言语名利场

The Vanity Fair of Speech

小说《麦田里的守望者》主人公霍尔顿憎恶身边人们的"虚伪话",以至于要装聋作哑、弃绝言语。文章利用社会语言学理论分析导致他这一反应的原因。通过引入语言变体、言语社区等概念,分析小说中描述的一些纽约中产阶级市侩言语行为的社会语言学动因。言语行为在他们那里成为炫耀和展示权势、地位的工具。言语行为也表现出小说呈现的纽约城"混凝土丛林"弱肉强食之残酷竞争法则的影响。

This paper, drawing upon sociolinguistic theory, explores the reason why, Holden, the hero of The Catcher in the Rye abhors the verbal behavior of people around him to such a degree that he imagines giving up speaking by pretending to be mute and deaf. Introducing such concepts as variety and speech community, the paper analyzes the attitude displayed by some of the novel＇ s characters behind their verbal behavior, and reveals that speech is used by these individuals as the status symbol.