论文部分内容阅读
【Abstract】Pygmalion is one of the famous works written by George Bernard Shaw. The paper tries to make a stylistic analysis of the first act in Pygmalion to find out the dramatic effect achieved through dialogues. The paper mainly analyzes the dialogue from three perspectives including phonology， lexicon and syntax. The study finds out these three parts contribute to the comic effect of Pygmalion.
【Key words】Pygmalion； Stylistic Analysis
1. Brief Introduction of Pygmalion and the Overview of Stylistics
George Bernard Shaw is a great realistic dramatist and outstanding literary critic and a Nobel Prize Winner. His comedy plays， Pygmalion， tells that the phonetician Higgins performs an experiment on the flower girl Eliza. Eliza is trained to behave like a lady. A serious of trains makes Eliza get rid of her poor identity. Higgins also falls in love with her.
The stylistics studies the characteristics of situationally-distinctive uses of language （The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought， 1977， 2nd edn 1988）. Stylistics includes broad stylistics and narrow stylistics. The narrow stylistics means the literary style including artistic features of literary language， the style and language feature of a work， author’s language habit and language style of a certain literary genre. Pygmalion will be analyzed from the points of style in phonetics， lexicon， syntax， text and figure of speech.
2. Stylistic Analysis of Pygmalion
When Eliza appears in ActⅠand ActⅡ， she is still a flower girl with a Cockney accent. Her language is typical of Cockney. It is necessary to make an analysis of her language. These typical characteristics are mainly shown in the aspects of phonology， lexicon and syntax.
2.1 Analysis of phonology
When Freddy knocks her flowers over， Eliza is angry “Nah then， Freddy look wh‘ y’ gowin， deah”， which means “look where you’re going”. “Nah” is used to express her angry feeling. “gowin” replaces “going” with pronunciation of “ing” pronounced as “in”， “why” lacking “y” and “you” lacking “ou” in pronunciation. Many words can’t be pronounced completely with many letters missing. “deah” should be “dear”， also pronounced wrongly. All these are different from the standard pronunciation.
When Lisa is picking up her scattered flowers， she says “theres mennerss f’ yer！ Te-oo banches o voylets trod into the mad.” Her means “there are manners for you！ Two bunches of violets trodden into the mud.” Many letters in the word are pronounced wrongly. If one does not know Cockney， he may hardly understand the girl’s meaning. The same mistake happens when Freddy’s mother asks how she knows the name of her son. Eliza answers “Ow， eez- ve-ooa san， is e？ Wal， fewd dan y’ de-ooty bawmz a mather should， eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel’s flahrzn than ran away athaht pyin. Will ye-oo py me f’ them？” In her sentences， many pronunciations of letters are deleted or added， which is pretty typical in explaining the features of Cockney. When she is picking up the money Higgins leaves， she gives out the sounds like “Ah-ow-ooh， Aaah-ow-ooh， Aaaaaah-ow-ooh and Aaaaaaaaaaah-ow-oh”. The strange noise Eliza made aims to show her feelings like anger， surprise and disagreement. These strange noise is a typical feature of Eliza’s original language， which she unconsciously uses to express her feeling when she is in a certain mood.
It can be seen that Eliza’s language is far different from the standard English. She may delete or add or mispronounce the standard English in phonetics. The language she speaks is difficult for people to understand. Huggins even does think she is crying more than speaking.
2.2 Analysis of Lexicon
Eliza’s poor education and low social position all be shown in the choice of lexicon. The words she chooses are different from the words the noblewomen use， which consists of lots of informal and colloquial expressions， terms of abuse and slangs.
In the choice of words， Eliza prefers to use slangs. In the first act， the use of slangs is not so much， but it is still very obvious. For example， the flower uses “tanner” to refer to six pence and “tuppence” to two pence and she also use the word “garn” to mean “go on talking”. The people who are from the upper class will not use these slangs in their words. Eliza’s using these words reveals her poor social condition and her poor educational background.
