空两行
The Linguistic and Stylistic Analysis of Two Letters —Napoleon to Josèphine and Xu Zhimoto Lu Xiaoman[z1]
空三行
By: XXX[z2]
[z3]
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Foundamental Education
[z4]in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for Bachelor’s Degree
[z5]Under the Supervision of:XXX[z6]
[z7]
Anhui Polytechnic University, Mechanical & Electrical College
May, 201X
空一行
Acknowledgements[z8]
空一行
Firstly, for this thesis, my deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to my supervisor xxx, who took time from her busy schedule and offered me valuable suggestions in the academic studies. In the preparation of the thesis, she has spent much time in helping me choose an appropriate topic and write a thesis proposal. Without her illuminating suggestions and careful revisions, this thesis could not have reached its present form.
Secondly, I would like to avail this opportunity to thank all my teachers and professors in College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, who have ever taught me during my 4-year undergraduate studies which benefit me a lot.
Thirdly, I also owe my sincere gratitude to my dear friends and my fellow classmates who have ever helped me to pull through all the difficulties I have encountered during the last four years, making my college life colorful and meaningful.
At last, my thanks would go to my beloved family, especially my parents, for their love and great care for me all these years.[z9]
空一行
Abstract [z10]
空一行
This paper attempts to analyze the influence of education and personal backgroundas well as the personal characters on the writing. To achieve the goal, the linguistic and stylistic of two letters written by two writers from two different countries will be analyzed and compared.Through the analysis and comparison, it is obvious that there indeed exist many differences and on the other hand many similarities though the two writers were of different times and nationalities.Field work has been carried out in either of the languages and the effect of education and background on the personal writings. This paper adopts an analytical and comparative approach. Relative studies are collected from different experts in the relevant field of studies.All the work done, it is clear that the factors listed above do exert influence on one’s writing to some extent.Many linguists and scholars have made great achievements in the field of stylistic comparison of scripts written in the same language, but this paper picks up two texts in different languages by two seemingly distinct men, which is seldom paid attention to by researchers. The understanding of different styles will be a great help one cultured in literary works an most importantly be familiar with the linguistic theory and the relevant causes to such stylistic disparities. [z11]
空一行
Key words:[z12]Vocabulary; Style; Lexical Anaphora; Anadiplosis；Aarallel Structure; Figure of Speech; Metaphor; Irony; Hyperbole; Education; Emotional effect; Influence[z13]
空一行
摘 要[14]
空一行
这篇论文旨在分析个人背景、教育以及在这种背景下所形成的性格对写作的影响。为达到这一目的，本论文将从语言与文体两方面来分析和对比两封两位来自不同国家的名人所写的两封情书。通过分析比较我们可以发现两封书信之间的确有很多不同之处，但同时也有很多相同点即便这两位作者来自不同的国家。相关领域的研究主要集中在某一种语言之中或研究教育和背景对写作的影响。该篇论文主要采取分析与比较的方法。相关的材料主要来自相关领域内专家的观点和研究。在一系列的分析之后，很明显可以看到以上所列举的一些社会因素在某种程度上确实能影响一个人的写作。虽然国内外很所学者专家都对文体学作了很多研究，但大多数还是局限于分析同种语言的文本，这篇论文将选取一封中文书信一封英文书信为比较分析文本。理解不同的文体对于个人来说能够促进对文学作品的了解，更重要的是能够帮助个人了解相关的语言学理论，以及造成文体差别的一些原因。[z15]
空一行
关键词：[z16]词汇；文体；首语重复；连珠法；排比；暗喻；反语；夸张；教育；感情影响；作用
空一行
Table of Contents[17]
空一行
Acknowledgements......
Abstract......
摘要
Table of Contents......
