及物性量表视角下《了不起的盖茨比》开篇的前景与背景分析

Foregrounding and Backgrounding in the Opening of The Great Gatsby: An Analysis from the Perspective of the Transitivity Scale

摘要: 本研究应用Hopper & Thompson (1980)的及物性量表，对菲茨杰拉德小说《了不起的盖茨比》开篇第一章前四段(共32个小句)进行了前景与背景的分析。研究的核心假设是，高及物性小句倾向于构成叙事前景，而低及物性小句倾向于构成背景。通过对10个语法–语义参数的逐句标注和量化分析，研究发现语料中低及物性小句占绝对主导(81.25%)，而高及物性小句仅占18.75%。研究认为，这一分布特征将叙述者尼克·卡拉威塑造为一个反思性的、非行动性的认知主体。高及物性小句构成的“前景锚点”稀疏地分布在背景信息中，打破了传统的线性叙事链，从而揭示了现代主义叙述中一种特定的前景–背景配置模式。研究尝试证明及物性量表在文学语篇分析中的有效性，并试图为功能文体学提供一个可复制的操作案例。

Abstract: This thesis applies the transitivity scale proposed by Hopper & Thompson (1980) to analyze foregrounding and backgrounding in the opening four paragraphs of Chapter One of The Great Gatsby (32 clauses in total) by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The central hypothesis is that high-transitivity clauses tend to constitute narrative foregrounding, while low-transitivity clauses tend to constitute backgrounding. Through clause-by-clause annotation and quantitative analysis of ten grammatico-semantic parameters, the study finds that low-transitivity clauses are overwhelmingly dominant in the corpus, accounting for 81.25%, while high-transitivity clauses comprise only 18.75%. The study argues that this distributional pattern construes the narrator Nick Carraway as a reflective, non-agentive cognitive Subject. The “foregrounding anchors” constituted by high-transitivity clauses are sparsely distributed within backgrounded information, disrupting the conventional linear narrative chain and thereby revealing a specific foregrounding-backgrounding configuration pattern characteristic of modernist narration. The study tries to affirm the analytical validity of the transitivity scale in literary discourse analysis and offer a replicable procedural model for functional stylistics.