“抗议歌曲”—《寂静之声》的文体学分析

刘鲁蓉

【摘要】《寂静之声》是著名电影《毕业生》的主题曲，由保罗西蒙作曲。它是一首典型的“抗议歌曲”，创作背景是20世纪60年代的美国，那时反主流文化，民权运动风起云涌，人们的价值观也发生巨大变化。本文运用文体学理论，从语音，词法，句法和语义角度进行文体与修辞分析，使我们更好地鉴赏歌词的文字美感并从中了解美国的60年代。

【关键词】文体分析 语音特征 词汇特征 句法特征 语义特征 象征意义

【Abstract】The Sound of Silence is the theme song of the well-known film The Graduate.It belongs to “Protest Music” and is composed by Paul Simon during the 1960s of America，a decade characterized by counterculture，civil rights movements and a time of upheaval when peoples value changed a lot.By the stylistic analysis of this song，we can appreciate the beauty of the lyric and have a brief view about that Stirring Age.

【Key Words】stylistic analysis； phonological feature； lexical feature； syntactic feature； semantic feature； symbolism

·Phonological feature

“There is the skillful manipulation of various sounds.The most frequently used ones are alliteration，rhyme…”[1]Alliteration adds the rhyme beauty to this song，and make it smooth.

e.g.“left its seeds while I was sleeping.”

“I turned my collar to the cold and damp”.

As for rhyme，The Sound of Silence can be divided into five stanzas.At the first stanza，apart from the beginning and ending part，it follows the ABBA rhyming scheme in a perfect rhyme “again，creeping，sleeping，brain”，and the second stanza，it shifts to the AABBCC rhyming scheme in perfect rhyme “alone，stone，lamp，damp，light，night”.The third stanza follows the ABBA rhyming scheme but is not in a perfect rhyme.In the following two stanzas，the beginning four lines follow AABB rhyming scheme.

·Lexical Feature.Compared to general words，the diction of this song is more specific.Instead of saying “the street of stone”，it employs the “cobble stone”； instead of saying “light”，it uses “neon light”； and other examples like “subway walls and tenement halls”，all of them are specific words.For the song mainly described the scene of a dream，so the specific details bring about a sense of reality to audience.

Furthermore，the more popular the song is，the closer it is to the public.Especially it is a “protest song”.Thus common words are preferred.

e.g.“Hello，darkness my old friend”，“Fool”said I“you do not know，”

·Syntactic feature.In the perspective of sentence type，all the sentences are declarative sentences.Out of the considering of melody，the form of the sentence must be modified.Besides，some sentences are complex sentences with minor clause and some are compound，complex sentences.The author seems to be telling the audience a story，therefore complex sentence enables him to contain more information.

e.g.“And the vision that was planted in my brain still remains with the sound of silence”

·Semantic Feature.The Sound of Silence is not simply a song but a culture symbol，a claim，a declaration of the 1960s.It functions as a fist to quake traditional foundation，as a mirror to reveal the dark side of that time，and as a bell to sound the alarm which will bring the indifferent people to life and urge them to take action.When a song is labeled with the cultural value，the meaning of it will not be limited to its literal meaning.

The Sound of Silence mainly deals with the issue of money worship at that time and people turns out to be ignorant towards the world surrounding them for they show no intention of communication.Some words in the lyric，especially the nouns，bear this kind of symbolic meanings.The author inverts the original positive meaning of the image “light” by a metaphor “the neon light” which is the representation of modern commerce.In the fourth stanza，the “neon god” which people bowed and prayed towards it is the further explanation.It is not hard to understand that it is the money that “stabbed” the eyes of people and makes them lose the originally honest and pure heart，and makes them be indifferent to what happened around them.

Another figure of speech is repetition.It repeats “the sound of silence” again and again at the end of each stanza so as to highlight the theme of the song and to make it convenient for the audience to memorize.And the use of Parallelism enforces the power of the song and arouses peoples thinking.

e.g.“people talking without speaking

people hearing without listening

people writing songs that voices never share.”

Conclusion

“The Sound of Silence” is a famous folk song as well as “protest song” in th1960s of America.The perfect combination of phonological，lexical，syntactic and semantic skills in it can serve as an illustration explaining why it is so famous and has such a profound influence in the history of modern music and why it is valuable in respect of social study of 1960s of America.

Reference：

[1]董启明.新编英语文体学教程[M].北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2010：208-209.