7 DA vs CA: 再别康桥 文体分析

1. 7 DA vs CA: 再别康桥 文体分析 Prof. TIAN Bing Shaanxi Normal University

3. 1. Introduction • 1. Introduction • 2. The linguistic underpinnings of Leech’s model • 3. Cohesion • 4. Foregrounding • 5. Cohesion of Foregrounding • 6. Context of images (意境) • 7. Conclusion

6. 1. Introduction • In this paper I attempt to make a literary stylistic analysis on a poem--再别康桥, by Xu Zhimo, a representative poet of the 1930s in China. • The analysis will be carried out following mainly the model proposed by G. Leech (1965), which has been widely employed in analyzing English literary works, such as poem and fictions. The model is proved successful since it bases an analysis on linguistic evidence which could lend more objectivity to the analysis. • When the analysis is completed, we will then turn to a model proposed by a Chinese scholar, 王国维，and approach the poem from a different perspective. • Finally we will compare the strengths and weaknesses of the two models to see which one is more advantageous for the appreciation of a Chinese poem.

7. 2. The linguistic underpinnings of Leech’s model • Leech’s model is directly based on the systemic-functional approach to the study of language. In his model, the aim of the analysis is to make “statements of meaning.” Then, what is meaning?

8. The systemic-functional approach to meaning was first developed by J. R. Firth and subsequently more fully elaborated by M. Halliday. Firth affirms that meaning consists of “situational relations in a context of situation and in that kind of language which disturbs the air and other people’s ears, as modes of behavior in relation to other elements in the context of situation”(1957:19). Meaning is “the whole complex of functions which a linguistic form may have”(1957:33). It is present at all levels in language, not just in complete sentences and longer stretches of discourse. Even the quality of the voice is part of meaning in what he terms the “phonetic mode”. Words themselves vary in meaning without limit, to the extent that “each word when used in a new context is a new word”(1967:190).

9. What Firth sets out to attain is a study of language as a feature of the total human environment where every piece of language forms an integral part of the “context of situation” in which it occurs. This “context of situation” can be traced back to Malinowski, who proposes: • Utterance and situation are bound up inextricably with each other and the context of situation is indispensable for the understanding of the words…so in the reality of a spoken living tongue, the utterance has no meaning except in the context of situation. (1949:306-7).

10. Every language event, as Firth sees it, should be viewed as a living whole, and it is possible to deal with a particular language at various levels simultaneously: • Sometimes in a descending order, beginning with social context and proceeding through syntax and vocabulary to phonology and even phonetics, and at other times in the opposite order (1957:192)

11. The latter is described by Firth as a “serial contextualization” of facts: • context within context, each one being a function, an organ of the bigger context, and all contexts finding a place in what may be called the context of culture.(1957:32)

12. Meaning, as is approached from such a perspective, becomes inseparable from context of situation. • Between grammar and semantics, says Halliday, there exists no sharp devide (1985:xix). Every distinction recognized in the grammar contributes to the form of the wording; and it is the wording that realizes the meaning and in turn is realized by sound or writing. Halliday concedes that the relation is a symbolic one, but that“it is not possible to point to each symbol as an isolate and ask what it means; the meaning is encoded in the wording as an integral whole” (Halliday, 1985: xx; Lord, 1996: 98-100, 138).

13. It is based on the above understanding of meaning that we choose to follow Leech’s model and carry out this literary stylistic analysis. The model, as Verdonk (1988) sees it, consists of three basic parts, namely cohesion, fore-grounding, and cohesion of fore-grounding.

14. 3. Cohesion • “Leech defines cohesion as ‘the way in which independent choices in different points of a text correspond with or presuppose one another, forming a network of sequential relations’. • So what is of interest is the way in which these linguistic choices form patterns of intra-textual relations on any of the levels of linguistic description: phonology, grammar, semantics and pragmatics”(Verdonk,1988: 264).

15. 3.1. Phonological cohesion • 3.2. Graphic cohesion • 3.3. Lexical cohesion • 3.4. Grammatical cohesion • 3.5. Figure of speech • 3.6. Semantic cohesion

16. 3.1. Phonological cohesion • Rhyming is a very basic characteristic and requirement of a Chinese poem, even for the modern ones. For each of the seven stanzas in this poem, the end word in the second line rhymes with that of the fourth line, with the fifth stanza as an exception, where rhyming is absent. Alliteration and assonance [rhyming compound] are found in stanza 2, 3 and 4:

17. 艳影(yàn ying 2.3)，荡漾(dangyang2.4)， • 青荇(qingxing3.1)，招摇(zhaoyao3.2)， • 榆荫(yuyin4.1)，清泉(qingquan4.2). • It is noticeable that they occur adjacently, i.e. in successive lines. If reduplicated words—the extreme form of both alliteration and assonance—are taken into account, we can see

18. 轻轻的(qingqing de) recurs in 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3; • 悄悄的(qiaoqiao de) recurs in 7.1 and 7.2. • These reduplicated words occupy the beginning and ending stanza respectively. • Incidentally, rhyming compound 斑烂（banlan 5.4) and reduplicated word 油油的(youyoude3.2) could be ranked as nondeviant.

