1、英美文学课程论文The Linguistic Features of OHenrys Short Stories班级 _学号_姓名 _ 分数_Impact of Cultural Differences on Business in Foreign MarketsAbstractO Henry is one of the greatest short stories writers in the world,。In language, O Henry uses many rhetoric tactics to achieve the effort of making the stories m
2、ore vivid and more humorous, like irony. The characters in his short stories are from all the classes of society. His stories are considered as “the encyclopedia of American life”. In the thesis, the feature of O Henrys short story, humor, is elaborately analyzed.Key Words: O Henry; short stories; h
3、umor2Contents1 Introduction 11.1 Background 11.2 Previous study of O Henrys works12 The Life of O Henry and His Literature Achievements32.1O Henrys Personal Information. 32.2 O Henrys Works . 43 The Features of O Henrys Works53.1 Humor.63.1.1 Universal Humor.63.1.2 Culture Humor73.1.3 Linguistic Hum
4、or.83.1.3.1 At the Lexical Level.83.1.3.2 At the Syntactic Level.94. Conclusion105. Bibliography1131. Introduction1.1 BackgroundO Henry, one of the three most famous short story writers in the world, enjoys the equal status with Chekhov and Maupassant. His stories are famous for their unexpected end
5、ing, vivid imaginations coupled with keen observations, as well as exquisite conception. In order to carry forward the fine tradition of O Henrys works, the O Henry Memorial Award has been presented since 1918 for the best publisher each year.Many critics in America and other countries comment on O
6、Henry and his works with respect to his biography, the ingenious arrangement of his works, the typical characters and plots, and the critical implication of his works, to name but a few. Critics often regard him as a writer who puts moral judgment and social criticism into his unique style with humo
7、r, satire, burlesque and obvious comic inclinations. 1.2 Previous Studies of O Henrys WorksRegarded as a master of short stories, O Henry arouses great interest from critics ten years after his death. The famous critic Stephen Leacock says in the preface of O Henrys The Voice of the City (1908) that
8、 “The time is coming, lets hope, when the whole English-speaking world will recognize in O Henry one of the greatest masters of modern fiction” (O Henry, 2004). He believes that O Henry owns the technique of Maupassant, but exceeds Maupassant in humor. Either at home or abroad, critics comment on O
9、Henry and his works mainly with respect to the themes of humanity, vivid plots, frequent, coincidences, surprising ending and humorous language. Henry James Forman concerns mainly on the humanity themes of O Henrys works: “Gifted as he is with a flashing wit, abundant humor, and quick observation, n
10、o subject has terrors for him. If it be too much to say, in the old phrase, that nothing human is alien 4to him, at least the larger part of humanity is his domain” (Current-Garcia,1993:158-159).St. John Adcock has more interest in O Henrys language. He presents his opinion in “O Henry: An English V
11、iew” (1917):He has none of the conscious stylists elaborate little tricks with words, for he is a master of language and not its slaveHe seems to go as he pleases, writing apparently just whatever words happen to be in the ink, yet all the while he is getting hold of his readers interest; subtly sha
12、ping his narrative with a story-tellers unerring instinct, generally allowing you no glimpse of its culminating point until you are righton it. (Adcock,1917:202-203)In China, the only monographic book on O Henry is Ruan Wenlings Going in a Mazethe Artistic World in O Henry (1997). It focuses on thre
13、e research aspects of the writer, the works and the art. Professor Ruan introduces O Henrys life thoroughly, comments most of O Henrys works creatively, and makes it a valuable book for research into O Henry and his works. Moreover, there are several master theses and around one hundred articles pub
14、lished in periodicals. Similarly, most of these theses and articles limit their discussions to the humanity themes, flexible plot arrangements and humorous language, which is called “O Henrys Technique”. However, what will be presented in this thesis are the features in O Henrys short stories, which
15、 have ever been discussed scarcely.In the thesis, I will elaborately analyze the feature of O Henrys short story, namely, humor.2. The Life of O Henry and His Literature Achievements2.1 O Henrys Personal Information William Sidney Porter, whose pen name was O Henry, was born in Greenboro, North Caro
16、lina, in 1862. His father, Algernon Sydney Porter was a doctor and an editor, and his mother sometimes wrote poetry. When William was three, his mother died, and he was raise by his parental grandmother and paternal aunt. William was an avid reader, but at the age of fifteen he left school, and then
