汉语诗歌节奏构成要素及其形成原理

自古希腊苏格拉底提出"不美,节奏坏,不和谐,都由于语文坏和性情坏;美,节奏好,和谐,都由于心灵的聪慧和善良",节奏一直是中、西诗学及推动诗歌艺术发展的基础性问题,但汉语诗节奏的构成要素及其形成原理尚缺全面、系统的论证。从萨丕尔提出的语言"动力基础"出发,比较汉语、英语语音的"动力特点",并从中国古、今诗歌综合考察,汉语诗的节奏以"双音化"为基本特征：在显性层面"双音结构"为最常见的标准组合,如"明月别枝惊鹊,清风半夜鸣蝉";在隐性层面表现为单音"延长"、三音"压短"、超过三音强制切分以趋近双音的时长,如"迟日江山丽,春风花草香"等。诗句中的轻微停顿可凸现、强化"双音化"效果并形成"韵律边界"。汉语的虚词、"词长弹性"是支持"双音"组合的高效语法工具。"双音化"、顿、虚词、"词长弹性"可称为汉语诗节奏四要素。由于双音节是汉语最为高效的组合方式,现代汉语词库中双音词已占压倒性优势——据吕叔湘统计占比超过90%,因而汉语诗句或诗行几乎可天然超过一半为双音结构,以"双音化"为核心,进一步利用汉语虚词、"词长弹性"等语法手段,以及"隐性的双音化",即可有效配置、形成汉语诗的节奏——因而可称为"双音衍生型"节奏。汉语诗的节奏有三大优势：第一,配置容易,是因为汉语的"双音化"极为强势;第二,节奏感强,是因为诗句中的轻微停顿形成非常清晰的"韵律边界";第三,更为整齐,是因为汉字的书写和发音具有"等长"等时"的特点,且汉语中双音结构具有显著优势,不同于英语单词书写和发音长短不一。因而,汉语具有天然诗性语言的特征,不但促进了《诗经》、唐诗宋词等极高水平的长期繁荣,也极有利于帮助当代诗歌艺术和文化的优质发展。

Elements and formation principle of rhythm in Chinese poetry

Since ancient Greek Socrates put forward "not beautiful, bad rhythm, disharmony, are due to bad language and bad temperament; beauty, good rhythm and harmony are all due to the wisdom and kindness of the soul", rhythm has always been the basic problem of Chinese and Western poetics and promoting the development of poetry art. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive and systematic demonstration of the elements and formation principles of rhythm in Chinese poetry. Starting from the language "dynamic basis" proposed by Sapir, this paper compares the "dynamic characteristics" of Chinese and English, and makes a comprehensive investigation of Chinese ancient and modern poetry to find that the rhythm of Chinese poetry is characterized by "disyllabification". On the explicit level, "disyllabification" is the most common standard combination, such as "startled by magpies leaving the branch in moonlight, I hear cicadas shrill in the breeze at midnight". On the implicit level, it is shown as "lengthening" of single tone, "shortening" of triple tone, and forced syncopation of beyond three tone to approach the duration of double tone, such as "in lagging spring, hills and rivers look fair; in vernal breeze, plants and flowers spew scents". A slight pause in a poem can highlight, reinforce the effect of "disyllabification" and form a "prosodic boundary". Chinese function words and "word length flexibility" are efficient grammatical tools to support the combination of "disyllabification". "Disyllabification", "pause", "function word" and "word length flexibility" can be called the four elements of Chinese poetry rhythm. As dissyllables are the most efficient combination method in Chinese, the dissyllables in the modern Chinese lexicon account for an overwhelming majority-more than 90% according to Lv Shuxiang''s statistics. Therefore, more than half of the Chinese poems or lines are naturally dissyllabic structures. By taking "disyllabification" as the core and further utilizing grammatical means such as Chinese function words, "word length flexibility" and "recessive disyllabification", the rhythm of Chinese poetry can be effectively configured and formed, thus it can be called "diphonic derived" rhythm. The rhythm of Chinese poetry has three advantages. Firstly, the configuration is easy, because the "disyllabification" of the Chinese language is extremely strong. Secondly, the sense of rhythm is strong, because the slight pauses in the verse create very clear "prosodic boundary". Thirdly, it is more orderly, because the writing and pronunciation of Chinese characters have the characteristics of "equal length" and "equal time", and the disyllabification structure in Chinese has a significant advantage, which is different from English, whose words have different lengths and pronunciations. Therefore, Chinese has the characteristics of a natural poetic language.