19. 3.2. Graphic cohesion • Chinese characters are pictophonetic. Some components are meaningful and can be viewed as “pictures”. For example, 江河湖海(river, stream, lake and sea) all share the same component of“氵”. • In the first half of the poem, there exist many words that have this component, for example, • 河畔(2.1)，波光(2.3)，荡漾(2.4)， • 软泥(3.1)，油油的(3.2)，柔波(3.3)，

20. 一潭(4.1)，清泉(4.2)，浮藻(4.3)，沉淀(4.4)， • 漫溯(5.2)，满载(5.3). • The word water is directly used twice in • 水底(3.2)，水草(3.4). • In another word, there is at least one character containing “water” in each line in these four stanzas (2 to 5).

21. 3.3. Lexical cohesion • The I-person appears altogether 10 times: consecutively 3 times in the first and last stanza respectively; once in each of the last line of stanzas 2 and 3; and once in the first and third line of stanza 3. • We, as readers, can find no time that we are not being with I. While proceeding, we feel gradually we are the I-person, occasionally.

22. Accompanying the consecutive use of I in the first and last stanza is the consecutive use of reduplicated phrases “轻轻的” and “悄悄的”. • This repetition represents a featuring cohesive device—the repetition pattern in this poem: • the alliteration and assonance on the phonological level; • the concurrent emerging of pictorial componential element “氵” in stanza 2 to 5; and • the word repetition occurring in adjacent lines—within the same stanza or in the neighboring stanzas.

23. In the same stanza: • 满载一船星辉（5.3）/在星辉斑烂里放歌（5.4）， • 夏虫也为我沉默（6.3）/沉默是今晚的康桥（6.4）。 • In the adjacent stanzas: • 沉淀着彩虹似的梦（4.4）/寻梦？ 撑一只长篙（5.1）， • 在星辉斑烂里放歌（5.4）/但我不能放歌（6.1）; • and also the assonance: • 沉默是今晚的康桥(qiao)(6.4)/悄悄(qiaoqiao)的我走了(7.1). • This kind of word repetition, also called “thimbling(顶针)” in Chinese rhetoric, threads together the different parts of the second half of the poem.

24. 3.4. Grammatical cohesion • Typically, there are two sentences in each stanza, and each sentence occupies two lines (in stanzas 1, 2, 3, 7, and (first half of) 4). • In stanzas 5 and 6, and the second half of stanza 4, each sentence occupies one line. • Amongst all these sentences, there are four be-sentences… • 金柳, /是…新娘(2.1, 2.2); • …潭, /…是…虹(4.1, 4.2)； • 悄悄是…沉默(6.2), • 沉默是…康桥(6.4).

25. These be-sentences are all metaphors. These metaphors combine things together from two opposite categories: • inanimate vs animate; • substantial vs imaginary; • abstract characteristic of human being vs concrete thing.

26. 3.5. Figure of speech • Personification is frequently made use of in this poem: • 艳影is applied to 金柳; • 招摇 to 青荇, • 揉碎 to 虹, • 悄悄 to 笙箫, • 沉默 to 夏虫 and 康桥.

27. 3.6. Semantic cohesion • Time and place provide the reference frames against which the development of things can be viewed more clearly and precisely. In this poem, the achievement of semantic cohesion partly lies in its conscious making use of these two frames.

28. Firstly, the temporal development in this poem. In stanza 2, there is the word 夕阳, which directly tells the time—late in the afternoon. 夕阳 also cross-refers with a word in the preceding line 金柳—only in late afternoon can the color of the willow be turned into golden. Since it is before sunset, we can have波光, and see青荇招摇. When we come to stanza 5, it is, however, very late—the boat is full of 星光. And in stanza 6, it is deep into the night, for even the summer insects are tired and fall into sleep—they are all silent, and the whole Cambridge is silent too.

