賈 靜
(安徽建筑大學(xué),合肥 230601)
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語篇銜接手段研究
賈靜
(安徽建筑大學(xué),合肥 230601)
摘要:語篇銜接手段在語篇構(gòu)建及語篇理解中具有舉足輕重的作用,了解并掌握語篇銜接手段對英語學(xué)習(xí)及英語應(yīng)用至關(guān)重要。通過舉例分析,介紹語法銜接手段和詞匯銜接手段的特點(diǎn),研究其在語篇構(gòu)建中的積極作用及其在實(shí)現(xiàn)語意連貫中的效果,以期對英語學(xué)習(xí)及其應(yīng)用有所裨益。
關(guān)鍵詞:語篇銜接;語篇連貫;語法銜接手段;詞匯銜接手段
銜接就等同于表達(dá)小句間和小句以上單位意義聯(lián)系和把語境與語篇聯(lián)系起來的謀篇意義[1]109。語篇銜接是實(shí)現(xiàn)語篇連貫的重要手段,運(yùn)用語篇銜接手段構(gòu)建連貫的語篇是英文寫作的主要目的;從語篇銜接手段中推斷出語篇的意義,理解其產(chǎn)生的整體效果是篇章閱讀要實(shí)現(xiàn)的目標(biāo)。
英語語篇銜接研究層出不窮,徐玉臣研究了語篇銜接與心理連貫的關(guān)系[2];張德祿、張愛杰分析了情景語境與語篇的銜接與連貫[3];張繼紅介紹了照應(yīng)、省略、搭配等三種銜接手段[4];梁飛研究了詞匯銜接在語篇中的連接作用及其文體效應(yīng)[5];李國梁分析了詞匯銜接在大學(xué)英語六級寫作中的作用[6]等。為深入認(rèn)識和了解英語語篇銜接手段及其在實(shí)現(xiàn)語篇連貫中的重要作用,本文將對語法銜接手段和詞匯銜接手段進(jìn)行專門研究。
一、語法銜接手段
語法銜接主要包括照應(yīng)(reference)、替代(substitution)、省略(ellipsis)、連接(conjunction)等,是構(gòu)建語篇和實(shí)現(xiàn)語意連貫的重要手段之一。
在語篇中,如果對于一個(gè)詞語的解釋不能從詞語本身獲得,而必須從該詞語所指的對象中尋求答案,這就產(chǎn)生了照應(yīng)關(guān)系[7]。這種照應(yīng)關(guān)系中一個(gè)成分做另一個(gè)成分的參照點(diǎn),即一個(gè)語言成分與另一個(gè)可以與之相互解釋的成分之間的關(guān)系。如(例文均來自《全新版大學(xué)英語綜合教程》第二版1—4冊和《新視野大學(xué)英語讀寫教程》3—4冊):
This man who worked himself to death finally and precisely at 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning—on his day off—was fifty-one years old and a vice-president. He was, however, one of six vice-presidents, and one of three who might conceivably—if the president died or retired soon enough—have moved to the top spot. Phil knew that.(TheCompanyMan)
與this man和he構(gòu)成照應(yīng)關(guān)系的詞為a vice-president和Phil。文中若沒有與this man和he有照應(yīng)關(guān)系的詞出現(xiàn),這段話就無法實(shí)現(xiàn)語篇連貫,沒有了連貫,語篇就失去了實(shí)際意義。另外,that與前面加下劃線的句子內(nèi)容也構(gòu)成照應(yīng)關(guān)系。
替代指的是用替代詞去取代某一個(gè)成分。替代詞只是形式,其語義要從所替代的成分中去尋找。其作用一方面為避免重復(fù),使表達(dá)簡練、緊湊、清晰,另一方面是為了連接上下文,使語意連貫。如:
“Would I sit on the governor’s committee and try to do something about the thousands of welfare clients who, like me, could earn part or all of their own livings if they were allowed to do so, one step at a time?”(LongingforaNewWelfareSystem)
文中so替代了的前文加下劃線的內(nèi)容,避免了重復(fù)而且使其與前文聯(lián)系得更加緊密。
省略是指把語篇中的某個(gè)或某幾個(gè)成分省去不提。其作用和替代相似,也是為避免重復(fù),使表達(dá)簡練、清晰,同時(shí)使語篇上下文緊湊連貫。如:
In 1905, at the age of 26 and four years before he was able to get a job as a professor of physics, Einstein published five of the most important...He proved that...He argued that...He described his theory of special relativity: space and time were threads in a common fabric, he proposed, which could be bent, stretched and twisted.
