论文总字数：22724字

摘 要

书籍短评是一种兼具了信息和促销功能的混合体裁，被图书行业广泛运用于宣传其产品，以及说服潜在读者购买书籍。书籍短评在推销方面的作用越来越大，一篇成功的书籍短评一定程度上会提高图书的销售量。

本文研究了英语小说书籍短评的体裁结构，探讨了语步结构及其数量。本文采用Valor(2005)提出的模型，对亚马逊网站中随机选取的20篇英语小说书籍短评进行研究。

关键词：书籍短评；体裁结构；语步结构

Contents

1.Introduction 1

2.Literature Review 2

2.1 The Concept of Genre 2

2.2 Book Blurbs 4

2.3 Previous Studies on English Book Blurbs 4

3.Theoretical Framework 6

3.1 Move and Step 6

3.2 Valor’s Generic Structure Model 6

4.Generic Structure of Book Blurbs in English Novels 7

4.1 A Revised Generic Structure 7

4.2 Data Presentation 7

5.Conclusion 10

Works Cited 11

1.Introduction

1.1 Purpose of the study

Based on the Valor’s model(2005), this paper studies generic structure of book blurbs in English novels, as well as their order and number. This research is dedicated to helping potential readers better understand the structure of book blurbs.

The research questions in this paper are as follows:

(1) What is the generic structure of the book blurbs in English novels?

(2) What are the obligatory and optional moves?

1.2 Data and Methodology

This study explores the generic structure of 20 book blurbs , all of which are from the Amazon website. This paper uses the method of qualitative analysis to study the 20 blurbs. This study uses a descriptive and explanatory approach to model the move structure of the book blurb.

1.3 Organization of the Study

This article is divided into five parts. The first part introduces the purpose of the study, the data and methodology, and the organization of the study. The second part reviews the concept of genre,definition of book blurb and the research status at home and abroad. The third part is the theoretical framework of this research. The fourth part studies the generic structure of book blurbs in English novels. The fifth part gives a summary of the research results and highlights the limitations of it.

2.Literature Review

2.1 The Concept of Genre

The term “genre” which is derived from Latin and means type, kind or class, is used to express literary and essays of different styles. The Webster English Dictionary(1999: 23) defines genre as “an artistic, musical, or literary work characterized by a particular style, form, or content.” The concept of genre has long been popular in literature, sociology, and rhetoric.

Though it has been widely discussed by different linguistics, it is still a fuzzy and controversial concept. In general, there are two major schools: the Swalesian school and the Australian school.

The Swalesian school’s concept claims that genre is an identifiable communicative activity characterized by a series of communicative purposes that often occur between professional members of academia and that they identify and understand each other (1985, 1990). Swales indicates that a genre includes a type of communicative activity, and members of these activities have some common communicative purpose. These purposes are endorsed by the expert members of the parent discourse community, which constitutes discourse, affects and restricts the choice of content and style. The purpose of communication is both a privilege standard and a criterion for maintaining the scope of genre. As envisioned here, it is limited to similar rhetorical acts. In addition to the purpose, the genre paradigm shows a variety of similarities in structure, style, content, and target audience. If all high-probability expectations are met, then the paradigm will be considered typical by the parent discourse community. The genre named, inherited, and imported by discourse communities constitutes a valuable ethnographic communication, but usually requires further verification. (1990: 58)

After Swales, Bhatia further defined the genre from the following aspects:

First, genre is an identifiable communicative activity characterized by a series of communicative purposes that often occur between professional members of academia and that they identify and understand each other. Second, as a communicative activity, it usually has the feature of high structure and well convention. Third, various genres limit their allowable contributions in terms of their intentions, positioning, form, and functional value. Fourth, these restrictions are often used by expert members of the discourse community to achieve private intent within the framework of socially recognized goals.

In brief, Bhatia (1993: 16) argues that “every genre is an example of the successful use of traditional knowledge of language and discourse resources to achieve a particular communicative purpose.”

