英语文体学要略

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1、Chapter 1 IntroductionDefinition of StylisticsA reasonable start for a book of this nature is to briefly examine how the field has been defined.Wales defines stylistics simply as nthe study of style1 1 (1989: 437). This definition is clear andconcise, but it does not tell us much about the field unt

2、il we have had a good discussion of whatstyle is. Widdowson provides a more informative definition: By stylistics, I mean the study ofliterary discourse from a linguistic orientation and I shall take the view that what distinguishesstylistics from literary criticism on the one hand and linguistics o

3、n the other is that it is essentiallya means of linking the two (1975: 3). He further explains the definition from the morphologicalmake-up of the word stylistics, pointing out that the styl component relates stylistics to literarycriticism, and the is-tics* component to linguistics. Leech holds a s

4、imilar view. He definesstylistics as the study of the use of language in literature” (1969: 1), and considers stylistics ameeting-ground of linguistics and literary study* (1969: 2). From what Widdowson and Leechsay, we can see that stylistics is an area of study which straddles two disciplines: lit

5、erary criticismand linguistics. It takes literary discourse (text) as its object of study and uses linguistics as ameans to that end. Thus defined, we may exclude two kinds of border line1 studies, work which isin some ways linguistically oriented but not directly related to literary interpretation

6、(puter-oriented study of authorship), and work which is claimed to deal with style but does notmake use of linguistic facts and theory.Emergence of Stylistics as an Interdisciplinary Field of StudyThe date when stylistics became a field of academic inquiry is difficult to determine. However, itmay b

7、e said that it was not until the late 1950s that stylistics began to advance with significantand measurable strides. In 1958, the first conference on stylistics was held at Indiana University,U.S.A, and eleven years later, another conference which attracted specialists from over tencountries was con

8、vened in Bellagio, Italy. The papers presented and discussed at both conferenceswere characterized by systematic and objective analysis of the language of literature and werelater published. This greatly helped stylistics to gain popularity and led to a growing interest in thesubject. Consequently,

9、a number of more coherent and systematic works of both a theoretical anda practical nature were published in the field. Now, stylistics has developed into aninterdisciplinary area of study with explicit aims and effective techniques, and promises to offeruseful insights into literary criticism and t

10、he teaching of literature.English stylistics has developed on the basis of traditional rhetoric which may be traced backto Aristotle*s time. Nevertheless, it was the three revolutions, in social sciences (Lott, 1988) thatbrought it to the right track and brought about its present status.One of the r

11、evolutions is the modernist movement in art and literature, lasting from 1890to the beginning of World War II. To a great extent, the revolution was a break with tradition inthe ways it influenced both the content and language of literature. From this movement onwards,creative writers exercise no re

12、straints on the sort of language they use in their writings. Inmodernist literature, readers could find much to surprise them in respect of content as well aslanguage.Another revolution is the one in literary criticism which has had a profound and radicalinfluence on stylistics. In the 1930s, the cr

13、itical theorist, I. A. Richards, expressed hisdissatisfaction with those critics of his age. In his opinion, they seemed to be too muchpreoccupied with literatures role in educating the readers morally and emotionally. He called for amore objective approach to literary texts. In his famous book: Pra

14、ctical Criticism (1929), heestablished an approach to poetry which depended on close reading of the text. He was joined byscholars such as William Empson whose work Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930) had a wideinfluence and promoted the concept of ambiguity as a defining linguistic characteristic of po

15、etry.Their insistence on close reading of the text and analysis of the language of the text coincides withthe starting point of stylistics, thus greatly facilitating its development.The third revolution took place in linguistic science starting in the late 1950s. It was initiatedby the work of Noam

16、Chomsky and Michael Halliday whose thoughts were directly or indirectlyinfluenced by the linguistic theory of F. de Sassure, the founder of modem linguistics. Chomskystransformational-generative grammar revealed a system of surface structure and deep stnicture inEnglish syntax. It also brought about

17、 a new awareness of how the human mind is innately able tosystematize reality by the use of language. Halliday*s systemic grammar has offered many insightsinto the methods of text analysis, particularly in respect of cohesion between sentences indiscourse. The work done in the field of linguistics i

18、n the last three decades has provided thestylisticians with effective and completely new tools for investigating language in use in bothliterature and other types of discourse.The above-mentioned revolutions, in their own ways, have played a fundamental role inshaping stylistics into the important i

19、nterdisciplinary field of academic study that it is today.Two Important Assumptions of StylisticsThe first important assumption of stylistics is that literature is made of language. This point ismost explicitly made by Halliday in the Foreword he writes for Cummings and Simmons* bookLanguage and Lit

20、erature (1983). He states: Perhaps the first step towards becoming astylistician . will be to recognize that literature is made of language1* (1983: vii). Hallidayobserves that the way literature is made of language is not analogous to the way that architectureis made of steel and concrete; steel an

21、d concrete are formless until the builder imposes somepattern on them. But language is already meaningfully structured and systematized. A closeanalogy to the way literature is made of language, according to Halliday, would be the way thatdancing is made of the movements of the body. Dancing starts

22、from everyday actions like leaping,balancing and reaching and these too are not formless. They are already highly orchestrated,Meaningful* patterns of bodily movement. But out of these patterns, further patterns can becreated; and it is when we become aware of these second order patterns that we com

23、e to realizesomething we call dancing or bodily art.Since literature is made of language, linguistics which is the scientific study of languageshould in principle be most helpful to us in analyzing and interpreting literary texts.The second assumption of stylistics is just as basic and important as

24、the first one. That is theassumption that literature is a type of communicative discourse. Not many stylisticians have madethe point explicitly, but Widdowson has given a clear statement: a piece of language use, literaryor otherwise, is not only an exemplification of linguistic categories . but is

25、also a piece ofcommunication, a discourse of one kind or another (1975: 29). This point is not difficult to see. Astudy of any literary text will reveal that stylistic features do not occur randomly in it but formpatterns. In other words, they have cohesion. They are understood, therefore, not simpl

26、y withreference to the linguistic system, but also with reference to the context in which they appear.The assumption that literature is a type of discourse allows stylisticians to account for literarytexts not just intra-sententially but also inter-sententially, not only in terms of linguistic facts

27、 andtheory but also in terms of sociolinguistic facts and theory. Thus, it is possible to study literaturefrom a wider dimension.The Goals, Components and Procedure of Stylistic InquiryHalliday identifies two possible goals of stylistic inquiry. The first is to show why and how thetext means what it

28、 does* (1983: x). This goal, according to Halliday, is more immediate andunquestionably attainable. In attaining the goal it is necessary to describe and interpret the text, inthe process of which we may find that we have done more than simply show why the text meanswhat we knew it meant already. We

29、 may have discovered fresh meanings we had not previouslybeen aware of, though we may have been reacting to them unconsciously. To attain this goalmeans that we should be able to say nI can demonstrate why this text means all that I say it means(1983: x).The second goal Halliday puts forward is much

30、 more difficult to attain. It is that of showingwhy the text is valued as it is (1983: x). This, Halliday says, might be taken as an aim that ischaracteristic of stylistics, as distinct from text analysis in general. To attain this goal means thatone should be able to say why this text is good and t

31、hat one is not, or why this text is better thanthat one, or why this text has been received into the canon of major literary works. This is indeed achallenging task, since at the moment we know very little of how value inherits in the text. This isperhaps why Leech and Short say that it is with inte

32、rpretation that stylistics is more directlyconcerned (1981: 13).Now let us consider the components and the procedure of stylistic analysis. In discussing thegoals of stylistic inquiry, we might have observed that a stylistic analysis involves description,interpretation and evaluation. When discussin

33、g components of literary criticism, Short has pointedout: the three parts are logically ordered: Description Interpretation indicates a very strong pulling-fbrward effect.This Is Just to Say =I have eaten =the plums =that were in =the icebox and which =you were probably =saving =for breakfast Forgiv

34、e me they were delicious so sweet and so cold How do we explain what we have observed then? We may say that the overall pulling-fbrwardeffect brings great immediacy to the sensuous experience being described in the poem. It is alsointended to make the reader actively involve himself in reading the p

35、oem, and read it with greatinterest and pleasure. The contrast in pace between the first two stanzas and the last stanza is ofeven greater significance. In the title and the first two stanzas, by constantly arousing syntacticexpectations from the reader, Williams seems to try to get the reader invol

36、ved immediately and18actively in reading the poem and to give great immediacy to what is being described. In the laststanza, the slowing down of the pace allows the reader to share the taste of the plums in a leisurelymanner with the speaker I , thus showing that he lays great emphasis on immediate

37、sensuousexperience.Syntactic DeviationSyntactic deviation refers to departures from normal (surface) grammar. These include a numberof features such as unusual clause themes, unusual phrase structures. In this section, we will onlydiscuss unusual clause theme and unusual phrase structure.Unusual Cla

38、use ThemeThe initial unit of a clause may be called its theme. Apart from the last stressed element of theclause structure which most naturally bears the information focus, the theme is the most importantpart of a clause from the point of view of its presentation of a message in sequence. The themem

39、ay be characterized as the communicative departure for the rest of the clause. In English, theexpected or unmarked theme of a main clause is:1. Subject of an indicative clause: (She) got a new dress.2. Auxiliary in a yes-no question: (Did) she get a new dress?3. Wh-element in a wh-question: (Which)

40、dress did she get?4. Main verb in an imperative clause: (Get) a new dress fbr her.However, the literary writer can go beyond this and may place any of the rest of clauseelements in the thematic position in order to achieve certain literary effect. The theme thusproduced is unusual and is therefore c

41、alled a marked* theme. To illustrate how the literary writeruses an unusual clause theme to achieve a literary effect, let us cite an example in the followingparagraph:(11) My opinion of the coal trade on that river is, that it may require talent, but it certainlyrequires capital. Talent Mr. Micawbe

42、r has, capital Mr. Micawber has not.(Dickens, David Copper field)The second sentence in the above paragraph is made up of two parallel clauses and each clauseis initiated by a noun phrase which by fiinction is the object of the clause. The function of theunusual clause theme here seems to be three-f

43、bld: a) it neatly knits the paragraph together and isthus a powerful device of textual cohesion, b) it serves to form a contrast in meaning between thetwo parallel clauses, c) it gives much emphasis to the two words shifted to the initial position.It should be pointed out at this juncture that a num

44、ber of adverbials appear typically in theinitial position and therefore should be disregarded in considering what is the theme of a clause.However, some other adverbials especially those which would otherwise immediately follow anintransitive or intensive verb, may be treated as marked theme when pl

45、aced initially. Considerfor example, the opening stanza of Wordsworths poem The Solitary Reaper.(12) Behold her, single in the field,You solitary Highland Lass!Reaping and singing by herself;Stop here, or gently pass!Alone she cuts and binds the grain,And sings a melancholy strain;O listen! for the

46、vale profoundIs overflowing with the sound.The adjunct alone in the fifth line of the stanza is seldom, if ever, placed initially. Putting it inthe thematic position here makes it possible fbr the line to rhyme with the next one, and bestows amusical quality to the poem. However, what seems to be mo

47、re important is that this fronting ofthe adjunct makes the element highly noticeable. As can be seen even from the title and the firststanza of the poem, one of the major themes of the poem is the solitude of the young Highland girlwho reaps crops in the field. Thus, making the element alone promine

48、nt greatly reinforces thetheme of the poem.The thematic fronting of an element is often associated with inversion which involves thereversal of subject and verb or subject and operator. Below are some examples.A. Here comes the bus. A V SB. Away went the car like a whirlwind. A V S AC. There are our

49、 friends. A V SIn literature, thematic fronting involving inversion often produces a much stronger rhetoricaleffect than that in previous examples. Take, fbr example, the following stanza by Longfellow.(13) Out of the bosom of the Air,Out of the cloud-fblds of her garments shaken,Over the woodlands

50、brown and bare,Over the harvest-fields forsaken,Silent, and soft, and slowDescends the snow.(Snowflakes)The piling up of seven adverbials in the thematic position strongly emphasizes the mannersand the process of snow falling. Together with the inversion of the subject and the verb, thisthematic fro

51、nting produces a strong suspense. The thematic fronting reinforced by the parallelstructures in the first four lines and the alliteration and the use of adjectives as adverbs in line fivemakes the text very interesting to read. One cannot help marveling at the poefs artistic skills.Let us now examin

52、e another example of thematic fronting which involves inversion.(14) Parting at MorningRound the cape of a sudden came the sea,And the sun looked over the mountains rim,And straight was a path of gold for him,And the need of a world of men fbr me.(R. Browning)In such a short poem, there are two unus

53、ual clause themes. In line one, the adjunct Round thecape is placed in the thematic position and is followed by another adjunct of a sudden. Theunusual placement of the adjunct in the thematic position also involves the reversal of subject andverb of the clause. Such an ordering of clause elements v

54、ividly and accurately describes the sightsomeone in a boat might have as the boat moves out from a harbour. In line three, the subjectcomplement straight is placed in the thematic position and this also involves the inversion of theorder of the subject and the verb of the clause. The unusual clause

55、theme in this line makes theellipsis in line four possible so that the two lines form a semantic contrast. It also places a gooddeal of emphasis on the word being placed in the thematic position, thus making the contrast evensharper.Deviant Phrase StructureIn order to achieve certain communicative e

56、ffects, literary writers may use phrases that arestmcturally deviant. As an example, let us consider again Dylan Thomas famous phrase *a griefago. In this phrase the word grief as an uncountable noun is used in a position where we wouldnormally employ a countable one. The following line from a poem

57、by Cummings which wasquoted in a previous section is also a good example: *he sang his didn*t, he danced his did*. As canbe seen here, the structure of his didnt and his did is highly deviant. In non-literary discourse,possesive pronouns are never used to modify auxiliaries.A further example is foun

58、d in the following lines:(15) O What a noble mind is here oerthrown!The courtiers, soldiefs, scholars, eye, tongue, sword.(Shakespeare, Hamlet)This is Ophelia*s lament over Hamlefs supposed madness. Here, the sense of derangement ishightened by the fact that the order of the genitive nouns does not

59、correspond semantically withthe order of the things possessed. More importantly, the phrases are structurally deviant in thateach possessor is separated from its possessed, so that both logic and everyday expectations ofspeech seem to be mixed up in the disaster.Finally, let us consider a line again

60、 from Dylan Thomas:(16) Do not go gentle into that good night(Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night)Here the adjective gentle is used in a position where an adverbial phrase would be used.According to everyday usage, this is a lapse. How might we interpret it then? As can be seen, theline is also th

61、e poems title. It is repeated six times throughout the whole poem. It expresses one ofthe major themes of the poem, i. e. one should not accept death without resistance. The deviantuse of gentle here attracts much attention to the line itself, and makes the reader pause to thinkseriously about the m

62、eaning of the line. If we substitute gently* fbr gentle, there would be nothingunusual and the meaning of the line would not register in the mind of the reader. Thus, thecommunicative effect of the line is greatly reduced.Lexical DeviationLexical deviation in literature refers almost exclusively to

63、neologisms or the coinage of new words.The new words that the literary writer invents are usually made up fbr use on only one particularoccasion, and can therefore be called once-formations1. By this we do not mean, however, thatwe can rule out the possibility that some of these words may eventually

64、 get into the Englishword-stock and be used widely, since works which are well-written are read many a time byreaders generation after generation.In coining new words, it may be said that the literary writer is not so much breaking rules ofword-formation as extending the rules. For example, in Engli

65、sh there is a rule of word-formationwhich allows the prefix un to be attached to a noun (also to a verb or an adjective) to convey themeaning not as in unease* and unrest*. However, this nile can only be applied to a limitednumber of cases, so that when we come across un wish and unself in Unwish th

66、rough curving,wherewhen till unwish returns on itself (E. E. Cummings, A Complete Poem), we would be struckby such unusual use and take it as an extension of the expressive possibilities of language.In the coinage of new words, the literary writer usually extends three major rules ofword-fbrmation:

67、affixation, compounding and conversion. We shall now take a look at each ofthese types in turn.AffixationAffixation is the addition of a prefix or suffix to an item which already exists in the language.The following lines contain some typical examples of words coined by extension of this rule:(17) A

68、nd I Tiresias have fbresuffered all.(T. S. Eliot)(18) There was a balconyful of gentlemen.(Chesterton)(19) We left the town refreshed and rehatted.(Fotherhill)In (17), the nonce word fbresuffered is coined by adding the prefix fbreto the item suffer.The prefix fbre- conveys the meaning beforehand* a

69、nd is normally reserved fbr joining with suchitems as see, tell and warn. The novel use here, according to Leech, encapsulates a newly22formulated idea: it is possible to anticipate mystically the suffering of the future, just as it ispossible to foresee and retell1 or to have foreknowledge of the f

70、uture events. In (18), thecoinage balconyfiil is the result of the addition of the suffix -ful to the item balcony. The suffix*-fur when used to form nouns has the meaning *as much as will fill the thing specified*, and isusually added to items such as *bowl, basket or spoon. The coinage balconyful

71、here affords avivid description of the number of people staying on the balcony, thus making the work interestingto read. Rehatted in (19) is formed by attaching the prefix re- to the item hat. As can be easilyseen, this coinage is in phonetic harmony with its parallel refreshed and thus produces ahu

72、mourous and comic effect.CompoundingCompounding is the combination of two or more items to make a single compound one.Consider the following examples:(20) While I, joy-jumping, empty-eyed sang on the day my father died.(Edwin Brook)(21) Babes wakeOpen-eyed;(W. H. Davies)(22) They were else-minded th

73、en, altogether, the men(G. M. Hopkins)Joy-jumping in (20) is a compound made up on the pattern of noun + ing participle. However,it is different from the compounds of the same pattern such as music-loving； for *music-lovingcan be paraphrased as *having love for music1 whereas joy-jumping cannot be p

74、araphrased as,having joy for jumping*. The word is, in fact, coined from the idiom jump for joy which meansjump because of joy*. The extension of the compound rule here on an idiom makes the situationdescribed in the poem much more ironical. This ironical effect is further reinforced and developedby

75、 another coinage, empty-eyed, which communicates the meaning that there are no tears in theeyes* of the speaker I This word is invented on the same pattern as lean-shaven1 andnewly laid. The coinage open-eyed in (21) is similar to the nonce word empty-eyed in (20) in thateach can be considered as a

76、verbless adjective clause performing the grammatical function ofsubject complement. However, open-eyed expresses a result, in this instance the surprise orastonishment caused by the mingled loud noise of shouting, screaming and barking when school isout. Empty-eyed, in contrast, only expresses a sta

77、te. The example else-minded in Hopkins* line isformed by extension of the word-fbrmation rule: adv. (or adj.) + ed participle. At first glance, itmay seem to be synonymous with absent-minded*. But a close examination reveals that there issome difference in meaning. When we speak of a person being ab

78、sent-minded we mean that he iseither thinking of something other than what requires his attention or simply resting himself doingno thinking. The coinage else-minded, however, conveys only the first layer of meaning ofAbsent-minded. Thus it avoids ambiguity and more accurately captures the state of

79、mind of thosegentlemen in question.ConversionConversion, which is often described as *zero affixation*, is the adaptation of an item to a newgrammatical function without changing its form. Let us take a look at the following examples:(23) That heartsThat spanield me at heels, to whom I giveTheir wis

80、h, do discandy, melt their sweetsOn blossoming Caesar; and this pine is barkdThat overtopped them all.(Shakespeare)(24) Dont be such a harsh parent, father!0“Dont father me!”(H. G. Wells)(25) I was explaining the Golden Bull to his Royal Highness,nril Golden Bull you, you rascal !n roared the Majest

81、y of Prussia.(Macaulay)The verb spanield in (23) is a conversion from spaniel： referring to a special long-hairedbreed of hunting dog with floppy ears, a silky coat and a usually docked tail. This coinage bringsgreat immediacy to the scene being described, and gives a vivid picture of those who once

82、followed Antony closely and obediently like a spaniel follows its master. In (24), the noun fatheris changed to a verb and used by the Father in a retort to his child to express his annoyance anddiscontent. The retort is made all the more forceful by the fact that the statement may beinterpreted in

83、two ways which are both relevant to the situation. These two interpretations are:Dont call me father!, and Dont speak to me as if you were the father! In (25), the noun phraseGolden Bull is turned to a verb to convey the meaning, to fight (someone) like a Golden Bull.Since Golden Bull was used as a

84、proper noun in the preceding sentence, the conversion of it into averb makes the passage highly cohesive. It also vividly manifests the boorishness of the Majestyof Prussia.Exercises1. Define the following terms.grammetrics marked theme apocopeaffixation compounding conversiongraphology aphesis sync

85、ope2. Identify the types of omission in the following and supply the complete fbnns of the wordsthat are partly omitted.1) Forward, the Light Brigade!nWas there a man disma/d?Not tho* the soldier knowSome one had blundefd:Theirs not to make replyTheirs not to reason why,Theirs but to do and die:Into

86、 the valley of DeathRode the six hundred.(Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade)2) I Wander thro each chartered street,Near where the charterd Thames does flow,And mark in every face I meetMarks of weakness, marks of woe.(W. Blake, London)3) Learn then what morals critics ought to showFor *tis b

87、ut half a judges task, to know.(A. Pope, An Essay on Criticism)4) Th* Applause of lisfning Senates to command,The Threats of Pain and Ruin to despise,To scatter Plenty oer a smiling Land,And read their Hisfry in a Nations Eyes.(Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard)3. Discuss the stylis

88、tic effects of the sub-standard pronunciations in the following passages.1) Now, what do you complain of? asked Mr Bounderby.T ha* not coom here. Sir,* Stephen reminded him, *to complain. I coom fbr that I were sent for.,What： repeated Mr Bounderby, folding his arms, *do you people, in a general way

89、, complainof?1Stephen looked at him with some irresolution fbr a moment, and then seemed to make up hismind.Sir, I were never good at showin* o*t, though I ha had*n my share in feeling ot. Deed we arein a muddle, Sir. Look round town - so rich as tis - and see the numbers o people as has beenbrought

90、en into bein heer, fur to weave, an to card, an* to piece out a livin, aw the same one way,somehows, rtwixt their cradles and their graves. Look how we live, an* wheer we live, an* in whatnumbers, an* by what chances, and wi what sameness; and look how the mills is awlus a goin, andhow they never wo

91、rks us no nigher to onny dis*ant object - ceptin awlus, Death. Look how youconsiders of us, and writes of us, and talks of us, and goes up wi*yor deputations to Secretaries oStats bout us, and how you are awlus right, and how we are awlus wrong, and never had*n noreason in us sin ever we were born,

92、Look how this ha* growen an growen, Sir, bigger an* bigger,broarder an broarder, harder an* harder, fro year to year, fro generation unto generation. Who can25look on*t, Sir, and fairly tell a man *tis not a muddle?1,Of course,* said Mr Bounderby. Now perhaps youll let the gentleman know, how you wo

93、uldset this muddle (as youre so fond of calling it) to rights/* 1 donno, Sir, I canna be expecten tot. Tis not me as should be looken to for that, Sir. *Tisthem as is put ower me, and ower aw the rest of us. What do they tak upon themseln, Sir, if not todot?Til tell you something towards it, at any

94、rate,* returned Mr Bounderby. We will make anexample of half-a-dozen Slackbridges. Well indict the blackguards for felony, and get em shippedoff to penal settlements.Stephen gravely shook his head.Dont tell me we won*t, man,1 said Mr Bounderby, by this time blowing a hurricane, becausewe will, I tel

95、l you!Sir： returned Stephen, with the quiet confidence of absolute certainty, *if yo was t tak ahundred Slack-bridges - aw as there is, and aw the number ten times towd - an wast sew *em up inseparate sacks, an sink *em in the deepest ocean as were made ere ever dry land coom to be, yo*dleave the mu

96、ddle just wheer *tis, Mischeevous Strangers!, said Stephen, with an anxious smile;when ha* we not heem, I am sure, sin ever we can call to mind, o th mischeevous strangers! Tisnot by them the troubles made, Sir. Tis not wi* them commences. I ha* no favour for em - 1 hano reason to favour em - but ti

