【作者】 尚智慧；

【导师】 李基安；

【作者基本信息】 上海外国语大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2007， 博士

【摘要】 自亚里士多德以来,体裁一词多与文学、修辞学、哲学等领域紧密相连。语言学界整体而言对体裁较少关注。然而,二十世纪六十年代以来,随着功能主义和话语分析的兴起,体裁日益成为语言学家的兴趣所在。不同流派的语言学家试图对体裁进行再定义并提出新的理论探讨体裁的作用和地位。在这些流派中最具代表性的有悉尼学派、ESP学派、新修辞学派和体裁活动观。本文通过对主要流派体裁定义的批评分析后提出体裁是某一话语集团成员的一种社会、文化交际活动,集团成员对于在交际活动中使用的工具及交际的过程有着相似的预期。这说明体裁是动态的、功能的、或然的、受语境制约的、有一定目的的。本文在对主要体裁理论的分析后得出,这些理论可大体分为两大阵营,一个是以悉尼学派、ESP学派为代表的以语言为取向的阵营,他们将研究的焦点放在同一体裁的语篇在语篇结构和词汇语法层面所呈现出的语言特征;另一个是以新修辞学派为代表的以社会为取向的阵营,他们关注的是体裁所产生的社会语境,特别是体裁的目的、功能与意识形态之间的互动。体裁活动观从新修辞学派和活动理论中汲取营养,强调了工具在体裁形成中所起到的作用以及体裁间的互动。本文在批评、吸收了各体裁理论的观点之上,提出了体裁分析的新框架。这一框架置于某一特定的话语集团、由历时和共时两个角度构成。借助于历时角度的体裁分析我们得以从社会历史的视角观察体裁的动态、或然、目的性的特征。借助于共时角度的体裁分析,我们可以研究体裁如何在语言中得以体现,特别是某一体裁是如何对它的语言体现在语篇结构、词汇、语法上施加限制。体裁分析的新框架被用来分析英语商务信函以检测这一框架的有效性。对英语商务信函的历时分析表明英语商务信函作为一种体裁经历了出现、演变、确立、分化和融合的过程,每一过程都是特定社会语境所促发的结果。在二十世纪之初,随着次体裁的逐一出现,英语商务信函成为一个宏观体裁。促销信函是在十九世纪末、二十世纪初出现的一个次体裁,本文对促销体裁进行了较为详尽的共时分析,说明同一体裁的语篇共有相似的语言特征。这些特征可以通过体裁所要达到的交际目的加以解释。对体裁的共时分析主要借鉴了系统功能语言学的层级性观点,即体裁体现于语域而语域又体现于语言的三大元功能:概念功能、人际功能和语篇功能。这三大元功能不仅反映在语篇的宏观结构上,而且反映在词汇语法上。简言之,本研究的重要性有四点。第一,体裁被看做是某一话语集团的一种社会、文化交际活动,集团成员对于在交际活动中使用的工具及交际的过程有着相似的预期。第二,提出了体裁分析的新框架,它囊括了历时和共时两个研究视角,从而弥补了以上讨论的体裁理论的不足。第三,体裁分析的新框架被应用于对英语商务信函的分析并证实了它的有效性。第四,英语商务信函的体裁分析对于商务交流的教学具有指导意义,它意味着学习英语商务交流中的体裁不是简单机械的模仿预定的结构而是意义选择和社会化的过程。更多还原

【Abstract】 Since the day of Aristotle, genre has long been a term closely related to literature, rhetoric, and philosophy. Before 1960s, linguists as a whole had paid little attention to it, but the popularity of functionalism and discourse analysis afterwards has gradually turned it into a subject of interest in the domain of linguistics. Linguists of various schools strive to redefine the term and reposition it in their own theories. Among them, four schools attract considerable attention---Sydney School, ESP School, New Rhetoric School and The Activity Theory View of Genre.Based on a critical review of diverse definitions of genre and major genre theories, this dissertation holds that genre is a social and cultural communicative event among the members of a discourse community who hold shared expectations about the tools employed and conventions followed in the event. It is dynamic rather than static, functional rather than formal, resource-dependent rather than structure-dependent, contextualized rather than decontextualized, probabilistic rather than fixed. An analysis of major genre theories shows that they could be largely categorized into two camps--- the text-oriented one and the situation-oriented one. The former, which consists of Sydney School and ESP School, attaches more importance to generic moves and linguistic features (both at the textual level and at lexico-grammatical level) while the latter which is represented by New Rhetoric School highlights the role of social context in the evolution of a genre, especially the interaction between ideology of the members of a discourse community and the function of a genre. The Activity Theory View of Genre, which is developed from New Rhetoric School and The Activity Theory, draws people’s attention to the role of tools in shaping genre and the interactions between genres. By assimilating the merits of the above theories, this dissertation puts forward a new framework for genre analysis, which is later applied to the analysis of English business letters. The new framework is set in a particular discourse community and composed of two perspectives---the diachronic one and the synchronic one. A diachronic study of genre helps us to observe the dynamic, probabilistic, resource-dependent nature of genre from a socio-historical vantage while a synchronic study of genre enables us to examine how a particular genre is realized in language (texts), especially how a particular genre enforces linguistic restrictions in terms of macro-structure, lexis, and grammar.To test its effectiveness, the proposed framework is applied to the analysis of English business letters, which produces fruitful results. Genre analysis of English business letters from the diachronic perspective indicates that English business letters as a genre have experienced a process of emergence, evolution, establishment, diversification and mixture, each period triggered by the changes in social context. Genre analysis of sales genre---a sub-genre of business letters from the synchronic perspective proves that texts of a genre share both physical and linguistic features, which in turn can be accounted for by the communicative purposes the genre intends to achieve.To sum up, the significance of this dissertation can be summarized as follows. First, genre is considered to be a social and cultural communicative event among the members of a discourse community who hold shared expectations about the tools employed and the conventions followed in the event. Second, a new framework for genre analysis is proposed, which combines the two perspectives into one model, thus remedying the defects of genre theories discussed above. Third, the new framework is adopted in the analysis of English business letters to demonstrate its validity. Fourth, genre analysis of English business letters has implications for the teaching of business communication in that it shows learning of genres in English business communication is not a mechanical imitation of pre-determined structures but rather a process of meaning choices and socialization.更多还原