fiction. The frame or surface of the work may be conventionally realistic, but contrasting elements-such as the supernatural, myth, dream, fantasy-invade the realism and change the whole basis of the art" ( Source </glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 304).A term introduced by the Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, who "saw in magic realism the capacity to enrich our idea of what is 'real' by incorporating all dimensions of the imagination, particularly as expressed in magic, myth, and religion" ( Source </glossary.html> : Benet's, 635).Example: Snow in August </miscfict3.html> by Pete Hamill.melodrama"A work, usually a play, based on a romantic plot and developed sensationally, with little regard for motivation and with an excessive appeal to the emotions of the audience. The object is to keep the audience thrilled by the arousal anyhow of strong feelings of pity, horror, or joy. Poetic justice is superficially secured, the characters (either very good or very bad) being rewarded or punished according to their deeds. Though typically a melodrama has a happy ending, tragedies that use much of the same technique are sometimes referred to as melodramatic" (Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 312).motif (motive)"In literature, recurrent images, words, objects, phrases, or actions that tend to unify the work are called motives" (Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 330).Top </glossary.html>-N-narration"…its purpose is to recount events…There are two forms: simple narrative , which recites events chronologically, as in a newspaper account; and narrative with plot, which is less often chronological and more often arranged according to a principle determined by the nature of the plot and the type of story intended" (Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 336).Also see: plot .narrative structureSee narration </glossary.html> .narrator"Anyone who recounts a narrative. In fiction the term is used for the ostensible author or teller of a story. In fiction presented in the first person, the 'I' who tells the story is the narrator; the narrator may be in any of various relations to the events described, ranging from being their center (the protagonist) through various degrees of importance (minor characters) to being merely a witness. In fiction told from an omniscient point of view, the author acts self-consciously as narrator, recounting the story and freely commenting on it. A narrator is always present, at least by implication, in any work, even a story in which a self-effacing author relates events with apparent objectivity. A narrator may be reliable or unreliable. If the narrator is reliable, the reader accepts without serious question the statements of fact and judgment. If the narrator is unreliable, the reader questions or seeks to qualify the statements of fact and judgment" (Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 337).Also see: point of view </glossary.html> .New Criticism“A movement in 20th-century American literary criticism […]. The New Critics were united in their emphasis on dealing with the text directly; they insisted that a work of art be considered as an autonomous whole, without regard to biographical, cultural, or social speculations”(Source </glossary.html> : Benet's, 726).New Criticism arose from the writings of T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. Chief among the New Critics were John Crowe Ransom, whose 1941 book The New Criticism gave the movement its name; Allen Tate, R.P. Blackmur; Cleanth Brooks; Robert Penn Warren; Kenneth Burke; and Yvor Winter.noir"The term was coined by postwar French film critics as film noir (black film) to describe the sort of movie characterized by dark photography and a despairing, doom-laden sense of life. Scholars of the mystery story found it convenient to use the term for work that shared the same attitude…Typical themes in noir work include obsessive love (or hate, or both), amnesia, illness, betrayal, and man-as-the-plaything of fate" ( Source </glossary.html> : DeAndrea, 403).</glossary.html>novel of mannersA novel dominated by social customs, manners, conventions, and habits of a definite social class. In the true novel of manners the mores of a specific group, described in detail and with great accuracy, become powerful controls over characters. The novel of manners is often, although by no means always, satiric” (Source</glossary.html>: Harmon & Holmon, 354). Examples: the novels of Jane Austen and Edith WhartonTop </glossary.html>-P-parody"In literature, a comic or satirical imitation of a piece of writing, exaggerating its style and content, and playing especially on any weakness in structure or meaning of the original" (Source</glossary.html> : Benet's, 778).pathetic fallacy“. . . the tendency to credit nature with human emotions. In a largersense the pathetic fallacy is any false emotionalism resulting in a too impassioned description of nature. It is the carrying over to inanimate objects of the moods and passions of a human being” (Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 379).pathos"The quality in art or literature that evokes sympathy, tenderness, or sorrow in the viewer or reader" (Source</glossary.html> : Benet's, 783)."