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第1篇

【关键词】 美国电影；第六日；西方文化；隐喻

【中图分类号】G644.4 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】2095-3089（2013）33-0-01

一、剧情述评

美国电影《第六日》（The 6th Day）是第一部探索人类克隆的动作影片，它把我们带到科技已高度的不远的未来，在那时，人类科技已可以任意克隆任何生物，甚至包括人类本身。然而，即便克隆人类的技术已相当成熟，但因社会伦理的限制，仍不被法律所允许。

人类的弱点之一就是往往抵挡不了利益的诱惑，在利益面前，不少人会很容易地就忘记了道德伦理和法律的约束而为所欲为。电影中韦恩实验室（研究克隆技术的实验室）的老板杜拉克便是典型的一例——他在医学博士韦恩的帮助下不仅克隆了自己，也克隆了许许多多的被他认为对自己有利的人，电影的主角亚当·吉布森（Adam Gibson，阿诺德·施瓦辛格饰演）即为其中之一。

亚当回到家里发现一个与自己一模一样的人取代了自己享受着本属于自己的天伦之乐，其震惊、困惑、痛苦之情溢于言表。而作为观众，我们都不难想象假如这一切发生在自己身上，会是什么一个感受。于是，为夺回原属于自己的一切——自己、家庭和爱，亚当开始了他的“正名”之旅。

如许多美国电影一样，《第六日》也有一个好莱坞式的结局——亚当在其克隆体的帮助之下，成功揭开了这一惊天阴谋，并最终拿回了原本属于自己的一切。

在这部电影中，克隆与爱两大主题相互交织：为了爱，亚当违背了自己的本意为女儿克隆了他们的宠物狗；出于爱，亚当选择与他的克隆体携手合作，共同揭开了隐藏在克隆人背后的巨大阴谋；因为爱，克隆亚当黯然退出……。若是从圣经和基督文化的角度去审视影片的这两大主题，实则是矛盾与冲突的相互交织——是上帝创造了世界和人类，而人类无权去克隆自己，但人类偏偏又克隆了自己；上帝与他所拣选的民立约，要爱上帝，爱家人，爱邻居，爱一切基督徒如兄弟姐妹，而片中的主人公所做的一切事情的出发点正是“爱”，包括克隆。电影就是在这样的矛盾冲突中给观众留下了无尽的回味和思索：人类在享受飞速发展的科技带来便利的同时，也不免担忧——科技高度发达之时，人类是否还能掌控自己的命运？高科技给人们带来的是福音还是灾难？在高科技面前，人类应该坚守的伦理底线是什么？

二、对克隆的矛盾心态

1997年2月22日英国生物遗传学家维尔穆特成功克隆出“多莉”羊的新闻被报道之后，克隆技术便震惊了世界；2000年6月26日，人类基因图谱被成功破译，这更为克隆人类在理论上提供了可能。但很快，顾及到社会伦理道德以及多数人的反对，多数国家通过立法明令禁止克隆人类。

《第六日》带给我们的不仅仅是视觉的冲击和震撼，更多的则是引发了人们对克隆人的深刻思索。影片最后虽没有援引“第六日法案”对疯狂的杜拉克进行法律审判，但对他的道德伦理审判却是显而易见的。

虽然如此，人们对克隆却不免存在有矛盾心态。正如影片中的亚当，其本意是，无论何种生物，“生命的基本法则是，出生，成长，生活，然后死去”。但对女儿的爱却又使他不由自主地走进宠物克隆商场，克隆了他们家的宠物犬“奥利佛”。这在片中的人们看来，为自己和家人克隆一个健康的宠物作为替代品已被普遍认可，即便他们仍强烈反对克隆人。

克隆技术的出现和发展，颠覆了人们传统的对生命的理解和思考：一则人们渴望借助克隆技术延续生命；另一方面，传统的社会伦理法则又告诉他们不可越过雷池。正如影片中亚当的思索和疑虑：克隆出来的，没有灵魂，危险吗？既然安全，为何不允许克隆人类？如何合情合理合法地运用高科技，尤其是克隆技术来造福人类，矛盾和纠结仍在继续。

三、西方伦理文化隐喻与《圣经》

文艺作品大都有其神话的、历史的或现实的素材和思想渊源并受其价值观念的影响，特别是神话传说，“一直在塑造和影响那些民族的思维观念，对各民族的思想观念和文化发展产生了极其深刻的影响” [1]。而在西方世界，“《圣经》的故事和传说是西方文化艺术的重要源泉……它的思想和哲理已经成为人们意识的重要组成部分”[2]。究其原因，在于《圣经》典故在西方社会中影响的普遍性和深入性：《圣经》典故在西方政治、经济、文学、艺术领域普遍存在，且已深深融入哲学、宗教、和意识形态领域，成为西方人的道德和行为规范，其影响力之广、之深是任何其他典故所无法匹敌的。

正如深受儒家思想影响的中国人的伦理道德观念基本来自于儒家学说一样，《圣经》及其典故所蕴含价值观念成为以基督教为普遍的西方人所认可和信奉的社会伦理价值观也就可以理解了。那么，西方电影取材于《圣经》典故并将其伦理思想作为影片的主题来表现并不出人意料。甚至可以不夸张地说，整整一部西方电影史从未脱离基督教文化的深刻影响[3]。

电影《第六日》也毫不例外地带有浓厚的《圣经》文化色彩，我们从该片片名以及男主角的姓名这些细节就可见一斑，因为“一部电影及其片名总是浸润在该民族的文学、历史、哲学、宗教、传统、习俗、传说等形成的文化体系中” [4]。

