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1、Tenor of Discourse and Grammatical Metaphor -A Conversation Analysis of LolitaAbstract : Tenor of discourse, an important component of register, plays a vital part in conversation . In conversation ,the actual utterance does not necessarily follow a fixed pattern and oftentimes deviates from the nor
2、m, or is incongruently used for the reason of interpersonal relations or rather tenor of discourse . This paper tries to establish a relationship between tenor of discourse and ideational and more important, interpersonal grammatical metaphor through the conversation analysis between the father and
3、the daughter in Lolita.Key words : tenor of discourse , relationship, ideational and interpersonal grammatical metaphor 语旨与语法隐喻 -对洛丽塔的人物对话分析 摘要：语旨在文学语篇的人物对话中起着非常重要的作用。在会话中，我们发现对话不是严格遵守会话规则的，通常的情况是由于人物关系，或者或语旨的原因，往往偏离会话常规而达到某种效果。本文拟通过对洛丽塔中父女之间的对话来挖掘语旨和概念语法隐喻，特别是人际语法隐喻的关系。关键词：语旨，关系， 概念语法隐喻，人际语法隐喻I. In
4、troduction to the theory of register Speaking of varieties , there are mainly two kinds of situational varieties: dialectal varieties and diatypic varieties. Diatypic varieties, commonly called registers, are language variations that are associated with the different use to which they are put. Such
5、varieties do not depend on the people who use the language, but on the occasion when it is used . Different types of language are selected as appropriate to different types of occasion. The choice is determined by the convention that a certain kind of language is appropriate to a certain use. The oc
6、casions can be classified along three dimensions, each presenting an aspect of the situation and the part played by the language on them, In this way, registers may be distinguished according to field of discourse, mode of discourse and tenor of discourse. (Xu, 2005: 25). Register, in a restricted s
7、ense, refers to the variety of language related to ones occupation. It is a variety of language users use of language on account of social-situational factors. Halliday said that, “Language varies as its functions varies; it differs in different situations.” The type of language which is selected as
8、 appropriate to the type of situation is register. There are further social variables determining register: field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse. (Dai , 2002: 119) . Field of discourse refers to the area of operation of language activity, and is closely related to the purpose
9、 and subject matter of communication. It falls into two categories: technical or non-technical. Tenor of discourse refers to the role of the relationship in the situation in question: who the participants in the communication groups are and in what relationship they stand to each other. This dimensi
10、on to a great extent determines the level of formality and level of technicality of the language we use. Mode of discourse mainly refers to the means of communication. It is concerned with how communication is carried out. Fundamental to the mode of discourse is the distinction between speaking and
11、writing . (Dai , 2002 :120). To create in the reader the experience which has been imagined for the characters, other signals must be built in. Spoken exchanges are controlled not only by the need to communicate facts and opinions but also by the relationship between the persons, which creates lingu
12、istic register. This has been conveniently defined as variation in the selection of linguistic items for various purposes ; a set of contextual features bringing about a characteristic use of formal features ; a variety of the use of language as used by a particular speaker or writer in a particular
13、 context .2. Tenor of discourse. Tenor of discourse is the linguistic reflection of the personal relationships between speaker /writer and hear / reader called personal tenor, and of what the user is trying to do with language for to his or her addressee-called functional tenor. (Xu, 2005: 36). It i
14、s tenor of discourse that influences the formality of language, as is also the case of dialogue in novels . II. Metaphor and grammatical metaphor 2.1 A brief account of metaphor. The word metaphor dates back to “metaphore” in old French and “metaphora”in Latin and “metapherein” in Greece as well, me
15、aning “transference”. (Zhu, 2001:116).The study of metaphor has a long tradition. Ever since Plato, and Aristotle, peoples interest in studying metaphor has never ended. In Aristotles Poetics, he says, “Metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else; the transference bei
16、ng(1)either from genus to species, or (2) from species to genus, or (3) from species to species, or (4) on the ground of analogy.( Poetics, Char. 21). In discussing the relationship between metaphor and simile in Rhetoric, Aristotle considers simile as a kind of metaphor: the difference is but sligh
