论英语语法在语篇中的修辞功能.doc

论英语语法在语篇中的修辞功能论英语语法在语篇中的修辞功能广东茂名学院外语系 徐义云*徐义云（1954.6-），男，江西丰城市人，现任广东茂名学院师范学院外语系教师兼师范学院副院长，英语副教授，文学学士；研究方向：英语语法、英语修辞和大学英语教学；通讯地址：广东省茂名学院师范学院（官渡校区）；邮政编码：525000；电话0668-2923513；电子邮箱：，xyy_088126.com摘 要：语法是语言的组织规律，讲的是语言的结构形式。语法不仅有助我们写出正确无误的句子和文字连贯、通顺完整的语篇，语法还具有修饰语言的作用，可使语篇的语言具有表情达意、生动、形象、逼真等修辞功效。本文主要论述了十种语法形式（如动词的时体、非限定动词、情态动词、虚拟语气、数词、省略、倒装、重复、长短句和平行结构等）的修辞功能。关键词： 语法 语篇 修辞功能语法是语言的组织规律，讲的是语言的结构形式。语法不仅可以帮助我们写出正确无误的句子和文字连贯、通顺、完整的语篇，语法在语篇中还有修辞功能。恰当地运用一些语法形式，可使语言更具有表情达意、生动形象之功效。在语篇中，具有修辞功能的语法形式很多。但由于篇幅的限制，本文只论述动词的时体、非限定动词、情态动词、虚拟语气、数词、省略、倒装、重复、长短句和平行结构等的修辞功能。1动词的时体动词的时（tense）体（aspect）是一个语法范畴。前者是表示时间区别的动词形式，后者表示动作或过程在一定时间内处于何种状态的动词形式。一个动词的时、体不仅可以表示出这个动词所发生的动作的时间和体态，在一些创造性作家手中，也可用作为一种修饰语言的技巧，使常规语言变得生动、形象、逼真。例如：_Has there been any news of the Browns? I hear they had trouble last month. _Tom tells me there was nothing serious. 1属于口语体的这组对话，用一般现在时表示过去发生的动作或情况，显得生动活泼，而且这样用的动词常常带有声响意味，给人以“声犹在耳”之感。A wood fire was burning on the hearth, and a cat was sleeping in front of it. A girl was playing the piano and singing softly to herself. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. The girl stopped playing. The cat woke up. 2连续使用四个进行体，在我们眼前呈现出一幅生动的冬日傍晚的画面，一派安闲自得的气氛弥漫在空气之中，为后来动作发生得突兀作个铺垫，接着一连三个一般过去时，不仅先后顺序使人一目了然，而且有“风云突变”之感，宁静的氛围消失了，代之以紧张的空气。2非限定动词不定式、动名词和分词都是非限定动词。它们不仅可以表达短语或从句的意思，也可以表达句子的意思，因而在一些文学作品中使用的非限定动词，常常不仅是为了语法上的需要，也是出于修辞的考虑，因为非限定动词可以使文章显得更加生动活泼。例如：School teachers stood by, instructors were there, but the children were completely free and uninhabited, dancing round, splashing, ducking, and jumping in again and again. 3作者连续使用了四个现在分词（短语），生动地描绘出了孩子们在游泳池里嬉戏，天真活泼的场面。That agreed with what I had heard in my home in Tennessee, and I told the old man so. At once the villagers formed a circle and started moving around me, dancing and singing to the music from a kora. It was a ceremony to welcome home a son long lost. 4作者在此只用了一个动名词和两个现在分词就把非洲黑人在见到失落已久的儿子重返家园之时的兴奋心情表达得淋漓尽致，生动地描绘出了一个亲人久别重逢、家人团聚的动人场面。3情态动词情态动词是表情绪和态度、表感情状态的助动词。虽然它们数量有限，却使用频率很高。在许多作家的文学作品中，有着无数运用情态动词作为修辞手段的典型范例。请看：Soapy listened to the music, looked at the moon and murmured to himself: “There is time yet. I will reform. I will become an honest. I will get out of the mire, I will” 3小偷苏比多次想进牢房未能如愿后，来到一座古老的教堂面前，被礼拜天赞美诗动人的音乐所吸引。他听着音乐，望着明月，回想起过去生活中所拥有的母爱、玫瑰以及纯洁无暇的思想与衣领等高尚的东西，顿感自己应该弃恶从善、重新做人。文中情态动词 “will”的反复出现表达了苏比要悔过自新、改邪归正、摆脱罪恶的渊薮的一种值得称道的心愿。