《圣经》这样描述：“神就照着自己的形像造人，乃是照着他的形像造男造女……是第六日”（《旧约·创世纪》，1：27-31）[5]，而片中被多次重复的一句台词正是“在第六天，上帝创造了人，上帝造人时在第六天”，凸显了片名《第六日》的宗教文化含义；《圣经》中还讲道：“耶和华神用地上的尘土造人，将生气吹在他的鼻孔里，他就成了有灵气的活人，名叫亚当”（《旧约·创世纪》，2：7）[6]，片中主人公也恰恰以上帝所创造的第一个人的名字“亚当”命名；还有，主角亚当·吉布森（Adam Gibson）的姓“吉布森（Gibson）”在古德语中的含义又是“光明磊落的誓约”，此名表达父母希望子女继承其祖先财物及传统的愿望。

这些细节除了在艺术手法上起到呼应主题的作用之外，更深层的含义则是表现该片主创者文艺创作的价值取向，即《圣经》和基督文化所秉承的传统的基督教伦理，即着眼于在肉体层面或物质范畴解读人（尤其是基督徒）与他人、社会及万物的关系嬗变，目标指向以神人和谐为基础，重建被罪扭曲的人与他人、人与社会乃至整个自然界的关系[7]，重新回归到“神”所安排的正常的社会和人类生活秩序。

可见，影片中所反映的克隆人争议以及人们的矛盾心理，究其根源，正是来源于《圣经》深刻影响下的民族文化传统，也反映了影片主创者对克隆人问题鲜明的“上帝取向”的生命价值观和态度，即任何生命的诞生，尤其是人，只有通过正常途径出生、成长的人，才是《圣经》中所讲的“神所应许的”，才是“神”所喜悦的，才是合情合理合法的，否则就是对上帝的不敬——因为人不可能像上帝那样创造人类和世界；当然就是也是反传统的和伦理的，自然不会成为多数人的共识而被普遍接受。

四、结语

任何文艺作品都会反映作者本民族特有的文化传统及其附带的价值观念。欧美大片对所有学英语、用英语的人来说不啻于一个学习和了解西方文化的生动而鲜活的教材，也为我们提供了一个加深中西文化间相互了解、增加彼此间信任的绝好窗口。另外，一部好的电影带给人们的应该不仅仅是精神上的享受以及文化学习和交流的素材，电影故事背后的故事及其带来的对生命和人性的理性思考也非常值得我们去关注。

参考文献

[1]董广坤，王传顺.《2012年》中的神话原型与末日隐喻[J].电影文学，2011：20.115-116.

[2]赵玲洁，赵彦荣.《圣经》在西方文化中的表现形式及影响[J].时代文学，2011：8.88-89.

[3]杨然.电影中的宗教魅力——谈基督教文化在电影中的文化价值[J].电影评介，2009：19.8-9。

[4]佟磊，沈秋敏.浅谈西方文化与西方电影片名翻译[J].时代文学，2009：15.149-150.

第2篇

Key words：Black English; American English; American Culture; Influence

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. The Characteristics of Black English 2

2.1 Phonetics 2

2.2 Grammar 3

3. The Influence on American Culture 7

3.1 The Influence on American English 7

3.2 The Influence on American Art 9

3.3 The Influence on American Literature 11

4. The Practical Significance of Black English 14

5. Conclusion 15

Acknowledgements 16

References 17

 

1．Introduction

Black English is a social dialect of American English, and it has been historically influenced by West African languages, General Southern American English and English-based creoles.

 This kind of English shares several characteristics with the forms of Creole English spoken by people throughout the whole world. In addition, it also has pronunciation, grammatical structures, and vocabulary in common with various West African languages.[1]198 Since a large number of Black people migrate to America and they have the percentage of more than 12%, [2]496the Black English has been popularized in this country. But in the American society, people seldom realize the influence and contribution of Black English and they never give the equal state to Black people. In fact, the language and culture of American reflect the contributions of the Black English in many aspects, such as linguistic, art and literature.

Nowadays, it is reasonably acceptable to say that Black English is not only an independent language but also making practical significance to American English and the American Culture. Researchers need to study the significance in details. So this paper intends to collect the study of the characteristics of Black English, and then summarize its influences on the American English. Since the change of language can lead changes in other aspects, such as Art and Literature aspects, this paper also states the influence in detailed options.

The method of this paper is reviewing the past study and surveys, not just from the linguistic point of view or the historical aspects of Black English, but from its formation and characteristics to demonstrate the existence and development of Black English and the practical significance. Through the analysis of Black English on the profound impact of American culture, the paper advances a view on the value of Black English and its prospects. Finally it puts forward the importance and necessity of enhancing learning and research on Black Culture as the continuous improvement and economic conditions of Black people.

2. The Characteristics of Black English

Black English, as a unique variant of English, has many differences with the Standard English based on the structure of language. And this paper tends to discuss the features of Black English in phonetics and grammar aspects. Since Black English is not just a simplified version of English, it has a unique language system with the same fixed structure as any other dialect all over the world.

2.1 Phonetics

Most Black people use a distinctive English variant. This black dialect has aroused many linguists’ interests. Repeatedly been labeled as “pidgin English”, Black English’s role in the development of American Culture can not be questioned. Black English as a source of Black Culture has always been paid more attention by linguists and sociologists in nowadays.

2.1.1 The Weakened Consonant

Because of the influence of West African, some voiced consonants are the same with their form of voiceless consonant. Word-final devoicing of /b/, /d/, and /g/ are always pronounced to //, //, //, and in most cases these phonemes are ignored. In order to make a difference between them, sometimes the vowel before the voiced consonants could be slightly re-read harder, take the “heat and heed”, “let and led” and “fate and fade” which is ended with the word “e” as examples.

In the syllables which are combined with consonants and vowels, some nasals can also be weakened, such as “sum, sun, sung”, and only the vowel // in the word which is somewhat influenced by the nasal.

