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英语文体学

Lesson 1

Scheme

  • understandings of Style
  • In-class reading
  • The study of style
  • course info

English Stylistics

  • A branch of linguistic studies (not literacy)

  • but typically with a literary concern (处于语言学和文学交界的位置)

  • reading the text, analysis the features, and discussion of the effects 表达效果

  • a wide range of applications - a tool kit rather than a blueprint to follow

all the questions presented in class have been solved. we need to think about ours.

styles - as personal idiosyncrasy

  • Woolf's style:

to the lighthouse a room of her own

  • 海明威's style

  • 苏轼's style: freedom? natural? 不明晰

also styles - as rhetoric and eloquence

academic style - more rigid, followed by a certain group of people, like a social convention

  • research paper / journal article
  • ...

also styles - as technique of exposition 写作技巧

style - focus on texts

  • as rhetoric and eloquence
  • as technique of exposition
  • as personal idiosyncrasy

What are we talking about when we talk about style?

  • reading experience
  • first impression
  • analysis and insights
  • final evaluation
  • back to 1

form in linguistics

  • 构词法
  • syntax
  • discourse patterns

text 1 and 2

Lesson 2

scheme

  • why different styles? (motivation)
  • how to perceive and analyze the style
  • stylistic features (analytical framework)

examples:

topic and genre determine styles - real estate advertisements have many abbr.s

现实性的限制 - recipes have many imperative sentences，简化的表达 give direct instructions

交流方式带来的影响 - instant message/ text message 语言符号的换用，lack of punctuations, fragment, SOOOOO, colloquial 模拟面对面对话

Choosing Different Styles

  • content: different topics or themes
  • form: different ways of presentation
  • users: identities and relationships
  • function: purposes of communication

The significance of stylistics

  • to understand the texts
  • to understand the language
  • to understand the ...?

Capturing styles

  • stylistic features/ style markers

"We recognize a style only when certain choices of language features recur or prevail in a text." (Qian, P19)

frequency

  • recur: absolutely多
  • prevail: 相对多

levels of language - 从哪里选择语言特征

  • phonetics, phonology - all sounds, system sounds
  • morphology - forms and words morf: form
  • syntax - clauses and sentences
  • semantics - meanings of various kinds
  • pragmatics - language use

similarly, stylistic features

  • phonological features: sounds and sound patterns

  • lexical features: word-formation patterns - 词汇层面 情态动词modal verbs(shall)... 动词... action verbs,

  • semantic features: contrast...

  • syntactic features: 主动句

  • other features: discourse, visual, etc

  • 语篇层面... first person perspective

Text 4

  • Lexical – “I”, “but”, modal verb (can), action verbs (sprint, scramble, grab, reach)
  • Syntactic – short, active sentences, sometimes broken or incomplete
  • Semantic – actions, planning, weighing of different sides
  • Discourse: colloquial expression, monologue

Text 5

  • Phonological – one or two syllables/word, alliteration (wear-win, watcher on the walls)
  • Lexical – short, simple and powerful words; concrete words, the use of “shall” as obligation and inevitability
  • Syntactic – short, assertive sentences of identical structures Rhetorical devices – metaphor , parallelism
  • Discourse – prepared speech for chorus, highly ritualized (vow)

colloquial 口语的

archaic 古体的

Lesson 3

Summary: key issues in stylistics

  • style - content, form, users & purposes

  • Stylistics - Texts, languages and commuication

  • Stylistic features - Impression + Description + Interpretation

Lexical features (3 weeks)

  • word formation
  • word types 词性
  • English words of different origins/Etymology
  • register(语域) and lexical choices
  • *Rhetorical devices - cover more than just lexical features

word-formation processes

  • Derivation or Affixation 派生或加词缀
  • Compounding: hide and seek, somehow, hard-working
  • Blending and Clipping: brunch, vlog, smog, frenemy, sit-com / math, lab, exam, prof, pre, dorm ==WHY! these are all about school==
  • blending is useful in making new names, and it is more interesting than compounding.
  • why do students prefer to clip their words so often?
  • Abbrevi==ation== and acro==nym==s 缩写==法==和缩略==词== - 大多是人们在用的时候自然形成的
  • Abbreviation: CBA DNA WTO UN USA - 只能发字母音
  • Acronyms: UNESCO BRICS AIDS ASAP NASA - 可以被读出来，具有词汇化特征，可以派生出更多的词
  • Neologism (coinage) 创新词（生造词）- 经常出现在business领域（品牌名字）和science领域
  • Borrowing and (calque = loan translation 借译)
  • internet 中 inter是借的，net是译的
  • ice-cream 中 ice是译的，cream是借的
  • hotdog 是译的
  • Bluetooth
  • violin一开始是借的，梵峨嶙，后来造了一个小提琴
  • add oil - a calque from Chinese to English
  • 打卡 - punch the card (calque)
  • 接龙 - pick up the dragon (calque)