17、 worked in a drug store 5and on a Texas ranch. In Houston, he had a number of jobs, including that of bank clerk. After moving in 1882 to Texas, he worked on a ranch in LaSalle County for two years. In 1887 he married Athol Estes Roach; they had one daughter and one son. In 1894 William Sidney Porte
18、r started a humorous weekly The Rolling Stone. It was at this time that he began heavy drinking. When the weekly failed, he joined the Houston Post as a reporter and columnist. In 1896 O Henry was charged with embezzling funds from the First National Bank of Austin, Texas, where he had worked from 1
19、891 to 1894. The amount of money was small and might have been an accounting error. However he chose to flee to Honduras rather than stand trail. Learning that his wife was dying, he returned to Texas in 1897 and, after her death, turned himself in to authorities. He served three years of a five-yea
20、r sentence at the federal penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. While being tortured and suffering a lot, he became a pharmacist to the prison which enabled him to write stories based on the life he had experienced in Texas and elsewhere. It was the penitentiary ordeal that changed him from William Porter
21、 to O Henry, from a newspaper columnist to a mature writer. Upon his release in 1901, he settled in New York and began writing full time. His life in the previous years granted him new sensations and adventures, many of which were transformed into more than 140 stories. On the other hand, he would s
22、uffer intensely from loneliness and insecurity, while striving in vain to elude the shadow of his past. He was only forty-eight when he died and was at the peak of his career.2.2 O Henrys worksIn his stories he made substantial use of his knowledge of Texas, Central America, and life in prison. He a
23、lso became fascinated by New York street life, which provided a setting for many of his later stories. During the last ten years of his life, O Henry became one of the most popular writers in America, publishing over 500 short stories in dozens of widely read periodicals. His first collection work,
24、Cabbages and Kings (1904) is a series or South American tales linked together by a loose plot construction. The charactersAmericans, revolutionist, patriots, and even the president of a mythical republic, belong to vaudeville or the comic opera. With The four Million (1906) O Henry produced his firs
25、t book of New York stories, some of 6which, such as “The Gift of Magi,” “The Skylight Room,” “The Cop and the Anthem,” “Springtime a la Carte,” and “The Furnished Room” were hardly to be surpassed. The book had a fantastic success, and in 1907 The Trimmed Lamp gave the reading public second collecti
26、on of New York stories. O Henrys talent for the ironic twist is exemplified in the title story and in “Two Thanksgiving Day Gentleman.”In 1907 he turned back to Western material in Heart of the West. Here the reader meets stages drivers, judges, ranchers, miners, Spanish beauties, drifters, and band
27、its. In 1908 O Henry also published The Voice of the City, the Voice of Massed Humanity, the Voice of New York. The stories in Roads of Destiny (1909) reflect his conviction that man cannot escape from his fate. In “Roads of Destiny” fate is a road; in “Phoebe” it is a star and a woman; in “A Retrie
28、ved Reformation” it is circumstance. In Whirligigs (1910) O Henry drew from all the backgrounds he had known and from much of his personal experience. “The Apotheosis of Failure” is an amusing tale of mistaken identity. “The Ransom of Red Chief,” the story of a kidnapped that boomeranged because the
29、 kidnapped child was an unspeakable terror, is pure fun.3 The Features of O Henrys Works3.1 HumorHumor originates from the famous poet Ben Jasons “Four Humors” theory, which is used to describe some comical warp role in “Comedy of Humors” in Elizabeths era in England. Now, this terminology indicates
30、 some comical conversation and some ridiculous exterior or behavioral mode. Its purpose is to obtain the serious or joking effect. According to J.R. Schmitz (2002), humor can be divided into there types:1) universal humor; 2) culture humor; 3) linguistic humor. In this section, I will analyze the di
31、fferent types of humor in O Henrys works in detail.73.1.1 Universal humorUniversal humor, also called reality-based humor, mainly refers to some humorous situation or incidents which can be understood by people of many cultures. For instance, situation in which a child makes extremely mature, adult-
32、like statement or anyone gives the unexpected and unusual responses would appear funny in most cultures. People of different culture are able to understand this kind of humor even without any culture background information. It can be illustrated by some examples as follows.(i). Ill tell you the righ