2.1.2 The Omission of Consonant Clusters

    The simplification of Consonant Clusters is an obvious feature of Black English. The mutes in English are //, //, //, //, //, //, //, //, //, //. Black English often omit the mutes in the end of a word, and the word “side”// is always pronounced to “sigh”//. This kind of omission is not arbitrary, and it is decided by the situation of pronouncing a word: when the mute at the end only represents the morpheme is not connected, for example, the frequency of reserving // is higher than integral part of the stem in the word “borrow”. It will also be reserved if there is vowel behind the mute, such as the first “d” in the phrase “tried hard”.

2.1.3 The Pronunciation of // and //

The omission of // is a notable characteristic of Black English. In American, it is a tendency of underclass to omit // before vowels but not only of Black English.[3]297Because of this kind of omission, there is no differences between “guard-god”, “fort-fought” and “sore-saw” in Black English.When // is between two vowels, the syllable after it needn’t be pronounced, as “Paris” could be read as//; when there is a word beginning with vowel behind it, the // could also be regretted.

// is voiceless before the consonant, such as the word “health” always be pronounced to // and so on. However, when // is after the vowel as the end of the word, it is assimilated by the phoneme before it, such as the similar pronunciation with “mail” and “may”//. In addition, // is voiceless before // and //, as “always”//, “already” //. The more interesting thing is that they pronounce “will” to “ah”，for example, “I ah be there in a minute.” While the correct form in Standard English is “I will be there in a minute.”

2.1.4 The Pronunciation of // and //

In Black English, // is always pronounced as // and // is always pronounced as //, for example, “think” is pronounced to be //. While the // in the end of a word is transformed to //, and “mouth” is pronounced to be //, “nothing” is to //. In addition, the “th” in the middle of a word is always pronounced to be //, so “mother” is to //, “other” is to //, and “brother” is to //.

Actually, there are many more characters than mentioned in the paper, but we can recognize the differences of phonetics between Black English and Standard English just from the mentioned examples.

 Smith Thurman, a well-known expert in Black English, said that black dialect used same number of English phonemes with white, and the only difference is the distribution pattern of phoneme.[4]553

2.2 Grammar

    There are also many researches who have found the special usage in grammar of Black English. For example, the different meanings in the sentences “He workin’” and “He done worked” are hard to be explained by the Standard English. The first means “He is working 253.It also indicates the difference between Simple progressive and emphasized perfective. Not only the tense plays a different role in the grammar, there are many other points such as the relative usage of the word “be”, the negation and transmission of the word.

2.2.1 Tense

    Syntax best embodies the characteristics of Black English. In the verb-system, the differences between Black English and Standard English are most significant, which is most similar with pidgin and Creole their ancestors used. In Black English, the only duty of the verb in the sentence is to indicate the time concept of one or a few verbs, and other verbs can be expressed in verb stem. Sometimes when the context gives essential temporal support, the tense can be totally regretted. For example, in the following section of black sermons, the Preacher has made it clear that he is talking about the past, because both the life and devotion of Jesus have already happened: “The man Jesus，he come your sins! He the thieves and here. He die to walk the earth. He you from go among try to Save the unrighteous. The master say whoever will let him come!”

In addition, the singular verb of third person in Present Tense is not ended with “s”, for example, “She work in the factory”.

Black English has two Perfect Tenses: “Remote Perfect aspect” which is constituted by the “been” and “Immediate Perfect aspect” constituted by “done”. At this point, Black English and West African languages is extremely similar. [6]

    (i) The “been” in “remote perfect aspect” has a certain meaning of action in past tense. And this kind of perfect tense could be divided into two forms: I been know him(momentary action), I been knowin’-him.(ongoing action).

    (ii) “Immediate Perfect aspect” uses the auxiliary verb “done”. In modern Black English, following sentence are commonly used:

    ① I done go.

    ② I done went.

③ I done gone.

    These three are used in different situations:

    ① Used in the Immediate Present sentences.

    ② Used in the Simple Past sentences.

    ③ Used in the semi adjective structures.

2.2.2 Relative usage of “be”

The usage of“be”in Black English is also very special. If one action, thing or state does not happen frequently, the“be”in this sentence will be deleted. For example, “he in the house -watchin’ TV”. The abbreviation of the copula such as “is” and “are” can also be deleted. In addition, when in a passive sentence the passive voice is not expressed so clearly by the speaker, “be” can also be deleted, for example, “the factory built in 1958”. However if the action happens frequently, “be” can be used as the predicate verb in the sentence“they be out in the yard every night.”

When“be” and“do” work together means this kind of thing happens frequently in the Interrogative sentences and Emphatic sentences. For example, “Do you be playing all day?” (Do they play all day?) “Yeah, the boys do mess around a lot.”(Yeah, the boys do mess around a lot.) Famous linguist William Labov researched a lot in the Black English and concluded that: all the“be”which can appear in the forming of abbreviation can be deleted in Black English. [7]113Actually, the usage of “be”is far more complex than this conclusion which is easily got from the above descriptions. 

2.2.3 Negation

There are three different versions of negation in Black English: “ain’t”, “don’” and “dit’n”, which can be written as “ain’t”, “don’t” and “didn’t”. While the special usage of “ain’t” is a feature of Black English. Ain not is a negative form in past tense: I ain’t see. In a sentence, the negation always repeated: I ain’t see nothin’ like that no place. The meaning is equivalent of: I did not see anything like that anywhere. (I’ve never seen this kind of thing in any place.) When the predicate is not active verb, ain’t become the only symbol of negation. For example, I ain’t afraid of nothing. He ain’t gonna get no money out of it. Besides, it can be combined with "ing" and make up the present continuous tense. For example, we ain’t kidding and we ain’t quitting, we ain’t turning back. 