97、s hopeless and useless to dream o* takin them from their trade,*stead o takin their trade from them! Aw thafs now about me in this room were heer afore I coom,an* will be heer when I am gone. Put that clock aboard a ship an pack it off to Norfolk Island, an*the time will go on just the same. So *tis

98、 wi Slackbridge every bit.(Charles Dickens, Hard Times)2) nSay youre not drunk! she flashed.Say youre not drunk,” he repeated. HWhy, nobody but a nasty little bitch like you *ud *avesuch a thought.He thust his face forward at her.“Theres money to bezzle with, if there*s money for nothing else.”Fve n

99、ot spent a two-shillin* bit this day,* he said.You dont get as drunk as a lord on nothing/1 she relied. And/* she cried, flashing intosudden fury, if youve been sponging on your beloved Jerry, why let him look after his children,for they need it.”It*s a lie, its a lie. Shut your face, woman.nThey we

100、re now at battle-pitch. Each forgot everything save the hatred of the other and thebattle between them. She was fiery and furious as he. They went on till he called her a liar.No, she cried, starting up, scarce able to breathe. Dont call me that - you, the mostdespicable liar that ever walked in sho

101、e-leather.n She forced the last words out of suffocated lungs.Youre a liar! he yelled, banging the table with his fist. Youre a liar, youYe a liar.She stiffened herself, with clenched fists.The house is filthy with you,” she cried.Then get out on it - it*s mine. Get out on it!” he shouted. Its me as

102、 brings th money whoam,not thee. Ifs my house, not thine. Then ger out ont - ger out on,t!nAnd I would,H she cried, suddenly shaken into tears of impotence. nAh, wouldn*t I, wouldn*t Ihave gone long ago, but for those children. Ay, haven*t I repented not going years ago, when I*donly the one* - sudd

103、enly drying into rage. Do you think its for you I stop - do you think Id stopone minute for you?(Lawrence, Sons and Lovers)4. Discuss the graphological features in the poems below.1) A Christmas TreeStarIf you areA love compassionate,You will walk with us this year,We face a glacial distance, who ar

104、e hereHuddledAt your feet(W. S. Burford)2) rainbowrainbow youre a twofaced sortof fellowyoure a warped candybarand the sun uses youas a weapon against the shadowof the rainrainbow youre not a selfmadechap atallyoure just a compound of enemiesand the only reasonanybody likes you is because without yo

105、utheyd be nothing(William Peskett)3) l(aleaffa1 1s)one1iness(E. E. Cummings)5. Comment on the translation of the pagoda-shaped poem in The Scholars by Yang Xianyiand Gladys Yang below.呆 A秀才 Foolish scholar吃常斋 Fasted so long胡须满腮 Whiskers covered his cheeks经书不揭开 Neglecting to study the classics纸笔自己安排H

106、e left pen and p叩er aside明年不请我自来 Hell come without being invited next year6. Consider how the grammatical units are fitted into the metrical units of the poem below.What is the effect of this arrangement?Dust of SnowThe way a crowShook down on meThe dust of snowFrom a hemlock treeHas given my heartA

107、 change of moodAnd saved some partOf a day I had rued.(Robert Frost)7. The following stanzas and passages contain examples of unusual clause themes. Pick themout and comment on their stylistic effects.1) Half a league, half a league,Half a league onward,All in the valley of DeathRode the six hundred

108、.Forward, the Light Brigade!Charge fbr the guns J he said:Into the valley of DeathRode the six hundred.(Tennyson, Charge of the Light Brigade)2) Down came his whip and away we clattered.I never had such a shaking up in my life. The recent flooding rains had washed the road clearaway in places. But w

109、e never stopped, we never slowed down, for anything.(Mark Twain, A Tramp Aboard)3) Heavy is my heart,Dark are thine eyes.Thou and I must partEre the sun rise.(Mary Coleridge, Slowly)4) Stop thief! Stop thief! There is a magic in the sound. The tradesman leaves his counter,and the cannan his waggon;

110、the butcher throws down his tray . Away they run, pell-mell,helter-skelter, yellow-screaming, knocking down the passengers as they turn the comer, rousingup the dogs.“Stop thief! Stop thief!n the cry is taken by a hundred voices, and the crowds accumulate atevery turning. Away they fly, splashing th

111、rough the mud, up go the windows, out ran the people.(Charles Dickens)5) Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending line,Along the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.(Wordsworth)8. Comment on the fo

112、llowing line which contains a phrase that is structurally deviant. Note theline is spoken by Caesafs friend, Mark Antony, at Caesafs funeral.This is the most unkindest cut of all!(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)9. Identify the type of lexical deviation in the following and discuss their stylistic signif

113、icance.1) Lord I am not entirely selfishLord I am not entirely helpishO lord to me be slightly lavishO lord be in a minor way lovish(Gavin Edwart, Prayer)2) His bright replacement, present-minded, stays(Howard Nemerov, Absent-minded Professor)3) The Bravest SoldierBrave, brave were the soldiers (hig

114、h-named today) who lived through the fight;But the bravest press*d to the front and fell, unnamed, unknown.(Walt Whitman)4) Valuing himself not a little upon his elegance, being indeed a proper man of his person, thistalkative now applied himself to his dress.(James Joyce, Ulysses)Chapter 4 Deep-str

115、ucture DeviationDeep-structure deviation refers to semantic deviation, which may be defined as linguistic effectsinvolving something odd in the cognitive meaning of a certain linguistic unit, e.g., a word orphrase* (Leech, 1969: 131). Thus defined, semantic deviation may include a number of linguist

116、icphenomena. In the following, however, we will only be able to discuss four typical cases:contradiction, transference, deception and ambiguity.ContradictionContradiction is a type of semantic deviation which conveys self-conflicting information. Itcan be readily divided into two types which are ter

117、med in rhetoric oxymoron and paradox.OxymoronOxymoron is the yoking together of two expressions which are incompatible, so that incombination they have no conceivable literal reference to reality1, (Leech, 1969: 132). Let us nowconsider some examples from the following passages by Dickens.(1) As the

118、 wretched creature mumbled and chuckled in her hideous merriment, the undertakerturned to go away.(Oliver Twist)(2) The major again pressed to his blue eyes the tips of the fingers that were disposed on theedge of the wheeled chair with careful carelessness, after the Cleopatra model and Mr. Dombeyb

119、owed.(Dombey and Son)The wretched creature in Passage (1) refers to an old woman who is described in the novel asbehaving in many ways like an idiot. The surface contradiction of the two words hideous andmerriment aptly shows the extent of the old womans idiocy.The semantic clash is even more appare

120、nt in the two antonyms careful and carelessness inPassage (2). The grouping together of the two antonyms vividly and unreservedly demonstratesthe pretence and affectedness of the major.ParadoxA paradox is a statement which is absurd because it is self-evidently false. A good example ofparadox is con

121、tained in the following passage.(3) Nurse: His name is Romeo, and a Montague.The only son of your great enemy.Juliet: My only love sprung from my only hate.Too early seen unknown and known too late!Prodigious birth of love that it is to me,That I must love a loathed enemy.(Shakespeare, Romeo and Jul

122、iet)The statement that My only love sprung from my only hate is absurd because love and hatehave opposite meanings, and it is inconceivable that love can spring from hate. In the play,however, Juliet has fallen madly in love with the son of the family she has been brought up to hate.Thus, the parado

123、x here effectively expresses Juliets mixed feelings fbr what she has done and atthe same time, duly anticipates her final tragedy.Another interesting example of paradox is found in the opening of Orwelfs NineteenEighty-Four:(4) It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were staking thirteen

124、.The second clause of the sentence is a statement that is extremely absurd fbr in reality no clockstrikes beyond twelve. Through the use of the paradox, Orwell seems to hint that the whole storywill be absurd.In brief oxymoron and paradox are devices that allow the literary writer to express a certa

125、intruth or message through apparent falsehood.TransferenceIn literature, transference of meaning is the process whereby literary absurdity leads the mind tocomprehension on a figurative plane. It is so important an element in literature that poets andcritics alike have tended to consider it the only

126、 thing that really matters in literature. Transferencein literature refers to such traditional figures of speech as synecdoche, metonymy and metaphor.We shall examine these devices with illustrations in turn.SynecdocheSynecdoche is a type of transference of meaning which involves the substitution of

127、 a part forthe whole. A good example of synecdoche is found in the following lines:(5) Return to her? .No, rather I abjure all roofs and choose.To be a comrade with the wolf and owl.(Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew)Here, roofs do not refer to the outside coverings on top of buildings; but to wh

128、ole houses orbuildings. If we extend a little the definition of synecdoche, we may say that even the wolf and theowl can be said to be synecdochic, for the wolf in this context refers not to one particular wolf butto all the wolves and all beasts of prey and the owl refers not to one particular owl

129、but to all theowls and all the birds of prey.Synecdoche can also be interpreted more broadly to include substitution of the whole for a part,e.g. the substitution of the army* for *a soldier. However, we need not go fiirther into this here.MetonymyMetonymy is another type of transference which invol

130、ves substitution, and therefore has oftenbeen confused with synecdoche. However, metonymy is the substitution of a word referring to anattribute of the thing that is meant, rather than the substitution of a part for the whole, or the wholefbr a part. The following poem once quoted and studied by Fen

131、g Cuihua (1983: 50) containsexcellent examples of metonymy and is thus requoted and further studied here.(6) The glories of our blood and state,Are shadows, not substantial things;There is no annour against fate;Death lays his icy hand on kings;Sceptre and CrownMust tumble downAnd in the dust be equ

132、al madeWith the poor crooked Scythe and Spade.(Shirley, The Glories of our Blood)In this poem, four metonyms are used: Sceptre, Crown, Scythe, and Spade. Sceptre and Crownare things that kings and queens carry and wear to represent their power and authority, and aretherefore metonyms fbr kings and q

133、ueens. Scythe and spade are things used by peasants or farmworkers, and are therefore metonyms fbr peasants. What Shirley is trying to say is that deathcomes to all people, the noble and the humble alike. The idea would have been expressed muchless effectively, if metonyms had not been used.Metaphor

134、The final and the most important type of meaning transference in literature is metaphor. It isassociated, as Leech points out, with a particular rule of transference which may be called themetaphoric rule” (1969: 151). That is, the figurative meaning is derived from the literal meaningor it is, as i

135、t were, the literal meaning. Now let us take a look at the examples below.(7) It is an empire ruled by one man - a specialist who is a giant in his own narrow field, butwho otherwise is an inferior and poisonous human being, mean, egotistic, suspicious, miserly,brutally insistent to the point of blo

136、odshed on his own whims, a moody despot with a mind more32provincial than that of the most barbarous village bigot(Gold, Mike Gold Reader)(8) Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no more: it is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound

137、and fury,Signifying nothing.(Shakespeare, Macbeth)In Passage (7), it which is said to be an empire refers to the Ford plant. In the dictionaries, ofcourse, plant is not defined as empire. We can, therefore, only interpret it is an empire withrecourse to the metaphoric rule1* . That is, we can only u

138、nderstand the meaning to be that it is likean empire or it is, as it were, an empire. The same point applies to Passage (8), where life is said tobe a walking shadow, a poor player and a tale told by an idiot. We must understand thesedefinitions of life in a figurative sense, i.e. life is like a wal

139、king shadow, a poor player and a taletold by an idiot.There are three elements in a metaphor. The most generally accepted terms for the mostexplicitly stated elements are those introduced by I. A. Richards (1936): tenor (fbr the literalmeaning) and vehicle (for the figurative meaning). The element t

140、hat is not overtly stated is whatLeech terms the ground (of comparison), i.e. the likeness perceived between the tenor and thevehicle. Leech points out that every metaphor is implicitly of the form X is like Y in respect ofZ” (X is the tenor, Y is the vehicle and Z is the ground) (1969: 151). In our

141、 first example above, it(the Ford plant) is the tenor, empire is the vehicle and, powerfulness*, Exploitation* andOppression* can most probably be taken to be the ground. The use of this metaphor, as can beclearly seen, vividly reveals monopoly in American industry.Metaphor has been classified into

142、types in different ways. There are five main types ofmetaphor, grouped partly in accordance with Chapmans organization (1983: 81 82).A. One type of sensory perception is expressed in terms of another, e.g.(9) If music be the food of love, play on.(Shakespeare, Twelfth Night)(10) Some books are to be

143、 tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed anddigested.(Bacon, Of Studies)B. A non-human referent is given human attributes, e.g.(11) So I unto myself alone will singThe wood shall to me answer, and my echo ring.(Spenser, Epithalamion)(12) Mistress, I dug upon your graveTo bury a bon

144、e, in caseI should be hungry near this spot33When passing on my daily trot,I am sorry, but I forgotIt was your resting-place.,(Hardy, *Ah, Are you Digging on my Grave?*)The speaker I in the second example is a dog.C. A non-animate referent is given animate characteristics, e.g.(13) The sky rejoices

145、in the mornings birth.(Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence)D. An abstraction is treated as if it were animate, e.g.(14) A terrible beauty is born.(W. B. Yeats, Easter 1916)E. A human referent is treated either as an inanimate being or an animal or a bird, e.g.(15) You blocks, you stones, you wor

146、se than senseless things!(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)(16) She is really a duck, she thought.(Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga)There is a further type of metaphor which, because of its special design, needs to be separatelyconsidered. This is the extended metaphor which is a type of metaphor developed by

147、 a number ofdifferent figurative expressions. Consider the following passage for example.(17) All the worlds a stage,And all men and women merely players;They have their exits and entrances,And one man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven ages.(Shakespeare, As you Like it)The first clau

148、se in this example sets up the basic comparison. The tenor and vehicle invokedby the first line are elaborated in the lines that follow. The extended metaphor, as is demonstrated,makes it possible for the literary writer to explain things vividly in great detail.DeceptionDeception is another type of

149、 semantic deviation that is frequently found in literary texts. Bydeception is not meant the use of language that is intended to deceive people. It simply refers tothe deliberate use of overstatement, understatement and irony, each of which misrepresents thetruth in some way.OverstatementOverstateme

150、nt is tenned hyperbole in traditional rhetoric. It distorts the truth by greatexaggeration. It is usually used to emphasize strong feeling and to create a sentimental, satiric orcomic effect. Let us now look at a few examples that mainly function to color the expression offeeling and emotion. The fi

151、rst example is taken from Robert Burns* A Red, Red Rose.(18) As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,So deep in luve am I,And I will luve thee still, my dear,Till a the seas gang dry,Till a* the seas gang dry, my dear,And the rocks melt wi the sun!And I will luve thee still, my dear,While the sands o life

152、shall run.It is quite obvious that all the seas will never become dry and the rocks will unlikely melt withthe sun. However, we can notice that the speaker here is expressing a genuinely felt emotion.What he tries to say to his beloved is that he will forever love her. The hyperbolic expressionshere

153、 strongly emphasize the promise of undying love.Another interesting example is found in the following lines.(19) For she was beautiful - her beauty madeThe bright world dim, and everything besideSeemed like the fleeting image of a shade.(Shelley)The overstatement her beauty made the bright world dim

154、 expresses the speakers greatadmiration fbr the female figure. What the poet intends to say, put in plain terms, is that she wasextraordinarily beautiful.An overstatement is often metaphorical. The opening lines of Shakespeares Hamlet containssuch an example.(20) To be, or not to be: that is the que

155、stionWhetheft is nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troublesAnd by opposing end them? .The phrase a sea of troubles in line four is an exaggerated as well as metaphorical way ofsaying that it is a great quantity of troubles.Unders

156、tatementUnderstatement is the opposite of overstatement in that it misrepresents the truth bydeliberately understating it as opposed to exaggerating it. Consider the following example.(21) *Well. lets go home and talk about it. Well figure out something. I can send you to theemployment office I went

157、 to and-* 1 can*t type. I got no college degree. I cant do anything - and besides, I wanna be in the show!Neely started to sob violently again.Please, Neely/ Anne begged. She knew Miss Steinberg and the girls were staring, but herworst fear materialized when Lyon Burke opened his door. She smiled at

158、 him weakly as he cameover and stared at the shrieking Neely.This is Neely. She*s a little upset.,Td say that was a classic understatement/(Susann, Valley of the Dolls)Without knowing anything more about the context, it is easy to see that Neely was extremelyupset. Therefore, Lyon Burke was witty to

159、 refer to Annes remark Shes a little upset as a classicunderstatement. In the novel, Anne was depicted as a little reserved - typical bearing of NewEnglanders. Her understatement here can be seen as a manifestation of this quality.In traditional rhetoric, scholars make a distinction between two type

160、s of understatement,namely litotes and meiosis.Litotes is the most common and is marked by the use of a negative construction. It isemployed to foreground a positive emphasis. Below are some typical examples.(22) The face wasnt a bad one; It had what they called charm.(Galsworthy)The face wasnt a ba

161、d one in this context is a non-committal way of saying: the face was a verygood (or charming) one.(23) Lady Macbeth: Thou wouldst be greatArt not without ambition, but withoutThe illness should attend it.(Shakespeare, Macbeth)Here Lady Macbeth in fact means that Macbeth is quite ambitious. She canno

162、t be morepositive about it.(24) Thomasin blushed again, and when a few more words had been said of a not unpleasingkind, Venn mounted his horse and rode on.(Hardy, The Return of the Native)By the phrase a not unpleasing kind, the writer intends to mean a (very) pleasing kind*.The emphasis achieved t

163、hrough the use of a negative construction may initially appear weak.Nevertheless, it is more impressive than that achieved through the use of a positive construction.Meiosis is merely understatement without the use of a negative construction, e.g.(25) He was a man, take him for all in all,I shall no

164、t look upon his like again.(Shakespeare, Hamlet)I leave to the reader to consider the significance of this understatement. For effect of this typeof understatement, refer back to Susanns passage examined at the beginning of this section. Nowlet us move on to discuss irony.IronyThere are several kind

165、s of irony. However, only one of them is of interest to us. This is verbalirony. Like overstatement and understatement, verbal irony achieves emphasis also bymisrepresenting the truth. It takes the form of saying the opposite of what one feels to be the case.In the following, we will discuss some ex

166、cellent examples of the most valued type of verbalirony - that which implies moral and ethical criticism. This type of irony is used to the point ofperfection in the hands of such writers as Shakespeare and Swift. Now, look at the passagesbelow.(26) Antony: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your

167、ears.I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones.So let it be with Caesar. The noble BrutusHath told you Caesar was ambitious.If it were so, it was a grievous fault,And grievously hath Caesar answered it.Here, under leave o

168、f Brutus and the rest-(The mob murmurs angrily.)For Brutus is an honorable man;So are they all, all honorable men-Come I to speak in Caesafs funeral.He was my friend, faithful and just to me;But Brutus says he was ambitious,And Brutus is an honorable man.He hath brought many captives home to Rome,Wh

169、ose ransoms did the general coffers fill.Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.37Yet Brutus said he was ambitious,And Brutus is an honorable man.You all did see that on the LupercalI thrice presented him a kingly cr

170、own,Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,And, sure, he is an honourable man.I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,But here I am to speak what I do know.(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)(27) It is a very justifiable cause of war to invade a country after the p

171、eople have been wastedby famine, destroyed by pestilence, or embroiled by factions among themselves. It is justifiable toenter into war against our nearest ally, when one of his towns lies convenient for us, or a territoryof land, that would render our dominions round and complete. If a prince sends

172、 forces into anation where the people are poor and ignorant, he may lawfully put half of them to death, andmake slaves of the rest, in order to civilize and reduce them from their barbarous way of living.(Swift, Gullivers Travels)Passage (26) is taken from Act Three of the play. In this Act, Brutus

173、and his fellowconspirators have stabbed Caesar to death and the reason Brutus gives fbr killing Caesar is that hewas ambitious. In his speech, however, Antony has convincingly shown that Caesar had noambition. Thus, Anton/s repeated statement Brutus is an honorable man is very ironical. He is infact

174、 condemning Brutus as dishonorable fbr his part in killing Caesar.In Passage (27), the tone of irony is felt throughout. What is said to be justifiable and lawful,to fair-minded and peace-loving people, is utterly unjustifiable and unlawful. By using irony,Swift here strongly and successfully satiri

175、zes the war of aggression.AmbiguityBy the term ambiguity we mean the case of more than one cognitive meaning fbr the same pieceoflanguage* (Leech, 1969: 205).In non-literary discourse, ambiguity is usually taken to be the opposite of clarity and istherefore normally considered a fault. In literature

176、, however, it is regarded as a virtue, roughlycorrespondent to richness or wit, fbr in literature we are ready to read extra-meanings.Ambiguity can be purely phonetic, resulting from homophony, i. e. words that have thesame pronunciation but differ in form and meaning. This is the case when a poem o

177、r story iswritten to be heard but not to be seen. Consider the example in the following lines.(28) When I am dead, I hope it may be saidHis sins were scarlet, but his books are read.,(Belloc, On his Books)When we have heard these lines we would have two simultaneous interpretations of the last38lexi

178、cal item: the past participle of the verb read which relates to his books, and the adjective redrelating to its hyponym scarlet in the first half of the same line.Carefully contrived phonetic ambiguity can produce a humorous effect. The followingpassage can best illustrate this point.(29) *How is br

179、ead made?1* 1 know that!1 Alice cried eagerly. fYou take some flour-*When do you pick the flower?1 the White Queen asked, In a garden, or in the hedges?!Well, it isn*t picked at all, Alice explained, its ground-How many acres of ground?* said the White Queen.(Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

180、)The humorous effect in this passage is created by the use of two sets of homophones, flourand flower, ground (the past participle of the verb grind) and ground (solid surface of the earth).The last set of homophones happen to be identical also in form.Most cases of ambiguity are at the level of lex

181、is, resulting from either homonymy orpolysemy. Take a look at the examples below.(30) Ben Battle was a warrior bold,And used to wars alarms;But a cannon-ball took off his legs,So he laid down his anus.(Thomas Hood)(31) Franklin: Hancock*s right. This is our passport to the gallows. But there is no b

182、ackingout now. If we dont hang together, we shall assuredly hang separately.(Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards, 1776)In (30), the lexical item arms is ambiguous. In this context, it can refer to the upper limbs ofthe said warrior as well as the weapons he carries. The use of this word greatly enriches

183、 themeaning of the poem, and at the same time brings about a humorous effect. The example in (31) isa little different from the first one. The playwrights here deliberately exploit the use of hang tomean both *put to death with a rope around the neck (as in punishment for a crime) and Yemainunited*

184、(an idiom with the word together). In this way, they have succeeded in making Franklin awitty, humorous and highly literary character, like Franklin was in person.We now move to a more interesting case where the syntax requires the lexical item to meanone thing while the theatrical context requires

185、it to mean another.(31) Ask for me tomorrow and you will find me a grave man.(Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)Syntactically speaking, the lexical item grave when used as a noun is seldom, if ever, usedto modify man. Only when it is used as an adjective does it go most appropriately with man.However, i

186、t is the sinister meaning of grave as a noun (i. e. the place in the ground where a deadperson is buried) that best fits in the context, for in the play Mercutio is speaking when he isfatally wounded by Tybalt. The employment of both meanings here adds a jocular tone to theutterance and thus shows M

187、ercutiofs stoical flippancy.Exercises1. Define the following tenns.oxymoron paradox metonymysynecdoche metaphor overstatementhomophony polysemy understatement2. Discuss the communicative effects of the following examples of oxymoron and paradox.1) Love is cruel, love is sweet, -Cruel sweet,Lovers si

188、gh till lovers meet, Sigh and meet-Sigh and meet, and sigh again-Cruel sweet! O sweetest pain!(Thomas MacDonagh, Love is Cruel, Love is Sweet)2) I saw her and liked her because she was not beautiful.Her chin was not just right and something about her nose fell short of perfection.(Richard Hagopian,

189、Wonderful People)3) Juliet: Sweet, so would IYet I should kill thee with much cherishing.Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrowThat I shall say good night till it be morrow.(Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)4) Caesar: Cowards die many times before their deaths;The valiant never tastes of

