第一章 英语语言文体演变史简述

在英国文学史上，直至13世纪，诗歌在各类文学体裁中一直占领着绝对的统治地位，英语散文和小说的发展则要缓慢得多。按照语言学家瓦利斯（G. H. Vallins）的观点，最早的英语散文出现在9至10世纪，主要为阿尔弗雷德大帝及其身边的学者对一些拉丁作品的翻译，以对国民进行教化、启蒙之用。而阿尔弗雷德大帝时期所使用的句式则被语言学家称为阿尔弗雷德句式或本土句式。瓦利斯和古尔德在各自的作品中谈及此句式时，都称其主要特点为：“句式长短适当，结构较为紧凑。”下面的段落摘自阿尔弗雷德名为《奥索尔的旅程》（“The Voyage of Othere”）的现代英文译文：

He was a very rich man in the possessions in which their wealth consists, that is in deer. He had, when he came to the king, six hundred tame deer unsold. These deer are called reindeer; of these six were decoy-deer;these are very precious among the Finns, because they catch the wild deer with them. He was one of the chief man in the land, though he had not more than twenty cattle, twenty sheep and twenty swine; and the little that he ploughed he ploughed with horses. But their wealth lies chiefly in the tribute which the Finns pay them. That tribute consists of deer skins, birds' feathers, walrus bone, and of the ships ropes which are made of walrus hide or of seal.

从上可以看出阿尔弗雷德时代所用的句式相当平实，句子结构简单但并不松散，甚至在引文的第二句还出现了倒装句“of these six were decoy-deer”，使句子结构更为紧凑。下一段引文来自阿尔弗雷德给自己的译作《牧师的关怀》（Cura Pastoralis）写的序，它更明显地体现了阿尔弗雷德句式的紧凑感。原文为古英语：

Da ic þa germunde hu sio lar Lœndenge ðeodesœr ðysum o ðfeallen was geond Angelcynn ond ðeah monege cuðon Englic gewrit arœdan, þa ongan ic, ongemang oðrum mislicum ond monligfaldum bisgum ðisses Kynerices, þa boc wendan in Englic þa is genemned on Lœnden Pastoralis ond on Englisc Hirdeboc, hwilum word dy worde, hwilum andgit of andgite, swœswœic hie geleornode œt Piegmunde minum œrcebiscepe ond œt Assere minum biscepe ondœ t Grimbolde minum m œ ssepreoste ond œ t Johanne minum m œ sse preoste.

其现代英语译文为：

When I remembered how the learning of Latin had declined throughout England and yet many man could read English writing, I began, among the various and manifold duties of this realm, to render into English the book which is called in Latin Pastoralis and in English (Shep)herd-book,sometimes word for word,sometimes sense for sense, just as I learnt it from Plegmund my archbishop and from Asser my bishop and from Grimbold my mass-priest and from John my mass priest.

对照译文看原文，原句的结构有惊人的现代感。两个状语从句[一个表时间（When...），另一个表方式（just as I learnt it from...）]紧紧地依附着主句（I began...）；而在主句中又有一个形容词从句（which...）紧跟在名词“book”之后对其进行修饰。从句与从句之间、从句与主句之间的逻辑关系很强，整个句子显得十分紧凑。

随着13世纪，即中古英语时期的到来，英语散文的写作逐渐成为一种风气，题材也变得多样化。有说事的散文、牧师的布道、议论文、日记、书信、旅行杂记等，叙事小说也开始出现。同时，在13至15世纪之间，两种新的句式——威廉·卡克斯顿（William Caxton）引进的法语链条句（trailing sentence）和瑞津诺尔德·皮科克（Reginald Peacock）引入的拉丁圆周句进入英语语言。在随后的时间里，法语链条句和拉丁圆周句在与本土的阿尔弗雷德句式的磨合过程中不断去掉使自身显得笨重而别扭的法语与拉丁成分，先后成功地融入了英语语言，丰富了英语句式，促进了英语散文和小说的发展。

16世纪，也就是现代英语的早期，一贯朴实无华的英语迎来了她的第一次升华。在约翰·利利（John Lyly）笔下，英语开始变得辞藻华丽，甚至有些矫饰。利利在其著述中大量使用排比、对偶、对照、反问等修辞手法，使其作品变成了华丽的美文。下面两段引自利利的小说——《尤弗伊斯：才智之剖析》（Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit）：

Wouldest thou have me inconstant to my old friend, and faithful to a new? Knowest thou not that almond tree beareth more fruit when he is old, so love has greatest faith when it growth in age. It falleth out in love as it does in vines, for the young vines bring the most wine, but the old the best: So tender love maketh great show of blossoms, but tried love bringeth forth sweetest juice.... But wert thou in comeliness Alexander, and my Thirus, Thersites, wert thou Ulysses, he Midas, thou Cresus, he Codus, I would not forsake him to have thee: no not if I might thereby prolong thy life, or save mine own, so fast a root hath true love taken in my heart, that the more it is digged at the deeper it growth, the oftener it is cut the less it bleedeth, and the more it is loaden the better it beareth...