The function of “ain’t” in Black English is same with the “haven’t” in Standard English. Therefore the “We haven’t contacted each of her since last Christmas.” can be evolved to “We ain’t contacted each of her since last Christmas.” Sometimes, “ain’t” can replace the phrase “didn’t” in simple negation sentence. So in Black English, sentences can be like following forms: “She ain’t email me yesterday.” The young boy insisted, “I ain’t steal his wallet.” “I ain’t run like that in years.”

Multi-negation means there is not only one symbol of negation. Under this regulation, the pronoun needs to add some mark of negation.

For example: “She ain’t see any thing/ anyone at the railway station” can be changed into “She ain’t see nothing/ nobody at the railway station”. If the subject is “nobody” but not “he” or “Janet”, it will add negative determiner at the beginning of the sentence. This is called “negative inversion” by linguists. As a result, it is very common to hear that “Didn’t nobody say nothing to the peoples!”

3. The Influence on American Culture

An important contribution of Black English is the influence on the American Culture. The familiar “negro spiritual”, the unusual rhythms and the famous performance in movie and literature —all these originated with the slaves. It is said that what is the best and most original in American popular culture has its roots in Black English. Important black speakers, singers, actors and writers are too numerous to list.

3.1 The Influence on American English

He Ruigao expresses his opinion in his article Black English that there are some differences in certain aspects of language between Black English and American English. And he believes that after all, Black English is a variant of English, so the differences are only in some degree rather than fundamental, and do not affect the people’s contacts.

It is clear that there is a strong relationship between Black English and American English, while the distinct characters of Black English are not fully explained and its origins are still a matter of debate. One theory is that Black English arose from one or more slave creoles that arose from the trans-Atlantic African slave trade and the need for African captives to communicate among themselves and with their captors.  According to this theory, these captives’ language developed into what are called pidgins, simplified mixture of two or more languages. As pidgins are from closely contact between members of different language communities, the slave trade would have been exactly such a situation. Not until the time of the American Civil War did the language of the slaves become familiar to a large number of educated whites. As the time passes, the Black English gradually plays an important role in the United States and U.S. Culture.

3.1.1 The Forming of Black English

In the slave society, there are so many different languages that the natives on two sides of the river cannot understand each other. But the safest way for them to keep their authority is to trade with the different nations on both sides of the river. The famous writer, Cotton Mather, claimed to have been very familiar with his slaves’ speech, and his imitative writing shows features presented in many Creole languages and even in modern Black English. By the time of the American Revolution, varieties among slave creoles were not quite mutually intelligible.

Not until the time of the American Civil War did the language of the slaves become familiar to a large number of educated whites. In Army Life in a Black Regiment (1870), Thomas Wentworth Higginson detailed many features of his soldiers' language. Shana Poplack has also provided corpus-based evidence from isolated enclaves in Samaná and Nova Scotia lived by descendants of migrations of early Black English-speaking groups. All of these researches suggest that the grammar of early Black English is closer to that of contemporary British dialects than modern urban Black English to current American dialects. We can find that the modern language is a result of divergence from mainstream varieties, rather than the result of creolization from a widespread American creole. 

3.1.2 The Relations with the American English

In United States, blacks worked in this land with the identity of slaves and inherited some habits from the African culture and language, and thus gradually formed a black American society with unique culture. While the communication between the black slaves and the slavers became a major hub linking the two cultures, and produced a subtle influence to American English, which mainly reflected in English words borrowed, as well as the meaning of the word twists and turns, and the absorption of idioms. Its pronunciation is, in some respects, common to Southern American English, which is spoken by many African Americans and many non-African Americans in the United States.

There is little regional variation among speakers of Black English.89 In order to understand the United States and American culture, and to acquire its development, Blacks melt their culture, such as language, literature and art, with those of the United States. Later, Black English is not only for Black people, it is still widely used by a number of regional dialects. Even in literature works, authors often use Black English to show the hero's nationality, identity and upbringing.

Not only the phonetics and grammar of Black English prove the influence to American language, but we can also achieve it from the assertion of Black English. For example, “the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice” means “she is very mature and favorable”. Another example, “you aren’t got a pot to piss in on a window to throw I tout of” means that you are very pool. “If I tell you a hen hip snuff, look under its wing and find a whole box” means that all you said is true. “You never miss yo water till yo well run dry” means that “you will never feel the importance of water until you are very thirst”.[10]6-7 The representative assertion is very lively and meaningful, suggesting the wisdom of the Black English.

3.2 The Influence on American Art

When Blacks live in Africa, they have the hobby to sing and dance during laboring. But then they are later taken away as slaves by the colonists to the southern United States plantation. They work in the fields wearing shackles and live in the primitive hut in the deserted swamp and jungle. But due to this kind of suffering, they create a valuable oral literature including hymns and blues and other Black Art, which has made an outstanding contribution to the culture to the United States.

3.2.1 The Integration with Music 

    It is generally believed that music of blacks has some distinctive forms from American music like American Ragtime, Blues, Jazz, Musical and Country music. Ragtime was first played by a black Anonymous piano, which was very popular in the late 19th century to early 20th century. It uses segmentation rhythm, trying to evolve from the popular dance music of blacks, and then Ragtime music appears. Scott. Joplin is one of the Ragtime representatives, and his performance of “Maple Leaf pull tone” has been a smash hit, which is so famous that all of the Ragtime pianist would play in their shows.

Blues is from field horn and songs with a strong feeling of African tradition and its tunes are always sad. The most famous Blues singer is Bessie Smith, known as Blues Queen. When Ragtime, Blues and other tunes with rich colors of Africa's influence add together with the elements in Europe, the Jazz comes into being.  

