文体与修辞考试复习3

1、Class Discussion1. What are the major uses of long and short sentences? What do you think of them?2. What is the usual information structure in complex sentences? Please give examples to support your idea.3. What does a good sentence mean to you? Please give examples to support your idea.1Session 3

2、Syntactic Devices (II) From the rhetorical point of view, sentences can be labeled as loose, periodic and balanced.1. The loose sentence (the right-branching sentence) Major features:(1) The loose sentence is so called because it is somewhat loosely constructed; it may generally be stopped somewhere

3、 before the end and yet make grammatically complete sense. 2Example 1: The willow shadow suggests a young woman, | with her long hair flowing in the wind.Example 2: The mist had lifted from the city below, | and all the streets and open places were with noisy buyers | and sellers, | whose loud talki

4、ng and disputing came up | in a continuous hum, | like the drone of a swarm of bees.3(2) In a loose sentence, the main idea is put at the beginning of the sentence, and supportive or qualifying information comes after it.Example 3: We stood at the kitchen door, | studying the sky beyond the sycamore

5、 tree （埃及榕）（埃及榕）. Example 4: Dawn came as a relief, | with a gesture of coolness,| and we tumbled out of bed, | almost sick with excitement.4(3) There is no climax in the loose sentence. The sentence rolls on, for an easy, natural presentation of ideas or numerating facts or ideas of equal importanc

6、e. Example 5: He undertook to cook the breakfast, | so that Mother could have time to herself | to dress | at more leisure | and take stocks of all the luggage, | the locking up of the house, | the final arrangements5about a cat | and a hundred other minor responsibilities | anyone of which would ha

7、ve lain under her holiday | like the rose petal under the mattress of the little princess. Compound sentences are loose. A complex sentence is loose if the main clause comes before the subordinate clause.6Example 6: She was interested in music, but she finally came to this institute to study English

8、.Example 7: Finally she came to this institute to study English, though she was interested in music.2. The periodic sentence (the left-branching sentence) The periodic sentence is the opposite of the loose sentence.7 Major features:(1) The periodic sentence is so constructed that the meaning is not

9、complete until the last word is reached and it is not grammatically complete until the end is reached.Example 8: With its long twigs flowing in the wind, the willow shadow suggests a young woman.8Example 9: Though she was interested in music, she finally came to this institute to study English.Examp

10、le 10: The old man who is talking to these children is a famous scientist.(2) The periodic sentence has its main idea at the end of the sentence, with supportive or qualifying statements placed before the main clause or assertion.9Example 11: As we paddled southwest past the candle factory, the rain

11、 beat against us.Example 12: With his fine Roman nose, his clear grey eyes, black moustache, surmounted by the white-bound helmet of gold, he looked like a crusader（十字军军人）十字军军人）10(3) The periodic sentence, especially a long one, is used to cause a feeling of suspension, attract attention from the re

12、ader and achieve dramatic climax.Example 13: In the nineteen-fifties, for reasons that were never known to me, for my relations with academic administration have often been somewhat painful, I was made a trustee of Radcliffe College.11Example 14: Softened as my thoughts of all the men were in that d

13、ire extremity; humbly beseeching pardon, as I did, of Heaven; melted at heart, as I was, that I had taken no farewell, and never now could take farewell, of those who were dear to me, or could explain myself to them, or ask for their compassion for my miserable errors; still, if I could have killed

14、him, even in dying, I would have done it.123. Sentences partly loose and partly periodic Sentences are not necessarily loose or periodic throughout; it often happens that the two types work well in a sentence, that is, a sentence may be partly loose and partly periodic.Example 15: When she left her

15、own house, the poor little girl had had slippers on, but they were of no use, because they were very big slippers, and her mother had used them until then, so big were they.13 Comment: As a whole, the sentence is loose. But it begins like a periodic sentence, and would be one if it stopped at “on”.E

16、xample 16: And when it was all over, and we began to discuss what he had said, all talking at the top of their voices, very superficially, no doubt, but certainly with a great deal of enthusiasm, it was with a sudden shock that I realized that Masefield had retired into his shell, and was sitting on the floor, almost in the dark, reading a volume of poems by a young and quite unknown poems by a young and quite unknown writer.writer. 14 Comment: As a whole, the sentence is periodic. But it contains quite a number of loose part