Characteristics of poetry language that you should be familiar with in high school poetry appreciation (1)

Poet language and lexicographer language

The language of poetry is different from novels, essays, dramas, etc., and it has its own unique set of rhetorical techniques, sentence patterns, and grammatical constructs. People call it "poet's language". The language of the lyrics (or "lexicographer") is not the same as the language of the poet. However, it has many commonalities and similarities, and grasping the characteristics of the poet's language is of great significance for the use of lyrical language and for distinguishing between poems and words. In addition to the common requirements of general literary language, such as image, vividness, vividness, conciseness, etc., the most prominent feature of the poet language is its irrationality, resistance and suggestibility, which we will discuss separately below.

First, the rationality of the poet's language

The so-called paradoxical rationality is that it does not conform to objective reason and physics, but only conforms to subjective reason. Simply. Reasonable and unreasonable. Of all the artists, the poet who expresses paradox is the most prominent. The poet's language only follows the trajectory of the poet's emotional logic, so it escapes from the logic of life and rational logic from time to time, saying many unreasonable words, let us look at a few poems about the moon:

Lu from tonight the white moon is the hometown of Ming - Du Fu's "Moon Night Remembrance of The Brother> makes people not see the ancient moon, this month once followed the ancients - Li Bai", "Ask the wine to the moon" The brightness and shade of the moon are the same everywhere for the earth, and people often ridicule those who worship the foreign country as "the moon of a foreign country is also rounder than China", so it is equally absurd to say that the moon in the hometown is the same as saying that the moon is full in a foreign country. Li Baizhi's theory also contradicts; if it is said that there is no change in the moon in ancient and modern times, then people today can see the moon of "ancient times"; if there is a change in the moon in ancient and modern times. Then "this month" cannot be like the ancients. But from the perspective of emotional logic, Du Shi emphasizes the cuteness of his hometown; Li Shi laments that life is short, and everything is paradoxical and reasonable, which is what the ancients called "unreasonable and wonderful".

Paradoxical and reasonable poetry abounds in China's classical poetry, and the ancients regarded it as an element of poetry. Su Shi said: "Poetry is based on strange fun, and abnormal harmony is fun. "Perverse" means to be unreasonable in violation of convention. The charm of art often lies in "unexpected, reasonable", the poet's paradox is a manifestation of "unexpected", paradox can cause people to be alert, thought-provoking, and reasonable can make paradoxes not go to absurdity, return to "reasonableness". Therefore, some people call this kind of poet's language "true lies", "sober dreams and drunken words".

The paradoxical tendencies of the poet's language are even more pronounced in modern poetry. The development of the times has made the world society more and more complex, and the paradoxical things in real life are endless, coupled with the diversity of modern ways of thinking and the complexity of poetic techniques, which have prompted modern poets to have a strong interest in the paradoxical rationality of poetry.

The causes of the paradox of the poet's language are manifold, and there are roughly the following three points:

(1) The uniqueness of the way of thinking leads to the deformation of the reality of the object

There are many ways of thinking in humans, the most important of which are logical thinking (also known as rational thinking) and emotional thinking (also known as image thinking). Logical thinking is carried out in strict accordance with the principles of reason and the law of the development of things, and strives to truly reflect objectivity, which is the way of thinking adopted by scientists and theorists. Emotional thinking often starts from intuition and image, with the help of imagination and association, according to emotional logic, focusing on expressing subjective ideal wishes, which is the way of thinking adopted by artists and poets. Cassirer, a pioneer of Western semiotic aesthetics, was right. The characteristics of the primitive mind' (a lower form of emotional thinking) have been analyzed:

It is always intensely infected in the face of sudden intuition, fascinated by it, captured by it, and lingers in this direct experience. This perceptual presentation is so great that all other aspects of things become small in the presence of it.

"Lingering in the experience of intuition" is the most common feature of poets when they observe things. Let's take Li Bai's "Sending Meng Haoran to the Guangling Tomb" as an example:

The late Man Xi resigned from the Yellow Crane Tower. Fireworks descend on Yangzhou in March. The lone sail is far away and the blue sky is gone, only to see the skyline of the Yangtze River. As everyone knows. The Yellow Crane Tower is the most prosperous golden water of the Yangtze River, thousands of sails racing across, thousands of boats in unison, how can it be seen only one leaf. Lone Sail.? How is it possible to 'only see' the Yangtze River skyline flow? In the final analysis, it is the poet's lingering loneliness that makes him see only a lonely boat in his eyes. I just saw the skyline water flow.