17、t and those which are successful always involve two relations like the proportional metaphor. Indeed, a simile succeeds best when it is a converted metaphor. In traditional literary criticism metaphor is distinguished from simile. A metaphor states that something is equivalent to another thing which
18、 is not usually associated with it. A simile states that something is like another thing which it is not usually associated with. For example, The man is a lion is a (lexical) metaphor, while The man is like a lion is a simile. Other lexical metaphors: a dead metaphor (only animate things can actual
19、ly live or die) comfortable feet (feet dont have feelings their possessor does!) blood bank (bank is a place where something valuable is kept) Researchers from various academic fields have approached metaphor from very different perspectives and established a rain of theories of metaphor, and even r
20、esearchers from the same theory often vary in their accounts for this phenomenon. But in a very broad sense, views of metaphor can be divided into two parts: views prior to and since Reddys classic essay, “The Conduit Metaphor”. The former can be called the Classical Theories of Metaphor and the lat
21、ter the Contemporary Theories of Metaphor. In Classical theories, metaphor is seen as a matter of language and one or more words for a concept are used outside of their normal conventional meaning to express a “similar” concept. (Fan , 2001:1). Ortony holds that contemporary theory of metaphor can b
22、e divided into nonconstructivism and constructivism. The former inherits the theoretical tradition of rhetoric and stylistics, taking metaphor as the phenomenon of linguistic deviations. While the latter takes metaphor as something somewhere between language reality and thought, regarding it as a dy
23、namic process which shows both the nature of language and the working mechanism of artificial intelligence. ( Ricoeur, 1997/1986 )2.2 Hallidays view of grammatical metaphor. It is Halliday who puts forward the theory of grammatical metaphor for the first time in his book An Introduction to Functiona
24、l Grammar in 1985, saying that “there is a strong grammatical element in rhetorical transference ; and once we have recognized this we find that there is also such a thing as grammatical metaphor, where the variation is essentially in the grammatical forms although often entailing some lexical varia
25、tion as well”(Halliday, 1985: 320). According to Hallidays philosophical thinking of language, language is used to convey peoples experience of the world, to establish a kind of social relation and to create a text. That is, language is primarily ideational, interpersonal and textual. This is what h
26、e calls the three meta-functions of language, realized respectively by transitivity, mood and modality, and cohesion theory. He further classifies grammatical metaphor into ideational grammatical and interpersonal grammatical metaphor. Generally speaking, grammatical metaphor is classified into two
27、categories: congruent and incongruent grammatical metaphor. The employment of incongruent grammatical metaphor makes it possible for us to realize the target structure by transferring grammatical structure form one grammatical domain to another. Incongruent realization refers to the relation between
28、 semantic and grammatical categories which is “unnatural”: declarative meanings can be realized in the interrogative mood , and imperative meanings in the interrogative mood ,too. (Fan , 2001: 30). According to Halliday, there are two main types of grammatical metaphor in the clause: metaphor of moo
29、d ( including modality )and metaphor of transitivity .(Halliday , 2000: 343)III. Tenor of discourse and grammatical metaphor in conversation analysis In conversation, not surprisingly, there appear innumerable incongruent realizations of mood and modality and transitivity as well as a result of comp
30、licated relationships among people, or rather tenor of discourse .Social status, power relations and familiarity etc. are often associated with the use of mood. Thus the employment of various moods to realize the same speech function can serve as a means for us to detect he social relationship betwe
31、en the interactants. Generally speaking, the imperative mood is connected with strong power, high social status, and familiarity. (Fan: 2001). People do not always follow the invariable pattern of speech. They use rather different, non-normal forms to express their feelings. In other words, their ex
32、pected speech patter is incongruently realized. The following excerpt is taken from Lolita, in which ideational metaphor and interpersonal metaphor can be found . “What thing, Dad? “ ( She let the word expand with ironic deliberation . “Any old thing”. “Okay, if I call you that? (eyes slit on the ro