Lesson 4

word types

  • content words - 开放的集合
  • nouns
  • verbs
  • adjectives
  • adverbs
  • function words - 封闭的集合
  • auxiliaries
  • prepositions
  • articles
  • pronouns
  • conjunctions

frequency (BNC)

N > V > prep > ... > adj = pronoun = articles > adv

这样当一段语言中明显一个词性的词含量超标的时候，就会敏感的感知到

handout 7. 8

image-20241211010147600

use of nouns

handout 9

两种不同的名词：

  • 具体名词（日耳曼词汇，力量感）
  • 抽象名词（拉丁词汇，抽象模糊）

nominalization 名词化

短动词名词化...

abstract and academic

verbs

  • notional auxiliary modal verbs
  • action verbs (physical vs. mental)
  • active voice vs. passive voices of verbs
  • Transitive vs intransitive verbs 及物动词与不及物动词 - 推动情节与不推动情节
  • Phrasal verbs 动词短语 - 口语化（带日耳曼词汇的短语）

handout 10 & 11

Lesson 5

Etymology

英语语言史这门课会讲解

image-20241211010922524

暖色调的支流：日耳曼语系 Germanic

  • 日常用语

冷色调的支流：拉丁语系 Latinate

  • Normans 法国贵族 - 注入食物，例如pork
  • Romans 罗马人 - 道路修筑、建筑之类
  • Renaissance 意大利人 - 音乐、文艺
Germanic Latinate
bodily corporal

Germanic words (Anglo-Saxon)

  • short in syllables (2-3) - 每个词派生性不强大
  • basic vocabulary
  • Concrete, Plain, forceful, vivid

Latinate words

  • multisyllabic, abstract, derivational
  • fancy, elegant, urban, educated - 用于政治、学术、文艺领域
  • Or pretentious

note: clipping of the Latinate words

因为它们和日常生活息息相关，需要变短

  • Why campus vocabulary usually come with clipped words? 词源和构词法的角度一起看
  • lazy students?
  • Students have to deal with Educations words, which are mostly brought in English in Renaissance times
  • so, in order to make them easy to use - related with lives

handout 13-A 13-B

get rid of -> eliminate

look into -> investigate

Lesson 6

Rhetorical devices

  • A linguistic tool that employs a particular type of ==sentence structure==, ==sound==, or ==pattern of meaning== in order to evoke a particular reaction from an audience

  • Effect: dramatic persuasive ……

Rhetorical devices (there are more)

  • simile
  • metaphor
  • met==o==nymy
  • syn==e==cdoche
  • hyp==er==bole
  • lit==o==tes
  • p==a==rallelism
  • ant==i==thesis

  • oxym==o==ron

  • alliteration

  • onomatopoeia

  • anticlimax - 语篇层面的反渐层法

from 1902 to 1903, with the help of two guides...

Simile and metaphor

meaning through comparison

  • overt comparison - simile - 明显的表现
  • covert comparison - metaphor - the way we consider this world

metonymy and synecdoche

Meaning through extension

两者有重叠之处

  • metonymy - sth. closely related 相关性的延伸 - opaque

约定俗成的一些东西，例如用心表示爱，用嘴唇表示律师...