29. Secondly, the spatial development. In stanza 2, the I-person is walking eastward to the riverbank, and at a distance, he views the willow as golden. In stanza3, he is already at the bank, and he might be walking along the bank. His attention is drawn to the floating hearts on the mild mud. In stanza 4, I has already reached to an elm tree by a pool. The sunlight sheds through the elm tree and scatters amongst the algae. In stanza 5, I is no longer on the bank, but in a boat. And in stanza 6, after spending quite some time on the boat, I is probably back on land again.

30. In the first and last stanza, we can also feel about the spatial change. • In stanza 1, 招手and作别are used, but in stanza 7, 挥衣袖and不带走. • Normally, at a short distance we just 招手, but at a long distance, we have to 挥手/衣袖to be noticeable. When 作别is used, we usually face closely to those to say goodbye to. 不带走, however, indicates that I has turned around and walked away for a certain distance, not facing those to say goodbye to, but facing the motherland he is leaving for.

31. 4. Foregrounding • Foregrounding, as Leech defines it, is “a motivated deviation from linguistic, or other socially accepted norms” or “the violation of rules and conventions, by which a poet transcends the normal communicative resources or the language, and awakens the reader, by freeing him from the grooves of cliché expression, to a new perceptivity.”(Verdank: 1988)

32. The first foregrounding is in stanza 1, the repetition of 轻轻的and 我, three times, which is viewed almost as taboo in classical Chinese poetry. Moreover, 轻轻的is positioned at the very beginning of the poem—nothing can be foregrounded further. “轻轻的” is an adverbial phrase, which should be written as “轻轻地” in contemporary Chinese. How to say goodbye to Cambridge? The only choice I can make is to leave lightly—not to disturb the normal life of others. This type of foregrounding echoes in the last stanza, where 悄悄的, a synonym of 轻轻的, is repeated twice.

33. There forms a structural pattern in stanzas 2, 3, and (first part of) 4. The first phrase of each first line tells us a place, namely河畔，轻泥上and榆荫下, which are followed by the subject matter to be dealt with, namely金柳，青荇and一潭。Each stanza consists of two sentences，each of which occupies two lines. Another pattern in the structure of these three stanzas is the constant use of the attributive modifiers: almost one in each line.

34. There forms a structural pattern in stanzas 2, 3, and (first part of) 4. The first phrase of each first line tells us a place, namely河畔，轻泥上and榆荫下, which are followed by the subject matter to be dealt with, namely金柳，青荇and一潭。Each stanza consists of two sentences，each of which occupies two lines. Another pattern in the structure of these three stanzas is the constant use of the attributive modifiers: almost one in each line.

35. If we take stanza 4 as a transitional one and leave it partly to another structural pattern, we can see this pattern more distinctly. If we make a dissection of the sentences and rip off all the attributive modifiers, then we have 金柳是新娘，艳影在荡漾in stanza 2; and 青荇在招摇，我愿做水草in stanza 3, which are symmetrical, or antithetical in structure. And interestingly these backbones of each stanza are all located at the end of each line—end focus position.

36. If we dwell on these two stanzas a little longer, we will find that all the words and phrases in them are all static, except one in each stanza:荡漾and 招摇. These two words are dynamic and they are foregrounded , not only because they are dynamic but also because they occupy the structurally significant position—end focus. Reading these two stanzas we are seemingly viewing two paintings—each has just one point eye-catching: 荡漾and 招摇respectively. These two dynamic verbs add vividness and vitality to the paintings.

37. If we view the first two lines of stanza 4 as descriptive and static, the same as what it is in the previous two stanzas, then we will accordingly admit that the next two lines are more active and dynamic. We have two dynamic verbs, one in each line:揉碎and 沉淀.

38. In stanza 5, there is not a single attributive, but at least one dynamic verb in each line:寻and 撑(5.1), 漫溯(5.2), 满载(5.3), and 放歌(5.4). The cohesive device in stanza 5 is also different from that of the previous stanzas. Thimbling, as mentioned in section 3.3, is prevailing here:梦(end of 4.4) is thimbled to寻梦(very beginning of 5.1), then星辉(5.3) to在星辉(5.4), 放歌(5.4) to 放歌(end of 6.1), 沉默(6.3) to沉默(6.4).

39. Another feature that helps foreground stanza 5 is its lack of rhyming. Maybe the I-person is so possessed by catching his dream that he has forgotten about rhyming. He has switched from viewing the scenery in Cambridge to melting into it. This interpretation is further supported by the lack of using of “I” in stanzas 4 and 5. He is only melting into the scene and into his dream in stanza 4, but totally lost himself in pursuing his dream in stanza 5.

