Because of different styles, the grammar of poetry and prose is not exactly the same. Metric poetry is limited by the number of words and meter, so it needs more freedom in grammar; Because the word is mainly composed of metrical sentences, its grammar is similar to metrical poems. This grammatical freedom not only does not hinder readers' understanding, but also sometimes increases the artistic effect to a certain extent. There is no need to discuss the grammatical features of poetry in detail here, just pick some important points.
Incomplete sentence
Originally, there were some incomplete sentences in prose, but that was an individual case. In poetry, incomplete sentences often appear. Poetry is the most refined language, which shows a picture of a thousand miles in just a few dozen words, so the structure of many sentences must be compressed. The so-called incomplete sentence generally refers to a sentence with no predicate or incomplete predicate. The most obvious incomplete sentence is the so-called noun sentence. A noun phrase is a sentence. For example, two couplets in Du Fu's Spring Memories of Li Bai:
Li Bai's poems are the fresh wind of Yu Xin's poems and the backbone of Jun Zai's works.
Now, I am alone on the spring tree in Weibei, and you are on each side of the sun, sunset and sky in the southeast, and you can only miss.
According to the grammar of prose, these four sentences are incomplete, but the poet's meaning has been fully expressed. Li Bai's poems are as fresh as Yu Xin and as elegant as Bao Zhao. At that time, Du Fu was in Weibei (Chang 'an), Li Bai was in Jiangdong, and Du Fu saw sunset clouds and spring trees, which caused sweet memories of friendship. Isn't that clear? If you add some words, it will make people feel redundant. Yellow Crane Tower in Cui Hao: Every tree in Hanyang becomes clear in the water, and Parrot Island is a nest of sweet grass. There are four meanings here: "Clear Li Chuanli" is a sentence, "Cao Fang is lush" is a sentence, "Hanyang Tree" and "Nautilus Island" are not sentences. However, the relationship between Hanyang Tree and Qingchuan, and the relationship between Cao Fang and Nautilus Island are all shown. Because Qingchuan is vivid, Hanyang Tree can see more clearly; Nautilus Island is more beautiful because of the lush green grass. Du Fu's Moonlit Night: "Clouds are fragrant and foggy, and jade shoulders are cold." There are also four meanings here: "wet cloud" is a sentence pattern, "cold jade arm" is a sentence pattern, and "fragrant fog" and "Qingming" are not. However, the relationship between incense mist and cloud, and the relationship between light and jade arm is very clear. Du Fu missed his wife, fantasizing that she watched the Mid-Autumn Moon alone in Zhangzhou, and missed her husband in the chaos, so she couldn't sleep at night. The cloud was invaded by dew, and it was already wet, like a fragrant fog; The jade arm was illuminated by the bright moon, and it became colder and colder.
Sometimes, it seems that there is a subject, a verb and an object, but it is still an incomplete sentence. For example, in Su Shi's "Xincheng Road", "The clouds on the ridge are covered with floc hats, and the bronze finches are hung on the trees on the first day." This is not a two-layer meaning, but a four-layer meaning. "Cloud" is not the subject of "hanging", and "day" is not the subject of "hanging". At the beginning of the tree, the sun rose as if a bronze pheasant had been hoisted. Loushanguan: "The west wind is strong, and the geese in the sky are called frost morning moon." "Moon" is not the object of "calling". West wind, geese and frost moon form a strong atmosphere. The geese in the sky crow in the frosty morning and the moon.
Adverbs sometimes don't have to modify verbs as in prose, such as Chairman Mao's Qinyuanchun. Changsha said: "It's just that students and teenagers are in their prime; The scholar was very angry and scolded Fang Qiu. The word "QIA" is an adverb without a verb. For example, in Bodhisattva Man (Great White Emperor), it is said, "After the rain, the sun sets and the mountains break the sky." "Fu" is an adverb and does not modify verbs. It should be pointed out that the so-called incomplete sentence is only a grammatical analysis. We can't think that poets consciously create incomplete sentences. The language of poetry is picturesque, and it is difficult to understand it mechanically from the grammatical structure. I just want to emphasize that the language of poetry is much more refined than that of prose.
(B) word order conversion
In poetry, in order to meet the requirements of melody, the poet can make appropriate changes to the word order without damaging the original intention. Now, let's take a few examples from Chairman Mao's poems to discuss.
The second song of the Seven Laws, "Send the Sad God": "The spring breeze is full of willows, and the 600 million China is as smooth as Yao." The second sentence means that 600 million people in China (China) are Yao and Shun. According to the principle of leveling, it is "flat and flat", so the first two words are "600 million", the third four words are "Shenzhou" and "Yaoshun" is said to be "Shunyao". The word "Yao" is placed at the end of the sentence for rhyming reasons. Huanxisha 1950 after the National Day drama, the first sentence "A rooster sings the world white" means "A rooster sings the world white". According to the law of leveling, it is "leveling", so the first two words are "singing" and the last four words are "cock".