190、death but once.(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)5) The Child is father of the Man.(William Wordsworth)3. Point out what is substituted in each of the examples below and give the appropriatefigure of speech for it.1) Fair stood the wind fbr FranceWhen we our sails advance.(Michael Drayton, Agincourt)2) An

191、d all the pavement streamd with massacre.40(Tennyson, The Last Tournament)3) Well, Mr. Weller, says the gentlman, youre a very good whip and can do what you likewith your horses, we know.(Charles Dickens)4) The captain. had fallen in possession of a complete Shakespeare.(Jack London)5) Dick and spie

192、s and foremen swarm everywhere, with their beefy faces and suspiciouslittle eyes. There must be a snooper and strongarm to almost every worker, one sees so many ofthem.(Michael Gold, The Mike Gold Reader)4. Discuss the following poems, giving particular attention to how metaphors function toconvey m

193、essages. Identify the type of metaphor in each case, if possible.1) Sunday RainThe window screenis trying to doits crossword puzzlebut appears to knowonly vertical words.(John Updike)2) An Empty HouseYou beat your pate, and fancy wit will come:Knock as you please, theres nobody at home.(Alexander Po

194、pe)3) DreamsHold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow.(Langston Hughes)414) Ways of Composingtypewriter:a mouthfill of teeth chatteringafraid to be quieta pencil can lie down and dreamda

195、rk and silver silences(Eve Merriam)5) FogThe fog comeson little cat feet.It sits lookingover harbor and cityon silent haunchesand then moves on.(Carl Sandburg)5. Analyze the extended metaphor in the following passage and comment on its effect.In the South, were told were dogs who simply have to get

196、used to our kennels, and thenwel 1 get a nice bone and a kind word. But up here were told that we Ye complete human beings,and encouraged to hope and think, and as a consequence we feel the incessant little reminders ofsupposed inferiority, the careless humiliations, more than our Southern cousins d

197、o the fear oflynching. Humiliation! Thafs a word you white people ought to know about!(Sinclair Lewis, Kingsblood Royal)6. Comment on the effects of overstatement and understatement in the following.1) “Polly, I love you. You are the whole world to me, and the moon and the stars and theconstellation

198、s of outer space. Please, my darling, say that you will go steady with me, for if youwill not, Life will be meaningless. I will languish, I will refuse my meals. I will wander the face ofthe earth, a shambling, hollow-eyed hulk.(Max Shulman, Love is a Fallacy)2) Two-Vblume NovelThe sun*s gone dim, a

199、ndThe moons turned black;For I loved him, andHe didnt love back.(Dorothy Parker)3) Juliet: Art thou gone so, love, lord, ay, husband, friend?I must hear from thee every day in the hour,For in a minute there are many days.O, by this count I shall be much in yearsEre I again behold my Romeo.(Shakespea

200、re, Romeo and Juliet)4) I am not blind to the worth of the wonderfiil gift of Leaves of Grass.”(R. W. Emerson, Anthology of American Literature)5) A young man went down to see a chaplain whom he knew in the East End. He noticed notonly that the damage was considerable but that the people were saying

201、 practically nothing at all.How are they taking it? he asked nervously. The chaplain shook his head. Tm afraid,* he said,that my people have fallen from grace, they are beginning to feel a little bitter towards theGermans.,(Richard Hillary, The Last Enemy. The damage in line three refers to the dest

202、ruction causedby the German bombing in 1940.)7. Discuss the use of irony in the passage below.It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town, or travel in the country,when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex,followed by three,

203、 four or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms.These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ alltheir time in strolling to beg sustenance fbr their helpless infants; who, as they grow up, either turnthieves for want of

204、 work, or leave their dear native country to fight fbr the Pretender in Spain, orsell themselves to the Barbadoes.I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or onthe backs, or at the heels, of their mothers and frequently of their fathers, is in the pres

205、entdeplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and therefore whoever couldfind out a fair, cheap and easy method of making these children sound useful members of thecommonwealth, would deserve so well of the public, as to have his statue set up for a preserver ofthe nation.I s

206、hall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable tothe least objection.I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that ayoung healthy child, well nursed, is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesomefood, whether stew

207、ed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in africassee or a ragout.I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the 120,000 children alreadycomputed, 20,000 may be reserved fbr breed, whereof only one-fburth part to be males; which ismore than w

208、e allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine; and my reason is, that these children areseldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore onemale will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining 100,000 may, at a year old, beoffered in sale to the perso

209、ns of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising themother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a goodtable. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dinesalone, the fore or hind quarter will mak

210、e a reasonable dish, and, seasoned with a little pepper orsalt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just bom will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solaryear, if tolerably nursed, will increase to 28 pounds.I grant this food will be som

211、ewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, asthey have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless itshould be urged that the number of people will be there

212、by much lessened in the kingdom. This Ifreely own, and it was indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the readerwill observe, that I calculate my remedy for this one individual kingdom of Ireland, and for noother that ever was, is, or I think ever can be, upon earth. Theref

213、ore let no man talk to me of otherexpedients: of taxing our absentees at 5s. a pound; of using neither clothes nor household furnitureexcept what is of our own growth and manufacture; of utterly rejecting the materials andinstruments that promote foreign luxury; of curing the expensiveness of pride,

214、 vanity, idleness,and gaming, in our women; of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence, and temperance; oflearning to love our country, in the want of which we differ even from LAPLANDERS and theinhabitants of TOPINAMBOO; of quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer likethe Jews

215、, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken; of being alittle cautious not to sell our country and conscience for nothing; of teaching landlords to have atleast one degree of mercy toward their tenants; lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, andskill into our

216、shopkeepers; who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods,would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness,nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestlyinvited to it.Therefore

217、I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, till he has at leastsome glimpse of hope that there will be ever some hearty and sincere attempt to put them inpractice.(Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal)8. Explain the ambiguities in the following and comment on their communicative

218、effects.1) A tall SS-man stands over me, kicking me to get up. It is quite useless to kick. Someoneelse washes my face, I am sitting at a table. A woman gives me some sort of medicine and askswhere it hurts worst. I say all the pain seems to be in my heart.“You have no heart, says the tall SS-man.Oh

219、, I certainly have, I say, and am suddenly proud that I have strength left to stand up formy heart.(J. Fuchik, Notes from the Gallows)2) Fitzwater: Surrey thou liest.Surrey: Dishonorable boy!That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,That it shall render vengeance and revenge,Till thou the lie-giver an

220、d that lie do lieIn earth as quiet as thy fathers skull.(Shakespeare, Richard II)3) She*s too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise and too little for a great praise.(Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing)Chapter 5 Phonological OverregularityPhonological overregularity is characteristic o

221、f literature, especially poetry. It consists of twoaspects, namely phonemic patterning and rhythmic patterning. In the following we will make abrief survey of each aspect.Phonemic PatterningIn English, phonemes may be patterned in different ways. The most important types ofpatterning in English lite

222、rature are: alliteration, rhyme, assonance, consonance and onomatopoeia.Now let us discuss each respectively.AlliterationAlliteration is the repetition of the initial consonant cluster in stressed syllables. Two pointsneed to be explained in relation to the definition.Firstly, what is meant by the i

223、nitial consonant cluster? In English, a syllable consists of threeparts: an initial consonant cluster, a vowel or diphthong and a final consonant cluster. The initialconsonant cluster is formed by 0, 1, 2, or 3 consonants. For example, the longest initial consonantcluster is found in strong /str/, w

224、here there are three consonants.Secondly, some students have the misconception that it is the initial syllable of a word thatcarries the alliteration. It should be stressed that it is the main stressed syllable of a word whichgenerally carries the alliteration, not necessarily its initial syllable.

225、Long alliterates with unlovelyin Tennysons Here in the long unlovely street* (In Memorium).Alliteration is frequently found in proverbial and idiomatic expressions, e.g. last but not least,now or never*, fsafe and sound* and speech is silver, silence is golden*. These expressions inspeech are emphat

226、ic in effect, though we may not be very conscious of them.Alliteration is also a feature of tongue twisters, e.g.(1) A tutor who tooted a fluteTried to tutor two tutors to tootSaid the two to the tutorIs it harder to toot orTo tutor two tutors to toot?”(Anonymous)Tongue twisters such as the one abov

227、e can create humorous effects and may be used topractice certain sounds. Alliteration in literature, however, has a far more significant role to play.Consider the examples below:(2) Cold are the crabs that crawl on yonder hills,Colder the cucumbers that grow beneath.(Edward Lear, Cold Are the Crabs)

228、(3) When he saw Grendefs gruesome footprints, that great man grieved for his retainers.(Beowulf, Translated by Kevin Crossley-Holland)(4) Freedom is not given free to any who ask, liberty is not bom of the Gods. She is a child ofthe people, bom in the very height and heat of battle.(F. Norris)(5) Th

229、e best laid schemes o* mice and menGang aft a-gley.(Robert Bums, To a Mouse)In (2), alliteration is used to link together words that are similar in feeling or thought. Here itseems useful to point out that in English there is an idiom as cool as a cucumber* which meansVery cool or calm. The repeated

230、 /gr/ sound in (3) echoes the sense or meaning conveyed by thetwo lines. It helps to create a heavy and depressed mood. In (4), the alliteration calls attention tothe words heat and height which carry the alliteration, thus giving great emphasis to these words.What the writer is trying to say here i

231、s that only through hard and intense struggle can freedomand liberty be won.Alliteration is usually used to form a connection of similarity or a connection of contrast.However, the alliteration in (5), which links mice and men seems to form a connection of bothsimilarity and contrast. Firstly, it fo

232、rms a referential contrast between man, the supreme head ofanimal creation, and the mouse, one of the smallest and timidest, and most inconsequential ofcreatures. Secondly, with the help of the conjunction and, it points out a similarity between menand mice who as this passage suggests seem to share

233、 the vulnerability of fate. The connectionbetween the two created by the alliteration seems to emphasize the point that creaturessuperficially different are basically the same.In passing, it seems useful to point out that alliteration is not only used in literary texts, butalso used in the titles of

234、 the texts. Jane Austen, for example, has used it in the title of her novelPride and Prejudice. Here, the /pr/ consonant cluster draws attention to the two content words andmakes the reader ponder the possible connections between the two words, thus projecting him intothe novel.RhymeRhyme is defined

235、 in Concise Oxford Dictionary as identity of sounds between words or verselines extending back from the end to the last fully accented vowel and not further. Thus, a rhymeword may in theory have one, two, three or more syllables, though in practice rhymes of morethan two syllables are rare in seriou

236、s literature. One-syllable rhymes, which are in the vastmajority, are referred to as masculine rhymes and two-syllable rhymes are called feminine rhymes.Other kinds of rhymes may simply be called polysyllabic rhymes. Look at the following examples.(6) She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless

237、climes and starry skies;And all thafs best of dark and brightMeet in her aspect and her eyes:Thus mellowed to that tender lightWhich heaven to gaudy day denies.(Byron, She Walks in Beauty)(7) Reflections on Ice-breakingCandyIs dandy,But liquorIs quicker.(Ogden Nash)(8) Take her up tenderly,Lift her

238、with care,Fashiond so slenderly,Young, and so fair!(Thomas Hood, The Bridge of Sighs)(6) contains exclusively masculine rhymes, (7) uses feminine rhymes, and (8) makes use of analternation of masculine and polysyllabic rhymes. The above examples are also called end rhymes,because they occur at the e

239、nd of verse lines. There is another kind of rhyme which occurs within averse line. It is therefore called internal rhyme. An example is found in the following line.(9) Far from cit/s strident jangle as I angle, smoke and dream.(Newman Levy, Midsummer Jingle)Here, the word jangle rhymes with angle.A

240、further kind of rhyme is called halfrhyme. It is thus called because it is a kind of rhymewhich is formed by repeating either the vowel (or diphthong) or the final consonant cluster. Lookat the example below:(10) Hope is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soul,And sings the tune without the

241、wordsAnd never stops at all.(Emily Dickinson, Hope Is the Thing with Feathers)Line 2 rhymes with line 4 through the repetition of the final consonant cluster which containsonly one consonant /I/.The famous English poet Wilfred Owen popularized a type of rhyme known as pararhyme. Itis the case where

242、the poet repeats the initial consonant cluster as well as the final consonant cluster.The beginning part of Owens poem Strange Meeting exhibits examples of this kind of rhyme.(11) It seemed that out of battle I escapedDown some profound dull tunnel, long since scoopedThrough granites which titanic w

243、ars had grioned.Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.Then, as I probed them, one sprang up and staredWith piteous recognition in fixed eyes,Lifting distressful hands as if to bless,And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall,By his dead smile I knew w

244、e stood in Hell.Rhymes are arranged in a pattern within a poem. This pattern is called a rhyme-scheme. It iscustomary and convenient to denote rhyme-schemes briefly by using letters of the alphabet. Notehow the following poem is described.(12) LucyShe dwelt among the untrodden ways aBeside the sprin

245、g of Dove, bA maid whom there were none to praise aAnd very few to love: bA violet by a messy stone cHalf hidden from the eye! dFair as a star, when only one cis shining in the sky. dShe lived unknown, and few could know eWhen Lucy ceased to be; fBut she is in her grave, and, oh, eThe difference to

246、me! f(William Wordsworth)It can be easily seen that the poem rhymes every other line. A rhyme scheme can be verysimple as in the poem above. It can also be very elaborate, as is the case of SpensersProthalamion.(13) Calm was the day, and through the trembling air aSweet-breathing zephyrus did softly

247、 play bA gentle spirit, that lightly did delay bHot Titans beams, which then did glister fair, aWhen I (whom sullen care, aThrough discontent of my long fruitless stay bIn Princes court, and expectation vain cOn idle hopes, which still do fly away, bLike empty shadows, did afflict my brain.) cWalked

248、 forth to ease my pain, cAlong the shore of silver streaming Thames, dWhose rutty bank, the which his river hems dWas painted all with variable flowers, eAnd all the meads adorned with dainty gems dFit to deck maidens* bowers eAnd crown their paramours eAgainst their bridal day, which is not long: f

249、Sweet Thames! run softly till I end my song, fThe rhyme-scheme of a poem plays a part in its emotional effect. Boulton points out: nTheelaborate rhyme-scheme of s Spensers Prothalamion in itself suggests something formal,ceremonious and processional.n (1953: 44)If a writer plans to adopt a tradition

250、al verse fbnn, then the choice of rhyme-scheme is alsodetermined by that form. For example, a couplet by definition requires the lines to rhyme in pairs,e g(14) What is this life if, full of care, aWe have no time to stand and stare! aNo time to stand beneath the boughs, bAnd stare as long as sheep

251、and cows, bNo time to see, when woods we pass, cWhere squirrels hide their nuts in grass, cNo time to see, in broad daylight, dStreams full of stars, like skies at night, d(W. H. Davies, Leisure)A Shakespearean sonnet has a more elaborate rhyme-scheme, e.g.(15) Shall I compare thee to a summers day?

252、 aThou art more lovely and more temperate: bRough winds do shake the darling buds of May, aAnd summers lease hath all too short a date: bSometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, cAnd often is his gold complexion dimmed, dAnd every fair from fair sometimes declines cBy chance, or nature*s changing

253、course untrimmed, dBut thy eternal summer shall not fade, eNor lose possession of that fair thou owest, fNor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, eWhen in eternal lines to time thou growest; fSo long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, gSo long lives this, and this gives life to thee, g(So

254、nnet 18)We have looked at several different types of rhymes and rhyme-scheme. Now let us discussthe function of rhymes. The general function of rhymes is to get the texts more organized and tobestow music1 to the texts. Like alliteration, it may also be used to achieve more significanteffects. Consi

255、der an example in the following lines.(16) For I have known them all already, known them all-Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;(T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock)The rhyme of the last two lines is very significant. It links to

256、gether the two words, afternoonsand spoons which have a logical association between them. For the words are used in a context ofa poem which is about a society that spends its afternoons over coffee and cakes.Rhymes may also be used to bind lines which are closely associated in content. The followin

257、gis an example of two closely associated lines bound by rhyme.(17) This lock the Muse shall concentrate to fameAnd midst the stars inscribe Belindas name,(Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock)Clearly, rhyme is not a decoration but an important device for literary effects.AssonanceAssonance is the re

258、petition of identical vowel or diphthong in stressed syllables. It is one ofthe important phonological features of literary texts. Consider an example in the following lines.(18) Think from how many treesDead leaves are broughtTo earth on seed or wing.(Vernon Watkins, The Compost Heap)The words that

259、 carry the assonance, as can be easily noticed, are: trees, leaves and seed. Thesewords are stressed rhythmically in the lines. Interestingly, we find that the meanings of thesewords are already associated. More significantly, these words may be said to represent the cycle oflife: from the organic t

260、o the inorganic and from the inorganic to the organic. Thus, assonance notonly contributes to musical quality of a literary text, but also to its meaning.In some poems, assonance is used instead of perfect end rhyme. This is indeed the case withthe following poem.(19) SongMorning openedLike a rose,A

261、nd the snow on the roofRose-color tookOh, how the streetToward light did leap!And the lamps went out.Brightness fell downFrom the steeple clockTo the row of shopsAnd rippled the bricksLike the scales of a fish,And all that dayWas a fairy taleTold once in a whileTo a good child.(Donald Justice)Most i

262、nstances of assonance in this poem chiefly function to unify words and ideas. Forexample, /eu/ sound at the end of the first two lines connects the two lines which express anindependent idea: the way morning opened resembles the way that a rose unfolds itself. Anothereffective example is found in li

263、nes 13 and 14 where the repeated diphthong /ei/ links together twokey words, day and tale, in the metaphorical comparison set up in the two lines.Assonance is found not only at the end of the lines but also within the lines. For example, /eu/sound is also repeated in such words as snow, rose-colour

264、and oh. The use of assonance in thesewords may produce various effects. For example, when we pronounce the diphthong /eu/, ourmouth must open - just as morning light spreads or a rose unfolds. The word oh in line fiveexpresses wonder at the scenes of color and beauty. Furthermore, since the sound /e

265、u/ as adiphthong takes longer duration to produce than monophthongs, it may suggest the way morningslowly unfolds in the poem.ConsonanceConsonance is the repetition of the final consonant cluster in stressed syllables. It may be usedto achieve various effects. Consider the examples in the following.

266、(20) Like one in danger, Cautious,I offered him a CrumbAnd he unrolled his feathersAnd rowed him softer home-Than Oars divide the Ocean.Too silver for a seam-Or Butterflies, off Banks of NoonLeap, plashless as they swim.(Emily Dickinson, A Bird)(21) Nothing lovelier than that lonely call,Bare and si

267、ngular, like a gull,And three notes or four, then that was all.It drew up from the quiet like a well,Waited, sang, and vanishing, was still.(Jon Swan, In Her Song She Is Alone)Like assonance, consonance may be employed to replace rhyme. This is the case in (20).Instead of using crumb / drum1, the po

268、et has used crumb / home and seam / swim. The assonancein this poem functions to make the text more organized and at the same time adds to the musicalquality of the poem. Assonance may also be used to link together the key words of a text. Thispoint is well exemplified in (21). The repeated /!/ soun

269、d effectively unites the key words of thestanza: call with gull and well with still. The /I/ sound in the quoted lines and elsewhere in thepoem has a lingering, almost echoing effect, which greatly reinforces the tone of the poem.OnomatopoeiaThe term onomatopoeia is ambiguous and can be interpreted

270、in several diflerent ways. For ouranalysis, two interpretations are relevant. Firstly, it refers to the use of words formed in imitationof the natural sounds associated with the object or action involved. Consider the examples in thefollowing passages.(22) Crack came an officers club on his forehead

271、. He blinked his eyes blindly a few times,wobbled on his legs, threw up his hands and staggered back.(T. Dreiser, Sister Carrie)(23) And then the party drove off and vanished in the night shades, and Yeobright entered thehouse. The ticking of the clock was the only sound that greeted him, for not a

272、soul remained.(Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native)52The uses of crack in (22) and ticking in (23) create a vivid effect to the passages. The soundsmake us hear as well as see what are described. Let us examine some further examples in thestanzas below.(24) Ghost Lakes a dark lake, a deep lake an

273、d cold:Ice black as ebony, frostily scrolled;Far in its shadows a faint sound whirrs;Steep stand the sentineled deep, dark firs.(William Rose Benet, The Skater of Ghost Lake)(25) Spring, the sweet spring, is the years pleasant king;Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,Cold doth not sti

274、ng, the pretty birds do sing,Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!(Thomas Nashe, Spring)When we read these stanzas, we may find that the examples of onomatopoeia are moresignificant than those in the prose passages. The reason for this seems to be that each of theonomatopoeic words in the prose pass

275、ages seem to operate on its own, unsupported by othersound features, whereas, the examples in the above stanzas seem to work with other sounds. Theonomatopoeic word whirrs in line three of (24) forms a rhyme with the word firs in the next line,thus producing a continuous whirring sound.Instead of ha

276、ving just one onomatopoeic word, (25) has several. In fact, the words in the finaltine are all onomatopoeic. Each of them is an imitation of the sound that a particular bird makes.They thus form a happy, harmonious chorus on the sweet spring.The other interpretation of onomatopoeia relevant to our d

277、iscussion may be phrased as therecurrence of phonemes in a text unit that suggests certain natural sounds which reinforce themeaning conveyed in that text unit. Now take a look at the examples below.(26) I chatter over stony ways,In little sharps and trebles,I bubble into eddying bays,I babble on th

278、e pebbles.(Tennyson, The Brook)(27) The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs:the deep Moans round with many voices.(Tennyson, Ulysses)(28) Or by a cider-press, with patient look,Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.(John Keats, To Autumn)In (26), the three onomatopoeic words chatter, bubble

279、 and babble give a vivid description tothe sounds and motion of the brook. They have brought great immediacy to the scene, make usfeel as if we were right there by the brook. The description is further highlighted by the recurringsounds /I/ (6 times) and /b/ (7 times). The sound /I/ belongs to a cla

280、ss of sounds called liquid53which is fluid-sounding and the sound /b/ is a plosive resembling the sound of the bubbles.Therefore, their repeated presence makes the text sound more bubblly and stream-like.The consonants /!/, /m/ and /n/, the long vowels /u:/ and /i:/ and the diphthongs /ei/, /eu/, /a

281、i/,/an/ and /oi/ in (27), suggest slowness and peace.The consonances of /st/ and /z/ in (28) are perhaps felt to imitate the sounds of apples beingsqueezed in the cider-press.Onomatopoeia is referred to by Alexander Pope as a necessary part of a poet*s technique. Hehas made the point explicitly with

282、 illustrations.(29) *Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,The sound must seem an echo to the sense.Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar.(An Es

283、say on Criticism)In line three, there is a predominant use of such sounds as /s/, /z/ and /f7. These sounds arecalled fricatives produced by the passage of air through gaps or past obstructions. Theirproduction physically resembles the way the wind sighs. In line 4, the long vowels /u:/ and /i:/,dip

284、hthongs /eu/ and the soft consonants /s/, /nV, /n/, /z/ and /Q/ suggest a peaceful, smoothmovement and produce a soft and soothing effect. However, when we move to the last two lines,we may feel that there is a sudden change in the quality of the vowels. Firstly, we have anonomatopoeic word roar, wh

285、ich rhymes with shore so that a continuous roaring sound is heard.Secondly, the recurring diphthong /au/ and the long vowels /o:/ and /e:/, which are long and loud,very much resemble the roar of a torrent. In brief, what Pope has shown in the above lines is thatthe use of sounds to support or reinfo

286、rce meaning is not only possible but necessary.Rhythmic PatterningOur task in this section is to investigate the rhythmic patterning in English verse.English is a stress-timed language. Its rhythm is based on the contrast of the stressed andunstressed syllables. Thus, to examine the rhythmic pattern

287、ing in English verse, it is useful to havesome knowledge of the stress system of the English language in general.StressIn English, every word except the monosyllabic ones has one syllable that carries the stress.For example, the word moment* has the stress on its first syllable. Some polysyllabic wo

288、rds mayhave two stresses. But one of them is stronger than the other. The stronger stress is called aprimary stress, and the other a secondary stress. For example, in the word Unfrequented, theprimary stress falls on the third syllable and the secondary on the first. It is customary to markstress wi

289、th a high vertical stroke before the syllable carrying the stress, leaving lack of stressunmarked. Where it is desirable to indicate secondary stress, this will be marked by a low verticalstroke before the syllable concerned. Thus we have: moment and unfrequented. The stresseswithin words are usuall

290、y learned individually. However, there are some generalizations whichmay help us to predict the placing of stress. For example, it falls on the syllable before adjectival-ic and on the syllable before nominal -ity:-icphonemiceconomicrhythmic-ityresponsibilitycuriosityuniversityIt is always useful to

291、 know such generalizations.To learn the distribution of stress in utterances consisting of more than one word, it isimportant to know what kinds of words are stressed. In English, there are two major classes ofwords: open-class items and close-system items. The open-class items include nouns, verbs

292、(notincluding auxiliary verbs), adjectives and adverbs. The class is open in the sense that new itemsare constantly being created. The close-system items include the other six classes of words such aspronouns, articles, prepositions. The system is closed in the sense that creation of new items ishar

293、dly possible. In everyday connected speech, it is usually the words belonging to the open-classthat bear stress, though there are some exceptions. The following are some examples:John is a student.Universities became famous.Weate the meat hungrily.The train had arrived at the station.With the above

294、points in mind, we are ready to tackle the rhythmic patterning in English verse.MetreEnglish verse is more rhythmical than prose or speech fbr it is the most carefully organized useof language. The rhythmic patterning of English verse is usually analyzed in terms of metre.Generally speaking four kin

295、ds of metre have been used fbr describing the rhythmic patterning.However, only one of them has been dominant fbr the past six centuries. It is known as accentualsyllabic*, i.e. it is a pattern of regularity both in the number of syllables and in the number ofstresses.The analysis of the metre of a

296、poem usually consists of two steps. The first step is to examinethe type of foot it has. The foot is actually the unit of stressed and unstressed syllables which isrepeated to form a metrical pattern. The four main types of foot, which are generally allowed toplay a significant part in English verse

297、, are: Iamb, Trochee, Anapaest and Dactyl. Now let us takea look at each of these types in turn.1) IambIamb or lambic foot is the commonest type of verse foot. It has a pattern alternating stressedand unstressed syllables beginning with an unstressed syllable. In exemplifying the different typesof f

298、oot, we will use a vertical line to show the division of feet, a 7 to mark a stressed syllable, anda V to mark an unstressed syllable. Look at the examples below.(30) ” In eve | ry cry | of eve | ry manIn eve | ry in | fonts cry | of fear(W. Blake, London)(31)“ The chief | defect | of Hen | ry KingV

299、 / V / V f V /Was chew | ing lit|tle bits | of string.(H. Belloc)2) TrocheeTrochee or trochaic foot may be described as alternating stressed and unstressed syllables,beginning with a stressed syllable, e.g.(32) ，一Men of |England, | wherefore Iploughf V f V f fFor the | Lords who |lay ye | low?(P. B.

