两封情书的文体学分析

刘　红

摘要：从文体学的角度对两封情书进行了分析。通过对情书中所用的词汇、句子结构和修辞法三个方面的分析，揭示这两封情书各自表达的感情。

关键词：文体学；词汇；句子结构；修辞法

中图分类号：H152文献标志码：Ａ文章编号：1673-291X(2009)09-０222－02

1.Introduction

The two love letters are chosen from the publication 100 Worlds Great Letters, one of which was written by Napoleon Bonaparte to his wife Josèphine de Beauharnais in November 13^th, 1796 and the other is from a very famous French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844—1923) to her lover Victorien Sardu. In the following, the different styles used in these two letters will be analyzed in terms of vocabulary, sentence structure and figures of speech in order to explore the different moods expressed in them.

2.Stylistic analysis of the two letters

（1）Vocabulary

In the first letter, lexical anaphora is used. It is the repeating of words in initial or front position.

In this device, words are repeated at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, stanzas or paragraphs. The pattern is (a…) (a…). (What do you do all day, Madam? What is the affair as important as to leave you no time to write to your devoted lover? …)

Besides anaphora, anadiplosis is used in the first letter, too. In anadiplosis a word in end position in a line or sentence is repeated in initial position in the line following. The pattern is (…a) (a…). (…, write me quickly four pages, pages full of agreeable things which shall fill my heart with the pleasantest feelings.)

（2）Sentence structure

Skillful writers exploit variation in sentence length to great effect to express different moods or attitudes, to describe action or events or to emphasize a point.

The two letters use more short sentences than long ones to emphasize the authors feelings. For example, the first paragraph of the first letter (I dont love you, not at all; on the contrary, I detest you——youre a naughty, gawky, foolish Cinderella. …) and the last paragraph of the second letter (I am as hungry for them as for food. I am thirsty for them, and my thirst is overwhelming. …) use short sentences for emphasis, and these sentences reflect the husbands deep love for his wife and the girls strong affection for her lover.

Of course, long sentences are also used in the two letters. The excellent combination of long and short sentences adds rhythm to the two letters so that they sound more forceful and cadenced.

Known as erotesis in Greek, the rhetorical question is one that is asked to imply a definite answer. This device is often used in argument and/or persuasion. For example, in the second paragraph of the first letter (What do you do all day, Madam? What is the affair as important as to leave you no time to write to your devoted lover? …), several rhetorical questions are used to query his wife why she pays no attention to him, which, at the same time, show that he deeply loves his wife and that he badly needs love from her.

Balance in sentence construction is based on the principle that ideas of the same importance should be expressed in the same grammatical form to enhance clarity and coherence, by giving them “equal weight”. Parallelism is one of the chief schemes of balance. It involves balancing the structural elements of a sentence. It plays a very important part in forceful writing of any kind, and anyone who has learnt to use it with ease will find it an invaluable aid in making his/her writing clear and effective.

Take the second paragraph of the first letter for example again. The author uses parallel sentences to add force to his statements, which more strongly expresses his feelings.

（3）Figures of speech

Like a diamond is a simile, and paper tiger is a metaphor, and with metonymy, hyperbole, personification, paradox they make up a score or more of figures of speech most commonly used today. Each figure has its own form and characteristics, and its own way of achieving effect. Sometimes two or more figures can be used together for greater impact.

In the second letter, the sentences “they are as necessary to me now as sunlight and air” and“I am as hungry for them as for food” use simile to express the authors eagerness to be together with her lover. Even though his words are bitter, she would like to hear them all day. They are indispensable to her like sunlight and air. “It is like the face of a clock, bereft of its hands” is also a simile which describes the authors feeling that without her lover, her life is dull, incomplete and imperfect and that without her lover, her existence is meaningless.

In the two letters, especially in the second one, the authors use a lot of metaphors to express their feelings.

E.g.

（1）I dont love you, not at all; on the contrary, I detest you——youre a naughty, gawky, foolish Cinderella.

