An Analysis of the Language Features of Hemingway’s A Clean， Well―Lighted Place.docVIP

An Analysis of the Language Features of Hemingway’s A Clean， Well―Lighted Place 　　【Abstract】Hemingway is a world famous master for his unique writing style featured by simple words， short and concise sentences. This kind of style is represented in A Clean， Well-Lighted Place. The ingenious use of linguistic devices such as simple and terse language style， the ironic tone and repetition makes the short story become one of Hemingway’s most popular masterpieces . 　　【Key words】Hemingway； simple words； ironic tone； repetition 　　Introduction 　　Ernest Hemingway is a famous novelist of the 20th century in American history. Compared with the popular tedious style at that time， Hemingway’s style was fresh and simple， which was commended by the majority of scholars later. A Clean， Well-Lighted Place has become one of his most representative short stories. Just a few more than one thousand words， the writer depicted a combination of dynamic and static image： Late at night， leaves were swaying in the shadow outside； inside of the cafe， an old customer was bending his head to drink； two waiters ―a young and an old waiter were looking at the street out of the window while talking about the story happened in the lonely elderly customer. 　　1. Simple and terse language style 　　Concise and simple are the most striking features of Hemingways novel language. He believes that the less words， the better. Hemingway was quite stingy in his description. “I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven eighths of it under water for every part that shows.”（Zhai，1994：361） He often use simple and short sentences to express his feelings. Hemingway’s aim and achievement were to convey his concerns in a prose style built from what was left after eliminating all the words one “could not stand to here”.（Baym，1985：1685） Please look at the opening part of the story： “It was late and every one had left the cafe except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tre