33、t way. Did you ever see a man sneak out in the backyard and pick up a rock to throw at a tom-cat that was sitting on a fence looking at him? He pretends he hasnt got a thing in his hand, and that the cat dont see him, and that he dont see the cat. Thats the idea. (Telemachus, Friend)(ii). With a sna
34、ppy Good morning, Pitcher, Maxwell dashed at his desk as though he were intending to leap over it, and then plunged into the great heap of letters and telegrams waiting there for him. (The Romance of a Busy Broker)The first paragraph is Telemachuss experience in how to pick up a womans hand and hold
35、 it. He thinks that it is just like a man who “sneaks out in the back yard and picks up a rock to throw at a tom-cat. O Henry uses a series of verbs, such as “sneak”, “pick”, “throw”, and “pretend” to depict a comic scene. The use of “dash” and “plunge” in the second paragraph vividly presents the i
36、mage of a busy broker whose behavior is just like a machine in the financial world. While reading the examples above, readers could easily understand the humor between the lines.83.1.2 Culture humorCulture humor is subjected to culture which provides established forms for humorous production and exp
37、ression. Through established forms and culture values, culture has a strong influence on humor in term of what to laugh at, how to laugh is provked and accepted, why to laugh under certain occasions, etc. people can not understand the culture humor without specific culture background information.For
38、 example:(i) For years the hospitable Blackwells had been his winter quarter. Just as his more fortunate fellow New Yorkers had been bought their tickets to Palm Beach and the Rivera each winter, so Soapy had made his humble arrangements for his annual hegira to the Island. (The Cop and the Anthem)I
39、f people know nothing about the word hegira, they will never comprehend the humor between the lines. The word hegira means Muhammads flight from Mecca to Medina in 622.AD, from which date the Muslim era is reckoned. Here in this paragraph, O Henry compares Soapy, a homeless man, to the great saint M
40、uhammad. The sharp contrast between the two characters produces the effect of humor.(ii) Now, there are two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jims gold watch that had been his fathers and his grandfathers; the other was Dellas hair. Had the Qu
41、een of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Dellas would have let her hair hang out the window some to dry just to depreciate Her Majestys jewels and gift. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he pa
42、ssed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy. (The Gift of Magi)Chinese readers may have little knowledge about Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. According to Dr. Susan Durber (1998), Queen of Sheba came to test King 9Solomon with hard question she wanted to know whether he was really as wise a
43、s they said he was. So, the Bible is interested in her because of her mind. But posterity has remembered her for the rich gifts she brought with her, spices, gold and precious stones, gifts that lend her a kind of oriental exoticism. The text says that she was breathless before Solomons wisdom and a
44、dmitted that his God must be the greatest. And whether it was mind or body or both, Sheba is seduced by Solomon. Though almost hes equal in money and brains, she gave in and adored him. Therefore, Queen of Sheba and King Solomon are known for their money and brains. It is told in Example (2) that Ji
45、ms watch and Dellas hair, two trivial things are more precious than all the fortune Queen of Sheba and King Solomon possess. Through the sharp contrast, humorous effect is produced. 3.1.3. Linguistic HumorGenerally speaking, linguistic humor is produced by linguistic devices, rhetorical devices and
46、so on. This section will analyzed linguistic humor in O Henrys short stories from lexical and syntactic perspectives, which are the most typical ways to explain his humor.3.1.3.1 At the Lexical LevelO Henry is a master in employing all kinds of lexical devices to produce humor. In this section the d
47、iscussion will focus on O Henrys humor at the level of lexical expression.(i) He seemed doomed to liberty. (The Cop and the Anthem)In this sentence, the word doomed is usually used in the phrase “be doomed to” which is followed by such negative words like death, failure, destruction, etc. However, l
48、iberty is a positive word that means freedom from captivity, slavery, or oppressive control. To Soapy liberty means hunger, coldness and death because he is homeless and winter is coming. The only way out is to be put in prison where he can spend the cold winter. O Henry uses such a collocation to imply the miserable life of Soapy in a humorous way.10(ii)At a table he sat and consumed beefsteak, flapjacks, doughnuts and pie. (The Cop and the Anthem)The word consume replaces ea
