分析题

Analyze the following passage in terms of the related stylistic theory.

You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.

(Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

【正确答案】

Stylistics is a branch of linguistics which studies the features of situationally distinctive uses (varieties) of language, and tries to establish principles capable of accounting for the particular choices made by individual and social groups in their use of language. The double negation in the first sentence is attractive and it seems a bit redundant. However, just because of this conventional use of structure, the importance of reading the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is foregrounded, and this is the intention of the speaker. Then in the second sentence, the speaker changes his point of view. The speaker chooses the third-person point of view rather than directly saying that he is the author of the book so that the statement is made objective and persuasive. And the final sentence is a supplement to the second one to make what he has said more accurate and rigorous. The repetition of the content again constructs foregrounding. This time the speaker tries to emphasize the word “truth”. Although there are things those are made up in the novel, the main part is true and is worth reading.

【答案解析】