(2) The impact of aesthetic photographs on scientific reality

Wang Zhizhuo's "Liangzhou Words" has been handed down in two different versions, the difference is only in the first two words:

The Yellow River (Yellow Sand) is far above the white clouds, an isolated city of WanlingShan. Why should Qiang Di complain about Yang Liu. The spring breeze does not close the jade door. The first sentence is "Yellow River" is good. Or is "yellow sand" good? Scientists insist that it should be "yellow sand". I think this is in line with the truth, because the area around Yumenguan is far from the Yellow River, it is impossible to see the Yellow River, and it is very close to the Gobi Desert, and when the wind blows, there is often yellow sand soaring into the sky, shading the sun. Moreover, it is impossible for the Yellow River to flow to the white clouds. However, literary scholars insist that the "Yellow River" is better, because the yellow sand is far less magnificent and beautiful than the yellow river, and the yellow river is far above the white clouds. Only then did it show the majestic scenery of the vast desert in the border area, highlighting the momentum of the Yellow River's long history, and only then did it conform to the aesthetic ideal.

For example, the title of the song "Loneliness Makes Me So Beautiful" is a bit paradoxical, and "loneliness" may make people feel calm and peaceful. But it is difficult to make people "beautiful", especially for a woman who is tormented by the pain of lost love and "haggard in dreams" and "wandering in the wind", the lonely will only be lonely, desolate, pale and cold. However, for the wounded and stubborn modern woman, this "beauty" is actually a protest that is not at the mercy of fate, a will to masturbate and encourage, and the paradox is reasonable.

(3) The tilt of the center of gravity of language functions

According to the linguistic point of view, language ben has two functions:

The first is the "referential function", which emphasizes scientificity and accuracy. The common language used in people's daily lives and scientific theories relies mainly on this function. The second is the "expressive function", which focuses on the emotional and psychological implications of people, and most of the language in literature belongs to this category, and the poet's language is its most prominent representative. Language that is mainly functional must be faithful to the logic of emotion and psychology, and often differ from the objective logic of things. Richards, a representative of the Anglo-Chinese school, said: "The language of poetry is for the purpose of feelings. Logical arrangements can even become obstacles", and the poet is good at taking some "impulses" that are not in harmony with each other to make them "balanced" and "stable". And this is entirely based on emotional logic.

It is precisely based on the emotional logic of the poet that the poet's language creates a unique set of grammatical logic, such as superhuman imagination, extreme exaggeration, mysterious symbols, awkward sentence patterns, strange words, etc., which often exceed the limits of conventional rhetoric. Essayist Qin Mu said: "When it is necessary to show 'extremes' and 'apex'. Languages are miraculous, 'sweet to death', 'too good to be true', and these languages are produced in these circumstances. In some cases, illogical language is sometimes more powerful than logical language. As Lu Xun said: "Poetry cannot be understood by virtue of philosophy and intellect, so thinkers whose feelings have frozen, that is, they often have false judgments and diaphragms about poets." ”

The paradoxical and reasonable characteristics of the poet's language are basically applicable to the lexicon language. Because poetry is all about emotion. The importance of affection over reason is its universal aesthetic characteristic. There are two main points in the distinction between poetry and words: First, the meaning of the paradox of words is more obvious, and it is easier for listeners to understand, for example:

Blind eyes, see through the dark night. ——Zhang Minghe "The Years on the Strings" We once snuggled in the snow The cold current on the day warmed the youth - Chen Fan's "Is it snowing in your city" The blind Man Ah Bing wrote in the music that the world is cold, and he feels the darkness of the old society the most, and naturally can see through the "dark night". Lovers who snuggle up to each other. There is a hot fire in the heart, and the cold current is helpless to it, and many people have personally experienced this hot love experience.

Second, the paradox of words is mostly limited to the meaning of superficial words, and its internal part is still reasonable.

