英語修辭與寫作·1.2　修辭學的研究方法

1.2A　學習修辭與寫作的意義

1） 有人認為，現(xiàn)代社會的有聲聯(lián)絡十分方便，不用學習修辭與寫作了。這是一種片面的看法。有聲傳播技術的發(fā)展確實減少了某些方面的寫作需求，如人們通過電話交流信息，書信往來就少了，但在另外一些領域內寫作卻比以往更加重要，如技術報告和新聞報道，即使電視新聞也多是先寫好文字稿而后播出的。有些工作中不一定非用寫作不可，然而能以文字形式表達自己的觀點仍不失為一技之長。

此外，會寫作也是一個人成熟的一種標志和良好素質的一種體現(xiàn)。不論當律師、會計師、教師、工程師或普通工作者，雖然不像作家那樣一定要寫詩歌、小說等，但若寫點小文章也難以提筆，甚至連一般的計劃、報告、小結或說明書、介紹信之類的應用文也寫不好，那顯然是不符合文明社會成員的基本要求的。而要寫文章，就要不同程度地涉及修辭與寫作技巧。

2） 也有人以為，只要模仿不同的文章格式并能按照語法規(guī)則把句子寫正確就夠了。這種看法也不全面?？陀^情況千差萬別，不可能把固定的某些格式到處套用；誠然，寫出符合語法規(guī)則的正確句子是必需的，但不能僅僅停留在這一點上。前面1.1A已討論到語法與修辭的關系，說明修辭是在語法正確的基礎上如何進一步使用語言技巧，提高交際效果。這里還需說明，學習了修辭與寫作的基本技巧和規(guī)律，雖然不能說就等于會寫好文章了，但對寫好文章肯定是有幫助的，若忽視它們，則不可能把文章寫好。

3）口語中是否用得著修辭技巧呢？答案是肯定的。俗話說某某人“能言善辯”，某某人“出口成章”，均指其人十分善于辭令，會說話。我們在口頭交際時首先要清楚應當“說什么”，“怎樣說”，做到話隨旨遣，又要根據(jù)具體談話對象，做到因人而異；什么地方應當詳盡，什么地方應當簡略，等等，這些都是涉及修辭技巧方面的問題。

1.2B　學習修辭與寫作的方法

1） 結合實踐學習。修辭學是社會交際實踐的產(chǎn)物，也只有密切結合社會交際實踐才能掌握好修辭技巧。教師的課堂講授，只能為學生提供一把研究修辭的鑰匙，學生還必須通過閱讀才能鞏固課堂知識。不僅如此，還要在說話、寫文章和進行翻譯時有意識地利用各種修辭手段來提高自己的語言使用技能，以取得更好的交際效果。有個留美學生曾以A Way Out for the Homeless Couples為題寫了一篇文章。在修辭課上討論到擇語的準確性后，他想到文中的homeless一詞有待斟酌：雖然在美國英語中home可以和house同義，但一般說來，house主要指住房，而home除指住處以外，還往往包括家庭生活；由于文中所談的是青年成家后的住房問題，故houseless一詞較為恰當。

2） 針對語境使用。Patrick Hartwell說：“修辭是適于某種語境和出于某種目的所做的選擇。”（Hartwell, Patrick, Open to Language）如果離開語境就難以確定某種表達方式是否符合修辭要求。例如根據(jù)一般修辭要求，被動結構應避免使用，因為它需要增加助動詞，不符合用詞簡煉的原則，而且也不如主動結構那樣明確有力，但有時為了突出受事者，或為了強調通常情況下不作主位的句子成份，則應使用被動結構，例如：

The tree was struck by lightening.

（Thomas S. Kane）

Out of the windows could be seen three hickory trees placed irregularly in a meadow that was resplendent in spring time green.

（Stephen Crane）

又如，想要別人把門關上時，可以有多種表達方式，除了生硬地命令式只適用于某些特殊場合外，通常還可以用下面的某種說法：

A） Close the door, dear.

B） Would you be so kind to close the door?

C） It's a bit cold here. Can you close the door?

D） Would you like to close the door for me?

E） I would be glad if you could close the door.

F） Would you mind closing the door?

上述A、B兩句用于家庭成員或好友之間，屬于親昵的表達方式；D、E兩句突出對對方的尊重或客氣，適用于對社會地位高于自己或與自己相同的人說話，屬于婉轉的表達方式；C句介乎兩者之間，可用于其他兩種場合。當然也可選擇其他的表達方式，包括“Would you mind ...?”不過用這個句式請別人做（或停止做）某事時，很可能帶有“貶”的色彩，是不滿或甚至是憤怒情緒的一種表達，例如“Would you mind stop making so much noise?”等。

3） 注意母語的影響

語言學家Dorothy M. Guinn和Daniel Marder說：“Rhetorical operations are patterns of thought that direct and order our perceptions, ideas, and feelings.” （Guinn, Dorothy M. & Daniel Marder, A Spectrum of Rhetoric.）。

不同民族的人從小養(yǎng)成了獨特的思維方式，這種方式反映到修辭活動中，便形成修辭的民族特色。我們在研究英語修辭時要經(jīng)常注意母語的影響。例如漢語的詞語組合中有一種表示強調的格式，如“確切的事實”、“參差不齊”，其中“確切”強調“事實”，“參差”修飾“不齊”，修飾成分同被修飾成分的含義有重復，但并不使人感到別扭，這是漢語，若是在英語中這樣寫，用“true facts”，“irregularly uneven”這樣的組合形式，就不對頭了。

劉宓慶教授說：“以漢語為母語的人注重思維形態(tài)上的主體性，認為任何行為都只可能是人這個行為主體完成的，因此行為主體‘盡在不言之中’。這種思維風格（方式）使?jié)h語句子的語態(tài)（主動式或被動式）呈隱含式，形成受事的施事化。”這同英語中施事、受事（被動式）并用的表現(xiàn)法形成對照。為此，類似“我們改革開放政策取得了很大成績”這樣的漢語句子，內容和形式都是站得住的，但若以同樣的句式套用到英語，即以“Our policies of reform and opening to the outside world”做主語，后接謂語“have won great successes”，那就不符合英語的思維邏輯，而應采用類似下面的表達方式：

We have won great successes for our reform and open policies.