…in common usage it describes an acquiescent or relatively helpless suffering or the sorrow occasioned by unmerited grief, as opposed to the stoic grandeur and awful justice of the tragic hero" (Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 380).plot"The minimal definition of plot is 'pattern.' Only slightly less simple is 'pattern of events.' Plot is an intellectual formulation about the relations among the incidents and is, therefore, a guiding principle for the author and an ordering control for the reader."Because the plot consists of characters performing actions in incidents that comprise a 'single, whole, and complete' action, this relation involves conflict between opposing forces…Without conflict, plot hardly exists…These forces may be physical (or external), or they may be spiritual (or internal); but they must in any case afford an opposition. The struggle between the forces, moreover, comes to a head in one incident-the crisis-that forms the turning point and usually marks the moment of greatest suspense" ( Source</glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 394).Also see: conflict </glossary.html> .point of view"The vantage point from which an author presents a story. If the author serves as a seemingly all-knowing maker, the point of view is called omniscient. At the other extreme, a character in the story-major, minor, or marginal-may tell the story as he or she experienced it. Such a character is usually called a first-person narrator; if the character does not comprehend the implications of what is told, the character is called a naïve narrator. The author may tell the story in the third person andyet present it as it is seen and understood by a single character, restricting information to what that character sees, hears, feels, and thinks; such a point of view is said to be limited…If the author never speaks in his or her own person and does not obviously intrude, the author is said to be self-effacing. In extended works, authors frequently employ several methods" ( Source </glossary.html> : Harmon & Holman, 400).Also see: narrator </glossary.html> .“pomo”Postmodernism </glossary.html>postmodernism“Despite persistent disagreement regarding its definition, the term‘postmodernism’ was accepted by the mid-1970s as a comprehensive sociocultural paradigm…Reacting against the traditional master narratives that projected an orderly and coherent universe, the postmodern writers have chosen narrative openness over closure, fiction over truth, and fragmentation over unity and coherence” (Source: Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature, ed. George Perkins, Barbara Perkins, and Phillip Leiningter [NY: HarperCollins, 1991], 874). The following information is from Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology, ed. Paula Geyh, Fred G. Leebron, Andrew Levy (NY: Norton, 1998): Cultural and literary postmodernism, which began in the 1960s, is “a tentative grouping of ideas, stylistic traits, and thematic preoccupations that set the last four decades apart from earlier eras”(x). “In postmodern fiction, World War II, the Holocaust, Hiroshima, and the atom bomb appear often as metaphors for …[a] failure of reason, as historical markers to explore how we manage to live with… absolute contradiction, or simply as spectral presences that remind us that nuclear arsenals still exist, and that our lives remain charged and threatened by visions of apocalypse” (xi).Characteristics of postmodern fiction:·“an assault upon traditional definitions of narrative…particularly those that created coherence or closure” (xii)· the theme of the suburbanization of America, the decline of the city, and apocalyptic visions of the devastated city (xiv)。

Macquarie University Faculty of Human Sciences Department of LinguisticsSystemic Functional TheoryGlossary of Systemic Functional termsChristian MatthiessenMacquarie UniversityC. Matthiessen. Please do not copy or quote without permission. Comments very welcome!This document offers a glossary of terms related to the material in Halliday (1994), Halliday & Hasan (1985), Martin (1992), Matthiessen (1995), and other systemic-functional works, either theoretical or descriptive (see Matthiessen, 1995: Section 1.9 and Figure 1-23). It is based on Appendix 3 of Matthiessen (1995) and on the glossary in Matthiessen & Bateman (1991). It also relates to the current effort to produce a multilingual glossary of systemic-functional terms and glosses being co-ordinated by M.A.K. Halliday & C. Matthiessen. The French terms given are taken from Alice Caffarel's glossary of French systemic terms, Glossaire anglais-fran ais des termes en linguistique syst mique -fonctionnelle.But first a word on the nature of this glossary as a general resource and as an aid in translating between different approaches is in order. We have to understand technical terms as part of a theory of language and the descriptions of particular languages that are based on that theory. So what is a theory of language? Many years ago, J.R. Firth characterized linguistics as "language turned back on itself"; and what he said about using language to describe language in The semantics