文体与修辞考试复习3.pptVIP

* * * * * * * Class Discussion 1. What are the major uses of long and short sentences? What do you think of them? 2. What is the usual information structure in complex sentences? Please give examples to support your idea. 3. What does a good sentence mean to you? Please give examples to support your idea. * Session 3 Syntactic Devices (II) From the rhetorical point of view, sentences can be labeled as loose, periodic and balanced. 1. The loose sentence (the right-branching sentence) Major features: (1) The loose sentence is so called because it is somewhat loosely constructed; it may generally be stopped somewhere before the end and yet make grammatically complete sense. * Example 1: The willow shadow suggests a young woman, | with her long hair flowing in the wind. Example 2: The mist had lifted from the city below, | and all the streets and open places were with noisy buyers | and sellers, | whose loud talking and disputing came up | in a continuous hum, | like the drone of a swarm of bees. * (2) In a loose sentence, the main idea is put at the beginning of the sentence, and supportive or qualifying information comes after it. Example 3: We stood at the kitchen door, | studying the sky beyond the sycamore tree （埃及榕）. Example 4: Dawn came as a relief, | with a gesture of coolness,| and we tumbled out of bed, | almost sick with excitement. * (3) There is no climax in the loose sentence. The sentence rolls on, for an easy, natural presentation of ideas or numerating facts or ideas of equal importance. Example 5: He undertook to cook the breakfast, | so that Mother could have time to herself | to dress | at more leisure | and take stocks of all the luggage, | the locking up of the house, | the final arrangements * about a cat | and a hundred other minor responsibilities | anyone of which would have lain under her holiday | like the rose petal und