TITLE THE STYLE OF LAO SHE AND MODERN CHINESE A Study of Lao She’s Literary Language in his Fictional Works By CUI Yan Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of China and Inner Asia of the Faculty of Languages and Cultures School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 2009 1 ProQuest Number: 10731736 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731736 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT The works of Lao She have inspired many people from all over the world to cany out research into different aspects of his life. However, to date, the study of Lao She’s literary language has been largely neglected in comparison to the large volume of work that has been dedicated to other aspects of his writings, so there are still gaps in the study of his literary language. This present research provides a detailed analysis of the nature and development of Lao She’s literary language style, and of the unique linguistic characteristics of his works over the thirty-seven year .period of his writing career. The distinctive features of the literary language he used in his novels are identified and classified in the following categories through a thorough investigation based on a large amount of selected language data. These are the usage of (1) spoken language, (2) the Beijing dialect, (3) classical Chinese and written language, (4) English and unconventional language phenomena and (5) his distinctive modes of expression, on which no previous research has been carried out. In addition, this research also provides evidence of the development of Lao She’s literary language through different historical periods by using charts and statistics which have been produced by the present writer. Lao She’s literary language developed with the changes in society around him in China. The pattern of this development reflects the reality of modern Chinese language development: from classical Chinese to the vernacular', and then to the normalised Chinese common language. The Beijing dialect in Lao She’s works is not solely the property of the Beijing citizens in the stories. From the usage of classical words to lexical items of written language, Lao She had his own theories on which he based his choice of words. He always consciously used his literary language in order to widen his readership. He regarded the adoption of a foreign language style in the modem Chinese written system as a way of helping the development of the Chinese language. The proof of this lies in the discovery of a large amount of language data which has an English language style and the lexical items which cannot be found in Chinese dictionaries. 3 SOME KEY TERMS The terms in the following table will appear in the analysis, charts and statistics in this thesis. Word in Pmyin Character English translation Abbreviation Baihua Hi'S' Vernacular (In the analysis in this thesis, baihua refers to the vernacular used in the 20ltl century, but not that of the Ming and Qing dynasties, see 1.5 for more details) Beijinghua Beijing language, Beijing dialect BJH Beijingfangyan Be ijingfai igj’m ici ibM^WinJ(-ibKiiiJ) Words from the Beijing dialect B.IC Beij'mgci biaozlnmhua yuyan Standardised language Biaozhunyu standard language Feiyibcm Unsual expressions FYB Guanhua ‘B’iS Official language (see 1.6 for details) Gtioyu National language (see 1.6 for details) (Xiandai) Many it e i s w i s & m f t Normalisation of (modem) Chinese guifanhua Kouyu Pig- The spoken language KY Konyitci words front the spoken language KYC Nanfang fangyan southern dialect (Nanfanghua ) (itT fiiS) Nanfang fang}>anci words from the southern dialects NFC (Nanfangci ) Onhua Europeanised OUH Putonghua t-iffliS Common language (see 1.6 for details) Shumianyu Thim g Written language SHMY Shitmianyuci words from the written language Weijianci 5fcjALiff] words which cannot be found in dictionaries WJC wenxue yuyan x^m is literary language Wenyan x t classical Chinese WY iVenyanci X a f t ] words front classical Chinese WYC xuexi ziliao Materials used for the study o f Lao She Yinghita Anglicised Yuyande biaozhun The standards of the language 4 CONTENTS Content Page TITLE ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 DECLARATION........................................................................................................................................2 ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................3 SOME KEY TERMS............................................. 4 CONTENTS................................................................................................................................................5 TITLES OF THE TEN LITERARY TEXTS ANALYSED IN THIS THESIS........................... 9 CHAPTER 1 - Introduction - Thesis, Literature Review, Lao She, Modern Chinese and Stylistics .............................................................................................................................10 1.1. Aim, scope, literary texts and approach ...................................................................................10 1.2. Research background and literature review............................................................................ 15 1.2.1. General research background on Lao She ................................................................................15 1.2.2. Various views of scholars and critics on Lao She’s novels ................................................... 18 1.3. My contribution, critiques and review of previous literature................................................23 1.3.1. My contribution to the study of Lao She compared with that of previous ............................ Scholarship......................................................................................................................•.......... 23 1.3.2. My critique of Wang Jianhua’s, Yang Yuxiu’s, Zhang Qingchang’s, Zhan Kaidi’s writings on Lao She’s literary language and Index ...............................................................................32 1.4. Lao She’s life and his ten novels...............................................................................................38 1.4.1. The educational background of Lao She and the formation of his character.......................................................................................................................................43 1.4.2. Lao She’s training in classical Chinese and the influence of the May Fourth Movement .......................................................................................................................................................43 1.4.3. The influences of Western writers on Lao She ........................................................................44 1.5. The baihuawen movement - from classical Chinese to the vernacular................................ 45 1.6. Guanhua , Guoyu and Putonghua ..............................................................................................47 1.7. The standard modern Chinese language ...................................................................................49 1.8. Normalisation of the modern Chinese language .................................................................... 53 1.9. Style and stylistics ....................................................................................................................... 54 1.10. Chinese stylistics and the structure of the thesis .....................................................................58 CHAPTER 2 - The Spoken Features of Lao She’s Literary Language ..................................... 64 2.1. Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 64 2.2. General features of spoken language and of the Chinese spoken language ....................... 67 2.3. Criteria, methods and principles of categorisation ................................................................. 73 2.4. The nouns from the spoken language in Lao She’s writings (examples 1-20) ...................75 2.5. Appellations in Lao She’s writings (examples 21-40) ...........................................................79 2.6. The verbs from the spoken language in Lao She’s writings (examples 41-70) ... 81 2.7. The adjectives from the spoken language in Lao She’s writings (examples 71-90) ......... 85 2.8. The adverbs from the spoken language in Lao She’s writings (examples 91-110) ............87 2.9. The method of using onomatopoeia (examples 111-140) ......................................................89 2.10. The method of adopting yuqici (examples 141-170).............................................................. 92 2.11. Short sentences in spoken language (examples 171-190) ......................................................95