文学术语词典中措辞的认知语义密度特征

The epistemic-semantic density of words and groups in the dictionary of literary terms

文学理论是文学学科的核心,也是最晦涩难懂的地方,其难度很大程度源于大量术语的使用,而文学术语词典的出现似乎可以帮助读者理解文学术语。为了解构文学术语晦涩的原因,作者以语码规范理论中认知语义密度的遣词和组词工具,对TheRoutledgeDictionaryof Literary Terms的措辞语义密度进行量化分析。结果表明,术语词条里,遣词工具中高密度技术词的高占比使得文学术语的遣词密度处于高值水平,而组词工具中中等密度分类词组的高占比加以高值密度嵌套词组的占比,也使得其整体措辞语义密度保持在较高水平。术语解释文本里,遣词工具中的日常词占比只提升至略微多数水平,且其语义密度调整相对均衡地出现于四个次类中密度相对较小的小类;同时,其遣词工具中的高密度嵌套词组占比提升至绝对多数水平,这也中和了遣词上的语义稀释效果,使得术语解释文本的措词密度仍然保持在高值水平。总体来看,在文学术语词典中,术语词条本身和解释文本的措词密度都很高,远未达到语义稀释、通俗易懂的目的,这是造成其晦涩难懂的重要原因。

Literary theory is at the core of literature studies,and also the most obscure part,largely due to its extensive use of literary terms.Dictionaries of literary terms are believed to be able to facilitate readers'understanding of these terms.In order to deconstruct the obscurity of literary terms,we conducted a quantitative analysis of the semantic density of words and groups in The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms with the wording and grouping tools from Legitimation Code Theory.It is found that a large proportion of stronger semantic density technical words in the wording tool contributes to stronger semantic density of literary terms,which is further augmented by a large proportion of medium semantic density categorized groups and stronger semantic density embedded groups in the grouping tool.In the explanatory text,the proportion of everyday words in the wording tool only increases to a slight majority,and changes in their semantic density are evenly distributed in the sub-subcategories with relatively weak semantic density.Meanwhile,stronger semantic density embedded groups increase to an absolute majority,which neutralizes the density-dilution effect of the wording tool,maintaining stronger semantic density in the explanatory text.Generally,the semantic density of both the entries and explanatory texts in the dictionaries is too strong to achieve the effect of semantic dilution and readability,which is chiefly responsible for the obscurity of the dictionary.