英语文体学Chapter 6 Syntactic Overregularity

Chapter 6 Syntactic Overregularity Syntactic overregularity in literature is revealed mainly in the repetition of certain linguistic units of a text and in parallelism where some features vary while others are kept constant Let us examine each of these phenomena 6 1 Repetition All the overregular features in literature are in some sense repetitious The term repetition therefore is restricted to mean the case of exact copying of a certain previous unit in a text such as a word phrase or even a sentence Leech 1969 6 1 1 Immediate Repetition Repetition may be immediate i e the repeated unit immediately follows the initial unit Take this stanza in a Dylan Thomas poem for example 1 Do not go gentle into that good night Old age should burn and rave at close of day Rage rage against the dying of light Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night The lexical item rage in the last line of the stanza is repeated immediately If we read the whole poem through we may actually find that the last line of this stanza is the second refrain of the poem and rage appears eight times in this poem This fact shows that great emphasis is laid on the item and also on the whole line which expresses the central theme of the poem one should struggle violently against death It should also be noted that the vowel sound ei is in assonance with the ei sound in the preceding line Hence the repetition serves to combine the lines together and to give unity to the idea expressed Another example of immediate repetition is found in a beautifully written poem partly quoted below 2 Gold Gold Gold Gold Bright and yellow hard and cold Molten graven hammer d and roll d Heavy to get and light to hold Thomas Hood What is most striking about these lines is that the word Gold is repeated four times Reinforced by the capitalization of the first letter of the word and the exclamation mark the word attracts much attention to itself Instead of being monotonous and redundant the repetition here shows the poet s great intensity of feeling when talking about gold Now let us consider a poem where a whole line is immediately repeated 3 The woods are lovely dark and deep But I have promises to keep And miles to go before I sleep And miles to go before I sleep R Frost Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening The repetition of the line makes the reader think hard about what it actually means When he does so he may realize that the line is probably metaphorical in nature One possible interpretation he might arrive at is that there is a long way to go before I die The repetition also shows that the speaker is rather weary of the journey he takes 6 1 2 Intermittent Repetition Another type of repetition is intermittent repetition known as ploce in traditional rhetoric The following is a good example of this kind 4 O how that name befits my composition Old Gaunt indeed and gaunt in being old Shakespeare Richard What is interesting about this case is that the second occurrence of the lexical item gaunt is used ambiguously Here the speaker John of Gaunt is punning on his own name The repetition here vividly captures the emotional state of the speaker his utter despair at his old age and at his health condition Now let us consider another example of intermittent repetition 5 Not many lives but only one have we One only one Anonymous Only One Life The word one is repeated intermittently three times and the word only twice This greatly emphasizes the fact that there is only one life for a person and suggests that one should really treasure it 6 2 Parallelism Parallelism means exact repetition in equivalent positions It differs from simple repetition in that the identity does not extend to absolute duplication It requires some variable feature of the pattern some contrasting elements which are parallel with respect to their position in the pattern Leech 1969 66 Various cases of parallelism have been traditionally classified according to the position of the identical elements For example the type of parallelism whose identical part is in the initial position has been given the label anaphora However we will not include this classification here for we believe that it is not very helpful for interpreting literary works What we will do instead is classify parallelism into two major types according to its size large scale parallelism and small scale parallelism and discuss the rhetorical functions of each of the types 6 2 1 Large scale Parallelism By large scale parallelism we mean the kind which consists of more than two juxtaposed units Look at the example in the following poem by Wordsworth 6 My Heart Leaps Up My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky So was it when my life began So is it now I am a man So be it when I shall grow old Or let me die The Child is father of the Man And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety In this poem the poet has successfully expressed his great reverence for nature which goes beyond the bounds of the past present and future The theme is brought out chiefly by the parallelism which exists in lines 3 4 and 5 Firstly the sameness of structure implies the sameness in meaning This shows that the speaker hopes that his response to seeing a rainbow remains the same throughout his life Secondly and more importantly the emotional feeling expressed gets stronger after each juxtaposed unit reaching its climax in the final parallel unit Reinforced by the imperative mood and the meaning of the line following it line 5 most effectively expresses the speaker s strong determination for continuing to hold a deep love and respect for nature A point needs to be made at this juncture That is the climax is usually marked by a slight change in the pattern This point can be further demonstrated by an example from Shakespeare 7 If you prick us do we not bleed If you tickle us do