Chapter9语言学-Languageandliterature.ppt

1,Chapter 9 Language and Literature,2,Teaching Focus,1. Style and Stylistics 2. Foregrounding 3. Literal language and figurative language 4. Analysis of literary language 5. The language in poetry,3,1. Style and Stylistics,Style: variation in the language use of an individual, such as formal/informal style Literary style: ways of writing employed in literature and by individual writers; the way the mind of the author expresses itself in words,4,Stylistics “studies the features of situationally distinctive uses (varieties) of language, and tries to establish principles capable of accounting for the particular choices made by individual and social groups in their use of language.” (Crystal，1980),5,In addition, stylistics is a distinctive term that may be used to determine the connections between the form and effects within a particular variety of language.,Therefore, stylistics looks at what is going on within the language; what the linguistic associations are that the style of language reveals.,6,Literary Stylistics: Crystal (1987) observes that, in practice, most stylistic analysis has attempted to deal with the complex and valued language within literature, i.e. literary stylistics. It deals with the close relationship between language and literature. It focuses on the study of linguistic features related to literary style.,7,The scope is sometimes narrowed to concentrate on the more striking features of literary language, for instance, its deviant and abnormal features, rather than the broader structures that are found in whole texts or discourses. For example, the compact language of poetry is more likely to reveal the secrets of its construction to the stylistician than is the language of plays and novels.,8,2. Foregrounding,Please compare the following two pieces of language: Four storeys have no windows left to smash But in the fifth a chipped sill buttresses Mother and daughter the last mistresses Of that black block condemned to stand, not crash. A chipped sill buttresses mother and daughter who are the last mistresses of that black block which is condemned to stand, not crash.,9,Find out the unusual use of language in the following paragraph: The red-haired woman, smiling, waving to the disappearing shore. She left the mahareajah; she left innumerable other lights opassing love in towns and cities and theatres and railway stations all over the world. But Melchior she did not leave.,10,2.1 What is foregrounding? 2.2 Devices of Foregrounding,11,2.1 What is foregrounding?,In a purely linguistic sense, the term foregrounding is used to refer to new information, in contrast to elements in the sentence which form the background against which the new elements are to be understood by the listener / reader.,12,In the wider sense of stylistics, text linguistics, and literary studies, it is a translation of the Czech aktualisace (actualization), a term common with the Prague Structuralists. In this sense it has become a spatial metaphor: that of a foreground and a background, which allows the term to be related to issues in perception psychology, such as figure / ground constellations.,13,The English term foregrounding has come to mean several things at once: the (psycholinguistic) processes by which - during the reading act - something may be given special prominence; specific devices (as produced by the author) located in the text itself. It is also employed to indicate the specific poetic effect on the reader; an analytic category in order to evaluate literary texts, or to situate them historically, or to explain their importance and cultural significance, or to differentiate literature from other varieties of language use, such as everyday conversations or scientific reports.,14,Thus the term covers a wide area of meaning. This may have its advantages, but may also be problematic: which of the above meanings is intended must often be deduced from the context in which the term is used.,15,2.2 Devices of Foregrounding,Outside literature, language tends to be automatized; its structures and meanings are used routinely. Within literature, however, this is opposed by devices which thwart the automatism with which language is read, processed, or understood. Generally, two such devices may be distinguished, deviation and parallelism.,16,Deviation corresponds to the traditional idea of poetic license: the writer of literature is allowed - in contrast to the everyday speaker - to deviate from rules, maxims, or conventions.,17,These may involve the language, as well as literary traditions or expectations set up by the text itself. The result is some degree of surprise in the reader, and his / her attention is thereby drawn to the form of the text itself (rather than to its content). Cases of neologism, live metaphor, or ungrammatical sentences, as well as archaisms, paradox, and oxymoron (the traditional tropes) are clear