Try to see the Taiwanese film "Happy Face" interlude, (Luo Qingzi):

The stars in the sky / Why are they crowded like crowds? Why are the people on earth as alienated as stars? This word is a metaphor for people in the form of stars, expressing one kind of expression. There are many people in the world who are uneven. Sigh. It seems contradictory to say that the stars are sometimes "crowded" and sometimes "alienated", but they do have a common side, and it turns out that people from the ground vision, the starry sky, it does appear "crowded"; but from the macroscopic point of view of the universe, the distance between each star is not more than one hundred and eighteen thousand miles. Isn't that estranged? Of course, the premise of the paradox of poetic language is reasonable, and if it is all contradictory, then there is nothing to be desired, for example, there is a lyric that writes love: "The throat shouts out a cocoon for the brother." It is not reasonable, and it is also far-fetched.

Second, the repudiation of the poet's language

Literary language requires smoothness, but poets often deliberately pursue twists and turns. Turn ordinary words into strange, distorted poems. In this respect, the Russian formalist literary school advocated language. The theory of defamiliarization is very representative. They believe that people are often accustomed to familiar things, turn a blind eye, and the purpose of art is to restore people's fresh feelings about life and discover the novelty of things through "inertia transcendence". The representative of the formalist faction, Shklovsky, once said:

Artistic skill lies in making things strange, in increasing the difficulty of perception in a complex form. The process of prolonging perception. Because in art the process of perception is itself an end. It must be extended.

Literary language is to change "walking" to "dancing.". Change the dance to "walking" again. This is very close to the creation and appreciation of poetry, and people often compare the language of prose to "walking" and the language of poetry to "dance". Therefore, the theory of "defamiliarization" is concentrated in the language of poetry. Eliot believed that the poet's creative activity was a large-scale "destruction" and "reorganization" of conventional language. The rhetorician Wyatt said, "Breaking the box is the highest state of rhetorical beauty." ”

Resistance does make sense to the poet's language. From the perspective of poetry creation, the poet's mentality is free. The poet's imagination is soaring, the poet's thinking is unique, all of which determines that the poet's language should not and cannot adhere to the precepts of conventional grammar and follow the rules. Instead, we must boldly break through the phalanx of traditional languages. Take "lawlessness" as the law and embark on the road of "poetic impermanence". From the perspective of poetry appreciation, poetry is the most taboo and straightforward, at a glance, which must enhance the tortuousness and novelty of poetry while expanding the poetic background, first attracting people's attention, and then taking people to guess, and then arousing people's interest, urging people to understand, through the gradual deciphering of the meaning of words, to achieve the gradual understanding of poetry. This is even more important for those who make things that are made of ordinary material. The Ming Dynasty dramatist Wang Jide said: "Meaning is often created to make language guixin, and language is often reversed to Xu Qi." ”

The repulsiveness of poets generally adopts omission, inversion, misalignment, implication, and use, and the following are common.

(1) Change in word order

According to the "contextual" theory of the semantic school. The meaning of any word is not fixed, and the semantic direction and connotation of the same word are broad and narrow. It all changes depending on the specific locale it is in. This is the saying in our country, "pull a whole body". Let's compare the word order changes similar to the following two groups of words:

The day ends in the mountains. The Yellow River flows into the sea - Wang Zhizhuo's "Climbing the Stork and Que Lou" The great river flows day and night. Guest's Heart is Still Sorrowful - Xie Shuo's "Temporary Envoy to the Capital of the Lower Capital at Night to Send Xinlin to Jingyi to Present colleagues to the Western Province"

The focus of Wang's poem "Into the Sea Stream" and Xie's poem "Flow Day and Night" are both embellishments to the word "flow", which seems to be interchangeable in common language. But here it is absolutely impossible, otherwise the poetry will be lost. Because the "Yellow River into the sea" emphasizes the situation of the "flow" of the Yellow River. Towards the sea for thousands of miles, flowing mightily, how magnificent! If you change it to "the Yellow River flows into the sea", only a redundant empty sentence indicating the direction is left. On the contrary, "the great river flows day and night", so that the object of the flow is not only the river, but also becomes time, "day and night" also contains precious time, youth, and even life. Confucius called it , " The deceased is like a sif." Don't give up day and night", revealing the poet's exclamation of the passage of time and the emptiness of the years, so there is a "guest heart is sad" in the second half of the year. Thus. The change of word order is so important to the constraints of poetic rhyme.