Xijiangyue The first two sentences behind Jinggangshan: "The barriers have long been strict, and it is even more United." "Strict barriers" and "Unity is strength" are idioms. But because the first sentence should be "occasionally", the third and fourth words are "strict" and the fifth and sixth words are "obstacles".
Langtaosha Beidaihe last two sentences: "The bleak autumn wind is coming again, it has changed the world!" The sentence in Cao Cao's original poem "Looking at the Sea" is: "Is it a family?" According to the rule of "waves are sand", these two sentences should be "flat and flat, flat and flat", so "bleak" is placed in the first two words and "autumn wind" in the last four words.
Sometimes, the change of word order cannot be simply understood as meeting the requirements of melody. There is also the great significance of adding poetry and making sentences the language of poetry. Du Fu's Autumn Xing (No.8) "The fragrant rice pecks at the parrot, and the phoenix perches on the old phoenix branch", some people think that it is "the parrot pecks at the fragrant rice, and the phoenix perches on the old phoenix branch". This is not right. "Xiangdao" and "Wu Bi" are placed in front, indicating that the poet is chanting fragrant rice and Wu Bi. If "parrot" and "Phoenix Emperor" are moved to the front, the object of the poet's chanting will become parrot and Phoenix Emperor, which is not suitable for the topic of crisp autumn. Another example is Du Fu's Qujiang (the first song), "Seeing presbyopia, drinking into the lips hurts a lot." The word "eyes" in the previous sentence seems redundant, and the word "too painful" (a lot of sadness) in the next sentence seems to be placed before "don't be tired". If it is really modified in this way, it will be very poetic even if the level and balance are not out of balance. These places, according to the grammatical requirements of prose, are ignorant of the art of poetry.
(3) Grammatical problems in duality
Poetry antithesis, sentences and antithesis often have the same sentence pattern. For example, Wang Wei's "To Frontier Fortress" said: "If you levy Peng, you will return to the wild goose and enter the lake field." The subject is a noun with verb attribute, the verb is a monosyllabic word, and the object is a noun with proper noun attribute. Chairman Mao's "Send the Plague": "Red rain turns into waves at will, and Qingshan intends to turn into a bridge." The subject is a noun that modifies the color, and the sum in the verb-object structure is used as an adverbial, modifying the verb generalization, followed by the complement of Lang and Wei Qiao.
Sentences with the same grammatical structure (that is, sentences with the same sentence pattern) are opposite, which is a positive example. But at the same time, we should pay attention to the fact that there is another situation in the antithesis of poetry, that is, only literal relativity is required, and the sentence pattern is not required to be the same. For example, Du Fu's Eight Arrays: "The Three Kingdoms, divided, have been bound by his greatness, and the Eight Pavilions are built on his fame." "Guo San fen" is the direct object of "Gai", while "Eight Arrays" is not the direct object of "Cheng". Han Yu's "Jingwei Reclamation" said: "The mouth is full of rocks, but the heart is full of hope." Modifier is added after the word "fine", and "fine stone" is equal to "fine stone"; The antithesis is a recursive sentence: "I hope the waves of the sea will become calm in my heart." We can say "a stone with a thin mouth" on the other hand, but we can't say "a calm wave." Chairman Mao's Seven Laws "To Mr. Liu Yazi": "Complain too much, be careful." "Taisheng" is a continuous reading and a predicate of "complaining": "Changyi" is a continuous reading and an adverbial of "showing off"; "Broken heart" is the object of "prevention"; "Big eye" is an adverbial of "quantity", and their grammatical structures are also different. As can be seen from the above examples, in the same sentence pattern, antithesis should not be too rigid. Form should be subordinate to ideological content, and antithetical sentences are no exception.
(4) Refine sentences
Sentence refinement is a rhetorical problem and often a grammatical problem.
In a word, the whole poem is full of color.
Refined sentences are often refined words. Generally speaking, the most important word in a poem is the head word of the predicate (called "predicate"). Refine this central word, this word is called a golden word, and the poem becomes vivid and vivid. The famous "thoughtful" story illustrates this truth. Legend has it that Jia Dao got a sentence on the donkey's back: "Birds stay in the trees by the pool, and monks knock at the door on the moon." He wants to use the words "push" and "knock". He hesitated, deliberately gestured with his hand, and unconsciously bumped into the leading Jing and Han Yu. Han Yu understood and decided to use the word "knock" for him. The word "knock" is also the head word of the predicate.