With the integration of grammar, the ways people sing a song become various in American. Many young people jump into the swim of “rap” and “hip-hop”, which is considered as a really fashion style to express one song and the soul. While among the most famous masters, more than 90 percent are black people, such as the episode in Prison Break.

The word “rap” meant “blame” in the middle of 18th century and was always used in phrase in the 19th, “to take the rap” meant “to take the blame”. After the civil war, black people used it to blame white people and requested the equality with them. And finally it replaced the word “conversation” to be popular among the white teenagers. There are many simplifications of words in “rap” which become totally different with American English. For example, the “er” in the end of word is changed into “a”, “nigger” into “nigga”.[11]185 Besides, the “ks” or “cks” in the end of a word can be replaced by “x” because they have the same pronunciation. All of these examples prove that it has become a new version of grammar in American English. For example, the “re” or “e” which can’t be heard during a speedy song are always omitted such as “more” and “mo”, “for” and “fo”, or the number “4”. The omission of “g” in “ing” is another new grammar in American English.

Some words also change its pronunciation. For example, in the word “through”, “gh” never being pronounced is know to all, since we pronounce “th” // in stead of // there is no difference in pronunciation with the word “true”.

In the “rap”, the Black English has many distinct characters and its lyrics tend to be more fashion and creative. Most of these new word are very short or the abbreviation of some long words so that even the local Americans can not understand. In order to keep its character of fashion, “rap” uses word on the point of fashion. Therefore, the characteristics of Black English are the foundation of “rap”, which makes it no longer a simple style of music but a diverse style.

3.2.2 The Integration with Film 

Film is an integrated form of art, with combination of test technology, art and commerce, and the thought of images it brings to the human mind is revolutionary. Because it's easy to be accepted, the film is destined to be a mass media on hundreds of millions people when it appears. In a short century, Hollywood becomes a symbol of American mass culture, and the influence on American society is immeasurable.

Film expresses and promotes the life style and values of Americans. During the war era, it boosts moral e of the soldiers. While in the Depression era, it could replace the cash of the American dream and reflected the public's ideals and dreams. In this case, blacks also express their dream to achieve the equality in the American society through the film, such as Shaw shank Redemption, the Pursuit of Happiness and Death Pact and so on. Because of the success of these works and the influence on future, some later generations continued to collect and summarize the classic dialogue in these black films, and to commemorate the black culture for future generations to study at the same time.

There are two characteristics of grammar which can be easily found in the black films.First is the invariant of “be”, and second is the multi-negation of“ain’t”.The invariant of“be”is used before verb, adjective, noun and passive voice in Black English.

(i)Your gas bill be high, don’t it? (Your gas bill is usually high, isn’t it?)

(ii) My boss be in his office by 8am. (My boss is usually in his office by 8am.)

(iii)It don’t be dogged. I grease it and oil it. (It isn’t usually dogged, I grease it and oil it.)

Laurel Avenue (1993) is a story about a family’s effort to counter drug, faction and violence in order to achieve the “American Dream”. In the film, when Rashhawn’s uncle blamed on his sailing drug, he said that “What the hell I be giving you money fuh[for ]？” while his word can also be translated to “Do you know why I always give you money ? ”

It is worthy to mention that this kind of grammar in the film is also very popularized by young Latinos. Therefore, the Black English users have crossed the racial boundaries and expanded to the crowd who are favor of hip hop culture.

The multi-negation of “ain’t” can be fully realized in the most influential black filmmaker Spike Lee’s masterpiece Do the Right Thing. The story happened in Brooklyn, New York, and demonstrated an explosion caused by the ethnic problems. There are a large number of unique performances of Black English in the dialogues:   “Ain’t no brothers on the wall? I ain’t run like that in years. Don’t call me no bum. Jade don’t come here no more, all right? Don’t call me nothing.”

Although many so-called “not standard”regulations of Black English have been criticized for a long time, its expression is an important means to promote Black Culture of the Hollywood directors and become a beautiful view in American films.

3.3 The Influence on American Literature

In the destiny of black, there must be a clearly visible way, on which they have worked with effort to win dignity and literary. Through their effort, it exhibited such a road as well as those marks in relation to life along the way: once in Black history, unforgettable pain is essential for the experience to the results today. Black Literature, in the United States and the world, has been mainly as slaves, especially in countries outside Africa.

The Black English writer Toni Morrison was born in black family, and later achieved today’s scholars and writer’s identity by reading. In 1993, because of her “making the important part of American society much more vigorously through the rich poetic imagination and expression”, she won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and became the only black women writer in history to be honored.

Not only the Black Literature but also the American Literature has these characters of Black English in their works.

The Sound and the Fury (1929) is written by a famous American writer William Faulkner (1897-1962). The first part, “April 7th, 1928”, describes the conversation and action between the children in the farm waiting for the coming of procession.

“I skeered I going to holler,” T.P said.

“Get on the box and see is they started.”

“They haven’t started because the band hasn’t come yet.” Caddy said.

“They ain’t going t have no band.” Frony said.

“How do you know?” Caddy said.

“I know what I knows,” Frony said.

“You don’t know anything,” Caddy said.

“She went to the tree.”

“Put me up,” Versh.

“Your paw told you to stay out that tree,” Versh said.

“That was a long time ago,” Caddy said,

“I except he’s forgotten about it, besides he said to mind me tonight. Didn’t he say to mind me tonight?”

“I’m not going to mind you, T .P and Frony are not going to either,” Jason said.[12]4

The children in this conversation turn out to be totally different between T.P, Frony, Versh and Caddy, Jason. The dialogue of the first three people has some characters of Black English. For example, “be” in the sentence “I (am) skeered (that) I (am ) going to holler” which is the distinct signal of Black English. On the contrary, the conversation of Candy and Jason do not omit this part as Jason says that “I’m not going to mind you，TP and Frony are not going to either”. And the singular verb of third person even does not have any difference with first person or any one else in the sentence “I know what I knows”. In addition, the mixture of // and // of the word “git” in the sentence “got on the box” is very common in Black English. It turns out that T.P, Frony and Versh are children of black in the farm, while Caddy and Jason are children of the farmer.