There are also some terms of abuse in Eliza’s language. The obvious one in the first act is the use of a sentence “you ought to be stuffed with nails”. This is a curse. The use of the sentence shows Eliza’s hate to the note taker Higgins. The word is sharp， rough and rude， which shows her poor education and bad family education.
In addition， the informal and colloquial expressions are so widely used almost in all Eliza’s words. The girl like Eliza without good education is likely to use informal language in any situation. In the sentences like “I aint done nothing wrong by speaking to the gentlemen” and “aint no call to meddle with me， he aint”， the word “ain’t ” is widely used. The use of “ain’t” is one of the features of Cockney English. When negation has to be expressed， the “ain’t” is a general negative word. “ain’t” takes the place of “isn’t”， “am not” ， “haven’t”， “don’t” etc. And it is a symbol of informal and colloquial English. When the flower girl comforts the gentleman， she says to the gentleman “so cheer up， Captain”. “Cheer up” is a very informal word used to comfort people. Other significant phenomenon like “I take my Bible oath” shows Eliza’s desire to highlight how serious she is. Even though she thinks she use a serious expression， it is still very informal. The use of these words indicates Eliza’s social position and educational background. 2.3 Analysis of Syntax
When it comes to the analysis of syntax of Eliza’s language， what distinct is the use of double negation and some obvious grammatical mistakes. Both these problems can be summarized as the grammatical problems. The poor master of the grammatical rules results from Eliza’s poor educational background.
Double negation referring to the negative meaning in Eliza’s language is another significant feature of Cockney English. Generally speaking， double negation in standard English means the positive implication， but in Cockney English， double negation refers to the negative meaning. Double negation is frequently used by Eliza. When Eliza defends for herself， she say “I aint done nothing wrong by speaking to the gentleman”. Eliza wants to express that she has not done anything wrong， but the use of the double negation means she has done something wrong. A person who is not familiar with the Cockney may feel confused when hearing her words. There are also many the similar use in the first act， like “aint no call to meddle with me， he aint.” “I don’t want to have no truck with him” and “eightpence aint no object to me”. The abuse of double negation is against her original meanings.
“Have” is often absent in perfect tense in Eliza’s sentences. With “have” being omitted， the readers get confused by the time the action takes place and the sentences meanings. This is mainly because the poor master of grammatical rules. For example， Eliza says “I always been a good girl”. It should be “I have always been a good girl”. If the reader explains it in this way “I had been a good girl”， the implication will be totally different. The same situation happens in the sentence “All he comes here for was to touch you for some money to get drunk on”.
There are also some other grammatical mistakes like the disagreement between subject and verb. For example， when Eliza say “hes no gentleman， he aint， to interfere with a poor girl”， she means “he is not a gentleman， he isn’t， to interfere with a poor girl”. Firstly， agreement between subject and verb is wrong. It should be “he isn’t” not “he aint”. Secondly， “no” is used in a wrong to indicate that he is not a gentlemen. Thirdly， article is absent. Countable nouns can’t exist independently and they have to appear with plural form or article. The sentence like “that aint proper writing” also violates the rule of agreement between subject and verb， which should be “that isn’t proper writing”. All these grammatical mistakes indicate that Lisa has not accepted the regular training of grammatical system.
3. Conclusion
As a great work， the style of dialogues in Pygmalion contributes to the whole development of the play and the comic effect. After the stylistic analysis to the first act of Pygmalion， it can be seen that Eliza’s poor family background and educational background all can be analyzed from her language from the wrong pronunciation， word choice and wrong grammatical use. The stylistic analysis of the dialogues makes us clear about the characteristics of the character.
References：
[1]陳灿.从文体学视角解读《卖花女》[J].湖北第二师范学院学报.2011（3）：21-23.
[2]胡壮麟.理论文体学[M].北京：外语教育与研究出版社，2000.
[3]Schewarts G H.George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion[M].Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research and Research Press，1966：23.