300、 Shelley, Song to the Men of England)Never |seek to |tell thy |lovef V / v /Love that | never |told can |be(W. Blake, Never Seek to Tell Thy Love)3) AnapaestAnapaest or the anapaestic foot is a pattern in which one stressed syllable alternates with twounstressed syllables, but beginning with the two

301、 unstressed syllables, e.g.(34)八 ， 八 ， 八 ， The Assy | rian came down | like the wolf | on the fold.(Byron, The Destruction of Sennacherib)(35) 八 八 一In a coign | of the cliff| between low | land and high | land.(A. C. Swinburne, A Forsaken Garden)4) DactylDactyl or dactylic foot may be described as a

302、lternating one stressed and two unstressedsyllables, beginning with the stressed syllable, e.g.(36) . .Sing me a | song of a | lad that is | gone(R. L. Stevenson)(37) ,一Take her up, | tenderlyLift her with | care;(Thomas Hood, The Bridge of Sighs)Because Iamb and Anapaest start with unstressed sylla

303、bles, they are called rising rhythms.Trochee and Dactyl accordingly are called falling rhythms.We will mention one more foot, for of the ones not discussed yet this one is the most usefulfoot for variation of rhythm. It is called the Spondee, which consists of two stressed syllables, e.g.(38) ， ， ，

304、， ， ， ， ，Sweet day, | so cool, | so calm, | so bright,(G. Herbert, Virtue)In order to familiarize students with the different types of foot and their functions, Boulton haswritten the following.lambic feet are firm and flatAnd come down heavily like THAT.Trochees dancing very lightlySparkle, froth a

305、nd bubble brightly.Dactylic daintiness lilting so prettilyMoves about fluttering rather than wittily.While for speed and for haste such a rhythm is the bestAs we find in the race of the quick anapaest.(Maijorie Boulton, 1953: 26)We have examined the types of foot in English verse. The second step in

306、 analyzing the metreis to see how many feet there are in a line. Thus, we have:1) Monometer(39)一Thus IPass byV fAnd dieAs onevrUnknown7 fAnd gone.(Robert Herrick, Upon his Departure Hence)2) Dimeter(40广One more un | fortunatea v rWeary of |breathf V V f V VRashly im | portunate,Gone to her | death!(

307、Thomas Hood, The Bridge of Sighs)3) Trimeter(41)Mortal | man and | womanGo up | on your, | travel!(E. B. Browning, A Drama of Exile)4) Tetrameter(42)Who fought | for free | dom, more | than lifeWho gave | up all, | to die | in strife?(John Watkins, Lines on Shell, Killed at Newport)5) Pentameter(43)

308、 v f V f V f V f V rHow like | a win | ter hath | my ab | sence beenV f V / V f VFrom thee, | the plea | sure of | the flee | ting year!(Shakespeare, Sonnet XIV)6)Hexameter(44厂 Still let | my ty | rants know, 11 am | not doomed | to wearYear af | ter year | in gloom, | and de | solate | despair.(Emi

309、ly Bronte, The Prisoner)Poems with seven feet are described as having heptameter and those with eight feet as havingoctameter. Nevertheless, these poems are very few in number.Our analysis so far enables us to give a description of the basic metrical pattern of a poem. Forexample, the lines by Emily

310、 Bronte (the final example above) can be said to be written in iambichexameter. The reader may care to go back to read through the examples cited above and describetheir basic metrical patterns.Metrical VariationWe discussed the basic metrical patterns in the preceding section. But it would be wrong

311、 toassume that these basic patterns are all we need to know about the rhythm of poetry. In fact, if wetry to work out the rhythm of a poem by rigidly applying a basic metrical pattern to it, we shallsoon find ourselves in difficulties. Consider fbr example the opening line in Shakespeares Hamlet.(45

312、) To be or not to be, that is the question.If we mark the rhythm of the line strictly according to the pattern of iambic pentameter, whichis Shakespeares basic verse pattern, we would produce the following.To be | or not | to be, | that is | the question.However, this would sound too unnatural and w

313、ould seriously distort its original meaning.What is troubling Hamlet is the problem of whether to live or to live or to die. To effectivelyexpress this meaning, we will have to mark the line as follows:To be | or not | to be, | that is | the question.If we want to give a description to this line in

314、technical terms, we may say that the line iswritten in iambic pentameter, with an unstressed third foot, inversion of the fourth foot and onehypermetrical syllable (i.e. extra syllable) after the last foot.From the above discussion, we can see that the analysis of the rhythm of a poem must takeinto

315、account the variations on the basis metrical pattern.Metrical variations include: leaving one foot without a strong stress, putting two strongstresses in one foot, inverting any foot, putting a hypermetric syllable at the end of a line or havinga catalectic foot (i.e. a foot having one or two syllab

316、les short), etc.These metrical variations have a strong communicative function and can create great aestheticeffects, for they usually coincide with important words or changes of emotion. They can also helpto avoid monotony which may arise when a rigid metrical pattern is adopted. Let us discussanot

317、her example.(46) O, hereWill I set up my everlasting rest,And shake the yoke of inauspicious starsFrom this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!(Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)This is what Romeo says when he is about to poison himself over what he believes to be thedead body of Juliet. The most

318、 conspicuous metrical variation of the above passage is found in thelast line which has two stresses in the fourth foot.From this | world-wea | ried flesh. | Eyes, look | your last!This variation has the function to emphasize Romeo*s detennination to die by the side of hisbeloved, and to make the pa

319、thos of the last farewell here solemn.A further example we wish to discuss here is again from Shakespeare.(47)， ， It is | the cause, | it is | the cause, | my soul!If we speak the line, we may find that the lack of stresses in this line in fact gives moreemphasis to the only stressed syllables.A rev

320、ersal of case is found in the opening line of John Donne*s The Sun Rising.(48) i JBusy | old fbol, | unru | ly sun,Out of eight syllables in this line, five are stressed. This immediately attracts the readersattention, thus creating a dramatic effect.Some readers may have received an impression from

321、 Donnes line that metrical variation canbe so great that it is difficult to decide on the basic metrical pattern. This may be true in somecases. However, it should be pointed out that except for free verse, the other types of English versehave a basic metrical pattern though there may be great varia

322、tions on it. With some patience andpractice, it is not difficult to work out the rhythmic patterning of a poem which may at first glanceseem to have a very irregular metre. Even with Tennysons Break, break, break whose rhythm isso delicate and complex, an analysis can still be attempted though not w

323、ithout effort. The markingof the poem below is mainly based on an analysis by Boulton (1953).t(，1. Break, | break, | break,V V f V f V 2. On thy cold | gray stones, |O Sea!3. And I would | that my tongue | could utterV f V V V f4. The thoughts | that arise | in me.v / v v f v v f5. O well | for the

324、fish | ermans boy,6. That he shouts |with his sis | ter at play!V / V V / V /7. O well | for the sail | or, lad,8. That he sings | in his boat | on the bay!9. And the state | ly ships | go on10. To their ha | ven un | der the hill;V / V V f V V f V f11. But O | for the touch | of a van | ished hand,

325、12. And a sound | of a voice | that is still!， ， ，13. Break, | break, | break,V V I V V f V f14. At the foot | of thy crags, | O Sea!V V / V f V V f V V /15. But the ten | der grace | of a day | that is deadv / v v / v /16. Will ne | ver come back | to me.The basic metrical pattern of this poem, as

326、can be seen from the marking above, is anapaestic.Completely regular anapaestic trimeters are found in lines 6, 8, and 12, and nearly regular oneswith only one unstressed syllable missing in lines 5, 10, and 14. Lines 11 and 15 are written intetrameter, line 11 has 2 anapaestic feet and 2 iambic fee

327、t, and line 15 has three anapaestic feetand one iambic foot. Lines 2, 4, 7, 9, and 16 have each three stresses with a mixture of anapaesticand iambic feet. Line 3 can be described either as having three anapaestic feet with the stressedsyllable in the middle of the last foot or as having two anapaes

328、tic feet and one iambic foot with ahypermetric syllable. The two repeated lines (1 and 13) seem to be best read with three equalstrong stresses each so as to make the line sound slow and heavy, thus creating the right mood ofmourning. The complicated metrical variations in the poem seem to produce a

329、 faltering effect tothe poem, which well suggests by its sounds the emotion it portrays.Finally, it should he pointed out that people may differ as to how to analyze the rhythm of apoem. This is not necessarily a bad thing, provided that they have a good reason fbr the way theydo it. In fact, a cert

330、ain ambiguity of rhythm only enriches the meaning of a poem.Exercises1. Define the following terms.alliteration consonance rhymeonomatopoeia assonance iambanapaest pentameter dactyldimeter tetrameter trochee2. The following stanzas and passages contain excellent examples of such sound patterns asall

331、iteration, assonance and consonance. Identify them and comment on their stylistic effects.1) Do you fear the force of the wind,The slash of the rain?Go face them and fight them,Be savage again.Go hungry and cold like the wolf,Go wade like the crane:The palms of your hands will thicken,The skin of yo

332、ur cheeks will tan,You will grow ragged and weary and swarthyBut youll walk like a man!(Hamlin Garland)2) Sweet and low, sweet and low,Wind of the western sea,Low, low, breathe and blow,Wind of the western sea!Over the rolling waters go,Come from the dying moon, and blow,Blow him again to me;While m

333、y little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.(Tennyson, Sweet and Low)3) Sweet sleep, with soft down,.Bring me my bow of burning gold!Weeping in weak and mortal clay.(William Blake)4) The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,The furrow followed free.We were the first that ever burstInto the silent sea

334、.(Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)5) I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,Among my skimming swallows.I make the netted sunbeam danceAgainst my sandy shallows.(Tennyson, The Brook)6) “Father is rather vulgar, my dear. The word Papa, besides, gives a pretty form to the lips.Papa, potatoes, po

335、ultry, prunes and prisms, are all very good words for the lips, especially prunesand prisms.(Dickens, Little Dorrit)7) If I shouldnt be aliveWhen the Robins come,Give the one in Red Cravat,A memorial crumb.If I couldnt thank you,Being fast asleep,Youll know I*m tryingWith my Granite lip!(Emily Dicki

336、nson)3. Name the types of rhyme in the following poem, and discuss their stylistic functions andthen describe the rhymescheme of this poem.Blow, Bugle, BlowThe splendour falls on castle wallsAnd snowy summits old in story,The long light shakes across the lakes,And the wild cataract leaps in glory:Bl

337、ow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,Blow, bugle, answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.O, Hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,And thinner, clearer, farther going!O, sweet and far from cliff and scarThe horns of England faintly blowing!Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying,Blow, bugle; answ

338、er, echoes, dying, dying, dying.O love, they die in yon rich sky,They faint on hill or field or river;Our echoes roll from soul to soul,And grow for ever and for ever.Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.(Tennyson)4. Explain in what ways onoma

339、topoeia contributes to the expression of meanings in thefollowing cases.1) OnomatopoeiaThe rusty spigotsputtersuttersa splutter,spatters a smattering of drops,gashes widerslash,splattersscattersspurts,finally stops sputteringand plash!gushes rushes splashesclear water dashes.(Eve Merriam)2) The spar

340、rows chirrup on the rootThe slow clock ticking, and the soundWhich to the wooing wind aloofThe polar made,.(Tennyson, Mariana)3) Where are the songs of spring? Ay where are they?Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,And touch the stubble-plains with

341、 rosy hue;Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mournAmong the river sallows, borne aloftOr singing as the light wind lives or dies;And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble softThe redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;And gathering swallows twitte

342、r in the skies.(John Keats, To Autumn)4) My souls, how the wind did scream along! And every second or two there*d come a glarethat lit up the whitecaps for half a mile around, and youd see the islands looking dusty through therain, and the trees thrashing around in the wind, then comes a h-whack-bum

343、! bum!bumble-umble-umbum-bum-bum-bum- and the thunder would go rumbling and grumbling away,and quit - and then rip comes another flash and another sockdolager.(Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)5) Now the stones were off, and Hurstwood took his place again amid a continued chorus ofepit

344、hets. Both officers got up beside him and the conductor rang the bell, when, bang! bangthrough window and door came rocks and stones. One narrowly grazed Hurstwoods head.Another shattered the windows behind.(T. Dreiser, Sister Carrie)5. Analyze the metre of the following poem and discuss the effects

345、 of its metrical variations.1) The Charge of The Light BrigadeHalf a league, half a league,Half a league onward,All in the valley of DeathRode the six hundred.Forward, the Light Brigade!Charge for the guns,“ he said:Into the valley of DeathRode the six hundred.Forward, the light Brigade!nWas there a

346、 man disma/d?Not tho* the soldier knewSome one had blunderd:Theirs not to make replyTheirs not to reason why,Theirs but to do and die:Into the valley of DeathRode the six hundred.Cannon to right of them,Cannon to left of them,Cannon in front of themVolleyd and thunderd;Stormd at with shot and shell?

347、Boldly they rode and well,Into the jaws of Death,Into the mouth of HellRode the six hundred.Flashd all their sabres bare,Flashd as they turnd in airSabring the gunners there,Charging an army, whileAll the world wonderd:Plunged in the battery-smoke,Right thro* the line they broke;66Cossack and Russia

348、nReeFd from the sabre-strokeShatterd and sundefd.Then they rode back, but not,Not the six hundred.Cannon to right of them,Cannon to left of them,Cannon behind themVolleyd and thunderd;Stormd at with shot and shell,While horse and hero fell,They that had fought so wellCame thro the jaws of Death,Back

349、 from the mouth of Hell,All that was left of them,Left of six hundred.When can their glory fade?O the wild charge they made!All the world wonderd.Honour the charge they made!Honour the Light Brigade,Noble six hundred!(Tennyson)6. Mark the rhythm of the stanzas below and comment on the effects of the

350、ir metricalvariations.1) I wander thro each chartefd street,Near where the chartefd Thames does flow,And mark in every face I meetMarks of weakness, marks of woe.(William Blake, London)2) The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece!Where burning Sappho loved and sung,Where grew the arts of war and peac

351、e,Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung;Eternal summer gilds them yet,But all, except their sun, is set.(Byron, The Isles of Greece, Notes: Sappho - a Greek woman poet. Delos - a small island inthe Aegean Sea, the birth-place of Apollo according to Greek mythology. Phoebus - epithet ofApollo, the Gre

352、ek sun-god and god of music and poetry.)Chapter 6 Syntactic OverregularitySyntactic overregularity in literature is revealed mainly in the repetition of certain linguistic unitsof a text and in parallelism, where some features vary while others are kept constant. Let usexamine each of these phenomen

353、a.RepetitionAll the overregular features in literature are, in some sense, repetitious. The term repetition,therefore, is restricted to mean the case of exact copying of a certain previous unit in a text, suchas a word, phrase or even a sentence (Leech, 1969).Immediate RepetitionRepetition may be im

354、mediate, i. e. the repeated unit immediately follows the initial unit. Takethis stanza in a Dylan Thomas* poem for example.(1) Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day,Rage, rage against the dying of light.(Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night)The lexical i

355、tem rage in the last line of the stanza is repeated immediately. If we read thewhole poem through, we may actually find that the last line of this stanza is the second refrain ofthe poem, and rage appears eight times in this poem. This fact shows that great emphasis is laid onthe item, and also on t

356、he whole line which expresses the central theme of the poem: one shouldstruggle violently against death. It should also be noted that the vowel sound /ei/ is in assonancewith the /ei/ sound in the preceding line. Hence, the repetition serves to combine the lines togetherand to give unity to the idea

357、 expressed.Another example of immediate repetition is found in a beautifully written poem partly quotedbelow.(2) Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!Bright and yellow, hard and cold,Molten, graven, hammerd and rolPd,Heavy to get and light to hold.(Thomas Hood)What is most striking about these lines is that the w

358、ord Gold is repeated four times. Reinforcedby the capitalization of the first letter of the word and the exclamation mark n!n, the word attractsmuch attention to itself. Instead of being monotonous and redundant, the repetition here shows thepoefs great intensity of feeling when talking about gold.N

359、ow let us consider a poem where a whole line is immediately repeated.(3) The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.(R. Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening)The repetition of the line makes the reader think ha

360、rd about what it actually means. When hedoes so, he may realize that the line is probably metaphorical in nature. One possibleinterpretation he might arrive at is that *there is a long way to go before I die*. The repetition alsoshows that the speaker is rather weary of the journey he takes.Intermit

361、tent RepetitionAnother type of repetition is intermittent repetition, known as ploce in traditional rhetoric. Thefollowing is a good example of this kind.(4) O, how that name befits my composition,Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old.(Shakespeare, Richard II)What is interesting about this case i

362、s that the second occurrence of the lexical item gaunt isused ambiguously. Here the speaker, John of Gaunt, is punning on his own name. The repetitionhere vividly captures the emotional state of the speaker: his utter despair at his old age and at hishealth condition.Now, let us consider another exa

363、mple of intermittent repetition.(5) Not many lives, but only one have we;One, only one.(Anonymous, Only One Life)The word one is repeated intermittently three times and the word only twice. This greatlyemphasizes the fact that there is only one life for a person and suggests that one should reallytr

364、easure it.ParallelismParallelism means exact repetition in equivalent positions. It differs from simple repetition in thatthe identity does not extend to absolute duplication. It requires some variable feature of thepattern - some contrasting elements which are parallel with respect to their positio

365、n in thepattemn (Leech, 1969: 66).Various cases of parallelism have been traditionally classified according to the position of theidentical elements. For example, the type of parallelism whose identical part is in the initialposition has been given the label Anaphora*. However, we will not include t

366、his classification herefor we believe that it is not very helpful for interpreting literary works. What we will do instead isclassify parallelism into two major types according to its size - large-scale parallelism andsmall-scale parallelism - and discuss the rhetorical functions of each of the type

367、s.Large-scale ParallelismBy large-scale parallelism we mean the kind which consists of more than two juxtaposed units.Look at the example in the following poem by Wordsworth.(6) My Heart Leaps UpMy heart leaps up when I beholdA rainbow in the sky,So was it when my life began;So is it now I am a man;

368、So be it when I shall grow old,Or let me die!The Child is father of the Man;And I could wish my days to beBound each to each by natural piety.In this poem, the poet has successfully expressed his great reverence for nature which goesbeyond the bounds of the past, present and future. The theme is bro

369、ught out chiefly by theparallelism which exists in lines 3, 4 and 5. Firstly, the sameness of structure implies the samenessin meaning. This shows that the speaker hopes that his response to seeing a rainbow remains thesame throughout his life. Secondly and more importantly, the emotional feeling ex

370、pressed getsstronger after each juxtaposed unit, reaching its climax in the final parallel unit. Reinforced by theimperative mood and the meaning of the line following it, line 5 most effectively expresses thespeakers strong detennination for continuing to hold a deep love and respect fbr nature.A p

371、oint needs to be made at this juncture. That is, the climax is usually marked by a slightchange in the pattern. This point can be further demonstrated by an example from Shakespeare.(7) If you prick us, do we not bleed?If you tickle us, do we not laugh?If you poison us, do we not die?And if you wron

372、g us, shall we not revenge?(The Merchant of Venice)The fourth juxtaposed unit, which is the climactic point, is slightly different from thepreceding lines in that it has the conjunction and and the modal auxiliary shall in replacement ofthe auxiliary do. The conjunction and makes the line prominent,

373、 and the auxiliary shall forms a70contrast with do in the preceding lines. The final juxtaposed unit not only makes the cause-effectrelation much more apparent, but also demonstrates the speakers strong volition for takingrevenge.We have considered two examples of large-scale parallelism which funct

374、ion to form climax. Itwould be incorrect, however, to conclude from this that large-scale parallelism only functions toform climaxes. The following example will reveal that this is not the case.(8) The seed ye sow, another reaps;The wealth ye find, another keeps;The robes ye weave, another wears;The

375、 arms ye forge, another bears.(P. B. Shelley, Song to the Men of England)Each of the juxtaposed units above seems to be of equal weight. Putting together, these unitsstrongly reinforce the degree of contrast made within each line.Interestingly, a further example of large-scale parallelism is found i

376、n only one line.(9) I came, I saw, I conquered.(Julius Caesar)This is indeed a very significant line in terms of its clause structure. Firstly we may notice thatthe three clauses are short in length and simple in structure and arranged in chronological order.This generates a feeling that the acts of

377、 coming, seeing and conquering were simple and werecompleted one after another in quick succession. Secondly, we can see that the three clauses havethe same structure, i.e. they form a parallelism. The structural equation of the three clausessuggests an equation of meaning. Caesafs statement thus im

378、plies that for him the conquering wasas easy as coming and seeing. This then exhibits Caesars majestic arrogance.Large-scale parallelism is also found in fictional prose. Consider the example in the followingpassage.(10) He stood behind his desk in the far end of the dim room. The wife liked him. Sh