This definition of genre is often cited and accepted by ESP researchers who have been interested in genre as a tool for analyzing and teaching non-native speakers in academic and professional fields where, the scholars define it as verbal and written text types based on their formal attributes and the communicative purposes in social contexts.

The Australian school, represented by Halliday, Hasan, Martin, Eggins and Eija Ventola, has also shown great interest in genre theory and genre analysis, and has conducted extensive empirical research within the theoretical framework of systemic functional linguistics. Broadly speaking, systemic functional linguistics stresses the close relationship between language and its function in social environment. To some extent, the concept of function is similar to Swales" concept of communicative purposes in genre definitions.

Halliday and Hasan define the genre as follows:

The genre is known by its relevance. In fact, the term “genre” is an abbreviation for the more elaborate phrase “genre-specific semantic potential”... the genre can be changed in the same way as the context. However, for certain genre texts, the structure of genre should be some possible implementation of a specific GSP (Generic Structure Potential). Therefore, texts which are in same genre can be structurally different; they can"t change the necessary elements and permutations of GSP without affecting their genre distribution.

In the study of systemic functional linguistics, Martin and his colleagues developed genre theory within the framework of systemic functions. Martin defines genre as “a staged, purpose-oriented, purposeful activity in which the speaker participates as a member of our culture” (Martin, 1984: 25). Eggins and Slade (1997: 56) further elaborate on this definition:

(1) Staged: The genre is staged; participants usually need more than one step to achieve the target.

(2) Goal-oriented: The genre is purpose-oriented, because the text usually goes through a non-stop phase, until the end. if it does not reach the climax, it will be considered incomplete.

(3) Social process: The genre is interactive and negotiated, and it is the realization of a social purpose.

Eggins (1994: 27) also believes that “there are as many different types of social activities in culture as there are many different genres.”

In addition, Ventola (1995) pointed out that genre refers to the interactive process that is carried out at an identifiable stage, which is repetitive, habitual and routine.

In summary, from the different knowledge traditions and scholars" definitions, there is no more comprehensive, but it is more suitable for some studies. As far as current research is concerned, Bhatia"s elaboration of genre is the first choice.

2.2 Book Blurbs

Book blurbs are short but fascinating to introduce the book content and authors to provide guidance for readers and buyers. OALD (1990) defines it as a short description of the contents of a book by publisher, usually printed on the cover. Gesusto (2007) defines it as “an example of information-promoting literature”. It “clarifies the content of a given book to benefit the reader and highlights some positive traits that are beneficial to authors and publishers” (p. 80). Book blurbs present selected materials in a pleasant way to attract the attention of potential readers and buyers. Their main purpose is to promote a book and to convince potential readers to buy the book by providing description and positive evaluation (Gea-Valor amp; Ros, 2009, p. 201).

In this study, we follow the Byerl’s definition, which defines book blurb as the description of the content of a book, usually on the back of a book or online.

2.3 Previous Studies on English Book Blurbs

Bhatia(2004) proposed six-move structure of book blurbs which he studied. These books belonged to novels and academic genre. He found that these book blurbs had headlines, justification of book, evaluation of book, establishment of certification, endorsement and targeting market.

Basturkmen(2009), following Swales(1990) and Bhatia(2004), analyzed book blurbs of seven English ELF books. She proposed four move patterns: identifying marking niche, identifying language teaching theories, presenting endorsement and introducing other contents in the book to resders.

Gesuato(2007) also evaluated the blurbs of academic books. He found that “evaluation” is the most common move.

Cacchiani(2007) studied the vocabulary and textual features of 200 book blurbs and discovered that the use of positive linguistic evaluation is the most frequent.

Kathpalia(1997) compared Singapore’s local publishers with international publishers in this settings. She discovered six-move model which was similar to Bhatia’s(2004) and found that the book blurbs of two publishers are similar in generic structure. However, she found differences in grammatical features of language and vocabulary.

