浅析《麦琪的礼物》的语言运用--毕业论文.doc

【标题】浅析《麦琪的礼物》的语言运用 【作者】王 茜 【关键词】?比喻；引用；幽默和讽刺；?大词小用；各种句式；人称 【指导老师】刘 敏 【专业】英语 【正文】I. IntroductionDuring the period from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to the dawn of the 20th century, America grows into a nation of great size, power and wealth. However, great wealth has been accompanied by poverty. For the majority of the people, their hope has only ended in disappointment. Using some effective literary devices, the writers in this period have provided a very clear and vivid picture of the socio-economic turmoil. They truthfully depict life around them, accurately identify their characters with their surroundings, fully represent the wretched life of those individual creatures confronted by hardship and moral dilemmas, and ironically criticize mankind’s cruelty, greed, and stupidity.?As a famous short-story writer, O. Henry enjoys a literary position equal to Chekhov and Maupassant. His short stories are famous for the surprising ending, vivid imagination, and unique language style. With ironical and humorous language techniques, O. Henry in his works sharply criticizes the degeneration and extravagance of American upper-class life of his age, and vividly presents the corruption of money to human’s relationship in American society.?Most critics are very interested in O. Henry and his works, with a focus on his biography and the artistic feature of surprising endings in his excellent short stories. Only a few have noted and made an in-depth analysis of his language style. Actually, the language devices O. Henry employs in his short stories have, to a large degree, helped him achieve a great success in short-story writing and contributed to the high literary position he possesses in the world. This distinctive language style is fully characterized by the employment of extensive and suitable vocabulary, the colloquial expressions, the ironical and humorous expressions, allusions, and figures of speech. Especially, the latter three language devices have been l