（2）Paris is a morgue without you: …but now it is a vast desert of desolation and loneliness.

（3）Your words are my food, your breath my wine.

In the first sentence, Napoleon Bonaparte compares his wife to Cinderella, who, as is known to all, is a beautiful and kind girl in the fairy tale, from which we can see he thinks his wife is beautiful and kind, too. That reflects the husbands love for his wife. The second sentence shows that the author feels lonely and depressed without her lover, which also expresses the authors aspiration to be with him. As for the third sentence, it also demonstrates that the author cant live without her lover, just as people cant live without eating food and breathing.

Hyperbole (Greek “overshooting”) is bold overstatement, or extravagant exaggeration of fact, used either for serious or comic effect. Its form can vary from a phrase, a sentence, to a paragraph or paragraphs of description.

For example, in the first letter, the sentence “I hope before long to crush you in my arms and cover you with a million kisses burning as though beneath the equator”uses hyperbole to express the husbands deep love for his wife, and at the same time reflects his character as being emotional and kind of rude.

The second letter also uses personification. By definition, personification is a figure of speech that gives human form or feelings to animals, or life and personal attributes to inanimate objects, or to ideas and abstractions.

For example, in the sentence “your words, even though bitter——dispel all the cares of the world and make me happy; my art has been suckled by them and softly rocked in their tender cradle”, the author personates words, because people use cradles to rock babies and words dont have cradles. Here personification is employed to express the authors feeling that her lovers words can soothe her, making her happy and comfortable.

Irony is a figure of speech that achieves emphasis by saying the opposite of what is meant, the intended meaning of the words being the opposite of their usual sense.

The sentence in the first letter “I dont love you, not at all; on the contrary, I detest you——youre a naughty, gawky, foolish Cinderella” typically reflects this, which actually means “I love you heart and soul. I admire you——youre gentle, slim, keen Cinderella.”

The authors use respective styles in the two letters to express their feelings. Although they both express their love for their wife or lover, the moods reflected in these two letters are different.

In the first letter, the author uses strong emotive words like love and detest and such sentence as “Take care! Some fine night, the doors will be broken open, and there Ill be.”, which clearly shows that he is emotional and reckless. But at the same time it shows that he has deep love for his wife. The words used in this letter are forceful, typical of a man of such character. The letter reflects that he badly yearns for his wifes love. Maybe he is a bit angry for his wifes negligence of him. While in the second letter, the author uses sentimental words and phrases to express her tender feelings for her lover. For example, the sentences “Now I cannot live apart from you … my art has been suckled by them and softly rocked in their tender cradle; they are as necessary to me now as sunlight and air.”and “You are everything to me”well demonstrate that. From the letter, we can see a gentle girl who desperately wants to be with her lover. Without her lover, the city is lifeless and her life meaningless. This letter reflects a touch of sentimentality. There seems to be a distressed girl before us who is weeping in grief.

Different styles bring different effects. A good understanding of various styles contributes to the appreciation of literary works and helps us to be better cultured in literature.

References:

[1]黄继忠.名人书信一百封[M].北京：中国对外翻译出版公司&商务印书馆（香港）有限公司，2001.

[2]Feng, Cuihua. English Rhetorical Options — a Handbook of English Rhetorical Devices[M].Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching

and Research Press,1995.

[3]Thornborrow,Joanna,and Shan Wareing. Patterns in Language: Stylistics for Students of Language and Literature[M]. Beijing: For

eign Language Teaching and Research Press & Routledge,2000.

A Stylistic Analysis of Two Love Letters

LIU Hong

（Xuzhou Institute of Technology， Xuzhou 221008，China）

Abstract：The thesis analyzes two love letters from the perspective of stylistics. Through the analysis of vocabulary, sentence structure and figures of speech used in the two letters, the author of the thesis intends to find out the feelings conveyed by the two letters.

Key words：stylistics； vocabulary； sentence structure； figures of speech