40. In stanza 6, I is awakened and comes to himself. I appears in line 6.1 and 6.3. These two lines are in a sense also foregrounded in that line 6.2 and 6.4 are backgrounded because they are subordinate clauses giving the reason. These two subordinate clauses are antithetical and rhyming. Accordingly, I is foregrounded to highlight the difficult situation I is in—to say goodbye to Cambridge.

41. In the last stanza, the first two lines are repeating what is said in the corresponding part in stanza 1, but with the substitute of 悄悄的for 轻轻的. The difference lies in the change of emphatic point which moves from not disturbing others to not being noticed by others.

42. What is more difficult to interpret is the last two lines. The last but one sentence indicates that I has already made up his mind –the final decision is that 不带走一片云彩. 不带走here highlights the resoluteness of his making up of his mind and his having no compromise. What is out of expectation is that the thing not to be carried with is just 一片云彩. Then what does it mean by 云彩? Surely it can not be so ready to interpret it as‘a piece of cloud’literally. Then, what is it?

43. 5. Cohesion of Foregrounding • To understand 云彩at the end of the poem, we are thimbled back to 云彩at the end of last line in stanza 1. 云彩here has an attributive modifier 西天的. 西天的, as I see it, plays an important role in understanding the meaning of 云彩. 西天的here is ambiguous. In Chinese culture, 西天can refer either to western sky literally or to western country/civilization metaphorically, evidenced by other expressions, such as 西天取经，西化. If 西天refers to western countries, as a synonym of 西方, then 云彩must symbolize something.

44. To get the true answer we have to look both intra-textually and extra-textually. Let’s first go to the extra-textual context of situation, i.e. the whole set of external world features relevant. In the tradition of Chinese poetry, a good poem is usually composed to express the poet’s feelings and ambitions, ideals, or dreams. What was the author looking for when he left his hometown and came to Cambridge? Let’s assume that the answer is to study western civilization, or more specifically, to study literature and learn western style of composing poems. After a period of studying and before leaving for the motherland, he would probably ask himself what he had learned in Cambridge. This poem itself, as I interpret it, might be the answer. Let’s look internally at the poem itself again.

45. Let’s direct our attention to the macrostructure of the poem. The first stanza can be viewed as very modern or westernized, for there are almost no formal poetic properties except rhyming, and this is strongly, in a sense, against the norms of classical Chinese poetry.

46. Stanzas 2 and 3 are superficially westernized but Chinese deep-rootedly. Let’s have a look at the images created in these two stanzas. In stanza 2, we first see a willow at the bank—this is a very typical image in classical Chinese poem, 杨柳岸晓风残月for instance. The image of willow is then unexpectedly superposed onto the image of a bride and a fresh image comes into being. • In A Station Of The Metro by Ezra Pound • The apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.

47. This picture is reflected on the surface of the light wave and the reflection begins to move in the gentle wind. And this is projected onto the I-person’s mind and activates there a mental image constantly moving—dangling. This foreshadows the I-person’s melting into the scene in the following stanzas, for something is moved in his heart. In stanza 3, we can see another beautiful picture similar to that in stanza 2. This picture will not be re-described in detail here.

48. Pictorial effect is what is pursued in classical Chinese poems. There is a saying to praise a good poem or painting: a good painting is a poem and a good poem is a painting. Here in these two stanzas two first class paintings are created. In traditional Chinese painting, the representative is the “mountain-water” type, which has water as its cardinal element. The two pictures in stanzas 2 and 3 are also “painted” with water as the cardinal element (see also section 3.2). Since water has occupied such an important position here, we’d better spend some time here.

49. Let’s first see the connotative meaning of water in the Chinese language. Water is often associated with female character. There are a large number of expressions of this kind in Chinese, such as 水性杨花、柔情似水、女人是水做的etc. Water usually evokes the emotion of gentleness, tenderness, and affection etc, which further strengthens the complicated, difficult situation of departing. And this is also in harmony with the figures in the picture—the willow, the bride, etc. Water has made its contribution to beautify the scene—as is described by the saying “山无水不秀，景无水不美”. The water has also been playing an indispensable role of keeping the poem “flow” smoothly for it functions as a fabricate in the first part of the poem.

50. The deep structure, i.e. the backbone of stanza 2 and 3 is typical Chinese too—an antithetical sentence (see section 4). Moreover, there are also alliteration and assonance—typically Chinese too. Thus, it is very natural for us to draw a conclusion that this part of the poem is very Chinese rather than westernized.