家庭祭扫活动类型结构和情感表达的多模态分析:以粤西某乡村为例

Multimodal analysis of the structure of activity type and affective expression of family tomb-sweeping:Taking a village in western Guangdong as an example

本研究聚焦家庭祭扫过程中祭扫者的行为和语言,关注家庭祭扫的活动类型结构和祭扫者是如何通过语言等符号表达自己对逝者的情感以及传递了怎样的情感的。采用交际民族志的方法考察粤西乡村一个家庭清明节的祭扫活动。语料包括非参与式观察所收集的家庭祭扫录像和田野观察笔记以及对祭扫者进行深度访谈的录音。依据“活动类型”框架,对语料进行了多模态话语分析。研究发现,家庭祭扫活动类型在结构上包含了打扫墓地和墓前祭奠话语类型并又作为活动类型有各自的话语类型。对逝者的情感表达较少直接使用语言,而主要通过祭扫中的行为符号表达。祭扫者通过家庭祭扫表达了对逝者的孝道、感恩、怀念和传承。研究揭示了在我国粤西乡村仍保留着传统的祭扫方式,这种祭扫在弘扬孝道亲情、唤醒家族共同记忆,促进家族成员的凝聚力和认同感上起着举足轻重的作用。

This study focused on the behavior and language of the tomb-sweepers in the process of family tomb-sweeping and explored the structure of activity type of family tomb-sweeping and how the tomb-sweepers expressed their feelings for the deceased and what kind of feelings they conveyed through language and other semiotics. Ethnography of communication was employed to investigate a rural family’s tomb-sweeping in the western Guangdong province during the Qingming Festival. The data set included video-recordings of family tomb-sweeping and audio-recordings of tomb-sweepers’ interview. Based on the activity type(Levinson, 1979;Sarangi, 2000), multimodal discourse analysis was conducted on the transcription of the tomb-sweeping. The findings showed that the tomb-sweeping consisted of two activity types: cemetery cleaning and memorial ceremony with its discourse types respectively. The affections to the deceased was less directly expressed by the use of language, but mainly expressed through the behavior. Tomb-sweepers passed on filial obedience, gratitude, remembrance and inheritance to the deceased through family tomb-sweeping. The study revealed that the traditional way of tomb-sweeping still remained in the rural areas of western Guangdong. This kind of tomb-sweeping played an important role in promoting filial obedience and family affection, awakening the common memory of the family and promoting the cohesion and identity of family members.