When Kizzy was four or five, the African would take her by the hand and lead her round the farm and teach her names of things in his native tongueIn the slave cabin, he would point out a banjo or a guitar and say one syllable, ko When Waller gave him the English name, “Toby”, he would shake his head and say his name was Kin-tay. 4作家阿利克斯.哈利使用情态动词 “would” 描述了老非洲肯泰不甘为奴，有着强烈的民族自尊和热爱自己民族文化的优秀品质。4虚拟语气虚拟语气除了表达一种与事实相反的条件、假设、愿望等之外，还具有一种心理学和社会学功用。一些作家就利用这种心理学和社会学效应，运用虚拟语气于作品中，收到了良好的修辞效果。例如：Wife: “ All your money is to be mine absolutely of course. Not just a life interest, One would think you were afraid I would marry again.”Husband: “ One would think you looked forward to my dying next week. My money! If you were to invest it badly and lose it I tell you I couldnt lie quiet in my grave if I thought my money was lost by injudicious investments.” _from The Will by James Matthew Barrie妻子不愿意在她的生年只能得到丈夫这笔钱的利息，她要把这笔钱全拿在手里。于是，她竭斯底里大发作，而丈夫则尽力不让妻子把钱弄到手。夫妻两都用虚拟语气发泄情绪。Easton: “Its a great pity that we ever had the things at all. It would have been much better to have gone without until we could pay cash for them; but you would have your way, of course.”Ruth: “But you were just as much in favor of getting them as I was. You remember how the wind used to come up between the floor boards and if we hadnt got the oil cloth there would have been illness in the house.” 3伊斯顿利用虚拟语气悔恨自己为买家具等物品欠下了还不清的债。然而不明事理的他，却认为这是妻子的过错。多次责怪妻子露丝没有管好家，妻子只好默默的忍受，但最后她实在受不了那种委屈，用虚拟语气反驳丈夫对自己的责备不公。5. 数词英语数词也有它的修辞功能。如能匠心独用，常能增强语言的表达力，收到明显的修辞效果。例如：It was 3:30 PM on Monday, April, 1945, ten days after Adolf Hitlers fifty-six birthday, and twelve years and three months to a day since he had become Chancellor of Germany and had instituted the Third Reich. It would survived him but a week.5作者通过这些精确的数字，对当年曾骄横不可一世，悍然发动第二次世界大战，妄图征服全世界，到头来却落得死无葬身之地的可耻下场的希特勒及其所建立的第三帝国，进行了入木三分的辛辣的讽刺。整段话里没用一个贬义词，仅运用了数词，然讥讽之意，尽在不言中。Stand still in Shanghai for two minutes and ten million people will rush at you like pins at magnet. 6作者使用两个相差十万八千里的数字对照使用，夸张地描绘了上海人口之多、交通之拥挤。Splendid cheeses they were, ripe and mellow, and with a two hundred horse-power scent about them that might have warranted to carry three miles, and knock a man over at two hundred yards. 6作者利用200马力，3 英里和200码对奶酪的气味竭尽夸张之能事，意境浓厚，幽默风趣溢于言表，使人如嗅其味，如临其境。6省略省略是一种避免重复、突出关键词语并使上下文紧密连接的语法手段。正确使用它，可使句子结构紧凑，意义突出，语言果断、有力、自然或亲昵，例如：Tom is (playing for the school), Peter will be (playing for the school), and Harold might be, playing for the school.此句通过省略，不但句子结构紧凑，而且句中几个关键词的意义也被突出了。