这是尤弗伊斯写给一位女子的信。这名女子是他朋友的未婚妻，但他却喜欢上了她，并想方设法要占为己有，所以这绝不是一封平淡的信。文中使用了各种新奇的比喻和对仗，文字很优美，也显示了尤弗伊斯的深情。因为他年龄较大，为了证明自己对对方的爱情，他用反问的形式告诉对方：当树变老了，它的果子却结得更多；当人变老了，他对爱情会更忠贞；新的葡萄可以榨出更多的果汁，但成熟的葡萄酿的酒更甜；年轻时的爱情可能感情更丰富，但经过考验的爱情却更甜蜜；等等。

下面这段文字也使用了多种修辞手法：

The foule toad has a faire stone in his head: the fine golde is found in the filthy earth: the sweet kernell lyeth in the hard shell: vertue is harboured in the heart of him that most men esteeme mishapen. Contrariwise, if we respect more the outward shape, than the inward habite, good God into how many mischifes does we fall? Into what blindness are we led? Doe we not commonly see that in painted pots is hidden the deadest poyson? That in the greenest grasse is the greatest Serpert? In the clearest water, the uglyest Toad? Does not experience teach us, that in the most cuious Sepulcher are inclosed rotten bones? That the Cypres tree beareth a fayre leafe, but no fruite? That the Estridge caryeth fayre feathers, but rank flesh?

比喻、对比、排比，再加上一连串的反问，就是为说明一个“金玉其外，败絮其中”的道理。按照语言学家的观点，利利把古罗马雄辩的昆体良文风搬进了英语。这样，利利掀起了对英语语言的改革之风。从此，英语语言开始从只注重表达“what”逐渐转变到越来越注重“how”。

在以约翰·弥尔顿为代表的作家对圆周句的成功使用之后，英语语言见证了培根笔下简洁、清楚，同时拥有大量的排比等修辞手法的句式。最终，在17世纪，即现代英语的发轫阶段，在约翰·德莱登（John Dryden）的笔下，英语句式迎来了它的成熟期（或第二次升华）。在阿尔弗雷德句式的基础上，德莱登适当吸收了链条句、圆周句、平衡句等句式，形成了有史以来最好的英语表达方式，被语言学家称为“中产阶层文风”。德莱登的英语既不华丽，也不粗俗。他的句式优雅易懂，行文优美流畅，句式长短得当，语气亲切，表达有力。柯勒律治（S. T. Coleridge）称德莱登开启了英语语言的第二个伟大时期。多数语言学家认为德莱登在华而不实的上层语言与粗俗的下层语言之间找到了一个平衡点，形成了现代英语的句式模式。德莱登的成就之一就是他的文学评论。下面是德莱登对乔叟及其作品的评价，选自其《古今故事诗集前言》（The Preface to the Fables）。读者可从中窥视德莱登的文风：

As Chaucer is the father of English poetry, so I hold him in the same degree of Veneration as the Grecians held Homer, or the Romans Virgil: he is a perputual fountain of good sense; learned in all the science; and therefore speaks properly on all subjects;as he knew what to say, so he knows also when to leave off; a continence which is practiced by few writers, and scarcely by any of the ancients, excepting Virgil and Horace....

He must have been a man of most wonderful comprehensive nature, because, as it has been truly observed of him, he has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours (as we now call them) of the whole English nation, in his age. Not a single character has escaped him. All his pilgrims are severally distinguished from each other;and not only in their inclinations, but in their very physiognomies and persons. Baptista Porta could not have described their natures better, than by the marks which the poet gives them. The matter and manner of their tales and of their telling are so suited to their different educations, humours and callings, that each of them would be improper in any other mouth. Even the grave and serious characters are distinguished by their several sorts of gravity: their discourses are such as are becoming of them, and of them only. Some of his persons are vicious, and some virtuous; some are unlearn'd, or lewd, and some are learn'd. Even the ribaldry of the low characters is different: the Reeve, the Miller, and the Cook, are several men, and distinguished from each other as much as the mincing Lady-Prioress and the broad-speaking, gap-toothed wife of Bath. ... 'Tis sufficient to say according to the proverb that here is God's plenty.

在所选的这部分序言里，德莱登用夹叙夹议的方法把乔叟的时代与生平和他本人对这位诗人的评价融合成娓娓动听的散文，表达其对乔叟热情的欣赏，同时也对乔叟做了一番分析。他认为，乔叟是英国诗歌之父，是流不尽的理性的源泉，而且乔叟博学慎思，论事得体而又能适可而止，实古今罕有，希腊、罗马文苑中仅维吉尔与贺拉斯可与其相比。同时德莱登认为，乔叟的《坎特伯雷故事集》内的各色人物，无论智、贤、愚还是不肖，都是刻画入微，恰如其分，为当时英国社会各阶层人物最典型的艺术形象，因此乔叟这部现实主义巨作真不愧为文学瑰宝。

从上，读者可以感觉到德莱登的句式不像古英语那么过于朴实，也不像卡克斯顿笔下的链条句那样散漫无形，但也没有圆周句的晦涩难懂，去掉了其同时代大家培根常用的巴洛克风格的雕琢与矫饰。德莱登的句式自然、流畅，语言优雅，润饰得当，得到了普遍的认可。在上面的序言里，他“没有用骈对的结构和修饰的赞语。字字随意写出，各适其分，因之风格便显得平易自然。此外，这段文章还具有德莱登所重视的‘散文所特有的和谐’（the other harmony of prose）”。他甚至开启了一个德莱顿时代。

随着英语语言的成熟，英语小说开始蓬勃发展起来。