379、e likedthe deadly serious way he received any complaints. She liked his dignity. She liked the way hewanted to serve her. She liked the way he felt about being a hotel-keeper. She liked his old, heavyface and big hands.(Hemingway, Cat in the Rain)Out of a total of seven sentences in this paragraph,

380、six may be said to be parallel. These sixsentences share the same sentence pattern: subject + verb + object. The verb liked is repeated inall the six sentences and the subject she in five of the sentences. The subject the wife in the secondsentence is referentially the same as she. The piling up of

381、the parallel sentences emphasizes thepoint that the wife liked the hotel-keeper in many ways. The points that the wife liked about thehotel-keeper are just what was lacking in her husband. For contrast, read the following passage ofthe same story.(11) * 1 want to pull my hair back tight and smooth a

382、nd make a big knot at the back that I canfeel, she said. I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her.Yeah? George said from the bed.And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be springand I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirro

383、r and I want a kitty and 1 want some newclothes.Oh, shut up and get something to read,1 George said. He was reading again.His wife was looking out of the window. It was quite dark now and still raining in the palmtrees.Anyway, I want a cat/ she said. * 1 want a cat. I want a cat now. If I cant have

384、long hair or anyfirn, I can have a cat.,George was not listening. He was reading his book. His wife looked out of the window wherethe light had come on in the square.This passage also contains instances of parallelism. The parallelism in each instance is formedwith I want as the repeated part. Inter

385、estingly, the parallelism later turned to mere repetition. Thisfact shows that the wife really wanted certain things. However, the husband simply ignored herand sometimes even got irritated. It seemed that the wife was in some way just like that pooruncared-for cat in the rain with which the story u

386、nfolds. It is little wonder that she developed aliking for the old hotel-keeper who did everything to satisfy her. The story ends with the wifebeing sent a cat by the hotel-keeper.Another excellent example of large-scale parallelism in fictional prose is found in the firstchapter of Dickens Bleak Ho

387、use.(12) Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fbgdown the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of agreat (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fbg on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into thecabooses o

388、f collier-brigs; fbg lying out on the yards and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fbgdrooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancientGreenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fbg in the stem and bowl of theafternoon pipe of the wr

389、athful skipper, down in his close cabin; fbg cruelly pinching the toes andthe fingers of his shivering little *prentice boy on deck. Chance people on the bridges peeping overthe parapets into a nether sky of fbg, with fbg all round them, as if they were up in a balloon andhanging in the misty clouds

390、.Gas looming through the fbg in diverse places in the streets, much as the sun may, from thespongy fields, be seen to loom by husbandman and ploughboy. Most of the shops lighted twohours before their time - as the gas seems to know, for it has a haggard and unwilling look.The raw afternoon is rawest

391、, and the dense fog is densest, and the muddy streets are muddiestnear that leaden-headed old obstruction, appropriate ornament for the threshold of a leaden-headedold corporation, Temple Bar. And hard by Temple Bar, in Lincoln*s Inn Hall, at the very heart ofthe fbg, sits the Lord High Chancellor i

392、n his High Court of Chancery.The parallelism in the first paragraph is indeed very large in scale. It consists of elevenjuxtaposed units. The parallel structure can be described as follows: subject + predicate. Thepredicate is elliptical and consists of either a prepositional phrase which may have f

393、urther72embeddings or a non-finite verbal phrase. The significance of this parallelism is at least two-fbld.In the first place, the repeated element consists of only one word fog and it occurs at the beginningof each juxtaposed unit. This makes the element highly marked. Its repeated occurrence here

394、generates a mood of dense depression. It is in such a setting that the story unfolds. Mostinterestingly, the character that first appears in the novel is the Lord High Chancellor who may beseen as representing law and authority. Ironically however, he sits at the centre of the fog. One canthen easil

395、y imagine whether or not he can see things clearly and pass fair judgement.Secondly, we may find that the parallelism functions to knit the paragraph together so that it ishighly cohesive and logical. The first parallel unit which happens to be the first sentence is asummative statement, the followi

396、ng units except the last one simply set out to exemplify it. Thispoint can be seen from the table below.Subject | Verb | Adverbial |I | |fog | -1 everywhere |1 I Ifog | -1 up the river |1 I Ifbg | - 1 down the river |I | |fog | - 1 on the Essex marshes |I | |fbg | - 1 on the Kentish heights |_1 1 1f

397、og | - creeping | into the cabooses |1 I Ifbg | - lying out| on the yards |I I I| hovering | in the rigging of great ships |I | |fbg | - drooping | on the gunwale |1 I Ifbg | -1 in the eyes and throats |1 I Ifog | -1 in the stem and bowl |I I IThis is only a crude representation of the structure of

398、the first ten parallel units. All theexpressions in the right column are semantically called locatives. The relation between the wordeverywhere and the rest of the locatives is one of inclusion. Everywhere may be viewed as thesuperordinate and the rest of the locatives may simply be regarded as its

399、hyponyms. Thus we cansee the highly cohesive nature of this paragraph.Large-scale parallelism is also found in the third paragraph of the passage. Being aware of thelength of this section, we now hasten to point out that this parallelism contributes a great deal tothe depiction of a gloomy setting f

400、or the novel.Small-scale ParallelismSmall-scale parallelism is the case which consists of only two juxtaposed units. Consider theexamples below.(13) O, my luve is like a red, red roseThafs newly sprung in June;O, my luve is like the melodieThats sweetly play*d in tune.(Robert Bums, A Red, Red Rose)(

401、14) His fees were high; his lessons were light.(O Henry)In Burns* example, the first two lines run parallel to the last two. The bond between the twounits is one of similarity. What they have in common is that they both express the speakersadmiration and love for his beloved. In contrast, the second

402、 example presents a strong contrastbetween the two juxtaposed units. The difference in function may be tested by inserting but* inbetween the two juxtaposed units. In the second example, we may insert but in between the twojuxtaposed units. In the first example, however, we cannot insert it, without

403、 changing the originalmeaning of the lines.When small-scale parallelism is combined with an implication of contrast, it is referred to asantithesis in rhetoric. The following are two more examples.(15) Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)(16) To err i

404、s human, to forgive devine.(Pope, An Essay on Criticism)Before concluding this section, let us look at a more complicated case of small-scaleparallelism.An Irish Ainnan Foresees his Death1.1 know that I shall meet my fate2. Somewhere among the clouds above;3. Those that I fight I do not hate,4. Thos

405、e that I guard I do not love;5. My country is Kiltartan Cross,6. My countrymen Kiltartans poor,7. No likely end could bring them loss8. Or leave them happier than before.9. Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,10. Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,11. A lonely impulse of delight12. Drove to this tumult

406、 in the clouds;13 . 1 balanced all, brought all to mind,14. The years to come seemed waste of breath,15. A waste of breath the years behind16. In balance with this life, this death.(W. B. Yeats)Lines three and four of this poem have identical structure and rhythm. Their difference lies inthat each o

407、f the two verbs in line three is antonymous with the verb in the same position in linefour. Thus the parallelism urges a strong contrast between each pair of antonyms. However,phonological and syntactic equivalence usually has the effect to imply sameness of meaning. Theopposition set up by each pai

408、r of antonyms here is neutralized, and the two antonymous items aremade to mean more or less the same thing in this context. Therefore, we may say that for thespeaker there is no essential difference between fighting those you do not hate and guarding thoseyou do not love. Fighting, it seems to him,

409、 is the same thing as guarding, and hating amounts tothe same thing as loving. Once such fundamentally different concepts are reduced to the samething, life becomes entirely pointless. The parallelism here therefore carries a strong note offatalism.Exercises1. Discuss the following questions.1) What

410、 is meant by repetition?2) How do you distinguish immediate repetition from intermittent repetition?3) What is meant by parallelism?4) What seems to be the chief function of large-scale parallelism?2. Consider the stylistic effects of the repetitions in the poems below.1) The Song of the Lower Class

411、esWere low - were low - weTe very, very low,As low as low can be;The rich are high - for they make them so-And a miserable lot are we!And a miserable lot are we! are we!A miserable lot are we!We plough and sow - were so very, very low,That we delve in the dirty clay,Till we bless the plain with the

412、golden grain,And the vale with the fragrant hay,Our place we know - were so very low,*Tis down at the landlords feet:WeYe not too low - the bread to growBut too low the bread to eat.Were low, were low, etc.Down, down we go - were so very, very low,To the hell of the deep sunk mines,But we gather the

413、 proudest gems that glow,When the crown of a despot shines;And whenever he lacks - upon our backsFresh loads he deigns to lay,Were far too low to vote the taxBut were not too low to pay.Were low, were low, etc.Were low, were low - mere rabble, we know,But at our plastic power,The mould at the lordli

414、ns feet will growInto palace and church and tower-Then prostrate fall - in the rich mans hall,And cringe at the rich man*s door.Were not too low to build the wall,But too low to tread the floor.Were low, we*re low, etc.Were low, were low - we,re very, very low,Yet from our fingers glideThe silken fl

415、ow - and the robes that glow,Round the limbs of the sons of pride.And what we get - and what we give,We know - and we know our share.Were not too low the cloth to weave-But too low the cloth to wear.Were low, were low, etc.Were low, were low - were very, very low,And yet when the trumpets ring,The t

416、hrust of a poor mans arm will goThrough the heart of the proudest king!Were low, were low - our place we know,Were only the rank and file.Were not too low - to kill the foe,But too low to touch the spoil.Were low, were low, etc.(Ernest Jones)2) The LambLittle Lamb, who made thee?Dost thou know who m

417、ade thee?Gave thee life and bid thee feed,By the stream and o*er the mead;Gave thee clothing of delight,Softest clothing, wooly, bright;Gave thee such a tender voice,Making all the vales rejoice!Little lamb, who made thee?Dost thou know who made thee?Little lamb, Fil tell thee,Little lamb, Til tell

418、thee!He is called by thy name,For he calls himself a Lamb.He is meek, and he is mild,He became a little child;I a child, and thou a lamb,We are called by his name.Little Lamb, God bless thee!Little Lamb, God bless thee!(William Blake)3. Discuss the significance of the repetitions in the following pa

419、ssages.1) Dead! Dead, your Majesty. Dead my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends andWrong Reverends of every order. Dead men and women, bom with Heavenly compassion in yourhearts. And dying around us every day.(Dickens, Bleak House)2) Then the first blow with a stick. The second, third . shall

420、 I count them? No, my boy, thereis nowhere to report such statistics.Your name? Speak. Your address? Speak. With whom did you have contact? Speak. Theiraddress? Talk! Talk! Talk, or well beat you.,How many blows can a man stand?(Fuchik, Notes under the Gallows)4. Discuss the style of the following p

421、oems or parts of poems, paying particular attention tohow instances of parallelism function in the poetic discourse.1) The Years at the SpringThe year*s at the spring,And the day*s at the mom;Mornings at seven;The hill-sides dew-pearled;The lark*s on the wing;The snails on the thorn:Gods in his heav

422、en-Alfs right with the world!(Robert Browning)2) In a Station of the MetroThe apparition of these faces in the crowdsPetals on a wet, black bough.(Ezra Pound)3) The night has a thousand eyes,And the day but one.Yet the light of the bright world diesWith the dying sun.The mind has a thousand eyes,and

423、 the heart but one;Yet the light of the whole life diesWhen love is done.(F. W. Bourdillon)4) Little ThingsLittle drops of water,Little grains of sand,Make the mighty oceanAnd the pleasant land.Little deeds of kindness,Little words of love,Make our earth an Eden,Like the heaven above.(Julia A. F. Ca

424、rney)5) My heart is like a singing birdWhose nest is in a watered shoot;My heart is like an apple treeWhose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;My heart is like a rainbow shellThat paddles in a halcyon sea;My heart is gladder than all theseBecause my love is come to me.(Christina G. Rossetti)6) *Ag

425、e and Youth1Crabbed age and youth cannot live together,Youth is full of pleasance, Age is full of care,Youth like the summer morne, Age like winter weather,Youth like summer brave, Age like winter bare,Youth is full of sport, Age*s breath is short,Youth is nimble, Age is lame,Youth is hot and bold,

426、Age is weake and cold,Youth is wild, and Age is tame.Age I doe abhor thee, Youth I doe adore thee,O my love my love is young:Age I doe defie thee, Oh sweet Shepheard hie thee,For me thinks thou staies too long.(Shakespeare)5. Analyze the examples of parallelism in the passages below and comment on t

427、heir stylisticeffects.1) All the same, for some time Tom had been aware that he was working very hard for verylittle. His wife, Louie, gave him a peck in the morning when he left for the office and, if she werenot at a party, a peck in the evening when he came home. And it was obvious that her life

428、wascompletely filled with the children, with her clothes, with keeping her figure slim, with keepingthe house clean and smart, with her charities, her bridge, her tennis, her friends and her parties.(Joyce Cary, The Breakout)2) Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use the

429、m.(Francis Bacon, Of Studies)3) Catharine watched him grow smaller in the long perspective of shadows and trees, knewthat if he stopped and turned now, if he called to her, she would run to him. She would have nochoice.Newt did stop. He did turn. He did call. Catharine,*1 he called.She ran to him, p

430、ut her arms around him, could not speak.(Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Long Walk to Forever)4) Brutus: Be patient till the last. (Pause)Romans, countrymen, and lovers!(There are shouts from the mob.)Hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear. Believe me fbr mine honor, and haverespect to mine hono

431、r, that you may believe. Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses,that you may be the better judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesars tohim I say, that Brutus* love to Caesar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutusrose against Caesar, this is my

432、 answer: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all freemen? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, Ihonor him; but, as he was ambitious,

433、I slew him. There is tears fbr his love; joy fbr his fortune;honor for his valor; and death for his ambition. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? Ifany, speak, fbr him have I offended. Who is here so mde that would not be a Roman? If any,speak, fbr him have I offended. Who is here so vile t

434、hat would not love his country? If any, speak,fbr him have I offended. I pause fbr a reply.(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)Chapter 7 Cohesion in Literary DiscourseCohesion is a concept popularized by Halliday and Hasan (1976). It refers to the set of linguisticdevices that bind a text together, that giv

435、e it unity or texture* (Verdonk and Weber, 1995). Thesedevices can be phonological, syntactic, or lexical. In this chapter, we will look at each type ofthese cohesive devices and see how they function in literary discourse. We will also examineanother type of cohesion, namely the cohesion of foregro

436、unded features.Phonological DevicesCohesion can be achieved through sound patterns such as alliteration, assonance and rhymewhich were considered in Chapter Five. But, the examples discussed there were all taken frompoetry. In this section, therefore, we will examine examples from fictional prose. C

437、onsider thefollowing extract.(1) The Brangwens had lived fbr generations on the Marsh Farm, in the meadows where theErewash twisted sluggishly through alder trees, separating Derbyshire from Nottinghamshire.So the Brangwens came and went without fear of necessity, working hard because of the lifetha

438、t was in them, not fbr want of the money. Neither were they thriftless. They were aware of thelast halfpenny, and instinct made them not waste the peeling of their apple, fbr it would help tofeed the cattle. But heaven and earth was teeming around them, and how should this cease? Theyfelt the rush o

439、f the sap in spring, they knew the wave which cannot halt, but every year throwsforward the seed to begetting, and, falling back leaves the young-born on the earth. They knew theintercourse between heaven and earth, sunshine drawn into the breast and bowels, and the rainsucked up in the daytime, nak

440、edness that comes under the wind in autumn, showing the birds*nests no longer worth hiding. Their life and interrelations were such; feeling the pulse and body ofthe soil, that opened to their furrow for the grain, and became smooth and supple after theirploughing, and clung to their feet with a wei

441、ght that pulled like desire, lying hard andunresponsive, when the crops were to be shorn away. The young corn waved and was silken, andthe lustre slid along the limbs of the men who saw it. They took the udder of the cows, the cowsyielded milk and pulse against the hands of the men, the pulse of the

442、 blood of the teats of the cowsbeat into the pulse of the hands of the men. They mounted their horses, and held life between thegrip of their knees, they harnessed their horses at the wagon, and, with hand on the bridle-rings,drew the heaving of the horses after their will.In autumn the partridges w

443、hirred up, birds in flocks blew like spray across the fallow, rooksappeared on the grey, watery heavens, and flew cawing into the winter. Then the men sat by thefire in the house where the women moved about with surety, and the limbs and the body of themen were impregnated with the day, cattle and e

444、arth and vegetation and the sky, the men sat bythe fire and their brains were inert, as their blood flowed heavy with the accumulation from theliving day.(Lawrence, The Rainbow)This extract is quoted by F. R. Leavis (1955) as one of the examples that demonstrate anintense apprehension of the unity o

445、f life1* (cited in Freeborn, 1996: 3). Leavis points out: Wordshere are used in the way, not of eloquence, but of creative poetry (a wholly different way, that is,from that of O may I join the choir invisible): they establish as an actual presence - create as partof the substance of the book - somet

446、hing that is essential to Lawrences theme”. However, thecritic does not explain what it is that produces an intense apprehension nor does he show thefeatures of creative poetry in the extract. What we do here is analyze one aspect of Lawrenceslanguage use in this extract that helps produce the effec

447、t specified by Leavis. This is theemployment of sound patterns. As can be noticed in a close reading, in this extract alliteration andassonance are used quite extensively. Listed below are examples of these two sound patterns.Alliteration and Semi-alliterationThey felt the rush of the sap in spring.

448、sunshine drawn into the breast and bowels,and became smooth and supple after their ploughing,The young com waved and was silken, and the lustre slidalong the limbs of the men who saw it.They mounted their horses, and held life between the grip oftheir knees, they harnessed their horses at the wagon,

449、 and,with hand on the bridle-rings, drew the heaving of the horsesafter their will.In autumn the partridges whirred up, birds in flocks blew likespray across the fallow,.AssonanceBut heaven and earth was teeming around them, and how should this cease?The rain sucked up in the day time, nakedness tha

450、t comes under the wind in autumn showingthe birds nest no longer worth hiding.Feeling the pulse and body of the soil, that opened to their furrow for the grain, and becamesmooth and supple after their ploughing, and clung to their feet with a weight that pulled likedesire,.The young com waved and wa

451、s silken, and the lustre slid along the limbs of the men who sawit.They took the udder of the cows, the cows yielded milk and pulse against the hands of the men,the pulse of the blood of the teats of the cows beat into the pulse of the hands of the men.As was discussed in Chapter Five, the major fun

452、ction of alliteration and assonance is toestablish some kind of connection between or among the items that are phonetically associated.The alliteration and assonance in this extract serve precisely this purpose. They function asimportant devices that knit the text together and create unity of discou

453、rse. The extract may not beeloquent in that it consists mainly of a series of main clauses that are linked either without anylinking word or by coordination only. Yet it is quite cohesive because of the extensive use ofalliteration and assonance. The harmony of vowels and the unity of consonants gre

454、atly reinforcethe theme of the extract - the unity of life and the hannony of the natural world. The ingenious useof these sound patterns is a feature of creative poetry.The rhythmic patterning in this extract also helps to make the text stick together. Freeborn(1996) listed lines in the extract tha

455、t can be scanned as verse. In the following, we will only listlines that can be read with more or less the same number of stresses. The stressed syllables are inbold type and the number of stresses in each line is marked:But heaven and earth was teeming around them, 4They felt the rush of the sap in

456、 spring, 4They knew the wave which cannot halt, 4They knew the intercourse between heaven and earth, 4Sunshine drawn into the breast and bowels, 4Feeling the pulse and body of the soil, 4The pulse of the blood of the teats of the cows 4Beat into the pulse of the hands of the men. 4And held life betw

457、een the grip of their knees, 4But every year throws forward the seed to begetting, 5And, falling back leaves the young-bom on the earth. 5And became smooth and supple after their ploughing, 5And clung to their feet with a weight that pulled like desire 5Drew the heaving of the horses after their wil

458、l. 5Syntactic DevicesAt the syntactic level, there are a number of devices that can be employed to make literary textscohesive. In this section, we will look at three of them: co-reference, ellipsis, linkage.Co-referenceCo-reference is the means of referring to something elsewhere in the text. It is

459、 thus animportant device for linking sentence with sentence and at the same time avoiding repetition.Co-reference consists of two types: anaphoric reference and cataphoric reference. The formerrefers to something that has already been mentioned in the text, while the latter refers tosomething that i

460、s yet to come. The two types of references are chiefly signalled by the third personpronouns (he, she, it, they, him, her, them) and the definite article (the). Now take a look at thefollowing examples of anaphoric reference:(2) My uncle Melik was just about the worst farmer that ever lived. He was

461、too imaginativeand poetic for his own good. What he wanted was beauty.(W. Saroyan The Pomegranate Trees)(3) And ice, mask-high, came floating by.The ice was here, the ice was there,The ice was all around.(Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner)(4) Tom Sponson, at fifty-three, was a thoroughly successful man

462、. He had worked up afirst-class business, married a charming wife, and built himself a good house in the Londonsuburbs that was neither so modern as to be pretentious nor so conventional as to be dull. He hadgood taste.(J. Cary, The Breakout)In each of the three cases, the items that have anaphoric

463、reference constitute the giveninformation and has the function of providing structural and semantic continuity (Wales, 1989).Wales believes that anaphoric reference is far commoner than cataphoric reference. This may betrue, nevertheless cataphoric reference is frequently found in literary works and

464、 performs a uniquefunction. Below are two interesting examples:(5) They had grown up next door to each other, on the fringe of a city, near fields and woodsand orchards, with sight of a lovely bell tower that belonged to a school for the blind.Now they were twenty, had not seen each other for nearly

465、 a year. There had always beenplayful, comfortable warmth between them, but never any talk of love.His name was Newt. Her name was Catharine.(Vonnegut, Jr., Long Walk to Forever)(6) She was sitting on the veranda waiting for her husband to come in for luncheon. The Malayboy had drawn the blinds when

466、 the morning lost its freshness, but she had partly raised one ofthem so that she could look at the river.(W. S. Maugham The Force of Circumstance)Both passages are openings of short stories. The pronouns in the passages not only providediscourse cohesion, but also have the function of arousing the

467、readers* curiosity so that they maybe immediately involved in reading the story. In the case of example one, it is only when thereader gets to the third paragraph does he become clear about whom the item they refers to. Thus,great suspense is produced. Such use of cataphoric reference is characteris

468、tic of literary discourse.EllipsisEllipsis is the omission from a sentence of words needed to complete a construction. Ellipsis inspoken English and normal everyday written discourse is usually a grammatical device foreconomy of words. The omitted parts may be understood from the context or by means

469、 ofintonation, or from such paralinguistic features as gestures and facial expressions. It is thus acommon means of implicit cohesion between sentences or utterances, usefully avoidingunnecessary repetition. In literature, ellipsis is not merely a grammatical means to make the workcompact and cohesi

470、ve but also a rhetorical device to express certain aspects of the meaning ormessage of the work. The elliptical style is common in the representation of interior monologue.Now let us consider the ellipsis in the following paragraph.(6) Quick through the window. Escape. I have a pistol; Ill hold them

471、 back. Toolate. Gestapo men under the windows aiming pistols into the room. Detectives haveforced the door, rush into the room through the kitchen. One, two, three-nine of them. .(J. Fuchik, Notes from the Gallows)The background of the preceding paragraph is that Fuchik, an underground communist lea

472、derand the chief editor of the Czech Communist Partys organ, goes to an appointed meeting to seehis adjutant at the Jeliniks* apartment. When he arrives there, he finds that there are two morecomrades present. Fuchik immediately realizes that it is an unnecessary risk for so many of themto be in one

473、 room at once, as a curfew has been imposed on Prague after 10 p.m. No sooner doeshe point out this danger and suggest termination of the meeting at once than Gestapo men bang onthe door. The paragraph quoted describes how Fuchik reacts to this critical situation.The sentence structures of the parag

474、raph, as can be easily seen, are highly elliptical. Out of atotal of seven sentences, three (sentences 1,4, and 7) do not have predicate verbs and one(sentence 5 ) omits the operator are which, together with the participle aiming, forms the presentprogressive aspect and a finite verb phrase. Four (s