I. Introduction......
1.1General Introduction
1.2Purpose and Significance of the Paper
1.3Organization of the Paper
II. Literature Review
III. Brief Introduction to the Two Writers
IV.Stylistic Analysis and Comparison of the Two Letters
4.1Similarities
4.1.1Vocabulary
4.1.2 Sentence Structure
4.1.3 Figures of Speech
4.2Differences
4.2.1Vocabulary
4.2.2Sentence Structure
4.2.3 Point of View
V. Possible Reasons for the Similarities and Differences
5.1Two Different Times
5.2 Cultural Environment and Personal Characters
5.3Education
VI. Conclusion
Bibliography...... 20
[u18][z19]
1
I. Introduction[20]
1.1 General Introduction[z21]
The letter from Napoleon to Josephine, written in November 13th, 1796, is chosen from the publication 100 World’s Great Letters, and the other letter from Xu Zhimo to Lu Xiaoman is chosen from the collection of letters Ai Mei XiaoZha , a collection of letters written by Xu to Lu. [z22]
Style has been recognized since the days of ancient rhetoric; however, stylistics is perhaps the creation of bibliographers. It is “a branch of linguistics which studies the features of situationally distinctive uses 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”[u23](Hu Zhuanglin,2001:11).[A24]
As a matter of fact, the stylistic analysis is not confined in the literary field; on the contrary, it has been extended into the study of linguistics. Different approaches in the linguistic analysis can be adopted to analyze features of language. In practical life, various kinds of life are embodied in writings. To analyze the style of a certain text, the culture of the time, social background, the personal ground which one lives in as well as his characters has to be taken into serious consideration.
1.2Purpose and Significance of thePaper
[A25]This paper aims to stress the importance of cultural background and education in influencing the style of writings by way of comprehensive analysis and comparison of the two letters. The significances of this paper lie in the fact that social elements like cultural environment and education can exert an influence not only on the spoken language, but written words as well.
1.3Organization of thePaper
This paper is divided into 5 parts: the introduction, literature review, stylistic analysis and comparison of the two letters from aspects of vocabulary, sentence structure and figure of speech, the possible causes and the final conclusion.
II. Literature Review
What is literary stylistics? According to the course book written by Hu Zhuanglin, literary stylistics deals with the close relationship between language and literature with the focus on the linguistic features related to literary style(Hu Zhuanglin 211).
Literature overlaps with linguistics at this aspect. A good understanding of linguistics really matters in appreciating literary works. And the value of these works is contained and reflected in such aspects as vocabulary and foregrounding, etc..
There have been many works and research in the field of stylistics both at home and at abroad.
In abroad, the study of stylistics might enjoy the same gloryas that in China. De Buffon once pointed out that “style is the man himself” which means that writing is the written form of human’s thoughts and habits; thus it will be much easier for us to see that one’s character can be reflected in his writings. Another great linguist named Bradford thinks that the practical use and the understanding of language in daily life depend on certain context, therefore, stylistics should take into account not only the features of literary language in the text but also various contextual elements(Bradford 216). He also held the idea that contextual stylistics involves such factors as the ability and disposition of readers, the diversified social force behind the literature and so on. D. Burton, one of the founders of social historical / cultural stylist, shifted the attention to the relations between stylistics and the class, power and ideology.
At Chinese mainland, many scholars devote themselves in the field. Tong Qingbing once said in his book Style and the Creation of Style, “superficially speaking, style is the language order and language mode of the works; fundamentally speaking on the other hand, style contains the spirit of certain culture and the temperate of writers”(Tong Qingbing 27). Chen Yonghui in his paper An Introduction to the Comparison between the Critical style in Eastern and Western World also gives his opinion that thought pattern plays a part in the differences between the critical style in two different cultures, “the disparity in the thought patterns is one of the important reasons for the discrepancy of different languages”(Chen Yonghui2). In the paper General Review to the Stylistic Studies, Zu Lijun says “we study different literary works with no other objective other than finding out the features of the time and the thoughts of writers”(Zu Lijun1). Wu Jianguo analyzed the differences between contextual stylistics and textual stylistics and one of the conclusions he reached is “one of the motors in literary writing is the social force”(Wu Jianguo2). The writer Sun Yu also made similar comment in her comparison between Scarlet and Gone with the Wind that the specific culture of the time accounts a lot in causing the differences between the two novels.