examples of deviation.,18,Devices of parallelism are characterized by repetitive structures: (part of) a verbal configuration is repeated (or contrasted), thereby being promoted into the foreground of the readers perception. Traditional handbooks of poetics and rhetoric have surveyed and described (under the category of figures of speech) a wide variety of such forms of parallelism, e.g., rhyme, assonance, alliteration, meter, semantic symmetry, or antistrophe.,19,3. Literal language and figurative language,The first meaning for a word that a dictionary definition gives is usually its literal meaning. Trope: the figurative use of language, language used in a figurative way for a rhetorical purpose,20,3.1 Simile 3.2 Metaphor 3.3 Metonymy 3.4 Synecdoche,21,3.1 Simile,A simile is a way of comparing one thing with another It explicitly signals itself in a text, with the words as or like.,22,O, my luve is like a red, red rose, Thats newly sprung in June; O, my luve is like the melodie Thats sweetly playd in tune. Robert Burns (1759-96),23,3.2 Metaphor,A metaphor, like a simile, also makes a comparison between two unlike elements. But unlike a simile, this comparison is implied rather than stated.,24,All the worlds a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances. And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages William Shakespeare (1564-1616),25,3.3 Metonymy,Metonymy means a change of name.,26,There is no armour against fate; Death lays his icy hand on kings; Sceptre and Crown Must tumble down And in the dust be equal made With the poor crooked Scythe and Spade. James Shirley (1596-1666),27,3.4 Synecdoche,Synecdoche refers to using the name of part of an object to talk about the whole thing, and vice versa.,28,They were short of hands at harvest time. (part for whole) Have you any coppers? (material for thing made) He is a poor creature. (genus for species) He is the Newton of this century. (individual for class),29,Name the kind of trope: The boy was as cunning as a fox. .the innocent sleep, . the death of each days life, . (Shakespeare) Buckingham Palace has already been told the train may be axed when the rail network has been privatised. (Daily Mirror, 2 February 1993) Ted Dexter confessed last night that England are in a right old spin as to how they can beat India this winter. (Daily Mirror, 2 February 1993),30,4. Analysis of literary language,Identifying the more “deviant”, “marked” or literary structures, from more “everyday”, non-literary usage of language,31,Foregrounding on the level of lexis Foregrounding on the level of syntax: word order, word groups, deviant or marked structures Rewriting for comparative studies Meaning Context,32,5. The language in poetry,5.1 Forms of sound patterning 5.2 Stress patterning 5.3 Metrical patterning 5.4 Conventional forms of metre and sound 5.5 The poetic functions of sound and metre 5.6 The analysis of poetry,33,5.1 Forms of sound patterning,End rhyme: the last word of a line has the same final sounds as the last word of another line,34,Alliteration: the initial consonant are identical Magazine articles: “Science has Spoiled my Supper” and “Too Much Talent in Tennessee?” Comic/cartoon characters: Beetle Bailey, Donald Duck Restaurants: Coffee Corner, Sushi Station Expressions: busy as a bee, dead as a doornail, good as gold, right as rain Music: Blackalicious “Alphabet Aerobics”,35,Assonance: syllables with a common vowel live-with-will come-love Consonance: syllables ending with the same consonants will-hall Reverse rhyme: syllables sharing the vowel and initial consonant with-will Pararhyme: syllables with the same initial and final consonants, but different vowels live-love,36,5.2 Stress patterning,Iamb: 2 syllables, unstressed + stressed Trochee: 2 syllables, stressed + unstressed Anapest: 3 syllables, 2 unstressed + stressed Dactyl: 3 syllables, stressed + 2 unstressed Spondee: 2 stressed syllables Pyrrhic: 2 unstressed syllables,37,5.3 Metrical patterning,When stress is organized to form regular rhythms, the term turns to metre. Units of metre are called feet.,38,Most frequently used feet in English poetry:,Dimetre: 2 feet Trimetre: 3 feet Tetrametre: 4 feet Pentametre: 5 feet Hexametre: 6 feet Heptametre: 7 feet Octametre: 8 feet,39,5.4 Conventional forms of metre and sound,Couplets: a pair of lines of verse, usually connected by a rhyme. It consists of two lines that usually rhyme and have the same meter. Whan that Aprille, with hise shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; (from Geoffrey Chaucer: Canterbury Tales General Prologue) Find more on page 220.,40,Free verse: styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry by virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers will perceive to be part of a coherent whole.,41,The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, And seeing that it was a soft October night, Curled once about the house