  • The case was defended by eloquent lips. - lips往往指律师，而不是很轻率的代指一个人

  • the oval office is busy at work - language convention

  • let me give you a hand - language convention 手经常被理解成一种友善的姿态
  • the pen is mightier than the sword - have to rely on the content to understand the meaning

  • "Friends, Romans, Countryman, lend me your ears!" - ears for attention

  • Synecdoche - a part and the whole 部分和整体的延伸 - transparent, obvious, direct

整体的一部分

  • Many hands make light work - 如果改成Many heads make light work也可以，不太依赖convention，与原来意思密切相关
  • here come two black suits
  • England beats Sweden in the last football match

Synecdoche is more transparent, easy to understand even without background knowledge

Hyperbole vs. Litotes

  • hyperbole - Overstatement, exaggeration is the effect of hyperbole

爱情诗

  • litotes - with a subtle emphasis or irony - 用3分表达10分，而不是hyperbole的反面

  • We're not unfamiliar with the work of Mark Twain - 特别熟悉马克吐温的作品

  • I'm not a little upset - very upset
  • She is not a bad singer

Oxymoron

Contradiction in logic: a combination of contradictory incongruous words

用一个词去修饰它的反义词

  • cruel kindness
  • a victorious defeat

  • writing is busy idleness

  • open secret

  • sweet sorrow
  • a wise fool
  • be alone together
  • sweet biterness
  • the only choice
  • silent scream
  • negative growth

text 14

Parallelism

the repetition of the same or similar srtucture

英文中的“排比”比较宽泛，三个并列的名词短语之类也可以算作parallelism

  • rhythm, balance, force of persuasion

text 15, 16

可以偷换by的用法

  • wilson.......补充笔记

Antithesis

Rhetorical contrast of ideas in parallel structures

比中文中的对偶更宽泛；中文中必须青对绿，讲求和谐一致；英文中则有相反的感觉

两个表达放在一起，各自独立，放在一起则互补或者对立

  • All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way
  • Many are called, but few are chosen
  • Man proposes, God disposes.
  • To err is human, to forgive divine
  • Spicy food is heaven on the tongue but hell in the tummy

text 17

Lesson 7 这讲的笔记需要重构

Phonological features of style

  • English phonology
  • phonemes vs. Supra-segmental features
  • Sound effect: phonaesthesia and onomatopoeia

Phonological studies 音系学

Phonemes / Segments 音素=音段

  • 22 Consonants - the airflow is blocked
  • 12 vowels - the airflow is not blocked
  • 2 semi-vowels - the airflow can be blocked and can be not blocked /w/ /j/
  • 8 diphthongs - 第一个元音过渡到第二个 - 自然的长音
  • Consonant clusters

Supra-segmental features 超音段 :star:

多个单音素放在一起，产生更多的音

  • Syllables
  • Stress
  • Tones and intonations

word formation: "possible words" in English

  1. pferd schflap, btkinspq - "a sense of foreigness"
  2. swurd, macket, salering

Sound effect: phonaesthesia（象征性）and onomatopoeia（模拟性）

phonaesthesia

  • The Bouba vs. Kiki Effect - Bouba口腔松弛，kiki更多塞擦
  • Synesthetic cross-modal abstraction - 通感/联觉
  • "Kate" vs. "Paula" effect
phonaesthesia - vowels
  • open vs. close mouth
  • splish
  • splash - big

  • splosh - deep

  • front vs. back

  • tittle, bit, thin, slit, silver
  • gloom, boom, loom
phonaesthesia -consonants
  • /fl/ - the sudden movement
  • flap flare fling flick flop
  • /gl/ - light
  • gleam glare glint glitter glisten
  • /sl/ - smooth surface
  • slippery slide slime slushy
  • /-le/ /-er/ - repetation
  • bubble twinkle ripple mutter twitter flutter

onomatopoeia - sound imitation

Universal phenomenon

Cultural differences

Vivid and impressive(nursery thymes.....)

  • Bang -
  • Buzz - 嗡嗡
  • Hiss - 嘶

  • Tick-tock - 滴答

  • Boom

公鸡打鸣声

西方：k- koca -k

东方：o-o-o

Lost in translation?

  • The bell went ding. 铃声叮~的响起了
  • She cried "ouch" when she fell down the stairs. 他摔下楼梯，大喊“我去” “发”
  • The fire crackled, keeping the house warm 火焰噼里啪啦
  • The computer whirred as it processed the data 隆隆的 轰鸣声
  • The piece simply clicked into place 咔哒

Lesson 8

Rhymes and rhyming features

Supera-segmental features

syllable structures

  • Onset 韵首 - s
  • Rhyme 韵腹
  • nucleus 韵核（元音）- i
  • coda 韵尾 - ng
CVC structure
  • dog = cvc
  • limit = cvcvc
Syllable structures in Chinese