of linguistic science (in 1948, Lingua) is still very relevant:Let it be borne in mind that language is often not very apt when used about itself, even in technical linguistic studies. If we pause to consider the stylistics of the language of the common sensual life, we can be sure it will not serve as the language for linguistic science. The technical language for the systematic statement of facts of languagecannot, any more than for mathematics, be the language of everyday common sense.Professor Hjelmslev, fully realizing this, has endeavoured to frame a sort of linguistic calculus which might serve the linguistic sciences in the way mathematics has served the physical sciences. Even if the attempt be considered unsuccessful, it has not beensufficiently understood that the work of Professor Hjelmslev in general linguistics has been in the direction of our emancipation from the handicap of the common-senseidiom and 'self-explanatory' nomenclature in half a dozen languages ... However much we may disagree with it or dislike it, the terminology is necessitated by a system ofthought ... Questions of terminology inevitably arise when new systems of thought are applied to the handling of material or events. The whole conceptual framework, thewhole syntax of thought and words, should hold together systematically.Terminology, nomenclature or technical vocabulary/ lexis is thus something that is "necessitated by a system of thought". It is one aspect of the language we use to model language - it is one aspect of our metalanguage. Now we know that an ordinary language cannot be equated with its vocabulary: English is not the same as English lexis; we see only one aspect of English when we look up lexical items in a dictionary. English is far more than its lexis; it also includes the grammatical resources that together with lexis make up the system of wording or lexicogrammar of the language and it includes the systems of sounding (phonology) and of meaning (semantics). Consider the following passage from the introduction to Chapter 3 of Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar:In Section 2.6 we introduced the notion of a clause as a unit in which meanings of three different kinds are combined. Three distinct structures, each expressing onekind of semantic organization, are mapped on to one another to produce a singlewording.Of the various structures which, when mapped on to each other, make up a clause, we will consider first the one which gives the clause its character as a message. This isknown as thematic structure.We may assume that in all languages the clause has the character of a message: it has some form of organization giving it the status of a communicative event. But there are different ways in which this may be achieved. In English, as in many otherlanguages, the clause is organized as a message by having a special status assigned to one part of it. One element in the clause is enunciated as the theme; this thencombines with the remainder so that the two parts together constitute a message.Technical terms are shown in bold. It's very clear from this passage that the distinction between technical terms and non-technical ones is indeterminate: for example, we might consider map in three distinct structures are mapped on to one another or combine in meanings of three different kinds are combined, this then combines with the remainder to be technical terms. However, wherever we draw the line between technical terms and non-technical ones, it is also very clear from the passage that the technical terms are only part of the picture: they make up some of the lexical items that together with grammatical structures constitute the wordings of the metalanguage. For example, the clause each expressing one kind of semantic organization draws on part of the grammar of English that is very central to linguistic theory. This is the grammar of identifying clauses where a general relationship of symbolization is construed between two participants, the Token and the Value:[Token:] each (structure) [Process:] expressing [Value:] one kind of semanticorganizationOther examples in IFG that draw on this type of clause are: a noun expresses a person, other animate being, inanimate object or abstraction, bounded or unbounded, etc.; the Theme is the element which serves as the point of departure of the message, it is that with which the clause is concerned; the Subject specifies the one that is actually responsible for realizing (i.e., in this case for carrying out) the offer or command; [the Actor] means the one that does the deed. This is of course only one example of a grammatical construction that is important in modelling language; there are many others and it is helpful to pay attention to the way in which the resources of grammar are used to theorize about and describe language (what Halliday & Martin, 1993: 6, call "technical grammar"). The general point is technical terms are only part of the lexical resources we use in linguistics; and lexis is only part of the system of wording, lexicogrammar. And beyond lexicogrammar, we also have to consider the many and varied patterns of discourse semantics that play a central role in our metalanguage. Halliday & Martin (1993: 4) makes the point as follows:Of course, technical terms are an essential part of scientific language; it would beimpossible to create a discourse of organized knowledge without them. But they are not the whole story. The distinctive quality of scientific discourse lies in the lexicogrammar (the 'wording') as a whole, and any response it engenders in the reader is a response to the total patterns of discourse.The technical terms of our metalanguage thus only make up one part of the overall metalinguistic resources: a theory is much more than its technical terms. Now, just as with terms or lexical items in general, we can view and describe technical terms in two different ways - (i) dictionary view and (ii) thesaurus view.