【标题】傲慢与偏见文学语言的鉴赏 【作者】姚 芳 【关键词】语言特色；句法安排；反讽；对话 【指导老师】刘 敏 【专业】英语 【正文】I. Introduction Jane Austen lived and worked at the turn of the century. She has written six novels in all: Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion. Among them, Pride and Prejudice is the most widely read. It (the original manuscript titled First Impression) appeared on the scene of English Literature in 1813. It achieved a popularity that has endured to this day. For over 150 years, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. It is well known all over the world for its polished linguistic form and the vivid characters. It portrays life in the genteel rural society of the day, tells of the initial misunderstandings and later mutual enlightenment between self- respected Elizabeth and Darcy. Through the description of the daily talks and doings of young men and women, Austen paints very real and vivid characters. Her characters range from the proud aristocratic Darcy to the talkative dull-witted Mrs. Bennet, from the good-natured Elizabeth Bennet to the jealous hypocritical Miss Bingley. From 1813 up to now, this novel has been a special attraction to readers and enjoyed enormous popularity. Jane Austen regards the novel as her “own darling child”1, she considers “Elizabeth as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print”2. Critics have evaluated this novel from different angles: George Henry Lewes praises the construction and artistic economy of Pride and Prejudice; Virgina Woolf discusses Austens characterisation, range of subject matter and narrative viewpoint, comments on the social and physical restrictions of the environment in which Austen writes it; Mary Lascelles publishes the book, Jane Austen and Her Art, which is a comprehensive study about Jane Austen; Marvin Mudrick explored how the quality of irony functioned in Pride and Prejudice in 1952. Within these recent two decades, a great deal of research about Jane Austen and her novels has been done and been very fruitful: for instance, David Monaghams Jane Austen: Structure and Social Vision (1980), Michad Willamss Jane Austen: Six Novels and Their methods (1986). Vivien Joness How to Study a Jane Austen Novel (1987). Roger Gards Jane Austens Novels: The Art of Clarity (1992). Approaches to Teaching Austens Pride and Prejudice edited by Mareia Mcclintock Folsom(1993). In brief, among these nearly two centuries critics emphasised on the characterisation and satire; and the 20th century critics focused on the dramatic structure of the novel, language, irony and sociological background. Walter Scott thus praised her: That young lady has a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The big bow-wow strain I can do myself, like any now going; but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me. What a pity such a gifted creature died so early!3 II. The Features of the Language In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen uses language superbly, but not in showy and superficial ways. On the contrary, she writes with great clarity and precision. She selects the words carefully and refines them repeatedly and colours them elaborately. She also arranges the sentence structures ingeniously. Thus characterises the language of this novel by symmetry and neatness and makes it as rhythmic as a poem. The fresh flow and quick-witted sense of humour of the language attracts and impresses the readers most. A. The Ingenious Arrangement of Syntactic Structure In an artistic work, sentence structures often contain strong expressive force. Sentences in English, according to their structures, are divided into three types, simple sentence, coordinate sentence and complex sentence. But in point of the length, simple sentences are not always very short while compound sentences are not always very long. The lengths of sentences have countless changes. Short sentences possess the features of directness, clearness, powerfulness as well as lucidness and liveliness. So novelists tend to use this type of sentences in the conversations among characters in their novels. In Pride and Prejudice, a conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in the first chapter can be a good example of this point:“What is his name?” “Bingley.” “Is he married or single?” “Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls. ” “How so? How can it affect them?”4 The above is a “Question and Answer” between this couple. One asks simply while the other answers with excitement. These sentences are all short and incomplete ones. But they mirror the personality of these two clearly, i.e. Mr. Bennet considers hi