Sun Yitian

CVC CV CVC

Cheng Zifan

CVC CV CVC

  • coda consonants in Chinese must have a 'n'
  • 中文的结构几乎固定，是==(C)V(n)==，这就是为什么中文一直分声母和韵母

押韵的形式，就是在对应的音节的地方是相同的音。中文的音节只有两个结构，因此只有两种押韵

  • 中文的押韵：

  • 双声：犹豫、慷慨、崎岖

  • 叠韵：苗条、蜿蜒、蹉跎

荡漾处多用叠韵，促节处多用双声 —— 王国维

Syllable structures in English
  • Multi-syllabic
  • think CVCC
  • spring CCCVC
  • sixths CVCCCC
  • 英语音节结构 ==(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)==
  • 为了达到很好的押韵音响效果，将其简化成==CVC==，需要整个consonant cluster都押韵。如果一个辅音簇中只有一个押韵，就效果不好了
Rhyming words and lines

  • used in poetry, drama, ads, speeches

  • musical poetic emphatic cohesive effects

rhymes in English

  • Alliteration ==C==VC - great grow （中文中常见）
  • Rhyme C==VC== - send mend（中文中常见）
  • Assonance C==V==C - send bell / mom-and-pop shops
  • Consonance CV==C== - sent hint
  • Reverse rhyme ==CV==C - great graze（中文中常见）
  • Pararhyme (para:环绕) ==C==V==C== - send sound

Safe and sound

  • 感性：alliteration
  • 理性：还有consonance
other types of rhymes
  • Semi-rhymes
  • Imperfect rhymes
  • Eye rhymes
  • Masculine rhyme
  • Feminin rhyme
  • ???

image-20241225011009632

strange meeting

by Wilfred Owen

text 18

Rhyming scheme/pattern in English poetry

text 19 & 20

text 21

exercise: test 22 & 23

Lesson 9 - Metric patterns in English poetry

The metric of English poetry

  • Poet: the pace and breathing of poetry
  • Reader: focused attention & feeling
  • Syllables -> Foot -> Feet -> Meter

Stressed and unstressed syllables

Stressed: 横线

Unstressed: 波浪线

Poetic metrics: Foot音步

衡量英语诗行长度的单位（几个音部作为一行）

  • The recurring unit of rhythm

  • 音步由一系列音节组成（不是单词）

  • at least one stressed syllable

Poetic foot types

  • :wavy_dash:— iamb (iambic foot)
  • —:wavy_dash: trochee (trochaic foot) - Nursery Rhyme, Marching, a feeling of Assertion
  • :wavy_dash::wavy_dash:— anapest (anapestic foot) - A feeling of Emotional tension, Horse galloping
  • —:wavy_dash::wavy_dash: dactyl (dactylic foot) - A feeling of decline, lost

and meter格律

  • An sequence of the recurring foot in a line
  • the regular / predominant pattern - 不一定那么齐整

A mile to go before I sleep

四音步抑扬格

#### Meter types (number of feet in a line)

  • monometer
  • dimeter
  • trimeter
  • tetrameter
  • pentameter
  • hexameter
  • heptameter
  • octameter

### blank verse\

Standing in a Lecture Hall on a Snowy Evening

by the headmaster who hired Robert Frost

Who lectured here I'm sure I know

He's somewhere in the forest though

He will not see me laughing here

Through frost and chill, he haste to show

He's silly and a little queer

To teach in college here and there

Though chilling wind cut his bones ache

Paid little but he still comes here

His father's death makes his heart break

His wife's in bed, worn out and weak

Throughout his life, pain piles, grief heap

Yet still he comes, for students' sake.

Oh, Frost has toiled through snow so deep

While wealth and wine the head shall reap

And feast to eat before I sleep

And feast to eat before I sleep

Lesson 12

Syntactic features

  • syntax: The patterns, principles,and rules of sentences in a given language.
  • Question: how to describe and categorize different sentences?

Syntax types

  • structure
  • voice
  • function
  • length

Structure

  • Simple sentences
  • Complex sentences - involves 2 or more sentax
  • Compound sentences - and but or...
  • Compound complex sentences

Active vs. passive voices

  • rearrange of the sentence to achieve coherence / to emphasize the first world

Amarica was found ...

  • we do not need to mention the people who do it - be evasive with passive voice

mistakes are made ...