Another function of the word order change is to highlight the center of gravity and deepen the impression. This is mostly presented in the intentional advance of the key words. And look at the famous sentence of Wang Wei's "Mountain Residence Autumn Eyes": "Bamboo noise returns to huan women, lotus moves under the fishing boat" According to the causal relationship of life logic, when it is "huan girl returns" and "bamboo noise", "fishing boat down" and "lotus movement", the poet puts the sound of bamboo noise and lotus movement in advance, which highlights the dynamic beauty of the scenery, and is more in line with the order of people's audiovisual awareness.

The biggest beauty of word order change is to give full play to the polysemic nature of the image, increase the amount of words, and expand the beauty of the mood because of the same word. The position in the sentence is different, and the coverage and jurisdiction of the meaning of the words are also different. Try Yan Shu's good sentence:

Dance low willow lou heart moon, sing the peach blossom fan bottom wind.

The "willow" and "peach blossom" in the sentence are placed at the beginning of the sentence according to the usual syntax: "The willow dances low in the heart of the moon, and the peach blossom song is fanned downwind". It is only limited to the two kinds of plants as environmental settings, and if "dance low" and "song end" are crowned at the beginning of the sentence, "willow" can be interpreted as both a tree outside the building and a maiko's waist in the building; "peach blossom" has a richer meaning, can refer to a real flower, and can be used as a maiko human face (the so-called "human face peach blossom"). It can also be metaphorically depicted as a peach blossom fan in the hands of a maiko, which makes the two words act as five images, so that the spring colors inside and outside the building are full of colors, and the light singing and dancing are interesting, and the delicate beauty and the bright painting scene are integrated, which is intoxicating.

The change of word order in contemporary lyrics is mainly to strengthen the strength of emotion, expand the coverage of word meaning, and make it more general. Try Chen Xiaoqi's "Black Eyes in the Yellow Land":

The little donkey in the mill can't put down is the blackened copper cigarette bag can't be crushed is the straight spine bone can't press is the lifted Heavenly Spirit Cover

This song is an ode to the mixed joys of the people of the Loess Lands. Advance the predicate, and the four phrases such as "can't turn" cover objects that are not a household. A person, instead, has become a general reference to the commonality of the yellow land, expanding the capacity of the meaning of the words, highlighting the love and hatred of the lyrical protagonist, revealing a deep feeling of the backwardness and obsolescence of the yellow land, and the infinite reverence for the fortitude and strength of the people of the yellow land.

(2) Misplaced words

That is, recombining words that are difficult to match according to normal grammar to create a new grammatical structure. In the usual language, the "subject-verb-object" structure is the core of the sentence. Among them, the verb predicate occupies a key position and is the focus of the poet's refining of words and sentences. Wang Li said: "The most important word in the verse is the central word of the predicate (called the 'predicate'). After refining this central word, this is the so-called one-word gold, and the verse becomes vivid and vivid." The use of abstract nouns as objects is the easiest means to extend the poetic ups and downs, so the combination of moving objects is extremely sensitive in poetry. Consider the following words:

Lonely Lamp Burning Guest Dream Cold Pestle Pounding Homesickness - Cen Shan's "Guest House"

Black oil iron backbone / sweat beads rolling sun wind blowing fence rain washing windows / tears bubble moon - Zhang Quinoa "Fate is not a reel"

The two verbs "burning" and "pounding" in Cen's poem are very exquisite, the object of "burning" (object) should have been "lone lamp", after changing to the abstract term "guest dream", "burning" went beyond the general action and had the meaning of "spiritual consumption", and "dream" also had a texture, as if there was sound and color, little by little, the scene slowly progressed, rendering the lonely loneliness of the wanderer. The object (object) of "pounding" was originally "cold pestle", and after changing to the abstract term "nostalgia", the center of gravity of the pounding shifted from the object to the person. As if the weight of the cold pestle, a sound of the next and a sound pounded on the heart of the wanderer, arousing his endless nostalgia, with a heavy sense of depression. The verbs "roll" and "bubble" are also used well. They all manage both front and back words, the object of rolling is a bead of sweat, the object of the bubble is a tear, but with "rolling the sun", "bubble moon", the movement of the guest is misplaced, the sun and the moon are included in the list of objects, all at once written alive, the sun seems to roll on the spine. The moon seems to be soaked in tears, which is both a metaphor for the number of tears and the brightness of tears, which reminds people of Byron's famous sentence: "Oh, the sun of insomniacs!" Melancholy stars! / Like teardrops, you shoot a trembling light. (The Sun of the Insomniac)