475、entences 1, 2 , 4, and 7) of them have only oneelement: sentence 1 consisting of four words, sentence 2 of only one word, sentence 4 of only twowords, and sentence 7 of six words. The ellipsis here, rhetorically speaking, seems to bemulti-functional. Firstly, it can bring great immediacy to the scen

476、e being described, thus making itappear as if it was actually passing before the eyes. Secondly, the brevity of the sentence structurecreates a sense of urgency and tension. Finally, the ellipsis also manifests Fuchiks wisdom, his84quick succession of thoughts.Poetry is the most condensed of all lit

477、erary genres. Ellipsis, therefore, is one of the designfeatures of poetic discourse. Take a look at the examples below:(8) Who has seen the wind?Neither I nor you.But when the leaves hang trembling,The wind is passing through.(C. G. Rossetti, Who Has Seen the Wind)(9) Into the sunshine,Full of the l

478、ight,Leaping and flashingFrom Mom till night.Into the moonlight,Whiter than snow,Waving so flower-likeWhen the winds blow!(J. R. Lowell, The Fountain)In line two of Example (8), both the verb and the object are omitted. But like those in aconversation, the missing elements can easily be recovered fr

479、om the context. Therefore, anyattempt to supply the omitted parts would destroy the unity and rhythm of the text and make ithighly redundant. Lowelfs poem is even more elliptical. The subjects are omitted and so are someverbs and the auxiliaries of the verbal phrases. However, the omissions here do

480、not cause anyambiguity or awkwardness. Instead, they make the text very compact and highly cohesive. Theyneatly capture the liveliness and wonderfulness of the fountain.LinkageLinkage refers to the use of overt signals that connect language units both within and beyondsentences to form literary disc

481、ourse. These signals include coordinating conjunctions such asand and but， subordinating conjunctions such as “before and when, and linking adverbialssuch as so and nyetM. Leech and Short (1981) observe that in the history of fiction writing, therehas been a progressive tendency, over the past three

482、 hundred years, to dispense with logicalconnections between sentences, and to rely instead on inferred connections. This means thatstylistically it is more fruitful to examine the overt linking devices that occur within sentences. Inthis section, therefore, we will only look at linkage at the clause

483、 level. First, let us examine anextract from a short story by Hemingway.(10) Nick stood up. He was all right. He looked up the track at the lights of the caboose goingout of sight around the curve. There was water on both sides of the track, then tamarack swamp.He felt of his knee. The pants were to

484、m and the skin was barked. His hands were scraped and85there were sand and cinders driven up under his nails. He went over to the edge of the track downthe little slope to the water and washed his hands. He washed them carefully in the cold water,getting the dirt out from the nails. He squatted down

485、 and bathed his knee.(The Battler)In the second paragraph of the extract, there are four sentences that contain more than oneclause. Interestingly, the clauses in these sentences are all connected by the coordinatingconjunction and. This suggests that the conditions described in the first two senten

486、ces are equallybad and the actions were performed in a time sequence.The use of coordinating conjunctions as clause connectors is a typical feature of Hemingway*sstyle. It suits the content of Hemingways stories and novels for Hemingway chiefly portrays menof action, a point we made in Section 2 of

487、Chapter Two.Another example of foregrounded clause linkage is found in the opening of Adam Halls TheTango Briefing below:(11)1 came in over the pole and we were stacked up for nearly twenty minutes in a holdingcircuit round London before they could find us a runway and then we had to wait for a bott

488、le-neckon the ground to get itself sorted out and all we could do was stare through the windows at thedownpour and that didnt help.Sayonara, yes, very comfortable thank you.There was a long queue in No. 3 Passenger Building and I was starting to sweat because thewire had said fully urgent and London

489、 never uses that phrase just for a laugh; then a quietlyhigh-powered type in sharp blue civvies came up and asked who I was and I told him and hewhipped me straight past Immigration and Customs without touching the sides and told me therewas a police car waiting and was it nice weather in Tokyo.Bett

490、er than here.,Where do we send the luggage?1This is all Tve got.,He took me through a fire exit and there was the rain slamming down again and the porterswere trudging about in oilskins.The radio operator had the rear door open for me and I ducked in and the driver hooked hishead round to see who I

491、was, not that he*d know.You want us to go as fast as we can?Thats what its all about/Sometimes along the open stretches where the deluge was flooding the hollows we worked upquite a bowwave and I could see the flash of our emergency light reflected in it.Bit of a summer storm.1,You can keep it.,They

492、 were using their sirens before wed got halfway along Waterloo Road and after that theyjust kept their thumb on it because the restaurants and cinemas were turning out and every taxiwas rolling.Big Ben was sounding eleven when we did a nicely controlled slide into Whitehall across the frontof a bus

493、and he put the two nearside wheels up on the pavement so that I could get out withoutholding the traffic.Best I could do.,You did alright.,As can be noticed, the vast majority of clauses are connected by and. More strikingly, thewriter uses this coordinating conjunction to connect all the clauses of

494、 the compound sentences thatcontain more than two clauses. Normally, people only link the last two clauses with and and markthe boundary of the preceding ones with a comma. Only a few clauses are linked by thesubordinating conjunctions such as before and because. Wright and Hope (1996) point out tha

495、t theeffect of this pattern of clause linkage is of an uninterrupted stream of events - all sequential, allequally important, each flowing into the other in a linear narrative ordered by the rapid passage oftime” (Wright and Hope: 139). The speaker is a special agent who has been summoned fromTokyo

496、for an urgent mission and the syntax mirrors the urgency he feels, and produces a franticsense of events rushing to a climax.Lexical DevicesAt the lexical level, there are two important devices for cohesion. These are lexical repetition andelegant variation, both of which manifest the relation of me

497、aning within the text.Lexical RepetitionIn Chapter Six, we discussed repetition as syntactic overregularity at some length. Therepetition of a lexical item was examined briefly as a foregrounded feature. In this section, let uslook at one more example that demonstrates its power of cohesion as well

498、as its rhetoricalfunction.(12) I saw her and liked her because she was not beautiful. Her chin was not just right andsomething about her nose fell short of perfection. And when she stood up, well, there wasnt muchto see but her tallness, the length from her hips to her feet, and the length from her

499、hips to hershoulders. She was a tall girl and that was all. She was the first tall girl I had ever liked, perhapsbecause I had never watched a tall girl get up from a table before; that is, get up the way she did,everything in her rising to the art of getting up, combining to make the act to look be

500、autiful andnot like just another casual movement, an ordinary life motion.Maybe I liked her because when I talked to her fbr the first time I found that she had tall ideastoo, ideas which like her chin and nose did not seem just right to me, but like her getting up werebeautiful. They hung together.

501、 They were tall ideas, about life and people, morals and ethics. Atfirst they seemed shockingly loose to me, but when I saw they all moving together, like her body,they hung together. They looked naturally beautiful. They had the same kind of pulled-out poetrythat sometimes defies the extra-long lin

502、e and hangs together, hangs together when you see thewhole thing finished, when youve scanned it up and down and seen all the line endings melt into acurious kind of unity, which makes strange music - strange because everything is long yetcompact. She was music. I see it now, her getting up impresse

503、d me at the time because fbr the firsttime I felt poetry in a person rising - music in body parts moving in natural rhythms. I liked the87tall girl.(R. Hagopian, Wonderful People)In the above extract, Hagopian repeats the lexical item tall seven times and the phrase hangtogether four times. Moreover

504、, he uses words and phrases that are similar in meaning to tall andhang together. For example, the length from her hips to her feet, and the length from her hips toher shoulders are related in meaning to tallness and moving together and moving in naturalrhythms are similar in meaning to hang togethe

505、r. The function of the repeated occurrence of eachof the items and that of its synonymous words and expressions seems to be two-fold. One is tolink the different parts of the story. The other is to reinforce the ideas expressed in the extract.Specifically, these repetitions hammer home the particula

506、r qualities the speaker likes in his femalepartner.Elegant VariationElegant variation refers to the use of an alternative word or expression as a replacement for aword or expression that occurred in the preceding context. Writers often resort to this device toachieve stylistic effect. Consider the e

507、xample below:(13) My uncle straightened up, breathing deeply.Put the little creature down, he said. Let us not be cruel to the innocent creations of AlmightyGod. If it is not poison and grows no larger than a mouse and does not travel in great numbers andhas no memory to speak of, let the timid litt

508、le thing return to the earth. Let us be gentle towardthese small things which live on the earth with us.Yes, sir, I said.I placed the homed toad on the ground.Gently now, my uncle said. Let no harm come to this strange dweller on my land.The horned toad scrambled away.(W. Saroyan, The Pomegranate Tr

509、ees)The narrator and his uncle came to see the land his uncle had bought to start a fann. It was a largepiece of worthless desert land which was overrun with prairie dogs, squirrels, homed toads, snakes,and a variety of smaller forms of life. When they were walking over the dry earth, his uncle saw

510、ahomed toad at his feet. He had never seen such an animal before and was afraid of it. But whenthe narrator caught the toad, he tried not to show his fear. When he was assured that the animalwas harmless, he was much relieved and ordered his nephew to set the toad free. The variation ofexpressions f

511、or the homed toad here not only shows the uncles ignorance of the animal but alsoreveals his pedantry.Cohesion of Foregrounded FeaturesIn Chapters 3 6, we considered foregrounded features mostly one by one. This might have giventhe impression that foregrounded features occur in isolation and functio

512、n independently at their88own different textual levels. In fact, they usually cohere and operate in a mutually supportive wayto convey certain aspects of the works meaning. In the following, we will discuss three poems toillustrate this point. The first one is written by a contemporary British poet,

513、 James Kircup.(14) Thunder and LightningBlood punches through every vein,As lightning strips the windowpane.Under its flashing whip, a whiteVillage leaps to light,On tubs of thunder, fists of rainSlog it out of sight again.Blood punches the heart with frightAs rain belts the village night.The first

514、thing that may strike us is that all the finite verbs (punch, leap, strip, slog, and belt) inthe poem which normally take as their subjects nouns that have human or animate qualitiesco-occur with inanimate nouns. This should not be taken as a coincidence. If we give these verbs acloser look, we may

515、find that all of them except leap are items usually associated with violenthuman actions with an intent to punish. Nevertheless, these actions are here performed bylightning and rain, i.e. nature. Reinforced by the fact that lightning is said to have flashing whipand rain fists, the poem seems to ex

516、press mainly the destructive and violent aspect of nature andthus creates a terrifying atmosphere.Besides cohesion of the deviant uses of the finite verbs in the poem, we will also take a look atthe rhyme-scheme of the poem. Leech says, Hif a single scheme extends over the whole text, it canitself b

517、e regarded as a fonn of cohesion (Leech, 1970: 123). What seems to be significant aboutthe rhyme-scheme of the poem is that the consonants in the rhymes are /n/ and /t/, soundsgenerally classified as plosives. Plosives are a class of sounds which are produced with greatermuscular strength because ai

518、r coming out from the lung meets obstructions. This then seems tounderline the great force of nature, and reinforces the general atmosphere created in the poem.More interestingly, of the two plosives one is nasal and the other is oral. Together with the vowels,they sound very like the rumbling of th

519、under.Our analysis of Kircups poem so far has shown a) there is cohesion among foregroundedfeatures of the same type, b) different types of foregrounded features also have cohesion, i.e. theyco-operate to express, often indirectly, certain aspects of the work*s meaning. Both the deviantuses of the f

520、inite verbs and the overregularity in the rhyme-scheme of this poem suggest thatnature has a destructive power and is most awesome.The second poem we discuss in this section is The Eagle by Tennyson.(15) The EagleHe clasps the crag with crooked hands,Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ringd with the a

521、zure world, he stands.The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls,89He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt, he falls.Tennyson can be said to be a conventional poet in that he does not often breach the rules of theEnglish language. This being the case, one may still find much foregrounding

522、 in his poems. Evenin this short poem, we can notice some significant foregrounded features. More interestingly, thesefeatures seem to work together to convey the aggressiveness, powerfulness and the unyieldingcharacter of the eagle.The first feature that strikes us in this poem is Tennysons employm

523、ent of sounds. The mostsuggestive line in terms of its sound effect is line one. It may be transcribed broadly as follows:/hi: klaesps Qe kraeg wiQ kru:kt haendz/It can be easily noticed that there is a dominance of plosive consonants in the line, /k/ occursfour times, /g/, /p/ and /t/ respectively

524、once. As we saw when analyzing Kircups poem, plosivesare a class of sounds which when pronounced require greater muscular strength. The plosives inthis poem therefore, may suggest the powerfulness of the eagle in question, thus reinforcing themeaning expressed by the wording of the line. This is fur

525、ther supported by the occurrence of /ae/in three of the four stressed syllables. The articulation of /ae/ requires more muscular tension andstrength than that of most vowels in English, especially its close associate /e/. Both the highproportion of plosives and the repeated occurrence of the vowel /

526、ae/ in this poem create a strongonomatopoeic effect. In passing, we want to point out that it is largely because of his success inutilizing sound patterns that critics and readers alike rank Tennyson among the greatest Englishpoets.Another feature to note in this poem is the humanization of the eagl

527、e. The poet has used themasculine third-person pronoun to refer to the eagle throughout the text. The subjective case heoccurs four times and the objective case him once. He also uses the masculine third-personpossessive pronoun his once. We can also see that in the poem the eagle is said to have ha

528、nds. Thehumanization of the eagle is important, for it reminds us of the wisdom and strength whichtypically characterize man. What is more significant is the choice of the masculine third-personpronoun as opposed to the feminine. It matter-of-factly bestows great masculinity upon the eagle.Had the f

529、eminine pronoun been used, readers would naturally associate femininity to the eagle andthe powerful image of the eagle would be completely altered.A further feature which is worth commenting is that the closing line of the first stanza and thatof the second stanza run parallel to each other. Each o

530、f the lines begins with an adverbial followedby the subject and ends with a monosyllabic verb. This syntactic arrangement functions to knit thetext closely together. But more significantly, it draws attention to the two lines. When the readercarefully examines the two lines, he may find that the adv

531、erbial is the longest element of eachclause and is placed in the initial position. In English, the presentation of the content of a clauseusually follows either of two principles. One is the principle of end-fbeus, i.e. the tendency toplace the new information towards the end of the clause. The othe

532、r is the principle of end-weight,i.e. the tendency to reserve the final position for the most complex part of a clause or sentence.The content of each of the two lines is presented apparently in accordance with the principle ofend-fbeus. Rhetorically speaking, this type of presentation produces a se

533、nse of finality. This isespecially the case with the closing line of the poem. It suggests that once the eagle falls, the preycannot avoid being caught and eaten up. The placing of focus on the word stands in line threeforcefully emphasizes the strong and unyielding character of the eagle.It is inte

534、resting to note at this juncture that the equality between the two verbs in syntactic andphonological (end-fbcus) status attracts great attention to the two words themselves. This mayenable the reader to perceive and appreciate the semantic relation holding between the two verbs,which is one of anto

535、nymy. This is suggestive of the uncompromising and unyielding character ofthe eagle: it either stands or falls.Looking at the line from a different angle, the placing of the adverbial in the initial positionaccords the element a thematic status. We hesitate to call it a marked theme. However, one fe

536、elsthat it has some thematic prominence for it is unusual in length as compared with other elements.The adverbial in line three emphasizes the height of the place where the eagle locates. Theadverbial in the final line of the poem strongly expresses the powerful and awesome speed atwhich the eagle s

537、ets out to catch its prey. One can thus easily imagine the fate of the prey.Finally, it may be of some interest to point out that the verb falls may have a double meaningin the poem. It can either mean *to descend from a high altitude* or *to drop down dead*. Thus theplacing of the adverbial in the

538、initial position may also express the unexpectedness of the death ofthe poefs friend, Arthur Hallam in whose memory this poem is written.Finally, let us consider the cohesion of foregrounded features in a contemporary poem byRoger McGough.(3) 40- Love1. middle aged2. couple playing3. ten nis4. when

539、the5. game ends6. and they7. go home8. the net9. will still10. be be11. tween themIsin Bengi and Petek Kurtboke (1985) have produced a convincing interpretation of this poem.In our discussion of the poem below, we will make use of part of their analysis.The feature that immediately draws attention i

540、s the shape of the poem. Instead of arranging thewords of the poem into conventional lines and stanzas, the poet has arranged them into twocolumns with two words even being divided into two parts (ten-nis, be-tween). The arrangementof the words into columns in a symmetrical and balanced way produces

541、 a visual image of a tenniscourt where the two sides are physically separated by a net.Secondly, we may notice an unusual number of plosives being used in the poem. These existin the following words:middle /d/ (line 1)aged /d/ (line 1)91couple /p/ (line 2)playing /p/ (line 2)ten /t/ (line 3)game /g/

542、 (line 5)and /d/ (line 6)go /g/ (line 7)still /t/ (line 9)be /b/ (line 10)tween /t/ (line 11)The employment of so many plosives in this poem produces an onomatopoeic effect. Whenthe poem is read aloud, one may feel that one actually hears the sound of a tennis ball hitting theground and the rackets.

543、Another phonological overregularity found in the poem is the exact repetition of certainsounds.couple playing /pl/ (line 2)ten nis /n/ (line 3)go home /eu/ (line 7)will still /il/ (line 9)be be /b/ (line 10)The repetition of sounds in the poem seems to have a paradoxical function. On the one hand, i

544、tmay function to knit the text together and to give balance to the text. On the other, the exactrepetition may generate a sense of monotony.Thirdly, we may see that the title of the poem is ambiguous. It may be interpreted in at leasttwo ways. One interpretation is *love at 40 years of age*. Another

545、 interpretation is *the score ofthree points (called 40) to zero point (love) in a tennis game*. Here both interpretations arerelevant.Now, if we relate to one another the immediate interpretations of the individual foregroundedfeatures, we may arrive at a broad interpretation of the poem. This is a

546、 game played by a couple intheir 40s. It appears to be a serious and conscious game and both sides seem to know and arewilling to observe the rules of the game. However, the repetition of certain sounds shows themonotony of the game. There is no climax or thrilling surprise. In a word there does not

547、 seem tobe much fun in the game. This may be due to the fact that one side seems to be no match for theother, for he or she has scored nothing whereas the other sides score has reached the game point.Thus the game will soon be brought to an end. This could be the marriage situation of the couple.The

548、 net represents the barrier that prevents the couple from becoming truly intimate.In conclusion, we want to emphasize that all we have tried to show in this section is thatforegrounded features have cohesion and the discovery of the cohesion is important, if not crucial,to the interpretation of a li

549、terary work.Exercises1. Identify the cohesive devices in the passages below and discuss their stylistic effects:1) .a fourth imputed our defeat to the over-civility of our umpire, George Gosseltine, a sleek,smooth, silk, soft-spoken person, who stood with his little wand under his arm, smiling throu

550、gh allour disasters - the very image of peace and good humour; while their umpire, Bob Coxe, aroystering, roaring, bullying blade, bounced and hectored, and blustered from his wicket, with thevoice of a twelve pounder.(M. R. Mitford, Our Village)2) Lily, the caretakers daughter, was literally run of

551、f her feet. Hardly had she brought onegentleman into the little pantry behind the office on the ground floor and helped him off with hisovercoat, than the wheezy hall-door bell clanged again and she had to scamper along the barehallway to let in another guest. It was well for her she had not to atte

552、nd to the ladies also. But MissKate and Miss Julia had thought of that and had converted the bathroom upstairs into a ladiesdressing-room. Miss Kate and Miss Julia were there, gossiping and laughing and fussing, walkingafter each other to the head of the stairs, peering down over the banisters and c

553、alling down to Lilyto ask her who had come.(J. Joyce, The Dead)3) He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfiilly built, and he advanced straight atyou with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which madeyou think of a charging bull. His voice was deep

554、, loud, and his manner displayed a kind of doggedself-assertion which had nothing aggressive in it. It seemed a necessity, and it was directedapparently as much of himself as of anybody else. He was spotlessly neat, appareled inimmaculate white from shoes to hat, and in the various Eastern parts whe

555、re he got his living asship-chandlefs water-clerk he was very popular.(J. Conrad, Lord Jim)4) Somewhere far away an automobile starter nagged and failed, nagged and failed, fell still.Catharine came out from under her tree, knelt by Newt.“Newt?” she said.nHm?n he said. He opened his eyes.“Late,” she

556、 said.Hello, Catharine, he said.Hello, Newt, she said.M1 love you, he said.I know,* she said.Too late, he said.Too late,n she said.He stood, stretched groaningly. nA very nice walk, he said.HI thought so J she said.Part company here?n he said.93Where will you go?” she said.Hitch into town, turn myse

557、lf in,n he said.Good luck, she said.You, too J he said. nMarry me, Catharine?No, she said.He smiled, stared at her hard for a moment, then walked away quickly.(Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Long Walk to Forever)5) As he approached the office, he walked faster and faster, muttering, guess better hustle.All abo

558、ut him the city was hustling, for hustlings sake. Men in motors were hustling to pass oneanother in the hustling traffic. Men were hustling to catch trolleys, with another trolley a minutebehind, and to leap from the trolleys, to gallop across the sidewalk, to hurl themselves intobuildings, into hus

559、tling express elevators. Men in dairy lunches were hustling to gulp down thefood which cooks had hustled to fry. Men in barber shops were snapping, nJusr shave me onceover. Gotta hustle. Men were feverishly getting rid of visitors in offices adorned with the signs,This Is My Busy Day” and Lord Creat

560、ed the World in Six Days - You Can Spiel All You Got toSay in Six Minutes. Men who had made five thousand, year before last, and ten thousand lastyear, were urging on nerve-yelping bodies and parched brains so that they might make twentythousand this year, and the men who had broken down immediately

561、 after making their twentythousand dollars were hustling to catch trains, to hustle through vacations which the hustlingdoctors had ordered.Among them Babbitt hustled back to his office, to sit down with nothing much to do exceptsee that the staff looked as though they were hustling.(S. Lewis, Babbi

562、tt)2. Consider the cohesion of foregrounded features in An Irish Airman Foresees his Death insection 6.2.2 and Rainbow in exercise 4 of Chapter Three.3. Write an explication of the poem below, giving particular attention to how different types offoregrounded features cohere to express the central th

563、eme of the poem.A Red, Red RoseO, my luve is like a red, red rose,Thafs newly sprung in June.O, my luve is like the melodie,Thafs sweetly playd in tune.As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,So deep in luve am I,And I will luve thee still, my dear,Till the seas gang dry.Till a* the seas gang dry, my dear,

564、And the rocks melt wi the sun!And I will luve thee still, my dear,While the sands o* life shall run.And fare thee weel, my only luve!And fare thee weel, a while!And I will come again, my luve,Tho* it were ten thousand mile!(Robert Bums)4. Discuss the cohesion of the foregrounded features in the foll

565、owing poems:1) Song to the Men of EnglandMen of England, wherefore ploughFor the lords who lay ye low?Wherefore weave with toil and careThe rich robes your tyrants wear?Wherefore feed, and clothe, and save,From the cradle to the grave,Those ungrateful drones who wouldDrain your sweet - nay, drink yo

566、ur blood?Wherefore, Bees of England, forgeMany a weapon, chain, and scourge,That these stingless drones may spoilThe forced produce of your toil?Have ye leisure, comfort, calm,Shelter, food, loves gentle balm?Or what is it ye buy so dearWith your pain and with your fear?The seed ye sow, another reap

567、s;The wealth ye find, another keeps;The robes ye weave, another wears;The arms ye forge, another bears.Sow seed, - but let no tyrant reap;Find wealth, - let no impostor heap;Weave robes, - let not the idle wear;Forge arms, - in your defence to bear.Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells;In halls y

568、e deck another dwells,Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye seeThe steel ye tempered glance on ye.With plough and spade, and hoe and loom,Trace your grave, and build your tomb,And weave your winding-sheet, till fairEngland be your sepulchre.(P.B. Shelley)2) The Arrow and the SongI shot an arrow into t

569、he air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For, so swiftly it flew, the sightCould not follow it in its flight.I breathed a song into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For who has sight so keen and strong,That it can follow the flight of song?Long, long afterwards, in an oak,I found the arro

570、w, still unbroke;And the song, from beginning to the end,I found again in the heart of a friend.(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)Chapter 8 Speech Acts, The CooperativePrinciple and Turn-takingIn this chapter, we will briefly examine three research topics of discourse analysis and explorehow work on these

571、 topics helps analyze and interpret conversation in literature. These topics are:speech acts, the cooperative principle and turn-taking.Speech Act TheorySpeech act study was initiated by the linguistic philosopher, Austin (1962) and carried on bySearle (1969). These scholars view an utterance as an

572、act performed by a speaker in a context withrespect to an addressee. Performing a speech act involves performing a) a locutionary act, the actof producing a recognizable grammatical utterance in the language, and b) an illocutionary act, theattempt to accomplish some communicative purpose. Promising

573、, warning, infbnning,96commanding, and requesting are all distinct illocutionary acts. The greatest attention in speech actanalysis has focused on the illocutionary act and the term speech act is very frequently usedinterchangeably with illocutionary act (Wales, 1989). In the following therefore, we

574、 will take alook at the different types of illocutionary acts in English operationally classified by Traugott andPratt:(Representatives). Illocutionary acts that undertake to represent a state of affairs, e.g. stating,claiming, hypothesizing, describing, predicting, and telling, insisting, suggestin

575、g, or swearing thatsomething is the case.(Expressives). Illocutionary acts that express only the speakers psychological attitude towardsome state of affairs, e.g. congratulating, thanking, deploring, condoling, welcoming, greeting.(Verdictives). Illocutionary acts that deliver a finding as to value

576、or fact and thus that ratesome entity or situation on a scale, such as assessing, ranking, estimating, and all other judgmentalacts.(Directives). Illocutionary acts designed to get the addressee to do something, e.g. requesting,commanding, pleading, inviting, questioning, daring, and insisting or su

577、ggesting that someone dosomething.(Commissives). Illocutionary acts that commit the speaker to doing something, e.g. promising,threatening, vowing.(Declarations). Illocutionary acts that bring about the state of affairs they refer to, such as,blessing, firing, baptizing, bidding, passing sentence, a

578、rresting, marrying.(1980:229)A distinction is also made between direct and indirect speech acts. The former are thoseillocutionary acts that are nonnally marked by a performative verb, e.g.I congratulate you on your success.I promise Fil come.I hereby name this ship Queen Elizabeth.I hereby appoint

579、Mr. Collins executive director of the Leasing Company.Indirect speech act is the kind where the form of one may imply another. Consider thefollowing sentences:I want you to finish the work by Friday.Would you finish the work by Friday?Please finish the work by Friday.All the sentences can be used as

580、 a request, a type of directives. But the first is in the form of anassertion and the second is in the form of a question. Only the third sentence is in the form of arequest, for you could add the performative verb request” to the sentence: I request that youfinish the work by Friday.The accomplishm

581、ent of an illocutionaiy act depends on a set of conditions calledAppropriateness conditions or felicity conditions. These relate to how, when, where and bywhom speech acts are performed. Only when these conditions are fulfilled, can a speech act be97said to be appropriate. Take, for example, the act

582、 of questioning, the appropriateness conditionsinclude the following:1) The form of the locutionary act is one that is:a. conventionally associated with the illocutionary act of questioning (e.g. the presence of aquestion word like what, or auxiliary fronting as in will you? Or rising intonation)b.

