Ⅱ. Literary Use of the Language

2. Ⅱ.  Literary Use of the Language • 1.Three uses of the language • (1)The practical use of the language • To pass information and to communicate with people • (2)The persuasive use of the language: as an instrument of persuasion • That is to convince somebody about something that he or she should do.

3. (3)The literary use of the language • To make full use of the words • To take the advantage of the word’s connotations • To enrich the meaning of the words • To reinforce the meaning, the ambiguity and multiplicity of meanings

4. 2. Features of literary language • (1)Make full use of the word’s connotation • Denotation: • The basic meaning of the word, i.e. the dictionary meaning • Connotation: • What the word suggests beyond what it expresses; it is the overtones of meaning. It acquired by its past history and association.

5. e.g. home: • a place where one lives (denotation) • security, love, comfort and family (connotation) • The words, “childlike” and “childish,” • both mean characteristic of a child, but childlike suggests meekness, innocence, and wide-eyed wonder; childish suggests pettiness, willfulness, immaturity, shallow thoughts, and inconstancy.

6. (2) Saying one thing, meaning another • e.g. Here is a dialogue from a one-act play: • A: Well, you’re a pretty sight! Got slightly wet, didn’t you? • B: Wet? I’m drowned! It’s raining cats and dogs outside, and my raincoat’s just like a sieve! • a pretty sight—a wretched sight • slightly wet—very wet • not got drowned—but got drenched

7. (3) Saying most in the fewest words • Examples like: • In As You Like It, Shakespeare says: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” • Ben Jonson says: “He was not of an age, but for all time!” • Comparing Ben Jonson with Shakespeare, Dryden says: “ Shakespeare was the Homer,Jonson was the Virgil; I admire Jonson, bur love Shakespeare.”

8. Alexander Pope says: • “To err is human, forgive divine!” • “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” • Samuel Johnson said: • He who is tired of London is tired of life.

9. (4) The Figurative use of the language • Images • Specific words which build up a picture in the reader’s mind. • e.g. SPRING (by Shakespeare) • When daisies pied, and violets blue, • And lady-smocks all silver white,

10. And cuckoo-buds, of yellow hue, • Do paint the meadows with delight, • The cuckoo then on ev’ry tree • Mocks married men, for thus sings he; • Cuckoo! • Cuckoo! cuckoo!-O word of fear, • Unpleasing to a married ear! (similar to cuckold)

11. 马致远的小令《秋思》 • “枯藤老树昏鸦，小桥流水人家。古道西风瘦马。夕阳西下，断肠人在天涯。” • 这里的藤、树、鸦、桥、水、家、道、风、马、夕阳、人等都是意象。

12. Similes and Metaphors • e.g. My Love Is like a Red, Red Rose • O, my luve is like a red, red rose, • That's newly sprung in June. • O, my luve is like the melodie, • That's sweetly play'd in tune. • --by Robert Burns

13. Symbols • A symbol is both an image and a metaphor. • e.g. Life is a candle. • Then how to tell an image from a metaphor and from a symbol? • For Example: • Betty has a pretty dog. • Some dirty dog stole my purse. • You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.