A Linguistic-Cognitive Study Of The Mind Style Of The Main Character In The Catcher In The Rye

The term “mind style” is first put forward by Roger Fowler in1977, later has furtherdeveloped and perfected by Geoffrey N. Leech and Michael H. Short, Elena Semino and so on.Mind style in the novel reflects the character’s, the narrator’s, or the implied writer’s personalidiosyncratic cognitive habits. In general, there are two approaches to mind style: linguisticapproaches and cognitive approaches. Linguistic analyses have probed into mind style throughvocabulary, syntax and conversation pattern. Cognitive researches have applied cognitivemetaphor theory, schema theory and conceptual blending theory in the study of mind style. Asmind style is highly relevant to linguistic structures of a particular conceptualization of thefictional world, it is more comprehensive to present the characteristics of the fictional mind styleby integrating linguistic analyses with cognitive researches. Therefore this thesis conducts alinguistic-cognitive study of the main character’s mind style in the novel.This thesis selects the novel The Catcher in the Rye by the American famed writer J. D.Salinger, and adopts a linguistic-cognitive approach to probe into the particular adolescent mindstyle of its main character and first-person narrator Holden Caulfield. The linguistic analysiscovers Holden’s unusual linguistic behaviors, and the images and symbols recurring in his mindto conclude his linguistic habits and cognitive abilities. Through digging into his specialschemata and refreshed schemata, the cognitive research reveals Holden’s particular cognitivestate and idiosyncratic conceptualization of the world. Through such a detailed and systematiclinguistic-cognitive study, this thesis attempts to explore the main character’s mind style in thenovel.This study shows that the linguistic-cognitive stylistic analysis is a more integrated andeffective approach to explore the main character’s mind style in the novel. Theoretically, thisthesis has positive effect on the study of mind style, the linguistic-cognitive study focuses onlinguistic details and cognitive structures in the creation of mind style. Practically, the detailedand systematic stylistic study of mind style helps to account for the stylistic effects of the novel,better interpret the particular linguistic behaviors and the special cognitive habits of the maincharacter in The Catcher in the Rye, and appreciate the plot and the theme of the novel. Besides,this thesis provides a new perspective for analyses of the adolescent novels.