583、of a degree of formality appropriate to the occasion (e.g. informal How old are you? versusformal What is your age?).2) The circumstances are such that:a. the question is adequately related to ongoing discourse if anyb. the question is appropriate in subject matter to the occasionc. it is not obviou

584、s that the addressee will give the answer at the time without being asked.3) The participants are such that:a. the speaker is entitled to speak at the timeb. the speaker is entitled to ask a question of this addresseec. the addressee is entitled to respond to this speaker at the timed. it is possibl

585、e that the addressee knows the answer to the questione. it is possible that the addressee is willing to give the answer at the time.4) The beliefs and attitudes of the speaker are such that:a. the speaker does not know the answerb. the speaker wants to know the answerc. the speaker believes the cond

586、itions in 2 and 3 are met.(Traugott and Pratt, 1980: 230-231)To see the relevance of speech act analysis to the interpretation of literary texts, let us firstexamine two short passages from a story by D. H. Lawrence.(1) Youll go and stop with Lucy for a bit, shant you? he asked.The girl did not answ

587、er.* 1 don*t see what else you can do,* persisted Fred Henry.Go as a skivvy,1 Joe interpolated laconically.The girl did not move a muscle.,If I was her, I should go in fbr training for a nurse/ said Malcolm, the youngest of them all.He was the baby of the family, a young man of twenty-two, with a fr

588、esh, jaunty museau.(2) Have you had a letter from Lucy? Fred Henry asked of his sister.*Last week,* came the neutral reply.And what does she say?There was no answer.,Does she ask you to go and stop there?* persisted Fred Henry.,She says I can if I like.,Well, then, youd better. Tell her you*! come o

589、n Monday/98This was received in silence.Thats what youll do then, is it?1 said Fred Henry, in some exasperation.But she made no answer. There was a silence of futility and irritation in the room. Malcolmgrinned fatuously.*Youll have to make up your mind between now and next Wednesday, said Joe loudl

590、y, *or elsefind yourself lodgings on the kerbstone.,The face of the young woman darkened, but she sat on immutable.(The Horse Dealers Daughter)In the first passage, the act of questioning completely failed, for the girl simply did not answerthe question put to her even though the questioner, who is

591、her brother, persisted. In the secondpassage, two of the four questions were not answered and the other two were responded to withlittle enthusiasm. In addition, the acts of commanding and warning were also unsuccessful. Tounderstand why the speech acts were not successful, we need to learn more abo

592、ut the story.The girl whose name is Mabel is the horse dealers daughter, the main character in the story.Her father had once been a fairly large horse dealer and the family had been well-off. But thingshad declined lately. Now her father was dead and there was nothing but debt and threatening.Mabel

593、and her brothers must leave their home.Mabel was strongly proud and reserved when there was money even though everything wasbrutal and coarse. She suffered badly during the period of poverty when she had to demean herselfby going into shops and buying the cheapest food. But nothing could shake the c

594、urious sullen,animal pride that dominated her and the other members of her family. She would always hold thekeys of her own situation. Now she felt it was enough that this was the end and there was no wayout. So, why should she think or answer anybody? She seemed ready to put an end to her life inor

595、der not to hurt her pride.Mabel had three brothers: Joe, Fred and Malcolm. They did not share the same life as Mabel,nor did they feel really concerned about her. They had talked at her and round her fbr years.Although they could not even control their own situations of life, the brothers, Fred Henr

596、y inparticular, showed a strong tendency to dominate Mabel.From the above information, we can see that the reason why the speech acts were notsuccessful was that the felicity conditions were unfulfilled. Mabel (the addressee) was simplyunwilling to answer her brothers* questions. And her brothers sh

597、ould have had the knowledge thatMabel might not be willing to answer their questions, but they did the asking nevertheless.To further demonstrate the use of speech act theory fbr the interpretation of literary texts, letus consider the following passage from Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice. The pas

598、sage wasexamined in Leech and Short (1981) and our discussion of it will be more direct and brief.(3) *0 Mr Bennet, you are wanted immediately; we are all in an uproar. You must come andmake Lizzy marry Mr Collins, for she vows she will not have him, and if you do not make hastehe will change his mi

599、nd and not have her.,* 1 have not the pleasure of understanding you,* said he, when she had finished her speech. *0fwhat are you talking?1Of Mr Collins and Lizzy. Lizzy declares she will not have Mr Collins, and Mr Collins beginsto say that he will not have Lizzy.And what am I to do on the occasion?

600、 It seems a hopeless business.199*Speak to Lizzy about it yourself. Tell her that you insist upon her marrying him.,Mr Bennet ran the bell, and Miss Elizabeth was summoned to the library.,Come here, child,* cried her father as she appeared. * 1 have sent for you on an affair ofimportance. I understa

601、nd that Mr Collins has made you an offer of marriage. Is it true?Elizabeth replied that it was. Very well - and this offer of marriage you have refused?* 1 have, sir/Very well. We come to the point. Your mother insists upon your accepting it. Is it not so MrsBennet?1Yes, or I will never see her agai

602、n/An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to oneof your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr Collins, and I willnever see you again if you do.,In this passage, Mrs Bennet has perfbnned twice the act of ordering Mr Bennet t

603、o make Lizzymarry Mr Collins (You must come and make Lizzy marry Mr Collins. Speak to Lizzy about ityourself. Tell her that you insist upon her marrying him.). Mr Bennet at first appears to follow hiswifes order by summoning Elizabeth to the library and making inquiries about the matter, yet inthe e

604、nd he quite unexpectedly displays his objection to his wifes idea. His mischievous humormakes the novel very interesting to read.One may indeed have sympathy for Mrs Bennet and be critical of Mr Bennet for his disrespectto his wife. However, if we examine the felicity conditions of the speech act of

605、 ordering, it is notdifficult to understand Mr Bennefs behavior. For an order to be successfully carried out, at leasttwo important conditions must be fulfilled:1) The speaker is in a position to order. (A soldier cannot order a general).2) What is demanded must be feasible (You cannot order a soldi

606、er to shoot down an areoplanewith a pistol).In our case, neither condition is fulfilled. For in Austens time, it was not a social practice thata wife orders her husband and a father can force his daughter to marry against her will. There issimply something inappropriate about Mrs Bennets bidding her

607、 husband to order Elizabeth tomarry.Leech and Short (1981) point out that the felicity conditions for speech acts may change fromone society or time to another. Twenty years ago it would have been unreasonable to requeststudents to type their term paper. In contrast, there have, at least until recen

608、tly, been societies orparts of societies where it was thought reasonable for fathers to order their daughters to marry. Toappreciate the force of Mr and Mrs Bennefs remarks, we have to adjust to the norms of their ageand culture.The Cooperative PrincipleGrice (1975) suggests that when people convers

609、e with one another, they acknowledge a kind oftacit agreement to cooperate conversationally towards mutual ends. This agreement he calls thecooperative principle. When one follows this principle, one communicates according to various100rules which Grice calls maxims”. For example, one must tell the

610、truth and one must make one*spoint clearly. Grice has put forward four conversational maxims:1) The maxim of quantityMake your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of theexchange). Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.2) The maxim of quality

611、Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence or which you believe to be false.3) The maxim of relationMake your contributions relevant to the purpose in hand.4) The maxim of mannerAvoid obscurity, ambiguity and unnecessary prolixity, and be orderly.The important point about these maxims is t

612、hat people often violate them. People may violatethem covertly. For example, you perfbnned badly on the final exam and your parents asked howwell you did it and you do not want them to know the truth fbr fear they get upset. So you tellthem you did it pretty well, thus breaking the maxim of quality.

613、 It is possible that you get awaywith such a violation. But it is equally possible that your parents spot your uneasiness or hesitationsince most of us are not good at lying. When this is the case, they can infer that you are probablynot telling the truth.Maxims may also be violated overtly so that

614、all the participants in the conversation are awareof the violations. When this happens, the listener perceives the difference between what thespeaker says and what he means by what he says. The particular meaning deduced is referred to asconversational implicature. Consider the following examples.1)

615、 (A and B are just coming out of the lecture-room.)A: What did you think of the lecture?B: Well, the professor spoke good English.2) (A comes into a room where B is sitting, reading a book.)A: What are you doing?B: Reading.In 1), Bs reply is not maximally relevant to As question for that a lecturer

616、speaks goodEnglish is not an important quality we look fbr in a lecture. A can only conclude that B is sayingin an indirect way that he did not think much of the lecture. More relevant replies include:Its very instructive (simply wonderfiil/very good/excellent.).I (really) enjoyed (loved) it.Its lou

617、sy (boring/disappointing/dry.).It wasn*t as exciting (interesting.) as I thought it would be.The relation maxim is probably the maxim that is violated most commonly in order to produceimplicatures. This is perhaps what led some linguists (e.g. Sperber and Wilson, 1986) to believethat this maxim subs

618、umes all of Grice*s maxims and to raise the maxim, therefore, to a generalPrinciple of Relevance.101In 2), the maxim of quantity is violated because it is so obvious that B is reading. With such areply, it is very likely that A will infer that B is probably not interested in having a conversationwit

619、h him/her and wishes to be left alone.Violations of the maxims are frequently found in literary texts. These are intended to portraycharacters and their relationships and to indicate the relation between the reader and the author. Ininterpreting literary texts, it is important to analyze these viola

620、tions. Let us look at a few passageswhich contain excellent examples of maxim violations.(4) Where have you been?* Macomber asked in the darkness.Hello, she said. nAre you awake?”Where have you been?”I just went out to get a breath of air.”You did, like hell.nWhat do you want me to say, darling?*Whe

621、re have you been?”Out to get a breath of air.0Thafs a new name for it. You are a bitch.”Well, you*re a coward.nAll right/ he said. What of it?”Nothing as far as Im concerned. But please lefs not talk, darling, because Im very sleepy.*You think that Til take anything.nI know you will, sweet.nWell, I

622、w ont”Please, darling, lefs not talk. Tm so very sleepy.”There wasnt going to be any of that. You promised there wouldnt be.Well, there is now, she said sweetly.You said if we made this trip that there would be none of that. You promised.nYes, darling. Thafs the way I meant it to be. But the trip wa

623、s spoiled yesterday. We don*thave to talk about it, do we?nYou don*t wait long when you have an advantage, do you?”Please lefs not talk. Pm so sleepy, darling.Pm going to talk.“Dont mind me then, because Pm going to sleep. And she did.(Hemingway, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber)(5) Mine is

624、a long and sad tale!* said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.HIt is a long tail, certainly/1 said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouses tail, butwhy do you call it sad?”.(Lewis Carroll, Alices Adventures in Wonderland)(6) Romeo: Farewell, farewell! One kiss, and 1 * 1 1 descend.Juliet

625、: Art thou gone so, love, lord, ay, husband, friend?I must hear from thee every day in the hour,For in a minute there are many days.O, by this count I shall be much in years102Ere I again behold my Romeo!(Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)Extract (4) is taken from a very interesting story entitled The S

626、hort Happy Life of FrancisMacomber. It is about an American couple, the Macombers, who were on a safari in Kenya. Theyhad long given the impression of a glamorous and comparatively happy marriage. But the basis fbrtheir marriage is that nMargot was too beautiful fbr Macomber to divorce her and Macom

627、ber hadtoo much money fbr Margot ever to leave him. One day when they were out hunting, Macomberran from a wounded lion that he had shot badly. Margot felt disgusted at his cowardice and gaveherself that night to the professional hunter and guide, Robert Wilson. The conversation in Extract(4) took p

628、lace when Margot returned from Wilsons tent.Macomber had been awake and guessed that Margot must have come back from Wilsons tentand so he questioned her directly about where she had been. Margot did not reply. Instead shegreeted him and asked him a question, thus breaking the maxim of relation. She

629、 avoidedanswering Macombefs question, because the question was a difficult one fbr her. It was difficultin that even though she found him repugnant, she did not want Macomber to know that she hadactually slept with Wilson. But Macomber felt he had somehow gained an advantage and pressedher with the

630、same question. This time she told a lie (and she had to) and therefore broke anothermaxim - the maxim of quality. The violation was covert, but Macomber apparently knew theanswer to the question and was, thus, not satisfied at all with her answer. He now mocked at her.When he asked her the question

631、the third time, she stuck to the same answer and thus breaking thequality maxim again. Maybe Margot felt guilty, maybe she was really sleepy, maybe she was verymuch disappointed with him. Whatever the reason, she just did not want to talk or quarrel withMacomber. She repeatedly asked him not to talk

632、 and told him that she was very sleepy. ButMacomber did not comply with her request and thereby also broke the maxim of relation. Thus, itis not surprising that in the end Margot simply stopped talking and fell asleep.Extract (5) contains an interesting case of maxim violation. As can been noted, th

633、e violation ofthe relation maxim is not deliberate: Alice is unaware of the violation. In fact, the story is full ofunintentional violations of the relation maxim, which are made possible by the writersexploitation of homophony and homonymy. It is this very feature that makes the story humorousto re

634、ad both fbr children and adults.In (6), Juliet breaks both the maxim of quantity and the maxim of quality. She breaks themaxim of quantity by uttering at one stretch four different vocatives (love, lord, husband, friend)to address one and the same individual. In everyday communicative situations, on

635、ly one of them isadequate. But the surface redundancy here does convey a meaning which cannot be expressedwith only one form of address. This unique use of language indicates that in Juliets eyes Romeofulfills all the four roles designated by the four different vocatives.Juliet breaks the maxim of q

636、uality when she says nfor in a minute there are many days.Literally, what she says cannot be true. However, the overstatement, which is also a paradox,successfully expresses what life will be like fbr her when Romeo is away: the days will be ahundred times longer and waiting to hear from Romeo or to

637、 see him is too much of a torture. Itshows that Juliet is strongly in love with Romeo. At this juncture, it should be pointed out that aChinese proverb which originates from Shijizhuan ( 诗集传 ) (Vol. 4, p. 46) applies to the case103here. It goes: a day away from a dear one seems as long as three year

638、s. This shows that people ofdifferent races and different cultural traditions share some basic feelings and emotions.Turn-takingTurn-taking is a topic extensively studied by scholars such as Sacks and Schegloff. The work inthis area (e.g. Sacks et al., 1974) is found to be extremely useful for analy

639、zing everydayconversations as well as conversation in literature.It is observed that an important feature of conversation is that the speaker and the listenerconstantly change their roles, i.e. the speaker becomes the listener and the listener becomes thespeaker. In other words, the participants in

640、a conversation take turns in speaking. But how doesone participant know when the current speaker is finishing, so that he or she can take a turn? Well,he or she can learn this through the indications given by the current speaker. The current speakercan indicate explicitly by inviting a response, e.g

641、.What do you think of it, John?John may have better ideas.Can any of you tell me how to cope with that?The speaker can also indicate implicitly by such means as body language or intonation, e.g. thetermination of any hand gesticulation. The listener, alternatively, can read the signals from theflow

642、of speech which suggests that an opening is possible. These signals include clause-break,pause, etc.Most conversations proceed in an orderly way, by a series of interactional moves, with eachparticipant having a turn to speak. However, in some types of conversation, such as an emotionalone, the list

643、ener may interrupt the speaker. In formalized discourses, such as debates andconference sessions, only the chairperson has the authority to initiate changes of speakers. In otherwords, the chairperson controls the turns of speaking.Sacks finds that a conversation is a string of at least two turns. S

644、ome turns are more closelyrelated than others and he singles out a class of sequences of turns which he calls adjacency pairs.Each of these pairs are two utterances long and are produced by different speakers. The firstutterance known as the first pair part is typically followed by the second uttera

645、nce which is termedsecond pair part. For example, a greeting is typically followed by a greeting and a question by ananswer. However, sometimes an adjacency pair may be separated by another adjacency pair, e.g.A: May I join your club?B: Are you a senior?A: No.B:No.Here the answer to the first questi

646、on is suspended until a condition is satisfied.It is observed that fbr some adjacency pairs there can be several second parts to the first partand these are different in status. Among them, at least one is preferred and one is dispreferred. For104example, acceptance to an invitation is preferred and

647、 decline to it is dispreferred. The preferredsecond part is unmarked and is less complex in structure. Compare 1) with 2) below.1) A: Why don*t you come for dinner tonight?B: Id love to.2) A: Why dont you come fbr dinner tonight?B: Sorry. Would love to, but Ive got work to do.Another class of sequen

648、ces of turns found in conversation has a three-part structure. Forexample, in classrooms, the typical pattern is: the teacher asks a question, a student responds, andthe teacher evaluates the response. For another example, a complaint is usually followed by anapology and the apology can then be foll

649、owed by a statement of forgiveness.Short (1996) points out that turn-taking patterns and deviations from relevant turn-takingnorms can become easily meaningful in texts. He also points out that npattems of turn-taking haveclear general connections with conversational power (1996: 206). He believes t

650、hat nall otherthings being equal, powerful speakers in conversation have the most turns, have the longest turns,initiate conversational exchanges, controls what is talked about, who talks when, and interruptothers” (206207). For easy reference, he provides the following table:Powerfiil PowerlessSpea

651、kers SpeakersWho has most turns? XWho has the least? XWho has the longest turns? XWho has the shortest? XWho initiates conversational exchanges? XWho responds? XWho controls the conversation topic? XWho follows the topic of others? XWho interrupts? XWho is interrupted? XWho uses terms of address not

652、 markedfor respect (e.g. first name only)? XWho uses terms of address markedfbr respect (e.g. title + last name)? XWho allocates turns to others? X(Short, 1996: 206)Let us now move to examine how the foregoing discussion of turn-taking may help elucidatethe following passage from Shaw*s Major Barbar

653、a.(7) (Context: Lady Britomart, a woman of about fifty, is writing at her writing desk in a rathergrand room. Her son, Stephen, a young man, comes in.)105Stephen: Whats the matter?Lady B: Presently, Stephen.(Stephen walks submissively to the settee and sits down. He takes up a Liberal weekly calledT

654、he Speaker.)Lady B: Don*t begin to read, Stephen. I shall require all your attention.Stephen: It was only when I was waiting-Lady B: Dont make excuses, Stephen. (He puts down The Speaker.) Now! (She finishes herwriting; rises and comes to the settee.) I have not kept you waiting very long, I think.S

655、tephen: Not at all, mother.Lady B: Bring me my cushion. (He takes the cushion from the chair at the desk and arranges itfor her as she sits down on the settee.) Sit down. (He sits down and fingers his tie nervously.)Dont fiddle with your tie, Stephen: there is nothing the matter with it.Stephen: 1 b

656、eg your pardon. (He fiddles with his watch chain instead.)Lady B: Now are you attending to me, Stephen?Stephen: Of course, mother.Lady B: No: it*s not of course. I want something much more than your everydaymatter-of-course attention. I am going to speak to you very seriously, Stephen. I wish you wo

657、uldlet that watch chain alone.Stephen: (Hastily relinquishing the chain.) Have I done anything to annoy you, mother? If so,it was quite unintentional.Lady B: (astonished) Nonsense! (With some remorse.) My poor boy, did you think I wasangry with you?Stephen: What is it then, mother? You are making me

658、 very uneasy.Lady B: (squaring herself at him rather aggressively) Stephen: may I ask how soon you intendto realize that you are a grown-up man, and that I am only a woman?Stephen: (amazed) Only a-Lady B: Don*t repeat my words, please: it is a most aggravating habit. You must learn to facelife serio

659、usly, Stephen. I really cannot bear the whole burden of our family affairs any longer. Youmust advise me: you must assume the responsibility.Stephen: I!Lady B: Yes, you, of course. You were 24 last June. You*ve been at Harrow and Cambridge.You*ve been to India and Japan. You must know a lot of thing

660、s, now; unless you have wasted yourtime most scandalously. Well, advise me.(Shaw, Major Barbara: 51 53)Since there are only two characters talking in this play, the number of turns are more or lessequal. But as can be noticed, Lady Britomart strongly dominates the conversation in terms of thelength

661、of turns. There are altogether 38 sentences in this passage and of these she speaks 27 whileher son, Stephen, produces only 11, In terms of number of words, Lady Britomart produces 205out of a total of 254, about four times as many as those spoken by Stephen. Fromthe first sentence of the passage, w

662、e understand that Stephen has been summoned to the roomby her mother and therefore Lady Britomart is the one who has initiated the conversation. Besides,she not only controls what is talked about, but also how her son should listen to her. Furthennore,she twice interrupts Stephen abruptly. All these

663、 features show that in the mother-son relationship,106Lady Britomart is the one who dominates and Stephen is the one who is dominated.This interpretation is supported by the types of speech acts employed by the two characters inthe passage. Many of Lady Britomarfs utterances are commands or statemen