On the other hand, many black people like Frederick and William, not only struggle to learn the culture, but also use the pen as a weapon after the flight. They took active part in the abolitionist movement and expressed positive public opinions. Slave owner always treat Black people as the inferior race, so Black people’s ability to carry out literature itself is a powerful evidence of that lie, let alone the rich ideological content in their articles. And all of these proof that Black people is an excellent nation with a historical cultural tradition on the literature and their language also plays an irreplaceable role in the development of American literature.

4. The Practical Significance of Black English

In1863， 2 years before the war ended, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the Confederate states. Shortly after the war ended in 1865, the thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution freed all slaves. A few years later, the fourteenth and fifteenth Amendments gave the former slaves full civil rights, including giving African-American men the right to vote.[13]77

In politics, more blacks are voting, and more are getting elected. Since 40 years ago, the Black middle-class group has risen from scratch and grown in their standard of living. There are no difference in professional skills and educational background with the white middle class. Outstanding representatives of Black people appear in many areas of the United States, such as the Black mayor, governor, ministers and members of Congress, and all of them are no longer surprise to us. The much more important thing is that Democratic candidate Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election in 2008 to become the first real chance to win the presidency in the Black.

Blacks are also trying to improve their financial position by going into professions or starting their own business. There are now more than 600,000 black-owned companies in the U.S. and blacks are more numerous than ever in the professions-as teachers, doctors, lawyers, judges and ministers.

In 1952, Ralph Ellison, a black author, wrote a book about blacks in the U.S. called the Invisible Man. Since the 1960s, blacks have become more visible on TV and in movies and magazines. Networks, filmmakers and advertisers now realize that black consumers want to see their race represented. Today, blacks in significant numbers work as newscasters, TV actors and actresses, and movie stars.

Huang Weifeng says in his African American English on a Number of Historical Issues that, “Only when the racism in American society has been completely eradicated from the mind, the Black Cultural expressions of Black English can really be recognized.”81

5. Conclusion

“Black English” is widely used as the name because it is used by Black people. In fact, its user of this language is far beyond our imagination. In addition to the external community in the black population, it is also used by lower middle and low classes in America. It has profound impacts on American culture and communication in various aspects, especially with the continuous improvement of their political, economic and cultural status, and Black English has been paid more and more attention. In view of this, the paper starts to explore the formation and characteristics of its existence and development. It is said that the view of helping people understand the Black Culture correctly, the concept of eliminating the racial discrimination and enhancing the awareness to protect national culture plays an important role to cultural exchanges and cultural diversity.

The above discussion of Black English is by no means comprehensive but it can serve our purpose to improve the regulation and state of Black English. The significance of studying the nature of Black English is really multifaceted. While the most direct one is the significance for lingu istic research. The attitude to the question that whether Black English is a dialect or a language determines the methods of research. This paper argues that Black English is essentially a separate system and its significance to the American Culture. It should be researched as an independent study of language. [17]34

Undoubtedly, the Black English makes Black people more dramatic in the movies. The syntax rules and special vocabulary of Black English, which are incompatible with the mainstream of English, become the foundation of their culture with their bold dance and passive music. Although most black people using Black English live in the southern United States and the countries, those well-educated middle-class blacks also use Black English in some informal gatherings.

With the black music, novels and movies continuously mix into the mainstream of American society, the syntax rules and special vocabulary of Black English begin to be accepted by American English and become parts of the American culture. Because of the worldwide spread of English and increasingly prosperous Black Culture, the Black English will be more widely active in screen as a mature variation of English and an important way to display the diverse culture of the United States.

Acknowledgements

My initial thanks go to my tutor, Wu Qing, who patiently supervised my dissertation and was at times very willing to offer me illuminating advice or suggestions. Without her help, I could not have finished this dissertation.

I am also indebted to other teachers and my classmates who have not only offered me their warm encouragements but also shared with me their ideas and books.

       My greatest personal debt is to my grandparents and parents, who have cultivated a soul of sensitivity, hospitality, and honesty out of me, and offered a harbor of happiness and sweetness for me.

The remaining weakness and possible errors of the dissertation are entirely my own.

References

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[2] Roger Porter. Past and Present [M]. James. Mill Company, 1971.

[3] 侯维瑞. 英国英语与美国英语[M]. 上海外语教育出版社, 1992.

[4] 斯密瑟曼. 交谈与证实: 黑美洲的语言[M]. 美国纽约出版社, 1977.

. Blackwell, 2002.

[6] 方久华, 熊敦礼. 美国黑人英语语言特点探讨[J]. 华中科技大学学报, 湖北武汉, 2007.

[7] 拉波夫. 在社会环境里研究语言[M]. 中国社会科学出版社,1979.

[8] Baker, Houston A., Jr. Blues. Ideology and Afro-American Literature: a Vernacular Theory [M].University of Chicago Press, 1984.

[9] Baugh, John, Beyond Ebonics. Linguistic Pride and Racial Prejudice [M].New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

[10] 杰克•丹尼尔. 黑人英语中的影响[M]. 英国伦敦出版社, 1973.

[11] 蔡昌卓. 美国英语史[M]. 北京大学出版社, 2002.

. McGraw-Hill, 1929.

[13] 张卫平. 美国制度与文化[M]. 中国人民大学出版社, 2006.

[14] 黄卫峰. 对现代英语词汇学的两处质疑[J]. 云梦学刊, 2003.

