Stylistic_Analysis_of_The_Gift_of_the_Magi.doc

北京理工大学珠海学院外国语学院 课程学期论文 Stylistic Analysis of O.Henrys The Gift of the Magi 姓名：许颖淑 班级：11级英语10班 学号：111002101009 Stylistic Analysis of O.Henrys The Gift of the Magi Introduction As one of the three masters of short stories in the literature history, 0.Henry was an outstanding American writer who is very familiar to and is popular with readers around the world.O. Henrys short stories are known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and clever twist ending.Those his great works must have their own characteristics, which are shown in vocabulary, sentence and grammar, etc. In this thesis, I will select one of the famous short stories of 0.Henry and try to analyze it from the angle of stylistics and to describe the most significant stylistic features of it. The Gift of the Magi is one of the most famous one among O.Henrys short stories. I will make an analysis of it based on the stylistic theory and mainly discuss the following aspects: graphology, lexicon, syntax and semantics. I　At the Lexical Level 1. Vocabulary Vocabulary is one of most important aspects in influencing the difficulty and the acceptance of the story. It is known that 0.Henry is good at and famous for writing short stories. One of the reasons why he and his works are popular is that the stories are simple and easy to read and understand. It is hardly found there are difficult and elusive words in his works so that they are welcomed by all kinds of readers around the world. We can find that most words in this text are common words we often use. 2. Word Length Word length is an important stylistic marker. The longer and more complicated the words are, the more formal the texts are. 0.Henry uses more short words to make the stories more vivid, which also help the readers to understand what the writer tends to convey. On the other hand, due to the familiar and conversational words are employed among characters dialogues, a wide