A Stylistic Analysis Of "Dry September" From The Perspective Of Interpersonal Function

William Faulkner,a world-renowned literary master,is one of the greatest American modern writers of the 20~thh century.“Dry September”is one of his short stories,which consists of five parts,and tells a story about American Southern racism in a counterpoint instead of a chronological order.His ingenious employments of language and techniques in this story foreground the writing themes,referring violence and death,southern woman's ethics and racial conflicts.Interpersonal Function is one of Halliday's three metafunctions in Functional Grammar,which clarifies speakers'attitudes,stances,and opinions towards someone or something.The study of Interpersonal Function focuses on the characters,attitudes,or interpersonal relations of communication participants from several aspects,mostly including:types of Mood,Subject,Finite,Residue,Modality,and Interpersonal Metaphors,with the final purpose to reveal the implicit writing themes.Analyzing stylistic characters of the text can help readers figure out authors'writing themes and language characteristics,in addition,it can also bring readers'a large number of aesthetic pleasures.Therefore,the stylistic analysis of“Dry September”from the perspective of Interpersonal Function will be of significance and importance.At a micro level,it can not only highlight Faulkner's language characters and writing techniques but also expound the characters'interpersonal relations and characteristics that will contribute to the interpretations of writing themes;At a macro level,it will demonstrate the guidance and practicability of Interpersonal Function in the realm of both literary appreciation and English teaching.The stylistic characters of this context lie in Mood,Modality,and Interpersonal Metaphors,which can be generalized in the following aspects.The first aspect goes to the distinctions among characters'employments of mood types.It is found that Hawkshaw's declaratives,McLendon's imperatives,and Client's interrogatives are remarkably underlined on basis of statistics.The data of minor clauses,like vocatives,exclamations,and incomplete clauses cast light upon the interpretations of characters'personalities and interpersonal relations.All linguistic features talked above contribute to the reflections of the conflicts between the whites and blacks,and of the blacks'low social status and absence of discourse.The second study focus resides in mood components and predicators of residue,which includes the studies of finite and non-finite clauses,shift and coherence of subject,transitivity of predicators.Given all these linguistic features,such as,confusing clause complexes,past tense of finite,“modal responsibilities”of the subjects,the distinctions of“transitivity”of predicators,the incompatible relations between males and females can be reflected as well as the females'passivity and hopelessness.The distinct modal operators and modal adjuncts take the third place to be probed.Frequent emergence of low-valued“will”and“can”in conversations reveals the low social status of those white characters;The frequent appearances of“would”in narration part present Minnie Cooper's passiveness and disability;The repetitions of Modal adjuncts,like“never”and“really,”sarcastically reveal the existence of“racial discrimination.”In addition,the deflection of“still”and incongruity of“already”and“even”give a further glimpse of the oppression and bondage against females under the southern woman's ethics.Finally,the metaphors of mood and modality are academically emphasized in dialogues.McLendon and Butch's frequent usages of interrogatives aim at showing criticisms(statements)and exclamations instead of seeking answers,which is proved by the occurrence of negative interrogatives.Metaphors of mood are conducive to unmask the furious and contradictory interpersonal relations as well as moulding McLendon's testiness,impulsion,and savagery;In regard to Hawkshaw,two“subjective explicit”modes of metaphors of modality,“I don't believe”(“probably not”)and“I know”(“certainly”)embody his courage and justice,while by contrast,he finally flees from this rescue action.Therefore,metaphors of modality effectively disclose southern whites'ineradicable racial consciousness.In conclusion,based on the data statistics,both deflection and incongruity of styles are regarded as“motivated prominence''that Halliday has clarified.The stylistic researches of mood,modality,and interpersonal metaphors expose the contradictory interpersonal relations between the whites and blacks,males and females,and the upper class and the lower class,which are exactly the presentations of Faulkner's writing themes.