文体学复习
1、
Style: Manners indicating prominent linguistic features, devices or patterns,
most (or least) frequently occur in a particular text of a particular variety of language. (有许多种，此为in this book, general, linguistic-oriented), P5
2、
Stylistics: is a branch of linguistics which studies in a scientific and
systematic way concerning the manners/linguistic features of different varieties of language at different levels.
?Literary stylistics: concentrates solely on unique and overall linguistic features of the various genres of literature. （考点）★ ★
The development of stylistics The scope of study
Three crucial aspects of speech:
① Substances [sounds and symbols]; ② Form; ③Situation 3、
Stylistic analysis: is generally concerned with the uniqueness of a text
(what is peculiar to the use of language in a given text for delivering the message). This naturally involves comparisons of the language of the text with that used in conventional types of discourse. Stylisticians may also wish to characterize the style of a given text by systematically comparing the language uses in that text with those in another. Thus, we may conclude that stylistic analysis is an activity which is highly comparative in nature.
Practice 5. Analyze the following text. Policeman: What’s your name, boy?
Black psychiatrist: Dr. Poussiant. I’m a physician. Policeman: What’s your first name, boy? Black psychiatrist: Alvin.
?The word ‘boy’ may be used to address a male inferior. In above conversation, the
form is used to address a physician, who is usually accorded high respect in the US and is addressed as ‘Dr. So-and-so’ (Title + Surname). Insistently using the form ‘boy’, the white policeman shows his racist contempt of and prejudice against the black people. 4、
Linguistic description: refers to the exploration and classification of
linguistic features of a given text.★
每个category下面的各个分类
(1) The Phonology Category: Phonology here is used to refer to the system of
speech sounds in a language.
(2) The Lexical Category: Lexis is used here to refer to the choice of words. (3) The Syntactic/Grammatical /Category: Syntax is used here to refer to
rules for ordering and connecting words into sentences.
(4) Semantic Category: Semantics is used here to refer to the meaning of words,
expressions, etc. and by what means the meaning is conveyed from the addresser to the addressee.
Procedure of linguistic description
1) Work systematically through the text and note down points we feel of some stylistic significance respectively under the various headings. 2) Quantify the frequency of a linguistic feature. 3) Assess the importance of stylistic features.
4) Make statements about the overall linguistic picture of the text in question, bringing together diverse features to show how they form a coherent, integrated pattern, and making judgments about or interpreting the significance of such patterns in relation to the context of the text as a whole.
5、（1）Text: A text is any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length, that forms
a unified whole. A text is then a semantic unit, a unit not only of form, but also of meaning. A text is realized by a sequence of language units, whether they are sentences or not.
Cohesive devices:
Implicit connectivity Explicit connectivity
1) Transitional words/phrases 2) Grammatical device
①Ellipsis ②Substitution ③Coreference 3) Lexical reiteration
材料Examine the following conversation, find out whether linguistic units in it are overtly cohesive or not. A: See who that is. B: I’m in pyjamas.
A: OK.
? Linguistic units in the conversation are not overtly cohesive. In this text, the relevance of B’s remark to A’s first remark is conveyed by pragmatic implication. “I’m in pyjamas” implies an excuse for not complying with A’s command (= “No, I can’t, because I’m in pyjamas.”) A’s second remark implies that he accepts B’s excuse and undertakes to do himself what he originally asked B to do (= OK. I’ll go myself and see.” Texts are therefore recognized as appropriately coherent in actual use. A full understanding of a text is often impossible without reference to the context in which it occurs.
（2）Context: Context refers to all elements of a communicative situation. (One is
“linguistic context”, referring to the linguistic units preceding and/or following a particular linguistic unit in a text. The other is “extra-linguistic context” or “context of situation”, referring to the relevant features of the situation in which a text has meaning. )
Contextual factors:★
①Field of discourse(语场)：the institutional setting, private or public, in which a
piece of language occurs, embracing not only the subject matter in hand(正在进行中的主要的事情), but the whole activity of the speaker or participant in a setting, which corresponds to Halliday’s “ideational function” of language.
②Tenor(语旨)：The participants, their education, social status, the
role-relationship between the addresser and the addressee; the degree of intimacy; the degree of social distance. (It’s concerned with who is taking part in the exchange of meaning ----the relationship between the speaker and the listener, their relative status, their attitude, and their role relations.)