Though many scholars have made enormous efforts in the field of stylistics, the majority of them usually center on one text instead of two; even though there do exist some papers on the analysis and comparison of two texts, the point is stressed on the mere analysis without further pointing out the possible causes of the similarities and differences. In the paper written by Wang Yanhua TheStylistic Analysis of The Fall of the House of Usher, she analyzed the horror novel written by Edgar Allen Poe from aspects of vocabulary, sentence, figure of speech and the approaches used in depiction of the whole story. However, she did not even give a brief introduction to the social or literary background of the time in which Allen Poe lived.
In the paper Cat in the Rain by Hemmingway, Zhang Zhimin says that “the skillful use of metaphor is the best way to achieve sarcasm/irony”(Zhang Zhimin2). Actually, irony is used flawlessly in the letter by Xu to speak out his resentment to those who criticized his relationship with Lu. In this paper, the writer compared the work by Hemmingway with the great scholar in China Qian Zhongshu’s great symbolic and satire novel Siege; the two works are written in different languages despite of the comment that it is inappropriate to make a comparison between texts of different languages.
With the foundation laid by scholars both at home and abroad, the authorsynthesizes those ideas and makes a brief analysis of two scripts and explores the possible reasons for the similarities and differences. Unlike former research,the authorthinks that though with different nationalities, the two writers do share something in common.
III. Brief Introduction to the Two Writers
Napoleon, one of the greatest military commanders and a risk taking gambler; a workaholic genius and an impatient short term planner; a vicious cynic who forgave his closest betrayers; a misogynist who could enthrall men; Napoleon Bonaparte was all of these and more, the twice-emperor of France whose military endeavors and sheer personality dominated Europe in person for a decade, and in thought for a century. He was born on August 15th,1769 inAjaccio, Corsica and married Josephine on March, 9th,1796 inParis, France. Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background and family connections afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time.
Napoleon married Joséphine de Beauharnais in 1796, when he was twenty-six; she was a thirty-two-year-old widow whose first husband had been executed during the Revolution. Until she met Bonaparte, she had been known as 'Rose', a name which he disliked. He called her 'Joséphine' instead, and she went by this name henceforth. Bonaparte often sent her love letters while on his campaigns. It is said that he loved 'Joséphine' the most. When he was pressured to divorce with her, he couldn’t help shedding tears. He told her that he loved her, but he had to give up their love for the sake of the interest of France. Even when he was dying, the words gave out by him was the name of Joséphine. So his love for her is definitely sincere and deep. However, his wife had more than one lovers, and consequently Napoleon was neglected by her while he was not with her. The letter was written by a man longing for his wife’care to express his miss and love for her. The blaming tone cannot smother up his true and earnest affections.
Xu was born in Haining, Zhejiang and graduated from the famous HangzhouHigh School. He studied at King's College, Cambridge in England, where he fell in love with English romantic poetry like that of Keats and Shelley, and was also influenced by the French romantic and symbolist poets, some of whose works he translated into Chinese. In 1922 he went back to China and became a leader of the modern poetry movement. In 1923, he founded the Crescent Moon Society.
There were 3 women in his life, among whom Lu Xiao Man was the most controversial. Although already married herself, she involved herself in an affair with Xu and later divorced her husband to marry Xu. The couple was sweet during their courtship and early marriage. Xu died in a plane crash in 1931, the death of whom is a great loss for Chinese literature.
IV.Stylistic Analysis and Comparison of the Two Letters
4.1Similarities
[A26]The paper will deal with similarities from the perspectives of vocabulary, sentence structure and figures of speech, the three of which are the main aspects in stylistic analysis.
4.1.1Vocabulary
There is no denying that literary articles are the art of language which is the first element of literature and which is the center topic in linguistics.
To express one’s mind to the fullest, the vivid and exact language is a necessity. Only by choosing the most exact and most vivid words giving them an appropriate arrangement from the needs for expression and the very context can we make a perfect piece. This is the word choice. The words and the word pattern chosen must true to life reflect the writer’s emotions and ideas so that what he writes can evoke the approval and identity from readers. The words used should also be variegated so as to indicate the rich internal activities of writers. Since ancient times to this day, writers both at home and abroad have laid great importance on the choice of words in their works.Maupassant once said that whatever a writer writes, there is only one word that is proper: a verb should make an image vivid and an adjective need to make the nature of the subject outstanding; to reach this goal, he has to keep on searching until the very word appears. The proper choice of verbs can increase the dynamic sense of the action or the psychological activity of writers; the use of adjectives makes it easier for readers to get the concrete descriptions of the inner feelings of writers.