(i) Dictionary view. We can view them as individual items, list them alphabetically in a dictionary and describe them in terms of the dictionary definitions or glosses. For example, in their glossary, Halliday & Martin (181: 345) provide the following glossary entry for Theme:Theme: clause function, textual; realizes the point of departure of the message; pairs with Rheme; not to be confused with Given (New) as in some Prague School, and much recent work on functional grammar; signalled by first position in the clause in English.Here we access information about the theoretical and descriptive terminology by looking up lexical forms in alphabetical order. The various technical terms form a network of lexical relations, but this network is not represented in an explicit form - it has to be recovered from the gloss. Thus from the gloss above we can infer part of a network of technical terms where 'Theme' is related by realization to both 'point of departure' and to 'first position' and where it is classified as a kind of clausal textual function:This gloss illustrates a very fundamental property of all technical terms: they are defined by their location in a network of relationships that they enter into.(ii) Thesaurus view. In the dictionary view of technical terms, we have to "uncover" the relationships that individual terms enter into from the glosses. In contrast, the thesaurus view brings out these relationships quite explicitly; in particular, it represents taxonomic relationships involving the'kinds of' relationship between a class and its subclasses (see IFG, pp. 332-3). Thus Mark Roget organized the English vocabulary into a small number of general lexical domains, which he subclassified further in several steps.Martin (1992) provides a "thesaurus view" of part of the lexis of symbolic relations - relations that serve within the identifying clause type discussed briefly above. Using a system network, he shows explicitly what the taxonomic relationships are: see the figure below.A glossary is by definition a dictionary view of (technical) vocabulary; but I have tried to indicate theoretical relationships as explicitly as possible to ensure that particular technical terms do not remain insulated from the rest of the metalanguage. In particular, I have indicated whether terms are theoretical or descriptive. Theoretical terms are part of the general theory of language; descriptive terms are part of descriptions of particular languages such as Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Tagalog and Vietnamese. For descriptive terms, I have further indicated the relevant theoretical categories and dimensions (such as paradigmatic/ syntagmatic, ideational/ interpersonal/ textual). For the relationship between theory and description, see e.g. Matthiessen (1995: 57-62) and Matthiessen & Nesbitt (1996)This glossary is intended to explain systemic terms and to relate systemic and non-systemic terms; it is an aid in metalinguistic translation, i.e. in translation between the systemic meta-language and other meta-languages. It is necessary to do this, but at the same time it is important to recognize that glossaries can be misleading and even intellectually harmful, since, as noted above, a theory cannot be reduced to a glossary of its technical terms. A glossary is based on items - the terms glossed - and this tends to foreground the items at the expense of the system or network of relations they are part of. A technical vocabulary is not a list of items; it is a network of relationships. So if we pick out one vocabulary item, say Goal (systemic), and gloss it as Patient (non-systemic), we have lost the fact that Goal is just one part of one theoretical model of transitivity and Patient is part of another model and they are not systemically equivalent although they may be applied analytically to the same constituents of a clause in a large number of examples.Although there are significant points of contact between the systemic tradition and Indian and Chinese linguistics (e.g. in the theoretical foregrounding of prosodies and syllables), the 'translations' between the systemic tradition and other traditions in this glossary are concerned with Western traditions and more specifically traditional grammar and those originating in the US. (Thus, there are only a few items from the Prague School, while Glossematics, continental European structuralism, current French and Dutch functionalist approaches, the various German traditions, and so on are left out entirely.) Also, it should be noted that the main focus is on the level of lexicogrammar (= syntax + morphology + lexis) rather than phonology, semantics, and context, although some central terms in these areas are included.ConventionsSystemic terms in bold italics, e.g. Actor.Non-systemic terms in bold, e.g. Actor.Theoretical systemic terms are marked "[theoretical]".Descriptive systemic terms are marked "[descriiptive:", and their location in the interpretation of English lexicogrammar is given by reference to stratum, metafunction, axis, and rank, e.g. "[descriptive: lexicogrammar x textual x systemic x clause rank]".Glossary of termsAbsolute. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x interpersonal x structural x clause rank] Interpersonal clause function neutralizing the distinction between Subject and Complement. It is assigned to nominal groups in certain minor clauses of the type 'alarm' (as in [Absolute:] Fire! ) and to nominal groups standing unattached in headlines, product names, business names, street names and other "little texts" (as in [Absolute:] A Multinational Era). => IFG p. 96 and p. 395.Accompaniment. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank]Circumstantial role in transitivity structure: the extending type of circumstance. Accoompaniment is the circumstantial equivalent of the meanings 'and', 'or', and 'and not'. For example:He invited Gorbachev to "work [Accompaniment: commitative:] with me to bring down the last barriers to a new world of freedom. (Time 94)He is the boss, and [Accompaniment: commitative:] without him, the accord will not work.[Accompaniment: additive:] Instead of tidings of joy, Hollywood offers the writhings of Job. (Time 94)you end up regulating those people [Accompaniment: additive:] instead of the small percentage of people who commit most crimes (Time 93)=> LexCart p. 343.Actor. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Participant role in a material clause; the participant always inherent in the clause according to the transitive model of transitivity. The process it participates in may or may not extend to affect another participant, the Goal. For instance:[Actor:] The Marchioness [Process:] broke [Role:] into two.[Actor:] Ambulance crews, firefighters and police [Process:] helped to rescue [Goal:] passengers [Location:] from the water.The systemic term Actor is to be distinguished from the systemic term => Agent. While the former is confined to material clauses in the transitive model, the latter is a generalized transitivity function - the 'causer' - in the ergative model of transitivity (see transitivity models). In non-systemic literature, the term Agent may correspond to either Actor or Agent. Bloomfield (1933) used the terms Actor-Action-Goal, but it has not been taken over in most non-systemic treatments of transitivity roles. => LexCart Section 4.7.adjective. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x metafunction: general x systemic x word rank] Secondary word class within primary word class of nominals serving as Epithet within nominal groups. For example:It might have been [adjective:] otherwise had President Bush not waited until after the election to announce that he was nearly doubling U.S. troop strength in the PersianGulf. As it was, only a few sitting members of Congress were defeated, hardly[adjective:] enough to make more than a token difference in the composition of theSenate (where the Democrats picked up one seat) and the House (where they picked up eight). In fact, the most [adjective:] significant result involved a politician whowasn't even on the ballot. For if the election of 1990 changed nothing else, itundermined the perception that George Bush is all but [adjective:] immune to the[adjective:] normal vicissitudes of politics. Suddenly, and for the first time in hispresidency, Bush seemed [adjective:] vulnerable.The weakening process began when Bush abandoned his "no [adjective:] new taxes"pledge and deprived Republican right-wingers of their [adjective:] favorite issue. Then Congress rejected the deficit-reduction package negotiated by White House aides and [adjective:] congressional leaders. After that, the President went from [adjective:] bad to [adjective:] worse as he alternately attacked the Democrats, tried to explain his[adjective:] domestic policies and confronted growing doubts about the U.S.deployment in the [adjective:] Persian Gulf. By the time he finally signed a budget deal [adjective:] last week, his performance ratings in the polls had dropped 20 points.(Time)Certain adjectives can also serve in hypotactic verbal group complexes; for example:Old enemies from the Warsaw Pact are [adjective:] keen to join the Western alliance, but Moscow frowns on the idea. (Time 93)For its part, Israel was [adjective:] eager to reduce its defense costs by sellingoverseas and to increase its influence over a country that supported Israel's Arabenemies. (Time 93)Adjunct. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x interpersonal x structural x clause rank] Interpersonal clause function: constituent that is not an alternative Subject (in contrast to a Complement). Adjuncts are experiential (circumstances), textual (conjunctives), or interpersonal (modal adjuncts or comment adjuncts). For instance:[Adjunct: textual] However [Adjunct: interpersonal] unfortunately we can't meet[Adjunct: experiential / Location:] at noon.Non-systemic writers often use adverbial as roughly equivalent to Adjunct; Quirk et al. (1985) use adjunct roughly in the sense of experiential Adjunct (circumstance) together with subjunct, disjunct and conjunct. => LexCart Section 5.1.1.1.adverb. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x metafunction: general x systemic x word rank] Primary class of word serving as Head or Modifier in adverbial group or as Submodifier in any kind of group (or as expansion of verb in a phrasal of consisting of verb + adverb). For example:It might have been otherwise had President Bush [adverb:] not waited until after the election to announce that he was [adverb:] nearly doubling U.S. troop strength in the Persian Gulf. As it was, [adverb:] only a few sitting members of Congress weredefeated, [adverb:] hardly enough to make [adverb:] more than a token difference in the composition of the Senate ([adverb:] where the Democrats picked [adverb:] up oneseat) and the House ([adverb:] where they picked [adverb:] up eight). In fact, the[adverb:] most significant result involved a politician who wasn't [adverb:] even on the ballot. For if the election of 1990 changed nothing else, it undermined the perception that George Bush is [adverb:] all but immune to the normal vicissitudes of politics.Suddenly, and for the first time in his presidency, Bush seemed vulnerable.The weakening process began when Bush abandoned his "no new taxes" pledge anddeprived Republican right-wingers of their favorite issue. Then Congress rejected the deficit-reduction package negotiated by White House aides and congressional leaders.After that, the President went from bad to worse as he [adverb:] alternately attacked the Democrats, tried to explain his domestic policies and confronted growing doubtsabout the U.S. deployment in the Persian Gulf. By the time he [adverb:] finally signed a budget deal last week, his performance ratings in the polls had dropped 20 points.(Time)=> IFGpp. 25, 214adverbial. Often used as term for Adjuncts outside of systemic functional terms, as in "manner adverbial" or "sentence adverbial".adverbial group. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x metafunction: general x systemic x group rank] Group of words of the primary class adverb. They serve to realize Adjuncts in the clause - interpersonal Adjuncts and certain experiential ones, in particular those of Manner: quality/ degree. => IFG 6.4.1; LexCart 7.4.AGENCY. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x systemic x clause rank] Transitivity system simultaneous with PROCESS TYPE: the choice between 'middle' (nucleuse of Process + Medium construed as not being caused by an Agent) and 'effective' (nucleus of Process + Medium construed as being caused by an Agent). For example:middle:[Medium:] The window [Process:] broke.effective[Agent:] The wind [Process:] broke [Medium:] the window.middle:[Medium:] Limestone [Process:] can form in many wayseffective:[Medium:] Non-clastic rocks [Process:] are formed [Agent:] by chemical precipitation, by biological precipitation, and by accumulation of organic material.=> LexCart Sections 4.3 and 4.6.Agent. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Participant role in clause, according to the ergative transitivity model (see transitivity models): the participant causing the actualization of the combination of Process + Medium. In a material clause, it is the Actor; in a mental one, the Phenomenon; and in a relational one, the Attributor or the Token. For instance:[Agent:] The wind [Process:] broke [Medium:] the window.[Agent:] The mouse [Process:] scared [Senser:] the brave elephant.[Agent:] They [Process:] elected [Medium:] her [Range:] president.[Agent:] They [Process:] elected [Medium:] her [Range:] President.=> IFG p. 147 ff. => LexCart Section 4.6.In non-systemic literature, the term agent may correspond to the systemic Actor, to Agent or to both.Angle. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Circumstantial role in the transitivity structure of the clause, of the projecting type. For example:[Angle:] According to the well-respected 1990 Justice Department report NationalIncidence Studies on Missing, Abducted and Thrown-Away Children in America, farfewer--3,200 to 4,600 minors a year--are seized by strangers.=> IFG p. 151, 158 => LexCart Section 4.11.2.1.ascriptive. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x systemic x clause rank] Term in system RELATIONAL ABSTRACTION, contrasting with 'identifying'. A Carrier is construed as being ascribed or attributed to an Attribute: the relation can be interpreted as one of class-membership - the Carrier is construed as a member of the class described by the Attribute. For example:[Carrier:] You [Process:] are not [Attribute:] a man; [Carrier:] you [Process:] are[Attribute:] a rhinoceros.[Carrier:] Some granite [Process:] has [Attribute:] large crystals.[Carrier:] The names of external structures [Process:] appear [Attribute:] in boxes. => LexCart p. 302.Assigner. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Participant role in intensive identifying relational clauses: the participant that assigns a relation ofidentity between Token and Value. It serves as Agent in the ergative model of transitivity. For example:[Assigner/ Agent:] This state [Process:] is dying to elect [Token/ Medium:] a woman [Value/ Range:] senator (Time)[Assigner/ Agent:] Spencer had helped elect and re-elect Reagan as Governor. (Time)Rostenkowski became the first example of [Token/ Medium:] what [Assigner/ Agent:] wags [Process:] were to christen [Value/ Range:] the "dead-cat syndrome" (Time)=> IFG p. 171 => LexCart p. 314.Attribuend. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Alternative systemic term for => Carrier, the participant role to which an Attribute is ascribed in an ascriptive relational clause.Attribute. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Participant or participant-like role in an ascriptive relation to a participant serving as Medium, typically in an ascriptive relational clause (as in The moon is [Attribute:] a balloon, David tconsidered the moon [Attribute:] a balloon), but also, more restrictedly, in certain material clauses (as in They painted the collage [Attribute:] red; He fell [Attribute:] flat). => LexCart Section4.10.1. on relational Attributes. The Attribute of a relational clause conflates with Range.[Carrier/ Medium:] The Barracks [Process:] is [Location: time:] now [Attribute/Range:] a museum of the history of Sydney and New South Wales. (Fodor's Sydney) [Carrier/ Medium:] this city park [Process:] comes [Attribute/ Range:] alive [Location: time:] on Sundays. (Fodor's Sydney)attributive. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x systemic x clause rank] Alternative term for => 'ascriptive'.Attributor. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Participant role in intensive ascriptive relational clauses: the participant that assigns a relation of ascription between Carrier and Attribute. It serves as Agent in the ergative model of transitivity. => IFG p. 171. => LexCart p. 314.[Attributor/ Agent:] I [Process:] cannot wish [Carrier/ Medium:] Ned [Attribute/Range:] dead, though. (Mary West)[Attributor/ Agent:] He [Process:] considered [Carrier/ Medium:] himself [Attribute/Range:] a master storyteller.Behalf. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Circumstantialrole in the clause, type of Cause.Behaver. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Participant role in the clause, more specifically in 'behavioural' clauses.Beneficiary. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Participant role in the clause, according to the generalized ergative transitivity model (see transitivity models): the participant benefiting from the actualization of the combination of Process + Medium. In a material clause, it is the Recipient (My aunt gave the farmer a duckpress) or the Client (Pour me out a cold Dos Equis beer) and in a verbal one, it is the Addressee (Joe told us all about Eve). It also occurs in a few relational clause types (I owe you an apology) and mental clauses (I envy you your luck; I don't begrudge you your happiness). IFG pp. 132-134. => LexCart Section 2.2.1.7 (Beneficiary/ Recipient), => LexCart Section 2.2.11 (Beneficiary/ Receiver), => LexCart Section 2.2.1.12.3 (Beneficiary in certain relational clauses).[Location: time:] On 9 May, [Goal/ Medium:] blood specimens from several of these initial patients [Process:] were provided [Recipient/ Beneficiary:] to the WHOCollaborating Centre at the centres for Disease and Control and Prevention, Atlanta,Georgia, United States of America. (WER)binder. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x metafunction: general x systemic x word rank] Tertiary word class: subtype of conjunction (which is a subtype of adverbial) marking hypotactically dependent clauses and downranked clauses.It might have been otherwise had President Bush not waited until after the election to announce [binder:] that he was nearly doubling U.S. troop strength in the Persian Gulf.[binder:] As it was, only a few sitting members of Congress were defeated, hardlyenough to make more than a token difference in the composition of the Senate (where the Democrats picked up one seat) and the House (where they picked up eight). Infact, the most significant result involved a politician who wasn't even on the ballot. For [binder:] if the election of 1990 changed nothing else, it undermined the perception[binder:] that George Bush is all but immune to the normal vicissitudes of politics.Suddenly, and for the first time in his presidency, Bush seemed vulnerable.The weakening process began [binder:] when Bush abandoned his "no new taxes"pledge and deprived Republican right-wingers of their favorite issue. Then Congressrejected the deficit-reduction package negotiated by White House aides andcongressional leaders. After that, the President went from bad to worse [binder:] as he alternately attacked the Democrats, tried to explain his domestic policies andconfronted growing doubts about the U.S. deployment in the Persian Gulf. [binder:] By the time he finally signed a budget deal last week, his performance ratings in the polls had dropped 20 points. (Time)。