英语文体与修辞课件：+Lecture+2

Lecture 2 Phonological Rhetoric and Stylistics

Step I lead-in

William Somerset Maugham(1874-1965): “Words have sound, weight and appearance, and only by considering this can you write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to.”

Leibniz认为人类的原始语言是根据拟声原则而创造出来的。

如：尽管语言体系不同，但是爸妈的发音却是如此相近。“妈妈”称呼在英语中是mum，法语中是maman，俄语中是MaMa，德语中是Mama；“爸爸”，在英语也称为papa，法语称为papa，德语称为papa。

《论语·里仁》解释为“子曰：‘父母之年，不可不知也。一则以喜，一则以惧。’”，即“父”、“母”是模拟婴儿高兴、恐惧时发出的无意识自然呼唤声而误会成的拟声词。

（陈北郊1999）

Step II Sound symbolism

Two large categories of sound speech: Consonants and V owels

The description of English consonants

Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns, and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.

Alexander Pope(1688-1744)

“The sound must seem an echo to the sense.”

语音和思想必须产生共鸣。

Certain sound clusters may relate to Sound symbolism or Phonaesthesia (语音象征,音义联觉,或语音感觉)---sounds felt to be in some way appropriate to the meanings expressed. Phonaesthesia occurs when certain sounds become associated with certain meanings, even though they do not attempt to imitate the sound.

1. Length of sound

He claps the crag with crooked hands.

[k], [p], [g], [d]

[æ], [u]

短音很好地烘托出了岩鹰和岩石的刚毅坚硬, 传神般描绘了锐眼利爪, 凶猛强悍的山鹰高居峭岩之上而雄视八方的威风与气慨。

2. Openness of the mouth

Crash, splash, splosh, vast

pip, splish, teeny, weeny, wee, bit, mini

3. Front, middle, and back vowels

here

there

Gloomy, boom, loom

4. Voiced and unvoiced consonants

[pip], [tit]

[bib], [did]

5. Obscurity of consonants

一般而言:响度越大,音长越长,所指距离越远

英语语音的响度升序排列为:

[p t k] < [b d ] < [s fθ] < [z v ]< [m n] < [ l] < [ r] < [ i u] < [e o] <[a]

如：塞音(如/p, b, t, k/)多描述短促突然的声响和动作,如bop击打, pop爆声, tap踢踏, tick滴答声。

阻塞大的音会给人以力量大，响亮的感觉，相反就会给人以轻柔的感觉

He rammed the door shut.

He clicked the door shut.

Clicked 的响亮度就显然比rammed 的响亮度大的许多.

7. Phonaesthetic series

[θ]: this, that, they, their, the, thus, then

--- 指示性的代词、副词、形容词等

[w]: what, which, where, why, who, when, whether…

--- 强调疑问性质的疑问词

[gl]: gleam, glaze, glare, glisten, glow, glass, glim, glint, glory…

--- 光，发光

I see advancing upon all this in hideous onslaught the Nazi war machine, with its clanking, heel–clicking, dandified offic ers …

its clanking, heel–clicking: Onomatopoeia

Analyze:

Cl- : at the beginning of a word can suggesting sth. Sharp and/ or metallic

Clang: a loud ringing noise

Clank: a dull metallic noise, not as loud as clang

Clash: a loud broken, confused noise as when metal objects strike together

Clink: the sound of small bits of mental or glass knocking together

Click: a short sharp sound

Example 1:

A Rain Song (Clinton Scollard) :

With its little patter, patter

And its clatter, clatter

And its silvery spatter, spatter

诗人在每行最后重复响亮的/er/音,加上每行1至2次/i/音的配合,生动地描写了淅淅沥沥,滴滴嗒嗒如同音乐般的雨声,从而烘托出诗人聆听雨声的一番情趣。

Example 2:

•Song :Hark, Hark! (Shakespeare)

Hark, hark!

Bow-wow

The watch-dogs bark!

Bow-wow

Hark, hark! I hear

The strain of strutting chanticleer.

Cry, “Cock-a-doodle-doo!”

在诗中莎士比亚用了bark(犬吠)，bow-wow(汪汪叫)，cock-a-doole-doo (喔喔啼)等拟声词，还多次使用与bark,谐音的hark(听)，大大增强了拟声词的音响效果。