“what I want to talk to you about now, De Sota, is London and its underground system”“ London! You dont say, Chief. Great! I knew youd do something, chief! I knew it! ”“ Thanks, De Sota,” commented Cowperwood at this point. “I thought it might interest you.”“ Interest me, Chief!” returned Sippens, excitedly. (Dreiser) 7这段对话中的几个省略句“London ! you dont say, Chief, Great!”, “Interest me, chief!” 都简短、明确、有力。Then we came to the grasslands. Marshes everywhere. No birds! No trees! No houses! Not a soul to be seen. 8在这段描述中，作者巧妙地运用了单句。用省略句构成排比句式，文字流畅，节奏鲜明，加强了表达效果，使一幅荒无人烟的场面镜头般地展现在读者的面前。7倒装倒装也是一种修辞方式，其作用主要是能够加强语气，显示对句中某一部分的强调。例如：So I gave her six pences-yes, we try to buy ourselves out of it. And home I went and ate a good dinner. 7句中And home中的home就从I went 的后面提到了句首，具有鲜明的强调性质。突出了它在句中的意义。Great and spacious and beautiful is our beloved motherland. 7句中表语移到句首而不放在句末，突出了其意义，加强了语气。句子更显得感情强烈、充沛，表达了说话人对自己祖国的热爱之情。在状语倒装中，表示行为方向或性质的副词倒装常造成句子的新节奏，新韵律，表现出活动的迅速性。例如：“Stop thief! Stop thief!” the cry is taken up by a hundred voices，and the crowd accumulate at every turning. Away they fly, splashing through the mud, up go the windows, out ran the people. (Dickens) 7末尾一句里，作者一连用了三个倒装：Away up out 制造了一种紧张、急促的气氛 。8. 重复一般来说写作应力求简练，尽量省略一些可有可无之词。但在特定的情景中，有意识地重复一些关键性的词句或短语却能起到良好的修辞效果。重复的修辞作用主要在于突出重点、加深印象、抒发强烈的情感。例如：Eisenhower has been faulted for a less than solid mastery of operational concepts, but his skill in personal diplomacy and managing staff work and his patience, quick learning ability and keen insight into others abilities and limitations were exactly what was called for at a time when Allied success depended upon solid British-American cooperation.9同义词重复是修辞一忌，但引文中前一个solid是外界的批评，后一个solid却是重大贡献。通过重复构成对照，有利于突出题旨，加深印象。Lear: And my poor fool is hanged. No, no, no life! Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, and thou no breath at all ? Thoull come no more. Never, never, never, never, never! 9当李尔王得知其爱女考蒂丽娅被绞死之后，呼天抢地、悲痛欲绝，连续使用 “No”和 “Never”两词，重复多遍，以此来抒发自己内疚、悔恨、痛苦和绝望的感情。With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a tone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. 61963年8月28日，华盛顿举行大规模的黑人集会，马丁路德金牧师在会上发表了他那永载史册的著名演讲我有一个梦想。感情的激越，文采的飞扬，思想的升华，采用气势磅礴的排比形式，又有目的地重复一些词汇和短语，但却没有一点点矫情和斧凿的痕迹，而字字珠玑，掷地有声，回环耳际，振聋发聩。这正是崇高的思想内容借助巧妙的修辞所产生的威力。9长、短句所谓长、短句，一般是从句子的长短和词的多少来说的。短句可以是简单句或并列句，甚至是复合句。但一般来说，简单句较短，多半是短句，并列句和复合句结构较复杂，多半是长句。其修辞功能大致可概括为：简单句通俗简明，观点明确, 叙述清楚；并列句由于重复对称，用于叙述则印象深刻，用于说理则强劲有力；复合句主从相随，内容丰富，层次清楚，结构严谨。