[4]徐有志.英语文体学教程[M].北京：外语教育与研究出版社，2000.
[5]袁素平.论Pygmalion杨译本中卖花女Eliza语体风格的再现[J].文教资料.2007（11）：29-31.
【Key words】Pygmalion； Stylistic Analysis
1. Brief Introduction of Pygmalion and the Overview of Stylistics
George Bernard Shaw is a great realistic dramatist and outstanding literary critic and a Nobel Prize Winner. His comedy plays， Pygmalion， tells that the phonetician Higgins performs an experiment on the flower girl Eliza. Eliza is trained to behave like a lady. A serious of trains makes Eliza get rid of her poor identity. Higgins also falls in love with her.
The stylistics studies the characteristics of situationally-distinctive uses of language （The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought， 1977， 2nd edn 1988）. Stylistics includes broad stylistics and narrow stylistics. The narrow stylistics means the literary style including artistic features of literary language， the style and language feature of a work， author’s language habit and language style of a certain literary genre. Pygmalion will be analyzed from the points of style in phonetics， lexicon， syntax， text and figure of speech.
2. Stylistic Analysis of Pygmalion
When Eliza appears in ActⅠand ActⅡ， she is still a flower girl with a Cockney accent. Her language is typical of Cockney. It is necessary to make an analysis of her language. These typical characteristics are mainly shown in the aspects of phonology， lexicon and syntax.
2.1 Analysis of phonology
When Freddy knocks her flowers over， Eliza is angry “Nah then， Freddy look wh‘ y’ gowin， deah”， which means “look where you’re going”. “Nah” is used to express her angry feeling. “gowin” replaces “going” with pronunciation of “ing” pronounced as “in”， “why” lacking “y” and “you” lacking “ou” in pronunciation. Many words can’t be pronounced completely with many letters missing. “deah” should be “dear”， also pronounced wrongly. All these are different from the standard pronunciation.
When Lisa is picking up her scattered flowers， she says “theres mennerss f’ yer！ Te-oo banches o voylets trod into the mad.” Her means “there are manners for you！ Two bunches of violets trodden into the mud.” Many letters in the word are pronounced wrongly. If one does not know Cockney， he may hardly understand the girl’s meaning. The same mistake happens when Freddy’s mother asks how she knows the name of her son. Eliza answers “Ow， eez- ve-ooa san， is e？ Wal， fewd dan y’ de-ooty bawmz a mather should， eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel’s flahrzn than ran away athaht pyin. Will ye-oo py me f’ them？” In her sentences， many pronunciations of letters are deleted or added， which is pretty typical in explaining the features of Cockney. When she is picking up the money Higgins leaves， she gives out the sounds like “Ah-ow-ooh， Aaah-ow-ooh， Aaaaaah-ow-ooh and Aaaaaaaaaaah-ow-oh”. The strange noise Eliza made aims to show her feelings like anger， surprise and disagreement. These strange noise is a typical feature of Eliza’s original language， which she unconsciously uses to express her feeling when she is in a certain mood.
It can be seen that Eliza’s language is far different from the standard English. She may delete or add or mispronounce the standard English in phonetics. The language she speaks is difficult for people to understand. Huggins even does think she is crying more than speaking.
2.2 Analysis of Lexicon
Eliza’s poor education and low social position all be shown in the choice of lexicon. The words she chooses are different from the words the noblewomen use， which consists of lots of informal and colloquial expressions， terms of abuse and slangs.
In the choice of words， Eliza prefers to use slangs. In the first act， the use of slangs is not so much， but it is still very obvious. For example， the flower uses “tanner” to refer to six pence and “tuppence” to two pence and she also use the word “garn” to mean “go on talking”. The people who are from the upper class will not use these slangs in their words. Eliza’s using these words reveals her poor social condition and her poor educational background.
There are also some terms of abuse in Eliza’s language. The obvious one in the first act is the use of a sentence “you ought to be stuffed with nails”. This is a curse. The use of the sentence shows Eliza’s hate to the note taker Higgins. The word is sharp， rough and rude， which shows her poor education and bad family education.