③Mode(语式)：the medium of communication——the graphic signs [visual] or
sound waves [auditory] by means of which a message is conveyed from one person to anther; Channel; channel limitation; other detailed choices, the functions of language in the particular situation.
?Practice 4. Analyze the following conversation
(Jenny comes to Alan’s house. She is conducting a survey for the government.) Alan: Won’t you come in, Miss-er-. Jenny: Cartwright, Jenny Cartwright.
Alan: I’m Alan Marlow. (Alan shows Jenny into the living room.) Alan: Oh won’t you make yourself comfortable, Jenny? (After some minutes of talk, which is omitted here)
Jenny: Mr. Marlow … Alan: Call me Alan. (The Marlows, Episode 11)
The context shows clearly that Alan and Jenny are total strangers. The
conven-tional address form between strangers is Title + Sur-name (Mr./Miss So-and-so). But Alan addresses the girl by her first name and later asks her to do the same. His adoption of first-naming is an example of the manipulation of language. It is a move towards a friendlier relationship, indicating that Alan does not want their encounter to be formal and distant, as it is customary between strangers. In contrast, Jenny chooses to remain formal and distant by addressing Alan as “Mr. Marlow”.
Linguistic Items
6、Speech sounds:★
(1) Stress: Stress refers to the prominence of sounds. It is the result of extra force
used in pronouncing a particular word or syllable. a) To show emphasis; b) To show surprise, anger, doubt, horror or excitement; c) To distinguish meaning of identical words or phrases. P23
(2) Pause: Pause refers to the brief interruption of the articulatory process between
consecutive linguistic units such as sounds, syllables, words, phrases and sentences. a) voiced pause or filled pause; b) silent pause Function: P23
(3) Pitch: This relative height of speech sounds as perceived by a listener is called
“pitch” and to indicate different feelings or attitudes, such as agreement, doubt, surprise, delight, scorn, abhorrence, or hatred. a) The falling pitch; b) The rising pitch; c) The fall-rise pitch; d) The rise-fall pitch; e) The level pitch; f) The fall-plus-rise pitch. (各用在什么情境下，有什么作用P24~25)
(4) Tempo: Tempo refers to the speed of speaking. Tempo reflected in
monosyllables: a) quick and clipped syllables; b) loose and drawled syllables; c) slow and held syllables. Tempo reflected in sentences: a) the quick “allegro”; b) the slow “lendo”; c) the increasing “accelerando”; d) the decreasing “rallentando”.
Function: Generally speaking, a quick tempo indicates excitement, surprise, agreement, happiness, indignation, whereas a slow tempo usually indicates confusion, emphasis, disagreement, hesitation, sadness, tiredness, low spirit or disappointment, etc.
7、Graphological Items ——the study of writing system of a language Graphological level——the expression or realization of language in its writing
system (1)
Punctuation ( the dash破折号, the colon冒号, the exclamation mark感叹
号)；各自用处效果
(2) (3)
(4)
Capitalization Italics 斜体
Paragraphing（分段）：Paragraphing refers to the way in which a text is
divided into paragraphs. It is a device to reveal the relational structure in a text, the organization of the content.
各自用处效果 8、Lexical Items
(1) General or Specific
(2) Anglo-Saxon or Latinate (3) Other Lexical Items
9、Syntactic/Grammatical Items
(1) Clause Types
Clause: A clause forms a sentence or part of a sentence. It is a group of words
which form a grammatical unit and which contains a subject and a finite verb, often functioning as a noun, adjective or adverb.
1) In terms of the clause constituents, there are 5 basic types: 2) In terms of the structure of the verb phrases (if any) in a clause: ① Finite clauses are clauses in which the first or the only verb phrase is a finite
form.
E.g. He finished his work before leaving the classroom.
② Nonfinite clauses（非限定从句）are clauses whose verb phrase is non-finite,
e.g. an –ing participle. He finished his work before leaving the classroom. ③ Verbless clauses（无动词分句）are clauses which contain no verb element,
e.g.: Hundreds of people were killed in the fire, many of them children.
3) In terms of functions in a sentence:
①Independent clause, not subordinate to another clause.
文体学复习一