例如：Lanny picked up his cases and walked along the sandy track. This was the road home. Soon now he would get there. Soon now he would hear the simple Afrikaans of the old folk. Soon now he would see Mabel. Yes, this was the road home. He bit his lips and held his head high. He stepped onto the grass as the lorry went past. Something wet struck his check. He wiped the spittle away 6这是英国作家亚伯拉罕所著The Path of Thunder（霹雳前程）一书中的一段。它由一组短句组成，读起来轻松、流畅、简短、明快、有力。It was through the ability to reconcile these two contradictions that we were able to bring about a peaceful transformation in our country, and to confound the prophets of doom who predicted that there would never be a peaceful changes in our country, that any attempt to bring about changes would engulf South Africa in rivers of blood. 6这是一个既有主从关系又有并列关系的复合句。主句是一个强语势的句子，它带有一个定语从句（who predicted）， 这个定语从句又带有两个宾语从句，而且这两个宾语从句之间又没有使用连接词，形成了一种无连接关系。句子结构紧凑，逻辑性强，内容丰富。英语是一种线性文字。尽管长、短句在语篇中有着各自的修辞功能，但是，写一篇文章，作一个讲演，如果通篇用的都是短句或长句，往往会给人以句式单调乏味之感觉。因此，在写作过程中，我们要做到长短结合，简单句与复合句的灵活交替运用，唯如此才能激发读者的兴趣，增加句子的美感和文章的立体感，体现文章的生命力。10平行结构英语的平行结构具有结构整齐、节奏明快、表达简练、语义突出的特点。因为它句式匀称，音韵铿锵，一气贯下，能有效增强语势，表达强烈的思想感情，说明深刻的道理。用于叙事，可使语义畅达、层次清楚；用于抒情，能收到节奏和谐、感情奔放的效果。 例如：during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favor. 6由介词without的三个宾语词组构成的平行结构，节奏鲜明，语气强烈，情绪激昂，读起来好像约翰逊博士就在眼前，正对着切斯特菲尔伯爵发泄满腔的悲怨。It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, -and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 6以上这段文字出自美国总统林肯在葛底斯堡烈士公墓落成典礼上的讲演。整篇讲演仅有十句话，历时三分钟。但其措词精练，感情深沉，意义深刻，它已成为演讲的经典名篇。这是演讲的最后部分，也是最后一句话。在这最后一句中，作者运用了一个含有四个由that同位语从句组成的平行结构，深刻而有力地阐明学习英烈要见诸行动，努力完成他们的未尽之业。另外，其中包孕的另一个三项式的平行结构government of the people, by the people, for the people已成为千古名句。以上论述了十种语法形式在语篇中的修辞功能。其实，英语中具有修辞功能的语法形式远不止这些。例如前置、后置、替代、存在句、助动词 、强调结构等的修辞功能在此都未论及。从语法所具有的这些修辞功能我们可以看到，语法不仅仅是遣词造句，连句成段，连段成篇的规则，如恰当运用于语篇中，还可使语言变得生动、形象、逼真，达到最佳表达效果。因此，学好语法并掌握一些语法的修辞功能对写好文章是有好处的。 参考文献1. 黄 任. 分析英语语法M. 上海：上海外语教育出版社. 1998. 61.2. 章振邦. 新编英语语法教程M. 上海：上海外语教育出版社. 1991. 130.3. 许国章. 英语（第三册）M. 北京：商务印书馆. 1979. 171-195.4. 许国章. 英语（第四册）M. 北京：商务印书馆. 1979. 13-24.5. 李荫华. 大学英语（精读第三册）M. 上海：上海外语教育出版社. 1998. 202.6. 李树德、冯奇. 英语修辞简明教程M. 上海：复旦大学出版社. 2003. 61-120.7. 谢祖钧. 新编英语修辞M. 长沙：中南大学出版社. 2002. 59-70.8. 郑声淘. 学海采珠（下）C. 成都：成都科技大学出版社. 1996. 526-528.9. 范家材. 英语修辞赏析M. 上海：上海交通大学出版社. 1996. 151. （责任编辑：潘娟、陈雯、薛睿）（上接第22页）9Naiman, N. The Good Language Learner. Research in Education Series No. 7. Toronto: The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. 1978.10Nicholas, Ralck G., & Stevens, A. Leonard. Are You Listening? New York: McGraw-Hill. 1957.11Seliger, H. Does Practice Make Perfect? A Study of Interaction Patterns