In the first letter, lexical anaphora is used. It means the repetition of words in initial or front position. The pattern is (a…) (a…).
In this device, words are repeated at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, stanzas or paragraphs. For example, in the first letter, “you are a wretch, truly perverse, truly stupid, a real Cinderella. You never write to me at all, you do not love your husband; you know the pleasure that your letters give him yet you cannot even manage to write him half a dozen lines, dashed off in a moment”(Napoleon 23), these sentences are initiated by the word“you”. And “What then do you do all day, Madame? What business is so vital that it robs you of the time to write to your faithful lover? What attachment can be stifling and pushing aside the love, the tender and constant love which you promised him” in this part, every interrogative sentences are initiated by “what”
Besides anaphora, anadiplosis is used in the first letter, too. In anadiplosis a word in end position in a line or sentence is repeated in initial position in the line following. The pattern is (…a) (a…), which is presented by the sentences“…, write me quickly four pages, pages full of agreeable things which shall fill my heart with the pleasantest feelings” (Napoleon 23). The skillful use of words highlights the strong affections of the writer to his love. This kind of use of language is to express the writer’s strong miss for his wife. Though he complains a lot in the letter by using a lot of negative words, such as detest;wretch; perverse;stupidand so on, these words, in fact, make his affection deeper and more earnest.
In the second letter,Xu Zhimo used the same word twice, which, on one hand, increases the rhythm of sentences, and deepens the emotion of love on the other hand. For instance, “寸寸”、“好好”、“阵阵、“生生”. Xu Zhimo, in order to express his love and concern to Lu Xiaoman, used a lot of adverbs to modify the adjectives which are exploited to describe his feelings. For example, he used “太” to modify “难受”, “绝对的” , “永久的”，etc.. In addition, Xu also used many sensorial adjectives to describe the hardship and pain experienced by Lu, such as “冷”, “痛”, “倦”.
There is one thing in common between the two letters, that is, both of the writers used lexical anaphora. In the letter written by Xu, the last part contains such sentence as“你最后的呼吸一定得明白报告这世间你的心是谁的，你的爱是谁的，你的灵魂是谁的”。（the pattern is 你---你---你---）. “我的灵，我的肉，我的“整个儿”永远在我爱的身旁放置着，永久的缠绕着。真的，龙龙！你有时真想拉你一同情死去，去到绝对的死的寂灭里去实现完全的爱，去到普通的黑暗里去寻求唯一的光明”(Xu Zhimo 44).(the pattern is 我---我---我---、去---去---去---)。
4.1.2Sentence Structure
In writings, apart from vocabulary, the sentences also needtinkering with to get correct, clear and vivid expressions. In English as well as Chinese, there are long and short sentences. Skillful writers exploit variation in sentence length to great effect to express different moods or attitudes, to describe action or events or to emphasize a point.Long sentences are those that are long and contain many words with complicated structures. Due to these the reason that long sentences are profound in intension, strict precise and exquisite in expression, they tend to be used to present questions exactly, or to express tactful feelings. On the other hand, short sentences with their simple structures can be brief, lively and straightforward in expressions, which make them more often used to express vehement emotions, pressing tones and tense occasions. Of course, negative and positives sentences are frequently made use of in literary works. The combination of long, short, negative and positive as well as other kinds of sentences will intensifies the mood and tone making the intended meanings clearer.
Language is an extraordinary tool created by man. In fact, tools are invented to serve two purposes: practical and aesthetic. In terms of the linguistics, sentence structures contain two significances. That is to say, in addition to the practical significance, they also of aesthetic importance. The balanced application of sentence structures can make the whole text fluent and smooth.Francis Bacon is an expert in the use of sentences. His Of Studies is a masterpiece in which diversified sentence structures are exploited to achieve the force and enlightment. Skillful use of sentence structures can achieve metrical effects. Whenever we read Of Studies, we find it rhythmical and catchy. The two letters do exploit various sentences to indicate their emotions,