Oh, and by the way, E=mc2.(WasEinsteinaSpaceAlien?)
文中提到愛因斯坦發(fā)表了科學(xué)史上最重要的論文中的五篇,介紹了其中四篇之后,作者“順便”提及另外一篇,即關(guān)于E=mc2的。Oh, and by the way, E=mc2.中省略了主語和謂語動(dòng)詞,這里主謂的省略不僅避免了重復(fù),使表達(dá)更加簡練,而且突出了文中出現(xiàn)的新信息E=mc2。
在一個(gè)句子之內(nèi),在小句之間,通常要有連接成分來把他們聯(lián)系起來,表示小句之間的邏輯—語義關(guān)系和相互依賴關(guān)系[1]181。這種連接通常貫穿全文,如:
Ideally, people would like to know when an earthquake is going to happen and how bad it will be...
People would also like to be able to prevent the great destruction of property caused by earthquakes...
Besides, working to improve building structures, people in areas where earthquakes are common need to prepare for the possibility of a great earthquake...
上文為HowtoPrepareforEarthquake一文第1—3自然段的開頭。其中,連接詞also把第2段和第1段內(nèi)容聯(lián)系起來;besides把第3段和第1、第2段聯(lián)系起來,從而實(shí)現(xiàn)了語篇結(jié)構(gòu)上的銜接及語義上的前后連貫。
二、詞匯銜接手段
詞匯銜接指通過詞的復(fù)現(xiàn)和同現(xiàn)等關(guān)系實(shí)現(xiàn)語篇銜接和語義連貫。詞匯銜接手段主要有重復(fù)(repetition)、同義詞(synonym)或近義詞(near synonym)、上下義詞(hyponym)、搭配(collocation)等。
復(fù)現(xiàn)是指一個(gè)詞語以其自身的形式或以其同義詞、近義詞、上義詞、下義詞、概括詞或其他形式重復(fù)出現(xiàn)在語篇中,實(shí)現(xiàn)句子的銜接及語義連貫。
1.原詞復(fù)現(xiàn)
同一單詞或短語在同一語篇中反復(fù)出現(xiàn)(有時(shí)根據(jù)語法要求做細(xì)微調(diào)整,如:lock-locks, interview-interviewing)為原詞復(fù)現(xiàn)。原詞復(fù)現(xiàn)是詞匯銜接中最直接的表達(dá)方式,不僅能銜接前后文,實(shí)現(xiàn)語意連貫,還能突出主題,表達(dá)不同情感意義。在TheLastLeaf中,masterpiece在全文重復(fù)出現(xiàn)5次:
第18段:...For forty years he had been always about to paint a masterpiece, but he had never yet begun it. ...He drank gin to excess, and still talked of his coming masterpiece...
第19段:...In one corner was a blank canvas on an easel that had been waiting there for twenty-five years to receive the first line of the masterpiece.
第20段:“What!” He cried. “...Some day I will paint a masterpiece, and we shall all go away. Yes.”
第39段:“...Ah, darling, it’s Behrman’s masterpiece—he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell.”
