“文学的国语”怎样炼成——《围城》的语言策略

How to Develop "The Literary National Language"——Language Strategies in The Besieged City

钱锺书的《围城》不是一部"方言小说",尽管其独一无二之处恰恰在于主人公流浪汉式旅行涵盖了中国南方六大方言区,来自北方的人物也不少。《围城》语言策略值得注意之点是钱锺书很少让小说人物说他们自己的方言,而尽量让他们说南腔北调中西合璧的国语。《围城》中的方言土语就像鬼魂和影子一样藏在国语背后。虽然作者在某些场合不得不偶尔使用方言,但也尽可能削弱方言的影响。吊诡在于这种超方言写作也能揭示蕴藏于方言中的地域文化和生活方式的精神。20世纪40年代,当北方作家响应毛泽东的号召努力学习"人民群众的语言"时,南方的钱锺书却和他的人物一起学习正在形成中的国语。两种不同的学习为中国现、当代文学带来了两种不同的语言遗产。

ian Zhongshu＇s The Besieged City is not a ＇dialectal novel~ although it is unique with its; picaresque heros＇ journey covering all six dialect areas of southern China meanwhile many other char- acters came from northern China. The notable language strategies in The Besieged City are that Qian rarely lets his characters speak their own dialects but always forces them to speak the national lan- guage which usually combines the various dialects and Western languages. The dialects in The Be- sieged City existed behind the national language just like a ghost or shadow since the author did his best to reduce the influence of dialects even if he had to adopt them at some occasion. The paradox is that this trans-dialectal writing can also reveal the spirit of local culture and traditional life-style in di- alects. During the 1940s many northern China writers were learning ＂peoples＇ language＂ answering Mao Zedong＇s calling whereas Qian was learning the changing national language together with his characters. These two different learnings left two different heritages to modern and contemporary Chinese literary language.