Predicate headwords are generally used as verbs. Therefore, refining words is often just refining verbs. Now let's give a few examples to prove it.
The first song of Li Bai's "Song of Xia Sai": "When you fight at dawn, you will follow the golden drum, and when you sleep at night, you will hold the jade saddle." Both "Sui" and "Hug" are well practiced. Drum is the signal of marching, so only the word "Sui" is the most appropriate. "Holding the jade saddle at night" is much better than "accompanying the jade saddle" and "beside the jade saddle", because only the word "holding" can show the tension waiting for you. The third and fourth sentences of Du Fu's "Spring Hope" are: "Where the petals have shed tears, where the lonely bird has sung grief." "Spit" and "essence" are both refined words. They are all causative verbs: flowers make tears splash and birds make people panic. Spring has come, birds are singing and flowers are fragrant, and we should have laughed and been happy; Now, because of the national turmoil, families are ruined and people are killed, and flowers and birds can only make poets cry.
Chairman Mao's "Bodhisattva Heart". "Yellow Crane Tower" has three or four sentences: "misty rain is vast and grey, turtles and snakes lock the river." The word "lock" is refined. The word "lock" fully illustrates the important position of Guisheshan in the situation and is very vivid. If you change it to "Jiahe" or something, it will be tasteless.
Chairman Mao's Qing Ping Le. The first two sentences behind Liupan Mountain are: "On Liupan Mountain, the mountain is high and the red flag rolls the west wind." The word "roll" is refined The word "roll" is used to describe the red flag fluttering in the wind, which shows that the red flag is a symbol of revolutionary combat effectiveness.
Chairman Mao's Qinyuanchun. The eighth and ninth sentences of "Snow": "The mountain dances with silver snakes, and the original wax elephant." "Dance" and "pool" are refined words. Agkistrodon halys was originally used to describe the mountain after snow, and the wax elephant described the plateau after snow. Now it is said that "the mountain dances with the viper, the original wax image", which changes statically and becomes the language of poetry. Put "dance" and "chi" in front of snakes and elephants to make the vivid image more prominent.
The third and fourth sentences of Chairman Mao's Seven Laws "The Long March" say: "Wuling makes waves, and Wumeng takes mud pills." Teng and Zou are refined words. Grammatically speaking, these two sentences are also inverted sentences. It turns out that the waves are rolling and the mud balls are rolling. It is even more vigorous to say "making waves" and "walking the mud ball". Chairman Mao vividly described the revolutionary spirit that the Red Army was not afraid of arduous expeditions with appropriate metaphors.
Adjectives and nouns are often refined words when used as verbs. The third sentence of Du Fu's "Farewell" wrote: "When the vegetation is declining, go beyond the sword and go out to block the old riverside." The word "Lao" is an adjective used as a verb. Poetry, Shun, Shadow, Gluttony, Last Tree, Harmony, Ⅲ? Chair sword? My family is ruined, I am old, and I am stranded on the edge of Jinjiang. Only one word "old" is used here to fully express this strong emotion.
Chairman Mao's Qinyuanchun. The seventh, eighth and ninth sentences behind Changsha: "Guide the country, inspire the writing, and the dirt is Wan Huhou." The word "dirt" is a noun used as a verb. Chairman Mao regarded Wan Huhou as dirt, which was a contempt for the revolutionary spirit of class enemies. The word "dung" is not only used properly, but also concise.
Adjectives sometimes have the function of refining words even if they are not used as verbs. The third and fourth sentences in Wang Wei's "Looking at Wax": "The grass is as dry as an eagle's eye disease, and the snow is as light as a horseshoe." These two sentences have four sentence patterns: "dry", "sick", "tired" and "light", both of which are predicates. However, "withered" and "exhausted" are common predicates, and "sick" makes the eagle's eyes see more clearly after the grass withered. The poet said "fast" (illness) rather than "clear", and "fast" is more vivid than "clear". After the snow left, horseshoes walked faster. The poet said "light" instead of "fast", and "light" is more vivid than "fast".
All of the above, involving ellipsis (incomplete sentences), word order (including inverted sentences), part-of-speech changes, sentence pattern comparison and so on. Are also related to grammar. Although there was no clear definition of grammar in ancient times, poets often came into contact with many grammatical problems in their creative practice and actually handled them well. Today, we should also understand the old-style poems from the perspective of grammar, so that our understanding will be comprehensive. -
[1] These two formulas are not completely correct because of other temperament reasons, as shown in the above figure.
[2] This is an embarrassing sentence, which will not be discussed in detail here.