we not laugh If you poison us do we not die And if you wrong us shall we not revenge The Merchant of Venice The fourth juxtaposed unit which is the climactic point is slightly different from the preceding lines in that it has the conjunction and and the modal auxiliary shall in replacement of the auxiliary do The conjunction and makes the line prominent and the auxiliary shall forms a contrast with do in the preceding lines The final juxtaposed unit not only makes the cause effect relation much more apparent but also demonstrates the speaker s strong volition for taking revenge We have considered two examples of large scale parallelism which function to form climax It would be incorrect however to conclude from this that large scale parallelism only functions to form climaxes The following example will reveal that this is not the case 8 The seed ye sow another reaps The wealth ye find another keeps The robes ye weave another wears The arms ye forge another bears P B Shelley Song to the Men of England Each of the juxtaposed units above seems to be of equal weight Putting together these units strongly reinforce the degree of contrast made within each line Interestingly a further example of large scale parallelism is found in only one line 9 I came I saw I conquered Julius Caesar This is indeed a very significant line in terms of its clause structure Firstly we may notice that the three clauses are short in length and simple in structure and arranged in chronological order This generates a feeling that the acts of coming seeing and conquering were simple and were completed one after another in quick succession Secondly we can see that the three clauses have the same structure i e they form a parallelism The structural equation of the three clauses suggests an equation of meaning Caesar s statement thus implies that for him the conquering was as easy as coming and seeing This then exhibits Caesar s majestic arrogance Large scale parallelism is also found in fictional prose Consider the example in the following passage 10 He stood behind his desk in the far end of the dim room The wife liked him She liked the deadly serious way he received any complaints She liked his dignity She liked the way he wanted to serve her She liked the way he felt about being a hotel keeper She liked his old heavy face and big hands Hemingway Cat in the Rain Out of a total of seven sentences in this paragraph six may be said to be parallel These six sentences share the same sentence pattern subject verb object The verb liked is repeated in all the six sentences and the subject she in five of the sentences The subject the wife in the second sentence is referentially the same as she The piling up of the parallel sentences emphasizes the point that the wife liked the hotel keeper in many ways The points that the wife liked about the hotel keeper are just what was lacking in her husband For contrast read the following passage of the same story 11 I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel she said I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her Yeah George said from the bed And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes Oh shut up and get something to read George said He was reading again His wife was looking out of the window It was quite dark now and still raining in the palm trees Anyway I want a cat she said I want a cat I want a cat now If I can t have long hair or any fun I can have a cat George was not listening He was reading his book His wife looked out of the window where the light had come on in the square This passage also contains instances of parallelism The parallelism in each instance is formed with I want as the repeated part Interestingly the parallelism later turned to mere repetition This fact shows that the wife really wanted certain things However the husband simply ignored her and sometimes even got irritated It seemed that the wife was in some way just like that poor uncared for cat in the rain with which the story unfolds It is little wonder that she developed a liking for the old hotel keeper who did everything to satisfy her The story ends with the wife being sent a cat by the hotel keeper Another excellent example of large scale parallelism in fictional prose is found in the first chapter of Dickens Bleak House 12 Fog everywhere Fog up the river where it flows among green aits and meadows fog down the river where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great and dirty city Fog on the Essex marshes fog on the Kentish heights Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier brigs fog lying out on the yards and hovering in the rigging of great ships fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners wheezing by the firesides of their wards fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper down in his close cabin fog cruelly pinching the toes and the fingers of his shivering little prentice boy on deck Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog with fog all round them as if they were up in a balloon and hanging in the misty clouds Gas looming through the fog in diverse places in the streets much as the sun may from the spongy fields be seen to loom by husbandman and ploughboy Most of the shops lighted two hours before their time as the gas seems to know for it has a haggard and unwilling look The raw afternoon is rawest and the dense fog is densest and the muddy streets are muddiest near that leaden headed old obstruction appropriate ornament for the threshold of a leaden headed old corporation Temple Bar And hard by Temple Bar in Lincoln s Inn Hall at the very heart of the fog sits the Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery The parallelism in the first paragraph is indeed very large in scale It consists of eleven juxtaposed units The parallel structure can be described as follows subject predicate The predicate is elliptical and