《雨中的貓》——銜接與連貫

摘要:銜接和連貫是語篇構成中不可切分的整體，二者互相補充。運用功能語法理論的語篇分析方法詳，試圖揭示海明威的短篇小說《雨中的貓》的語篇銜接和連貫。

關鍵詞:銜接;連貫;系統(tǒng)功能

中圖分類號:I3/7文獻標志碼:A文章編號:1673-291X(2010)19-0220-02

1. Concepts

Coherence and cohesion is a pair of indispensable concepts. According to Thompson (1996/2000: 147)， cohesion is the language mechanism used by speakers to express the coherence of experiential meaning and interpersonal meaning in a discourse Cohesion is realized by reference， ellipsis， and replacement etc. Coherence depends not only on the form of language but the context of culture， cognitive model， and context of situation so and so forth. Coherence is the feature of semantic facet characterized as the connectivity and consistency from the whole discourse in semantics.

2. An analysis on the discourse Cat in the Rain

2.1 Cohesion.Reference is the most important means to express semantic relationships. According to Halliday and Hasan (1976)， it can be divided as personal reference， demonstrative reference and comparative reference. In the novel， the wife is given a couple of “names”， such as “the American wife”， “the wife”， and “the American girl”， but without a real name. Her husband is called as “her husband”， “the husband” and “George”. Why the wife is nameless? She is the main character of the novel anyhow. Approaching deep into the discourse， we would sense the reason. She is unsatisfied with her marriage but she is not economically independent and that’s why she cannot escape from the title “wife” and thus wife is going all through the discourse. This realization of knowledge is given by the context of situation.

According to the cat， it appeared in “Outside right under their window a cat was crouched under one of the dripping green tables. The cat was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on.’I’m going down and get that kitty，’ the American wife said. ‘I’ll do it，’ her husband offered from the bed. ‘No， I'll get it. The poor kitty out trying to keep dry under a table.’”

The cat， new information in the discourse， is referred to “a cat” for the first time. Then it is called “the cat” in the next sentence as known information. And then， the author uses personal reference “herself”， “she” to refer to the same thing because the personal reference is dependent on the subject “the cat”. They are consistent. Then “the cat” is replaced by the demonstrative reference “that kitty” and finally “the poor kitty” to avoid unnecessary repetition. In the sentence “I’ll do it”， “do” is the replacement of the previous verb “get”.

2.2 Coherence.In the research of coherence in discourses， systemic functional grammar contributes a lot. Halliday and Hasan(1976:23) state the two criteria of discourse coherence: If a discourse is coherent in context， it is consistent in register; if the discourse itself is coherent， it is cohesive. The consistency of register is the sentences or paragraphs forming a discourse belonging to a same context of situation， namely， the discourse are developed under the same field of discourse， tenor of discourses and mode of discourse. The factors of context of situation constrain the options of meaningful potential. The process or result of the options is represented in the forms of language finally.

The table was there， washed bright green in the rain， but the cat was gone. She was suddenly disappointed. The maid looked up at her. “Ha perduto qualque cosa， Signora?” “There was a cat，” said the American girl. “A cat?” “Si， il gatto.” “A cat?” the maid laughed. “A cat in the rain?” “Yea”， she said， “under the table.” Then， “Oh， I wanted it so much. I wanted a kitty.” When she talked English the maid’s face tightened. “Come， Signora，” she said. “We must get back inside. You will be wet.” “I suppose so”， said the American girl.

In this paragraph， “the table” is certainly under which the cat stands. We can easily figure it out according to the context of situation. It is known information. So the readers can set up relevance. “she” is surely the reference of the American wife since the whole frame or script of the story tells us that only the wife wants the cat so badly that it must be her not others who is looking for the cat. Since the story happens in a Italian hotel， in order to match the context of culture， the maid and the hotel keeper choose Italian to communicate with the wife which makes the discourse authentic. Their greeting and communication are the representation of the cultural atmosphere.

A coherent discourse should happen in a whole frame or script which helps the reader to set up relevance and take the discourse as a coherent one. For example， Cat in the Rain contains three fields basically. First in the hotel’s room， the wife spots the cat in the rain， and a short conversation with the husband; second out the hotel， a conversation with the maid; last her returning to the room and a long conversation with the husband. In the first ECM (short form of Event-domain Cognitive Model)， reader’s may establish a prototype of a hotel room， and imagine everything the author mentions to make the room a whole one according to Gestalt Theory. So in the sentence “The American wife stood at the window looking out”， we would naturally take the “window” as a part of the room， i.e. the window in the room where the American couple is， not the window of the maid’s room. And when the wife comes out of the room， readers will follow her go downstairs and will not be surprised when the maid says “Come， Signora” “We must get back inside. You will be wet”because we know the default context is just outside the hotel’s gate and the known knowledge is that it is raining heavily there.

Additionally， the context of culture， the context of situation， and the cognitive model are all realized in the psychological process. Back to the novel， we find that there is no explicit topic sentence but the whole story is under a psychological thinking. Why the wife needs the cat so badly? Why she proves affection to the old hotel keeper when he serves her as a lady? Why when she finds it nowhere and comes back to her room， she complains about her hair and shows dissatisfactory about her life? The reason is that she is really tired of life now. She wants it to change. When the hope of chances to change life seems slim， she would like to find any other possible ways to comfort herself. So first she makes the poor kitty her target. When the hope is destroyed， she turns to make a different hairstyle to compensate. But her husband’s denying and indifference drive her to a desperate complain of her whole life. “I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel” “I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her” “And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes.” In these sentences， there is a “want” in every of them. Here， so many “wants” don’t seem redundant. However， they make readers feel sharply about the strong desire of the American wife. The husband is reading on bed throughout the story. His behaviors are also tightly related to the climax of the conflict. Just because of his flee from the real world and indifference to his wife’s emotion， the wife’s surpassed mood exposes desperately. From the above， the consistent topic of the story is clear that all the apparent or surface conflicts source from the little communication and non-understanding between the couple. The basic reason is the marriage itself. A coherent discourse is not simply a total add of several isolated sentences but sentences guided by a same topic. This is the basis of constructing a coherent discourse.

3. Conclusion

From the above analysis， we find that a coherent discourse is constrained by many conditions， such as context of culture， context of situation， information structure， cognitive model， psychological thinking and a consistent topic. These factors depend on each other and none of them is dispensable. In the discourse Cat in the Rain， Ernest Hemingway successfully creates the characters. Though the story is short and simple in plot， its vivid and detailed description leave readers much space to figure out the symbolic meaning of the story. So a coherent discourse has adequate relevance within certain or comparatively fixed field of discourse， with a same tenor of discourse and mode of discourse.

In order to make a discourse coherent， cohesion is sticky to it. Cohesion is the external representation of coherence. By means of cohesion， a discourse may look more coherent. Dealing well with the two， cohesion and coherence， a discourse will be probably well-organized.

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Cohesion and Coherence in Cat in the Rain

WANG Jun

(Airforce Engineering University， Xi’an 710051， China)

Abstract: This paper is to elaborate the cohesion and coherence in Hemingway’s short novel Cat in the rain. Some conditions to make a discourse coherent will be used to analyze the novel.

Key words: cohesion; coherence; systemic-functional grammar