664、ts which has theillocutionary force of commanding. Take for example the four imperatives beginning with“Dont”.Dont begin to read, Stephen.Dont make excuses, Stephen.Dont fiddle with your tie, Stephen.Don*t repeat my words, please.Each of these commands prohibits Stephen from doing something. Other u

665、tterances whichfunction as commands include:You must learn to face life seriously, Stephen.You must advise me.You must assume the responsibility.I wish you would let that watch chain alone.I want something much more than your everyday matter-of-course attention.I shall require all your attention.It

666、may be noticed that most of the above-cited utterances express or imply criticism of Stephen.In fact, there are still other utterances by Lady Britomart that are direct criticism of him. Forexample:Now are you attending to me Stephen!No: its not of course.Nonsense!Stephen: may I ask how soon you int

667、end to realize that you are a grown-up man, and that I amonly a woman?It is a most aggravating habit.The above analysis shows that Lady Britomart is a domineering and aggressive person. Incontrast, Stephen is shown to be submissive and nervous. His utterances consist mostly of genuinequestions, sinc

668、ere apologies and humble explanations. If we are careful when examining thepassage, we may observe that Lady Britomart is criticizing her son mostly on trivial matters. Thisshows that she is also very exacting with her son. Thus, it is not unreasonable to assume that thiscould partly be the reason w

669、hy Stephen is not yet ready to assume the responsibility.ExercisesI. Analyze the style of the following extract, paying particular attention to the use of speechacts.107(On a summer evening, a birthday celebration is going on at Dr. Stocktons. Among thosepresent are his neighbors: the Hendersons, th

670、e Weisss and the Harlowes. In the midst of it comesunexpectedly over the radio the announcement of the President of the United States declaring astate of emergency for suspected enemy missiles approaching. The party breaks up and theneighbors hurry home.However, shortly afterwards they returned one

671、after another to the Stockton house for thesimple reason that they want to survive - want to share with the Stocktons the bomb shelter whichis the only one on their street.They asked Stockton to let them in, but Stockton refused on the ground that the shelter wasdesigned for three people. The neighb

672、ors wouldnt give up.)Henderson: Bill? Bill Stockton? Youve got a bunch of your neighbors out here who want tostay alive. Now you can open the door and talk to us and figure out with us how many can come inthere. Or else you can just keep doing what youre doing - and well fight our way in there.(Harl

673、owe appears and pushes his way through the group and goes over to the shelter door.)Harlowe: Bill. This is Jerry. They mean business out here.Stocktons Voice: And I mean business in here. Pve already told you, Jerry. Youre wastingyour time. Youre wasting precious time that could be used for somethin

674、g else . like figuring outhow you can survive.Man #1: Why dont we get a big, heavy log to break the door down?Henderson: We could go over to Bennet Avenue. Phil Kline has some giant logs in hisbasement. Fve seen them. Let*s get one. And we*ll just tell Kline to keep his mouth shut as to whywe want i

675、t.Weiss: Lets get hold of ourselves. Lefs stop and think fbr a minute-Henderson: (Turning to face Weiss.) Nobody cares what you think. You and your kind. Ithought I made that clear upstairs. I think the first order of business is to get you out of here.(With this he strikes out, smashing his fist in

676、to Weisss face in a blow so unexpected and sowild that Weiss, totally unprepared, is knocked against the wall.)2. Discuss the maxim violation in the following extract and point out its implicature.Portia: You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand,Such as I am: though fbr myself aloneI would not be am

677、bitious in my wish,To wish myself much better; yet, fbr youI would be tribbled twenty times myself;A thousand times more fair, ten thousand timesMore rich;.(Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice)3. Analyze the following conversation based on your knowledge of turn-taking analysis,especially the table

678、provided by Short.Am I to take it that theres man among you that has committed some act that he has neveradmitted?* She reached in the basket for the log book. *Must we go over past history?,108That triggered something, some acoustic device in the walls, rigged to turn on at just the soundof those w

679、ords coming from her mouth. The Acutes stiffened. Their mouths opened in unison. Hersweeping eyes stopped on the first man along the wall.His mouth worked. * 1 robbed a cash register in a service station.,She moved to the next man.* 1 tried to take my little sister to bed.Her eyes clicked to the nex

680、t man; each one jumped like a shooting-gallery target.T - one time - wanted to take my brother to bed.(K. Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest)Chapter 9 Implications of Stylistics forTeaching English LiteratureOur task in this chapter is to explore the implications of stylistics fbr teaching Englis

681、h literature toadvanced Chinese EFL students. Stylisticians abroad, especially in Britain, have enthusiasticallystarted to apply stylistics to the teaching of English literature to both home and foreign students.The works based on their teaching experience of such scholars as H. G. Widdowson, A. Rod

682、gerand R. Carter are indeed invaluable and insightful. Much of what is said in this chapter resultsfrom the inspiration received from reading these works.To examine the implications of a particular theory fbr teaching, it makes sense to first find outas much as possible about the target students.Bri

683、ef Description of StudentsAccording to the most recent National Syllabus fbr University English Majors (NationalAdvisory Board on University Foreign Language Teaching, 2000), there are two required Englishliterature courses: British Literature1 1 and American Literature*. These are one-year courses

684、anddesigned to be taught to the third-year and fourth-year students. The students are mostly overtwenty years of age, and are therefore physically and emotionally mature. When they graduate,most of them will work as Foreign Language Workers - an umbrella term fbr foreign languageteachers, translator

685、s, interpreters and researchers. Some may go on to postgraduate studies. As weknow, most of these professions ask fbr a basic literary competence.Our students are usually highly motivated to study, though a small number of them are lessmotivated fbr one reason or another. Nevertheless, even the less

686、 motivated students are ofteninterested in English literature fbr the pleasure it provides and out of love and respect fbr greatliterature in general. The English literature that the students have encountered by the third year oftheir study consists mostly of simplified or abridged short stories, no

687、vels and some short poems.Their reading is oriented to language study, not to thematic message. Students may have, however,read a fair amount of Chinese literature and the translated versions of some English literary works.As far as the students* English language proficiency is concerned, it is assu

688、med that they havemoved into the advanced stage of learning. In the first two years of their college work, according109to the new national syllabus, they should have acquired a good mastery of basic Englishpronunciation and intonation and the essentials of English grammar. They should have covered5,

689、500 6,500 English words and be able to fluently and appropriately use 3,000 4,000 ofthem and their collocations. In short, they should have acquired a good grammatical competenceand even a fairly good communicative competence.With the above-mentioned characteristics of the target students in mind, w

690、e are now in a betterposition to start to explore the implications of stylistics which affect all aspects of literatureteaching. In this chapter, we will be able to discuss only two aspects, namely, defining the aims ofteaching literature and devising classroom literary exercises.Implications of Sty

691、listics for Defining the Aims ofTeaching LiteratureIt is of paramount importance for the teacher to have a clear idea of the aims of the course he orshe is teaching. It is even more important, however; for the aims to be defined appropriately onthe basis of theory and practice. The failure to do so

692、will necessarily lead to the failure of thecourse.How might we define the aims of teaching English literature in the light of the theory andmethods of stylistics? As discussed in Chapter One, an important assumption of a stylisticapproach is that literature is made of language. The medium of the lit

693、erary writer is very differentfrom the medium of the sculptor or painter. It is already meaningfully structured andsystematized. As the most complex mode of human communication, language already has its ownbuilt-in rules and conventions. This the literary writer may exploit and arrange in unusual wa

694、ys tocreate a fictional world independent of any concrete situation. But the meaning of a piece ofwork unquestionably depends on the norms of that language even where it most deviates fromthem. Thus, the facts of a literary text are linguistic facts. Everything else in a work is onlyinference from t

695、hese facts. In conventional discourse, concrete situations are given; weunderstand the text or conversation partly because we know what to expect in those situations.In Widdowsons (1983) words, we count on schematic knowledge. For example, if we listen tothe weatherman on a summers day in Beijing, w

696、e will not be surprised to hear that there will berain or a storm. But we will be surprised to hear of a heavy snow coming up. In literature,however, there are no established conventional schemata of this sort. Literature is contextuallydislocated. The context of situation in literature is only crea

697、ted from the clues supplied by thelanguage of the text. Therefore, our understanding of a piece of literary work relies heavily on ahighly developed awareness of the workings of language in everyday communicative situations aswell as in literary discourse.Based on this analysis, we may now suggest t

698、hat what is of primary concern for a literarycourse is the development of a keen awareness in the student of how language works in literarydiscourse. Widdowson has made the point explicitly, literature as a subject has as its principalaim the development of the capacity for individual response to la

699、nguage use (1975: 76).The adoption of the above aim as the primary goal of a literary course would mean that theteacher should focus the students attention mainly on the intrinsic facts of a text as opposed toextrinsic facts such as those about the lives and opinions of authors, about sources and in

700、fluence,110about genres, fashions, schools and movements. The teacher must realize that these extrinsicfacts are only secondary to the intrinsic facts.The adoption of such a primary aim would also mean that the chief criterion for selecting theteaching content should be different from that of a know

701、ledge-oriented course. It should not bethe classic status of the texts, but has to do with whether the work can be used to developsensitivity to language in the most effective way (Widdowson, 1975: 85). A selection madechiefly according to this criterion may not contain as many classics as was usual

702、ly the case, but isnevertheless suitable for preparing the way for a meaningful and enjoyable reading of them at afuture date.The adoption of such an aim does not mean the rejection of other teaching aims such as theacquisition of literary knowledge, the learning of cultural facts and the cultivatio

703、n of morality.But it should be realized that these aims cannot be achieved if the student is unable tounderstand the language of the texts. Putting it in another way, the realization of the primary aimcan facilitate the attainment of other aims.Implications of Stylistics for Devising Classroom Liter

704、aryExercisesWe briefly discussed the implications of stylistics for defining aims of teaching literature in thepreceding section. In this section we will explore the implications of stylistics fbr devising literaryexercises for classroom use.We made the point in Section 1.5 that to ascertain the sty

705、le or uniqueness of a text naturallyinvolves comparisons of language of the text with that used in conventional types of discourse andconcluded that stylistic analysis is an activity which is highly comparative in nature. In Section 1.3,we examined the assumption that literature is made of language.

706、 In the preceding section, wefurther pointed out that the facts of a literary text are linguistic facts and everything else in it isonly inference from these. The understanding of a literary text thus relies heavily on a highlydeveloped awareness of the workings of language in everyday communicative

707、 situations as well asin literary discourse. The points we made in these sections have many implications fbr devisingclassroom literary exercises. What we said chiefly implies that the exercises we devise fbr ourstudents should be in some way comparative and should help the students make sense of li

708、terarydiscourse through utilizing the clues supplied by the language of the text.One type of literary exercise that Widdowson advocates is the setting of examples of literarydiscourse alongside examples of conventional discourse in order to demonstrate the differences inthe way the language system i

709、s realized fbr communicative purposes (1975). For example, fbrteaching Tennysons poem The Eagle, we may select from an encyclopaedia the description of theeagle and then present it to the students together with the poem.The EagleHe clasps the crags with crooked hands,Close to the sun in lonely lands

710、,Ringd with the azure world, he stands.I l lThe wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt he falls.eagle (e*gel), the popular name fbr any of several large birds of prey that belong to the hawkfamily. Eagles are found throughout much of the world. Some

711、 live in open mountainous areas,others inhabit forests, and still others live near the sea.Most eagles range in length from 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 meters), and their broad wings mayspan more than 6 feet (1.8 meters). Like most of the hawks, the female eagle is slightly larger thanthe male. All eagl

712、es have a heavy, sharply hooked bill and strong sharp claws, called talons, whichthey use to seize and kill prey. The eagles plumage is usually brown, gray, or black, and it issometimes marked with white.Eagles hunt in the daytime. They have very sharp sight, and some eagles can spot a runningrabbit

713、 at a distance of 3 miles (4.8 km). Several species of eagles prey on small game birds oranimals, others eat fish, and some eat reptiles. One species, the monkey-eating eagle(Pithecophaga jefferyi), feeds almost exclusively on monkeys. The monkey-eating eagle is anative of the Philippines.The eagles

714、 nest, called an aerie, is usually built in an inaccessible place, such as a high treetopor rocky cliff ledge. The nest is a large, bulky structure, made of sticks and often lined with fernsand grass. Many eagles return to the same nest every year, repairing it and adding sticks beforethey lay their

715、 eggs. One of the largest known aeries was 20 feet (6 meters) deep and 9.5 feet (2.9meters) across the top. It consisted of 2 tons of sticks and had been used fbr 36 years.Eagles lay one to four white eggs, which may be speckled with brown. The male rarelyincubates the eggs, but both parents care fb

716、r the young until they are able to fly, usually about 11weeks after hatching.(Merit Student Encyclopedia, Vol. 6, p. 146, Macmillan, 1979)Using the above-listed type of exercise implies that we should not ask students questions of afactual kind such as, *Where does the eagle stand?1 or How does the

717、eagle fall?. Instead, weshould ask the kind of questions that direct students* attention to how the language of the textbeing discussed functions to produce its unique literary message. Thus, fbr the set of texts on theeagle the following questions might be asked.1) In Tennysons poem, eagle is modif

718、ied by the definite article the, whereas in theencyclopedic version it is either in its plural form they or modified by the. How do you accountfbr this? Can you perceive the multiple meanings in the title of the poem?2) In Tennyson*s poem, the masculine third-person pronoun he stands fbr the eagle,

719、while inthe encyclopedic version, the pronouns used are it and they. What special effect does Tennysonsuse of he fbr the eagle create in the poem?3) In line one of Tennysons poem, there is a recurrence of plosives, e.g. /t/, /k/ and /g/. Whateffects do they produce?1124) The closing line of the firs

720、t stanza and that of the last stanza structurally run parallel to eachother. How do we interpret this?This type of exercise is both interesting and helpful, and may be used as the major type ofexercise in the classroom. It is also relatively easy to devise for there is a great variety ofnon-literary

721、 texts to choose from. However, there are other types of exercises which are useful andcan be employed by the classroom teacher. In what follows, we will briefly introduce four ofthem.1) Original text - Translation texte gOriginal text:Four OrdersI am a trembling leafI am a withered armI am a sunken

722、 reefI am a trampled worm.Leaf, be the caterpillars joyArm, enfold the new-born boyReeg flower into a coral isleWorm, fertilize the soil.(Ronald Bottral)Translation text:四条法规我是一片瑟瑟发抖的树叶我是一只枯干衰老的胳膊我是一块沉入大海的礁石我是一条被践踏过的虫子。树叶,胳膊,礁石,虫子,去做毛虫的美餐扶抱新生的婴男变成一座珊瑚岛快做大地的肥料。This type of exercise is very effective

723、in that it can help students to see how putting literarydiscourse into another code may alter or lose part of its original meaning. It thus enables studentsto appreciate the artistic value of the language of literature. The word order in the title of the poemfor example is ambiguous. It may be inter

724、preted in at least three ways: a) the condition in whichlaws and rules of nature are obeyed, b) a command or direction given by nature, c) the form ofsentence which is commonly known as imperative. However, once it has undergone translation,only the first layer of meaning remains. Under such a circu

725、mstance, the teacher should perhaps113inform the students that in translating literary works one should first achieve a good understandingof the original text and then try to find the expressions and structures that best keep the meaning ofthe original text.2) Authentic text - Pseudo-texte gAuthenti

726、c text:Thunder and LightningBlood punches through every veinAs lightning strips the windowpane,Under its flashing whip, a whiteVillage leaps to light.On tubs of thunder, fists of rainSlog it out of sight again.Blood punches the heart with frightAs the rain belts the village night.(James Kircup)Pseud

727、o-text:The TempestWhen lightning lit my windowpanes,My blood flowed fast through all my veins.Underneath its flash so bright,The white-washed village came to light.While thunder rumbled, showers of rainConcealed it from my sight again.My blood filled all my heart with fright,When rain poured down on

728、 us that night.(A. Rodger)This type of exercise is also a very interesting and useful exercise. The idea is again to showhow the pseudo-text may lose or distort much of the poetic meaning of the authentic text.The example of this type of exercise listed above is designed by Alex Rodger. It may be do

729、neby engaging the students in comparing the texts in several aspects. For example, we may guide thestudents to compare the tenses used in the two poems. Kircup in his poem has used the presenttense, whereas Rodger has used the past tense. Stylistically, the present tense usually has thefunction of b

730、ringing immediacy to a text and may make the reader feel that what is described isactually happening before his eyes. The past tense on the other hand may produce a sense ofdetachment.The second aspect that may be compared is the choice of verbs. The verbs used in Kircupspoem require the head word i

731、n the subject noun phrase to have the semantic feature /+animate/.114However, those head words do not possess this feature and cannot normally perform the actionsdesignated by the verbs. We made the point in Chapter Seven that a careful examination of theseverbs reveals that there is cohesion among

732、them. All these verbs except leaps denote punitiveviolent actions of human beings. The attribution of this quality to natural phenomena such as rainand lightning suggests that nature has a terrifying power and is able to punish the human world.However, there is nothing unusual about the uses of verb

733、s in Rodgers text. Thus, theimmediacy and the powerful and frightful image created of nature are totally lost.The teacher may also draw students* attention to the fact that there is a recurrence of the firstperson possessive pronoun my in the pseudo-text whereas this pronoun is absent in Kircup*s po

734、em.The repeated use of my seems to be redundant and may thus make the text unpoetic. Moresignificantly, the repeated occurrence of this pronoun may give an impression that this textdescribes a personal experience of the speaker I . This together with the use of the past tensemay create a strong spat

735、ial and temporal detachment.3) Topic-related textse gText One:The Monuments of HiroshimaThe roughly estimated ones, who do not sort well with our common phrases,Who are by no means eating roots of dandelion, or pushing up the daisies.The more or less anonymous, to whom no human idiom can applyWho ne

736、ither passed away, or on, nor went before, nor vanished on a sigh.Little of peace for them to rest in, less of them to rest in peace,Dust to dust a swift transition, ashes to ash with awful ease.Their only monument will be of others* casting-A Tower of Peace, a Hall of Peace, a Bridge of Peace-who m

737、ight have wished for something lasting,Like a wooden box.(D. J. Enright)Text Two:HiroshimaNoon, and hazy heat;A single silver sliver and a dull drone;The gloved finger poised, pressed,A seconds silence, andOblivion.(Anonymous)The aim of this exercise is to demonstrate how the writers may exploit sim

738、ilar or differentlinguistic devices to express the same topic. What the above two texts have in common is that115there are hardly any finite verbs in them. This phenomenon here functions to produce a mood ofEnaction. It greatly reinforces the powerful impact of a single atom bomb depicted in both po

739、ems.However, the writers have also employed different linguistic devices. In Text One, Enright hasused several idioms such as sort well with, pushing up the daisies, etc. These create a cynical tone,showing that the writer is very much against the use of nuclear weapons. The second poem hasexploited

740、 some phonological features such as semi-alliteration. In line two there are two groups ofsemi-alliteration which form a contrast in meaning: the plane is minute, but the noise it makes isenormous. This may suggest to the reader that the minute flying object, insignificant as it mayseem to be, shoul

741、d be watched, for its action may cause instant destruction.4) Feature-related textse gText One:Reflections on Ice-breakingCandyIs dandyBut liquorIs quicker.(Ogden Nash)Text Two:My heart leaps up when I beholdA rainbow in the sky,So was it when my life began;So is it now I am a man;So be it when I sh

742、all grow old,Or let me die!The Child is father of the ManAnd I could wish my days to beBound each to each by natural piety.(William Wordsworth)This type of exercise can be used to demonstrate how similar stylistic features may beemployed to produce similar or different effects. We briefly discussed

743、Text Two in Chapter Six.What the two texts have in common is that they both contain parallelism. The parallelism in TextOne is a small-scale parallelism containing only two juxtaposed units. It functions to form aconnection of both similarity and contrast. What Nash seems to say is that both candy a

744、nd liquorcan be used for socialization, but liquor works better.The parallelism in Text Two is a large-scale parallelism consisting of three juxtaposed units. Itchiefly functions to bring about a climax which fully expresses the speakers strong wish to always116The Advantages and Challenges of a Sty

745、listic Approach toTeaching LiteratureIn the preceding sections of this chapter, we explored the implications of stylistics for defining theaims of teaching literature and fbr devising literary exercises for classroom use. In this concludingsection, let us briefly discuss the advantages and challenge

746、s of a stylistic approach to the teachingof English literature to advanced EFL students.One obvious advantage of a stylistic approach to the teaching of English literature to advancedChinese EFL students can be identified from the arguments we advanced in Section 1.5 and thetwo preceding sections of

747、 this chapter. That is, the discovery of unique literary meaning requiresthe students to relate literary uses of English to their uses in conventional forms of discourse. Bythis comparison process, students can not only discover what it is that is peculiar to literary uses oflanguage, but they can a

748、lso find out more about the uses of English in non-literary discourse. Inother words, this approach enables students both to understand and appreciate literary works, andto improve their competence in the English language. Short (1983) refers to such an approach asa powerful double-edged tool* fbr t

749、he teacher. He explains that ”By showing how meaningscome about he increases enjoyment and sensitivity to good literature; at the same time heincreases the students* explicit awareness of the general norms and conventions governing Englishusage” (1983: 73).Another advantage of this approach is that

750、it is particularly suitable to Chinese students.Chinese students have been learning English grammar careftilly and systematically in such coursesas Intensive Reading* and Practical Grammar* and they have courses in linguistics that runparallel to their literature courses. Their familiarity with ling

751、uistic terminology will enable them tocope with the detailed and fairly technical stylistic description with little difficulty.This approach has a third advantage. Stylisticians believe that literary meanings can only bederived from intra-textual features and not from extrinsic facts of literature.

752、Therefore, in stylisticanalysis students are always asked to base their interpretation and comment on careful andsystematic analysis of the language of the text so as to eliminate impressionistic remarks. Thisrequirement will enable students to learn to substantiate argument with evidence. It also h

753、elpsstudents to cultivate habits of logical thinking and objective analysis. Thus, it lays a goodfoundation fbr students to carry out research in a scientific way in the future.The last advantage of the approach we want to mention here is that it emphasizes the trainingof *the capacity fbr individua

754、l response*. This is only consistent with the general aim of mostcollege courses to help students acquire the ability to analyze and solve problems fbr themselvesso that when they leave college they can *walk on their own without the support of the stick* (theteacher).The stylistic approach to liter

755、ature presents two challenges. Firstly, it demands much of theliterature teacher. In order to apply this approach, the teacher should take re-orientation courseswhen possible. If such courses are unavailable, self-study is suggested. Although this does placeadded demands on limited time, the rewards

756、 of a fresh approach are worth it. Throwing away oldlecture notes and replacing them with new materials may prove to be an exhilarating experience toboth teachers and students.117Secondly, the approach requires students to actively participate in classroom discussion and toproduce written assignment

757、s for which they cannot turn to received opinions about the work. Lessmotivated students may initially feel reluctant to take the challenge, but most students will acquirea feeling of achievement as a result of thinking for themselves.Finally, we wish to point out that what we have said in this chap

758、ter does not suggest a totalrejection of all the other approaches to literature and the teaching of literature, whetherbiographical, historical, psychological, or any other kind. We believe that each approach has somecontribution to make to the understanding of literature and to the teaching of lite

759、rature. Forexample, we feel that it is often helpful to provide the students with some background knowledgeof the text they are studying. What we are really trying to show and voice in this chapter is that inorder to improve the teaching of English literature in China, it is worth trying to incorpor

760、ate theinsights and methods of stylistics.Exercises1. How do you define the aims of a literary course at the college level in China in the light ofyour knowledge about stylistics?2. What is the chief implication of stylistics for devising classroom literary exercises?3. Comment on the effectiveness of the types of exercises we proposed in this chapter andsuggest some other types of exercises fbr use in the classroom.4. Discuss the advantages and challenges of a stylistic approach to the teaching of Englishliterature in the Chinese context.118