[15] 侯维瑞. 英国英语与美国英语[M]. 上海外语教育出版社, 1992.

[16] 张卫平. 美国制度与文化[M]. 中国人民大学出版社, 2006.

[17] 葛咏涛. 美国文化风云人物[M]. 四川大学出版, 2007.

 

诚 信 承 诺

我谨在此承诺：本人所写的毕业论文《论黑人英语对美国文化的影响及其现实意义》均系本人独立完成，没有抄袭行为，凡涉及其他作者的观点和材料，均作了注释，若有不实，后果由本人承担。

 

                承诺人（签名）： 徐珊珊     

第3篇

关键词：权力距离　不确定性规避　个人主义-集体主义　男性度-女性度

一、Hofstede的文化心理模式与写作

荷兰跨文化合作研究所的霍夫斯特德(Hofstede，1980)做过一项著名的跨文化比较研究，他曾对IBM公司在40个国家、地区中的10余万雇员，用20种语言进行了一项长达7年的研究，发现这些国家在文化上的差异主要表现为4个方面：即“权力距离”、“不确定性回避”、“个体取向与集体取向”、“男性化与女性化”。这4个方面也就是民族文化差异的4个维度，每一种文化的特点都可以用它在这4个维度上的强弱来表示。

1.“权力距离”(power distance) ，指一种文化对社会地位差别和等级重要性的看重程度。也可视为上级对下级，管理者对被管理者的影响力和控制力的大小。在权力距离大的文化中，整个社会是一个等级较鲜明的组织系统；而权力距离较小的文化则会使人们有较为平等的观念。

2．“不确定性规避”(uncertainty avoidence)，指社会大众面对不确定性和模糊情境所产生恐惧感的强弱，及是否采取措施消除这种恐惧感。不确定因素规避指数高的文化信赖权威，避免分歧和不确定；而不确定因素规避指数低的文化乐于冒险和接受新奇、陌生的事物。

3．“个人主义-集体主义”(inpidualism-collectivism)，指一种文化依赖和忠于个人自我的程度。个人主义倾向的社会，注重自我需要的满足，追求多样化的生活和自我价值的实现；而集体主义倾向的社会则重视集体的利益及个人对集体的责任。

4．“男性度-女性度”(masculinity-femininity)，指一种文化是看重自信、成就和财富拥有，还是更看重社会支持、生活质量等其他方面。男性度指数高的社会崇尚成就和野心及其他阳刚行为；男性度指数低的文化中，工作和成就则是次要的，提倡的是人与人的相互依赖与和谐相处，同情弱者，重视人与自然的和谐。

文化属于社会结构的概念，是社会形态的组成部分，文化模式就是一个社会中所有文化内容(包括文化特质与文化丛)组合在一起的特殊形式和结构，因此，文化模式反映的是一个社会的结构、形态、运行等总的社会意识。语言作为文化的载体，必然负载着一个民族的文化心理模式。美国应用语言学家罗伯特.凯普兰(Robert Kaplan，1966)便发现，语言和写作是文化现象，每一种语言都有其独一无二的修辞习惯，篇章的组织方式反映了人的思维模式。他总结了五种文化不同的段落组成类型，其中英语的段落模式与汉语的段落模式便有很大的不同，英语篇章的组织和发展是"直线型"(linear)，即直截了当地陈述主题，进行论述；汉语学生典型作文方式呈"螺旋型"(circular/spiral)，即不直接切入主题，而是在主题外围"兜圈子"或"旁敲侧击"，最后进入主题。卡普兰有关思维模式和写作的研究导致了对比修辞研究的发展。文化和心理模式的研究成为探讨第二外语写作的重要角度。本文便想从霍夫斯特德的四种文化思维模式来透视中国学生英语论文与英语母语论文的差异。

二、中国人的文化心理模式

1．中国文化中较大的权力距离

中国经过长期的封建社会和儒家礼教的熏陶，整个社会都笼罩在“三纲五常”的等级观念中。上下级甚至父子、兄弟之间都有不同的权力等级。虽然“君叫臣死，臣不得不死；父叫子亡，子不得不亡”等封建观念已然过时，但“长兄如父、官大一级压死人、师道尊严”这些上下观念依然深入人心。较大的权力距离使得中国文化中的人们比较尊重上级、长者或已有的权威，习惯顺从和接受。与之相比，英语国家封建社会的历史都较短，文化在很大程度上继承了古代希腊文明的民主议会制度，说英语人数最多的美国和澳洲又都是年轻的大陆，英语文化的权力距离相对较小，人们崇尚平等，敢于提出自己的观点。

2．中国文化中较高的不确定性规避指数

不确定性和标新立异往往与社会等级化的程度成反比。在即成的、稳定的社会组织系统中，不确定性自然不受青睐。因此，中国文化的不确定性规避指数也相应较高，人们对尚未被社会舆论或权威确定的事物往往采取规避态度，不太喜欢竞争和冲突，追求有秩序的社会生活，力求将可能发生的不确定性降低到最低限度。另外，中国作为四大文明古国，处肥沃之地，以居住地为根，衍出“家本位”，更导致人们对不确定和模糊情境的较强恐惧；而多数英语国家探险和迁移的传统使得英语文化中的人们较喜欢探索未知的领域，敢于冒险和面对挑战。

3．中国文化强调集体主义

在英语文化中，个人主义(inpidualism)包含着自我认知、自我实现、自我控制、自我突破等优秀品质(Waterman，1984)。但在中国文化中，个人主义常有自私、不考虑集体利益、特立独行等负面内涵。中国的文化更重视互相依赖和共享的集体利益。自我的价值实现、成就的追求会受到有意识的压抑和贬低，以求得同集体中其他成员的和谐。