Masterpiece的多次復(fù)現(xiàn)不僅加強(qiáng)了句與句之間的關(guān)聯(lián),而且加強(qiáng)了段與段間的銜接;強(qiáng)調(diào)了Behrman一生的藝術(shù)追求就是要畫一幅杰作,同時(shí)又暗示其目標(biāo)實(shí)現(xiàn)的可能性極其渺茫。
2.同義詞和近義詞復(fù)現(xiàn)
同義詞和近義詞復(fù)現(xiàn)不僅可以避免語篇單調(diào)呆板,還可以使表意更精確,描繪更形象生動(dòng),具有積極的修辭效果與獨(dú)特的文體效應(yīng)。如:
The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own. (AValentineStory)
keen和deep, desire to和longing for為同義詞和近義詞復(fù)現(xiàn),不僅實(shí)現(xiàn)了語篇銜接,還避免了用詞重復(fù),使語言生動(dòng)、富于變化,調(diào)整語言節(jié)奏,表達(dá)說話者的情感傾向。
3.上下義詞復(fù)現(xiàn)
詞可以在一個(gè)共同概念的支配下結(jié)合在一起形成一個(gè)語義場,這個(gè)共同概念稱為上義詞,構(gòu)成語義場的其他詞被稱為下義詞。同一個(gè)上義詞的幾個(gè)下義詞間互為并列關(guān)系,上義詞在意義上包含所有的下義詞。如:
But it did list his “survivors” quite accurately. He is survived by his wife, Helen...
His “dearly beloved” eldest of the dearly beloved children is a hard-working executive...
His second child is a girl, who is twenty-four and newly married...
The youngest is twenty, a boy, a high-school graduate who has spent the last couple of years...(TheCompanyMan)
survivors是his wife, his dearly beloved eldest, his second child和the youngest等詞的上義詞,四個(gè)下義詞互為并列關(guān)系。
4.概括詞復(fù)現(xiàn)
語篇中遇到文中出現(xiàn)過的人、物、事情或地點(diǎn)時(shí),可用泛指上述概念的詞替代,如people, thing等。泛指詞的意義完全包含上文某個(gè)或某幾個(gè)意義相近的詞,精簡語言,銜接語篇,實(shí)現(xiàn)語義貫通的同時(shí)避免了詞語重復(fù)過多而使篇章啰唆冗長,蒼白無力。如:
Among them are many that are used in man’s war against nature. Since the mid-1940’s over 200 basic chemicals have been created for use in killing insects, weeds, rodents, and other organisms described nowadays as “pests”; and they are sold under sever thousand different brand names.(ExcerptsfromSilent Spring)
概括詞organisms包括了文中insects, weeds,rodents等詞的意思,在實(shí)現(xiàn)語篇銜接的同時(shí),幫助理解詞義及語篇的語義連貫。
同現(xiàn)關(guān)系指詞匯在語篇中共同出現(xiàn)的傾向性(co-occurrence tendency)。語篇中圍繞著一定的話題,一定的詞就往往同時(shí)出現(xiàn),而其他一些詞則不大可能或根本不會(huì)出現(xiàn)。詞匯同現(xiàn)包括反義、互補(bǔ)、局部—整體、搭配等。
1.反義和互補(bǔ)
反義關(guān)系指語義可以分等的有程度差別的詞類關(guān)系,一般用來構(gòu)成對比,形成一個(gè)意想不到或強(qiáng)烈反差的結(jié)果。如:
These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes—nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the “good” and the “bad”, to still the song of the birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat...They should not be called “insecticides”, but “biocides”(ExcerptsfromSilent Spring).