33、ad ). “Quite.” “Its a sketch, you know .When did you fall for my mummy?” “Someday, lo, you will understand many emotions and situations such as for example the harmony, the beauty of spiritual relationship.” “Bah!” said the cynical nymphet. “You know, I missed you terribly, Lo.” “I did not. Fact Ive
34、 been revoltingly unfaithful to you, but it does not matter one bit, because youve stopped caring for me, anyway. You drive much faster than my mummy, mister.” “Why do you think I have ceased caring for you, Lo?” “Well, you havent kissed me yet, have you?” “Dont do that, “she said looking at me with
35、 unfeigned surprise, “Dont drool on me. You dirty man.” “Bad, bad girl,” said Lo comfortably. “Juvenile delinquent, but frank and fetching. That light was red. Ive never seen such driving.” The above is a conversation between Lolita and her father, which shows the reader a twisted relationship betwe
36、en the two, as can be sensed through the way they talk .Their conversation is characterized by hyper informality and incongruent realization of grammatical metaphor. 1. The use of ideational grammatical metaphor. For example, Someday, Lo, you will understand many emotions and situations such as for
37、example, the beauty of spiritual relationship. The word beauty is originally adjective used as circumstantial but incongruently realized by nominal group. Another example is Ive been revoltingly unfaithful to you .Revoltingly, deriving from revolt, is originally a material process and incongruently
38、realized by adverbial phrase as circumstantial process. 2. The use of interpersonal grammatical metaphor. For instance, “Well, you havent kissed me yet, have you ? This sentence is not to be interpreted as a mere question to be answered by the listener. The father had intended to say, “Kiss me.”, bu
39、t didnt say so, for at the moment Lo was mad with her father. Therefore, imperative is incongruently realized by interrogative. 3. Turning taking and cooperative principle. Turn-taking is an important element in conversation. In conversation ,the one who does most of the talking, has the most turns
40、is powerful and plays a dominant .When people are engaged in conversation , they are supposed to abide by certain rules , which are termed Cooperative Principle by H.P. Grice . He proposed four maxims: maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim of relevance and maxim of manner. One of the characteri
41、stics of it is the role-switch between the addresser and addressee. Yet in the above dialogue what we see is not that after one finishes, the other continues, which is the normal pattern of dialogue in which, but that the one who dominates the conversation or does most of the talking is the daughter
42、 trying in every way possible to condemn her father for his misconduct while the father tries very hard to explain, to please the daughter and still further to stray away from the topic. 4. Information unit foregrounded. An instance for this is the sentence I miss you terribly, in which the given in
43、formation is I, the new information is miss you terribly .But Lo answered, “I did not. In Los answer the given information is foregrounded, that is to say, the stress falls upon I serving as the new information for the purpose of creating a sharp contrast. IV. Conclusion Tenor of discourse, an impor
44、tant component of register, is of great importance in discourse analysis and exerts tremendous influence on the degree of formality and still on the style. From the above conversation analysis, we can see that tenor of discourse effects turn-taking, conversation structure and metaphorical realizatio
45、n of speech patterns. As a result, ideational grammatical metaphor and interpersonal grammatical metaphor are the form of realization, the reason for which is the register, or to a large extent, tenor of discourse.References: 1. Chapman , Raymond . “The Reader as Listener : Dialect and Relationships
46、 in The Mayor of Casterbridge” in Leo Hickey ., (ed) ,The Pragmatics of Style, London : Routledge ., pp1602.Halliday, M. A. K. 1985. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Edward and Arnold.3. Halliday , M.K . 2000. An Introduction to Functional Grammar . Beijing : Foreign Language Teaching and Rese
47、arch Press .4. Ricoeur, 1997/1986 The Rule of Metaphor . ( trans.By R. Czerny with K. Mclaughlin and J. Costello). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.; Ortony, 1979, 1993) . 5. 戴炜栋. 新编简明语言学教程. 上海：上海外语教育出版社. 20026. 范文芳. 语法隐喻理论研究. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社. 2001.7. 徐有志. 英语文体学教程. 北京：高等教育出版社. 20058.朱永生, 严世清.2001 . 上海：上海外语教育出版社.