In addition， the informal and colloquial expressions are so widely used almost in all Eliza’s words. The girl like Eliza without good education is likely to use informal language in any situation. In the sentences like “I aint done nothing wrong by speaking to the gentlemen” and “aint no call to meddle with me， he aint”， the word “ain’t ” is widely used. The use of “ain’t” is one of the features of Cockney English. When negation has to be expressed， the “ain’t” is a general negative word. “ain’t” takes the place of “isn’t”， “am not” ， “haven’t”， “don’t” etc. And it is a symbol of informal and colloquial English. When the flower girl comforts the gentleman， she says to the gentleman “so cheer up， Captain”. “Cheer up” is a very informal word used to comfort people. Other significant phenomenon like “I take my Bible oath” shows Eliza’s desire to highlight how serious she is. Even though she thinks she use a serious expression， it is still very informal. The use of these words indicates Eliza’s social position and educational background. 2.3 Analysis of Syntax
When it comes to the analysis of syntax of Eliza’s language， what distinct is the use of double negation and some obvious grammatical mistakes. Both these problems can be summarized as the grammatical problems. The poor master of the grammatical rules results from Eliza’s poor educational background.
Double negation referring to the negative meaning in Eliza’s language is another significant feature of Cockney English. Generally speaking， double negation in standard English means the positive implication， but in Cockney English， double negation refers to the negative meaning. Double negation is frequently used by Eliza. When Eliza defends for herself， she say “I aint done nothing wrong by speaking to the gentleman”. Eliza wants to express that she has not done anything wrong， but the use of the double negation means she has done something wrong. A person who is not familiar with the Cockney may feel confused when hearing her words. There are also many the similar use in the first act， like “aint no call to meddle with me， he aint.” “I don’t want to have no truck with him” and “eightpence aint no object to me”. The abuse of double negation is against her original meanings.
“Have” is often absent in perfect tense in Eliza’s sentences. With “have” being omitted， the readers get confused by the time the action takes place and the sentences meanings. This is mainly because the poor master of grammatical rules. For example， Eliza says “I always been a good girl”. It should be “I have always been a good girl”. If the reader explains it in this way “I had been a good girl”， the implication will be totally different. The same situation happens in the sentence “All he comes here for was to touch you for some money to get drunk on”.
There are also some other grammatical mistakes like the disagreement between subject and verb. For example， when Eliza say “hes no gentleman， he aint， to interfere with a poor girl”， she means “he is not a gentleman， he isn’t， to interfere with a poor girl”. Firstly， agreement between subject and verb is wrong. It should be “he isn’t” not “he aint”. Secondly， “no” is used in a wrong to indicate that he is not a gentlemen. Thirdly， article is absent. Countable nouns can’t exist independently and they have to appear with plural form or article. The sentence like “that aint proper writing” also violates the rule of agreement between subject and verb， which should be “that isn’t proper writing”. All these grammatical mistakes indicate that Lisa has not accepted the regular training of grammatical system.
3. Conclusion
As a great work， the style of dialogues in Pygmalion contributes to the whole development of the play and the comic effect. After the stylistic analysis to the first act of Pygmalion， it can be seen that Eliza’s poor family background and educational background all can be analyzed from her language from the wrong pronunciation， word choice and wrong grammatical use. The stylistic analysis of the dialogues makes us clear about the characteristics of the character.
References：
[1]陳灿.从文体学视角解读《卖花女》[J].湖北第二师范学院学报.2011（3）：21-23.
[2]胡壮麟.理论文体学[M].北京：外语教育与研究出版社，2000.
[3]Schewarts G H.George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion[M].Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research and Research Press，1966：23.
[4]徐有志.英语文体学教程[M].北京：外语教育与研究出版社，2000.
[5]袁素平.论Pygmalion杨译本中卖花女Eliza语体风格的再现[J].文教资料.2007（11）：29-31.