Great successes have been won for our reform and open policies.

練習一　（Exercise One）

I. Preview Questions:

1. What have Brooks and Woolen said about rhetoric in their book Modern Rhetoric?

2. What have you learned about the difference between grammar and rhetoric?

3. Do you agree with John Locke that rhetoric is the science of oratory?

4. Do you think it important to study rhetoric? Why?

5. What do you think are the effective approaches to studying rhetoric?

II. Read the following passages and then do the multiple choice exercises:

1. What is Rhetoric? Is it merely concerned with word choices, figures of speech, topic sentences, and transitions from paragraph to paragraph? Does it merely have to do with outlining a discussion and studying the principles of unity, coherence, and emphasis? Certainly it is concerned with those things, but they are not studied for their own sake.

They are studied because it is through language that we discover the world and ourselves. They are studied, too, because they contribute to the effective use of language — and thus to effective living.

Rhetoric, more specifically, is the art of using language effectively.

2. The human being may be called the animal with language. Upon a little reflection, we can see that only by means of language can mankind create and transmit the body of concepts, attitudes, values, and skills that constitute civilization. Only by language can we carry the past with us, understand the present, and project the future. Only by language can we have a clear notion of ourselves as individuals. “I think, therefore I am,” as the philosopher Descartes put it. And only by language can we forge the bonds of a society — a society as distinguished from some sort of instinctual hero or swarm.

3. Rhetoric involves practicing the most effective means or strategies for informing or persuading an audience. All writing, even technical or business writing, is “creative.” Deciding what to write, how to write it, how best to get your reader's attention, and how to inform or persuade your reader requires creativity and imagination. Every major requires the skills that writing courses teach: exploring new ideas, learning concepts and processes, communicating with others, and finding fresh or creative solutions to problems.

Now make the best choice and be prepared to explain why you made it.

1） Our study of rhetoric should__________.

（a） aim at informing or persuading our readers

（b） enable us acquire the body of concepts, attitudes, values and skills

（c） be like the study of an art for its own sake

（d） contribute to the effective use of language

2） What you think did Descartes mean by saying “I think, therefore I am”?

（a） He thinks he is right.

（b） He is a human being because he can think with a language.

（c） He believes that he is a philosopher.

（d） As he can think, he becomes a philosopher.

3） Why is language so important?

（a） Because language helps human beings to communicate with each other and forge the human society.

（b） Only language can create a clear notion for every person.

（c） Without language, human beings will become animals as well.

（d） It is language that enables human beings to communicate with others and find fresh or creative solutions to problems.

III. Go over the following passages and fill in each blank with a suitable word or phrase:

1. Traditional grammarians have always been （1）____________meaning, but meaning of a rather narrow kind: verb tenses, clausal relationships, kinds of nouns （common and proper, abstract and concrete）, and so on. Descriptive grammarians set aside the problem of meaning in order to concentrate on observable forms and how they occur with one another. They talk in terms of grammatical （2）____________that can be abstracted from lexical meaning, of the grammatical meaning of ‘Twas brilling, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe .... More recently, however, transformational linguists have turned back to lexical meaning because they have set as their task a description of how semantic content is “mapped” onto syntactic and phonological forms.

2. It was Aristotle who, in the 4th century B. C., first defined （3）____________as the art of persuasion. In Athens, then the center of western civilization, great orators, by exercising their rhetoric, gained following and support, and eventually, political power.

With development of printing, rhetoric came to be （4）____________the ability to write or speak well in ornate, showy language. Today there are still people who equate rhetoric to the adoption of stylistic devices or the use of figures of speech in speech or writing.

Nowadays, however, with the quickened tempo of life, the increased stress on efficiency and efficacy, and the ascendance of the idea that languages are means of communication, more and more people have come （5）____________rhetoric as the art of effective communication. Furthermore, rhetoric tends to be connected more with writing than with speech, and more with prose writing （6）____________with verse.

IV. Passages for further reading:

Writing can change your life. It can help you deepen your understanding of yourself as well as achieve the goals you set for yourself. It can help you make sense of the information that assaults you every day and present ideas so that others take you seriously. And it can broaden your world by enabling you to communicate effectively with people you have never met.

Despite the tremendous advantages of writing well, many people persuade themselves that they can never learn to write, because they believe that writing is a talent they were denied at birth. People who think in these terms are unlikely to write well, because they lack the motivation to take their writing seriously. It is true that some people learn to write more easily than others because they have a certain aptitude for it or because they have been encouraged by parents, friends, or good teachers. But to a large extent writing is a skill that that can be learned by anyone willing to take the trouble. Believe that you will fail, and you are likely to fail. Believe that you can succeed, and you will have begun to succeed. It will certainly take time and effort to write successfully, for writing involves hard work; but you will find that this investment will pay rich dividends.

（Robert Keith Miller, 2005:1）

參考答案

Ⅱ. 1. d　2. b　3. a

Ⅲ. 1. concerned with / associated with　2. meaning　3. rhetoric　4. understood as / known as　5. to regard　6. than