The good和the bad構(gòu)成了反義關(guān)系的詞匯銜接,實(shí)現(xiàn)了語篇的工整對仗、語氣貫通。
互補(bǔ)關(guān)系用來說明事物和觀點(diǎn)的互補(bǔ)性與完整性。chemicals,insecticides和biocides為語義互補(bǔ)關(guān)系,這些“有蟲就殺的化學(xué)品”不應(yīng)被稱為“殺蟲劑”,而應(yīng)被稱為“殺生劑”,在實(shí)現(xiàn)語篇連貫的同時(shí),強(qiáng)調(diào)了有毒化學(xué)品對地球生物的危害。
2.局部—整體
有些詞,如arms, legs, feet, hands等與body構(gòu)成局部—整體關(guān)系,也屬同現(xiàn)關(guān)系銜接手段。如:
After too long on the Net, even a phone call can be a shock...Time itself becomes fluid—hours become minutes, or seconds stretch into days. Weekends, once a highlight of my week, are now just two ordinary days.(AVirtualWorld)
seconds, minutes, hours, days, week, weekends與time構(gòu)成局部與整體的關(guān)系。
3.組合搭配
有些詞傾向于出現(xiàn)在同一語境中,具有語篇銜接力,構(gòu)成搭配銜接。圍繞某一話題展開的語篇中,與這一話題相關(guān)的詞項(xiàng)經(jīng)常在一起使用形成詞匯鏈。如:
A smart car could eliminate most of these car accidents. It can sense if a driver is drunk via electronic sensors that can pick up alcohol vapor in the air, and refuse to start up the engine. The car could also alert the police and provide its precise location if it is stolen.(SmartCars)
圍繞smart car話題展開的語篇中,smart car的特點(diǎn)在由詞項(xiàng)eliminate,sense,refuse,alert和provide等形成的詞匯鏈中得到充分的說明。這種詞的組合搭配不僅總結(jié)了smart car的特點(diǎn),而且起到銜接語篇、連貫語義的作用。
三、結(jié)語
語篇是連貫的,語篇銜接是實(shí)現(xiàn)語篇連貫的重要手段。研究語篇銜接手段的特點(diǎn)及作用對英語學(xué)習(xí)及其應(yīng)用具有重大的意義:一方面可以幫助英語學(xué)習(xí)者識別語篇銜接手段,理解作者的真實(shí)意圖,實(shí)現(xiàn)對語篇的正確理解及準(zhǔn)確翻譯;另一方面可以幫助學(xué)習(xí)者構(gòu)建連貫語篇,準(zhǔn)確表達(dá)自己的思想,實(shí)現(xiàn)與讀者的成功交流。
參考文獻(xiàn):
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[2]徐玉臣.語篇銜接與心理連貫[J].山東外語教學(xué),2003,(3):12—16.
[3]張德祿,張愛杰.情景語境與語篇的銜接與連貫[J].中國海洋大學(xué)學(xué)報(bào):社會(huì)科學(xué)版,2006,(1):44—47.
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[5]梁飛.英語詞匯的語篇銜接作用及文體效應(yīng)[J].山西農(nóng)業(yè)大學(xué)學(xué)報(bào):社會(huì)科學(xué)版,2004,(3):245—246.
[6]李國梁.詞匯銜接手段與大學(xué)英語六級寫作[J].西南農(nóng)業(yè)大學(xué)學(xué)報(bào):社會(huì)科學(xué)版,2009,(1):173—176.
[7]Halliday M. A. K. & Hasan R. Cohesion in English[M].London: Longman,1976.
(責(zé)任編輯:劉東旭)
Study on Means of Text Cohesion
JIA Jing
(Anhui Jianzhu University, Hefei 230601, China)
Abstract:Text cohesion plays a vital role in the construction and understanding of a text, so it is very important to learn and understand text cohesive devices for the study and application of English. By analyzing the examples from the texts, the researcher introduces the characteristics of the grammatical cohesive devices and the lexical cohesive devices respectively, and then studies the role of them in the construction of a text and the effect they produce in the realization of semantic coherence in order to benefit English study and its application.
Key words:text cohesion; text coherence; grammatical cohesive devices; lexical cohesive devices
中圖分類號:H313
文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)志碼:A
文章編號:1001-7836(2015)02-0133-03
作者簡介:賈靜(1972—),女,安徽懷遠(yuǎn)人,副教授,碩士,從事語言學(xué)及英語教學(xué)研究。
基金項(xiàng)目:安徽建筑工業(yè)學(xué)院引進(jìn)人才項(xiàng)目(批準(zhǔn)號:建院函[2013]23號)
收稿日期:2014-06-24
doi:10.3969/j.issn.1001-7836.2015.02.051