Onder(2013) also made a cross-culture study of book blurbs. He contrasted the generic structure and promotional elements of blurbs from Amazon and Okuoku. He found that the book blurbs of Amazon had six-move, which those of Okuoku had five-move. His conclusion is that book blurbs are mixed genre that contains promotional and informational elements.

Valor(2005) contrasted traditional book blurbs of printed books and digital book blurbs of online books. She proposed move schema: description, evaluation and about the author. It has been found that book blurbs has informative and persuasive functions.

Liao Fumei(2010) attempted to analyze the generic structure of English academic books through qualitative and quantitative research. The generic structure was displayed in four-moves: Move 1-Headline, Move 2-Describing the book, Move 3-Evaluating the book, Move 4-Introducing the author and editor briefly. Move 1 and Move 2 are conventional. Other moves are optional.

Zhu Meijun(2010) found that book blurbs use “You”, adjectives and simple verbs to attract potential readers.

Qu Wenming(2007) explored the promotional functions of academic discourse in English academic book blurbs based on the attitude subsystem in evaluation theory.

3.Theoretical Framework

3.1 Move and Step

This paper tries to build the generic structure of book blurbs bases on the Valor’s model and analyze the “Move” and “Step” . “Move” is a semantic unit associated with the author"s intent. Later, Nwogu defined “Move” as “a piece of text consisting of a linguistic feature that gave the fragment a uniform direction and marked the content of the text” (1997: 114). Crossley (2007: 5) further Define “Move” as “a piece of text that can be identified by its specific language cues, and the move allows for certain functions in the text to be met, and always represents a particular piece of text in a genre”. These three definitions show that move, as a unit of genre analysis, has the ability to grasp a specific part of the text in the examination. In other words, it allows learners to classify text blocks based on their specific communicative intent. The specific organizational patterns created by the orderly relationship can be isolated and the its structure can be observed (Yang amp; Desmond, 2003).

A Move can be implemented with one Step or a combination of two or more Steps. The concept of Move grasps the function and purpose of a piece of text on a more general level, while Step elaborates on the rhetorical means of implementing Move functionality .

3.2 Valor’s Generic Structure Model

Gea Valor studied more than 100 book blurbs, which were on the website of the publishing and sales company, and proposed generic structure of book blurbs:

Table 1 Generic structure of the blurb(Gea Valor, 2005)

4.Generic Structure of Book Blurbs in English Novels

4.1 A Revised Generic Structure

Based on Valor’s three-move structure, after a careful research on the 20 book blurbs in English novels, the generic structure can be revised as follow:

Table 2 Generic structure of book blurbs in English novels

4.2 Data Presentation

The 20 book blurbs shows the differences in moves of steps. The table shows the number of book blurbs which followed the certain moves and steps in that move.

Table 3 Number of moves and steps in book blurbs

Move 1. Catchphrase constitutes the beginning of the blurb. Because of the relatively short length and visual effect, it can be used as a means of attracting reader’s attention, often appearing behind the tile. All 20 book blurbs have this move.

For example:

Example 1

A Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon Charts bestseller.

From the bestselling author of The Tuscan Child comes a beautiful and heart-rending novel of a woman’s love and sacrifice during the First World War.(The Victory Garden: A Novel)

Example 2

More commonly known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo"s Romantic novel of dark passions and unrequited love.(Notre-Dame of Paris)

Move 2. The table shows that all the blurbs have the “description” move and the first step in this move does the same.

For example:

Example 3

The Silmarillion is Tolkien’s first book and his last. Long preceding in its origins The Lord of the Rings,it is the story of the First Age of Tolkien’s world, the ancient drama to which characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in which some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part. The Silmarillion was begun in 1917, and Tolkien worked on it, changed it, and enlarged it throughout his life. Edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien, the book finally appeared four years after the author’s death.(The Silmarillion)

Example 4

This is Kazuo Ishiguro"s profoundly compelling portrait of Stevens, the perfect butler, and of his fading, insular world in post-World War II England. Stevens, at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spending a day on a country drive, embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the "great gentleman," Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington"s "greatness," and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.(The Remains of the Day)

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