  • passive voice in academic writing - sound more objective, and avoid mentioning any relation to human

The researcher designed a questionnaire of 25 questions...

The questionnaire, consisting of 25 questions, was designed...

The machine reads... 貌似是主动，其实被动内核，更加忽略人的因素

Sentence Types - functions

The four types of sentence

  1. declarative - statement
  2. interrogative - question
  3. imperative - command
  4. exclamative - exclamation

Sentence length

  • length by words, syllables or characters
  • 15-20 words or 22-33 syllables -> 长句
  • all short sounds stupid, monotonous, all long sounds stuffy.

指标

  • sentence sentence lengths and readability
  • sentence lengths in discourse analysis
  • historical development

Stylistic effect of short vs. long sentences

short

  • Direct,s concise, terse, clear
  • swift, compact, continuous
  • abrupt, unexpected

long

  • solemn, formal, detailed

  • complex, sophisticated

  • messy, confusing, suffocating

text 24

Long and loose sentence, perfectly for delivering stream of consciousness, illogical, not rational

text 25. 26

Lesson 13

  • syntactic deviation ( . & . ？)
  • measurement of text readability

Revisit "stylistic features"

  • 钱媛: ...recur or prevail in a text

  • frequency, repetition and parallelism

  • a quantitative pattern -> 今天来看另一半

Norms and deviations

  • Norm - the regular pattern, the convention
  • Deviation - violation of the convention, the odd one

Syntactic features: the regular patterns

  • Sentences of different lengths, structures, voices, functions

Syntactic features: Deviations & Irregularity

  • Elliptical sentences and Inverted sentences

  • Rhetorical questions (Text 27, 反问句)

  • Loose sentences vs. periodic sentences 圆周句和松散句

  • left-branching

  • right-branching

    • loose structure
    • supplementary, easy, natural

  • left-branching and nesting

    • periodic structure

    • anticipatory, suspension-making - anticlimax

    • evasive and sophisticated

    e.g. 雅思作文

    having considered both sides of the argument, I have come to the conclusion that... 论说文常用手段

    evasive and sophisiticated

    e.g. Pride and prejudice

    anticlimax

    e.g. text 28

  • middle branching = nesting

  • Non-standard forms

Stylistic features in use: Text readability

Def

readability is the case with which a reader can understand a written text.

In natural language, the readability of text depends on its content (vocabulary and syntax) and presentation (like font size, line height, and line length).

the Flesch formula - 偏向于口语

可读性研究？

Donald Trump talks like a 4th grader

Flesch-Kincaid test

  • reading ease score = 1.599nosw - 1.015sl - 31.517

  • nosw: 词长

  • sl: 句长

level 4 means, by def, 能够被四年级孩子理解，而不是他像四年级小孩一样说话。

it's readability, always in the perspective of reader

the Gunning fog index - 偏向于书面语

http://gunning-fog-index.com/

the Lexile index - 蓝思指数

Lexile Analyzer

evaluate reading demand,

analyse

Lesson 15

Semantics

  • word's meaning
  • relations between words and words
  • sentence's meaning

word meanings

Denotative meaning vs connotative meaning 哲学和逻辑学

conceptual meaning vs associative meaning 概念和联想

Semantic relations

  • Synonymy
  • antonymy
  • Metonymy
  • collocation 搭配关系 (frequent concurrence)
  • hyponymy 上下义关系 (general -> specific)

-> lexical chains: 词汇由语义关系而连接而成的线条

MEaning of text: cohesion and coherence (文章的意思并不简单的事意思的加总)

  • coherence - meaning, appropriateness 连贯
  • cohesion - form, connectedness 衔接
  • using grammatical devices 语法连接
    • conjunction
    • ellipsis
    • substitution
    • reference
  • using semantic relations 语义连接

Lexical chains

Semantic field 语义场

help to build the unity and coherence

通过语义场慢慢的把school和island连接起来，而不能一下子跳过去

school - school bus - yellow - banana - island

Styles of non-standard varieties

  • sounds and spelling
  • choices of words
  • sentence or discourse structures

Words bank

Literary, imaginative, rhetorical, vivid

Scientific, academic, logical

Determined/urgent, compassionate

Realistic, intense, precise, engaging

short, assertive sentences

contradictory incongruous words

超长句，messy，chaotic， heavily embeded sentence， irrational， absurdity 荒谬感（黑色幽默）