4．中国文化的女性主义倾向

根据霍夫斯特德的界定，男性主义的文化崇尚成就和野心；而女性主义文化提倡的，人与人的相互依赖、重视的是人与自然的和谐相处。虽然中国有男尊女卑思想，且对物质和金钱非常崇拜，表面上看是一个男性度高的社会；但本质上，对追求成功、重视成就、崇尚力量、速度、高大等男子气概并不认同。相反，中国的儒家精神倡导“修身、齐家、治国、平天下”，强调道德规范自觉能力，人的价值通过“内省”、“克己”来表现，形成中国人内倾的性格。 林语堂先生在其成名作《中国人》上，把中国人的性格概括为，“老实温厚，遇事忍耐，消极避世，超脱老滑，和平主义，知足常乐，幽默滑稽，因循守旧。”虽然有些偏颇，但也真实反映了中国文化的女性主义倾向。

从以上四种文化维度的内涵和数据上都可以看出，中国文化与英语文化在价值取向上有很大差异。这些差异不仅体现为跨文化交际中的障碍，对第二外语写作也会产生一定的负迁移作用。Connor(1997)在《对比修辞——第二语言写作中的跨文化层面》一书中提到，霍夫斯特德的四种文化维度可以用来进一步从心理学的角度探讨跨文化写作的差异。 Nelson & Carson(1995)和SU-YUEH WU也都分别对中国和北美学生英文写作中的各自的“集体主义”或“个人主义”倾向进行过研究。本文想通过将中国学生用英语写的学术论文与英语母语学者用英语写的学术论文进行对比，从霍夫斯特德的四个文化维度角度来找寻差异的原因，以改进我国学生的英语论文水平。

转贴于 三、中国学生的ESL学术论文和英语母语学者学术论文的对比

1．引用时附带的尊称

英文母语论文中每逢引用名家或其他作者的原文时，往往只加上“According to(根据xxx的话)”、“As xxx says(如xxx所说)”，或直接在引号后注上所引的出处。英语母语的论文很重视将别人的话加上引号，标明出处。但标明本身即意味着尊重，很少再附加其他的尊称。但中文的论文在引用名家之言时，仅仅说明出处似乎远不能表达对作者的尊重，“xx先生”、“xx教授”、“xxx翁”、“著名xxx家”等标签常常可见。中国学生的英语论文中在引用时也相应地有“the well-known(famous/great/experienced(知名的/著名的/伟大的/资深的))”等恭维性修饰词，或“其观点对xx领域做出重要贡献(奠定了xx的基础)”等推崇性句子，以表明其所引话语的权威性。这种对权威的恭维明显是受中文传统的影响。而这种传统可能是源于中国较大的权力距离造成的习惯思维。在权力距离大的社会中，直接提到长者的名讳是十分无礼的，甚至有砍头之罪。这种传统流传下来，便造成了习惯性的附加尊称，在用第二语言写作时，也难以避免。

2．引用成语或俗语的频率

这里所说的成语或俗语是指已在语言中固定下来的表达法，这些引用在英语论文中并不得到欣赏，被称为“cliché”(陈词滥调)，英语的论文中喜欢使用某些自创的隐喻，或灵活使用一些惯用语，却很少照搬已有的成语或俗语(在统计的5篇文章中，这种“cliché”的数量为零)。而中文论文却把这些固定成语、谚语或格言看作是全篇必备的“华彩乐章”，一种文采的体现。因此中文中的引用不仅仅包括英语中常用的“观点回顾”(literature review)，更重要的是用名家之言、古诗、古谚使自己的话更有说服力。这种应用成语俗语的习惯也常常被沿用到中国学生的英语写作中，动辄“as the old saying”(古语云)等。然而，这种引用在英语中却有“拉大旗，作虎皮”之嫌。对成语、名家的引用也反映了不同文化对权威的态度以及对不确定性的规避程度。中国文化不确定性的规避指数较高，权威之言意味着被社会广泛认可，因此，引经据典可以尽量避免分歧，减少可能发生的不确定性。相反，英语文化喜欢竞争与冲突，因此，自己的观点尽量用自己独特的表达方式，避免步人后尘。英语文章不仅不喜欢使用“陈词滥调”，对自己的观点还常常从不同角度反证其可能性。而中国学生的论文则追求自圆其说，尽量减少不确定性。

3．结论中第一人称复数和第一人称单数的使用频率

从数据上看，中文的5篇论文与英语的五篇论文使用第一人称复数(we/us/our)的频率似乎相当，但实际上，5篇英语文章的结论都在700-1000词左右，而汉语的结论则都在200-300字左右，中国学生的英语论文的结论也很短，都在200词左右。在这样的字词总数比例下，第一人称复数在汉语文章中的使用频率就远远高于在英语文章中的使用频率。英语文章结论中使用较多的是第一人称单数(first singular pronouns)和个人的观点(personal anecdotes)。在有的文章中达到12次之多，如

By way of concluding， I would like to make four comments.

I have now stated that…

I have suggested that…

I consider it important to …

I want to make it clear that…

My second/third comment relates to

I have pided…

I have outlined…

I believe that…

My concern here is …

第一人称单数和个人观点的使用体现了文章作者对自我的展示和肯定，体现了英语文化中的个人主义倾向和男性主义倾向。他们认为个人的经历最有说服力，只有自己相信自己，才能说服读者。而中文论文却相比之下，对自己的观点比较谦虚，常常出现“以上各点信手写来，全是一孔之见，还望行家不吝指正”(李观仪，2003)等谦辞，以保持学术界的和谐。这种对和谐的追求体现了中国文化的集体主义和女性主义倾向。中国学生的英语论文对自己的观点评价不够自信，更多使用的是第一人称复数，也显然受此影响。

四、结语