consists of either a prepositional phrase which may have further embeddings or a non finite verbal phrase The significance of this parallelism is at least two fold In the first place the repeated element consists of only one word fog and it occurs at the beginning of each juxtaposed unit This makes the element highly marked Its repeated occurrence here generates a mood of dense depression It is in such a setting that the story unfolds Most interestingly the character that first appears in the novel is the Lord High Chancellor who may be seen as representing law and authority Ironically however he sits at the centre of the fog One can then easily imagine whether or not he can see things clearly and pass fair judgement Secondly we may find that the parallelism functions to knit the paragraph together so that it is highly cohesive and logical The first parallel unit which happens to be the first sentence is a summative statement the following units except the last one simply set out to exemplify it This point can be seen from the table below Subject Verb Adverbial fog everywhere fog up the river fog down the river fog on the Essex marshes fog on the Kentish heights fog creeping into the cabooses fog lying out on the yards hovering in the rigging of great ships fog drooping on the gunwale fog in the eyes and throats fog in the stem and bowl This is only a crude representation of the structure of the first ten parallel units All the expressions in the right column are semantically called locatives The relation between the word everywhere and the rest of the locatives is one of inclusion Everywhere may be viewed as the superordinate and the rest of the locatives may simply be regarded as its hyponyms Thus we can see the highly cohesive nature of this paragraph Large scale parallelism is also found in the third paragraph of the passage Being aware of the length of this section we now hasten to point out that this parallelism contributes a great deal to the depiction of a gloomy setting for the novel 6 2 2 Small scale Parallelism Small scale parallelism is the case which consists of only two juxtaposed units Consider the examples below 13 O my luve is like a red red rose That s newly sprung in June O my luve is like the melodie That s sweetly play d in tune Robert Burns A Red Red Rose 14 His fees were high his lessons were light O Henry In Burns example the first two lines run parallel to the last two The bond between the two units is one of similarity What they have in common is that they both express the speaker s admiration and love for his beloved In contrast the second example presents a strong contrast between the two juxtaposed units The difference in function may be tested by inserting but in between the two juxtaposed units In the second example we may insert but in between the two juxtaposed units In the first example however we cannot insert it without changing the original meaning of the lines When small scale parallelism is combined with an implication of contrast it is referred to as antithesis in rhetoric The following are two more examples 15 Not that I loved Caesar less but that I loved Rome more Shakespeare Julius Caesar 16 To err is human to forgive devine Pope An Essay on Criticism Before concluding this section let us look at a more complicated case of small scale parallelism An Irish Airman Foresees his Death 1 I know that I shall meet my fate 2 Somewhere among the clouds above 3 Those that I fight I do not hate 4 Those that I guard I do not love 5 My country is Kiltartan Cross 6 My countrymen Kiltartan s poor 7 No likely end could bring them loss 8 Or leave them happier than before 9 Nor law nor duty bade me fight 10 Nor public men nor cheering crowds 11 A lonely impulse of delight 12 Drove to this tumult in the clouds 13 I balanced all brought all to mind 14 The years to come seemed waste of breath 15 A waste of breath the years behind 16 In balance with this life this death W B Yeats Lines three and four of this poem have identical structure and rhythm Their difference lies in that each of the two verbs in line three is antonymous with the verb in the same position in line four Thus the parallelism urges a strong contrast between each pair of antonyms However phonological and syntactic equivalence usually has the effect to imply sameness of meaning The opposition set up by each pair of antonyms here is neutralized and the two antonymous items are made to mean more or less the same thing in this context Therefore we may say that for the speaker there is no essential difference between fighting those you do not hate and guarding those you do not love Fighting it seems to him is the same thing as guarding and hating amounts to the same thing as loving Once such fundamentally different concepts are reduced to the same thing life becomes entirely pointless The parallelism here therefore carries a strong note of fatalism Exercises 1 Discuss the following questions 1 What is meant by repetition 2 How do you distinguish immediate repetition from intermittent repetition 3 What is meant by parallelism 4 What seems to be the chief function of large scale parallelism 2 Consider the stylistic effects of the repetitions in the poems below 1 The Song of the Lower Classes We re low we re low we re very very low As low as low can be The rich are high for they make them so And a miserable lot are we And a miserable lot are we are we A miserable lot are we We plough and sow we re so very very low That we delve in the dirty clay Till we bless the plain with the golden grain And the vale with the fragrant hay Our place we know we re so very low Tis down at the landlord s feet We re not too low the bread to grow But too low the bread to eat We re low we re low etc Down down we go we re so very very low To the hell of the deep sunk mines But we gather the proudest gems that glow When the crown of a despot shines And whenever he