Abstracts of Major Papers in This Issue

Mapping the World: An Interview with Fredric Jameson, by Fredric Jameson, HE Weihua & ZHU Guohua, p. 1

In this interview, Fredric Jameson states that the relationship between history and form has been his long-cherished preoccupation in his academic endeavor. While numerous people feel frustrated because of the marginalized status of humanities, Jameson celebrates it for he thinks the decoupling of humanities from capitalism allows intellectuals in this field certain freedom to speak to the public. Then in his attempts to define “l(fā)ate capitalism”, Jameson not only analyzes the developmental modes and logic of capitalism, but also anticipates future political forms. Being a key concept in his framework, totality, as Jameson maintains here, is an aspiration beyond any individual’s imagination. He also reasserts the formulation of “base determines the superstructure”, pointing out that the base refers to the whole structure, not merely the economy. Jameson thinks that literature in this postmodern context is not as important as it used to be, but he insists that art forms like TV programs and films deserve more attention. Regarding to his own works, Jameson says that since everybody realizes the ubiquity of ideology now, utopia has become his new concern and he will probably turn to allegory and myth in future. At the end of this interview, Jameson makes some brief comments on the present cultural scene in China.

“We Are All Exiles”: On Exile and National Identity in David Malouf’sJohnno, by LIU Ning, p. 12

Johnnois David Malouf’s first novel on the theme of exile. The title character Johnno represents Australian immigrants who came to the new land and exiled from the imperial center Britain. The loss of certainty filled Johnno with a strong sense of exile and a longing for a reconstruction of his national identity. The article analyzes exile and national identity from three levels: the strong sense of exile and the anxiety brought by uncertainty of identity, aggravation and the search for his roots, destruction and rebirth. And in doing so, the article also tries to reveal the significance of the novel in contemporary context.

Time-travelling Dialogues: On the Authorial Voice ofTheVolcanoLover, by KE Ying, p. 17

InTheVolcanoLover, one of her recent novels, Susan Sontag avails of multiple narrative voices, especially the authorial voice which is deliberately avoided in her early fiction. The ostensibly ordinary first person “I/we” and second person “you” are endowed with rich connotations, indicating a search for the appropriate narrative distance between the author and the reader as well as a reflection on the character-author relations. By doing so, the authorial voice transcends history and the present and in the time-travelling dialogues quests for the revelations from historical events. Meanwhile, a ubiquitous voice without any personal pronouns serves as a complimentary authorial voice and with its authority in and out of the fictional world guides the reader to reach judgments.

Construction Grammar and Second Language Acquisition: The State of Affairs, Problems and Implications, by XU Weihua & ZHANG Hui, p. 23

The application of construction grammar in language acquisition is increasing with the development of construction theory. This paper introduces the application studies of Goldberg’s Cognitive Construction Grammar in second language teaching and learning, points out the major problems and discusses the pedagogical implication of the studies.

Lexical Semantic Change and Understanding: A Metonymic Account, by LU Weizhong, p. 28

It is held that metonymy is one of the motivations for word-formation. The role of conceptual metonymy in lexical-level semantic change is reflected chiefly in the following aspects: the broadening and narrowing of lexical meaning, lexical change in logical contradiction, co-role of metaphor and metonymy in lexical change, and the dependency of metonymic meaning on context. The study shows that conceptual metonymy acts as an important motivation for lexical semantic change as well as a cognitive basis for understanding lexical meaning.

The Subjectivity of ReflexiveX-SelfConstructions in Light of Construal Manipulation, by ZHAO Xiufeng & ZHAN Weiwei, p. 32

Based on its semantic property, this paper, from the perspective of construal manipulation, points out that the choice of alternative reflexive constructions can be ascribed to expressiveness or empathic perspective, a significant way of conveying subjectivity. The speaker may, from a default stance, take an external viewpoint to construe the semantic value: serving as highly proximal reference point, the antecedent is construed with maximal objectivity defining reflexivity within the minimum domain, leading to highly grammaticalized reflexive construction. When figural perception, speech and thought are involved, i.e., an alternative conceptualizer potentially engaged in, the speaker may choose to abandon, to more or less degree, its external vantage position and adopt internal viewpoint, in alignment with the experiencer. The internal viewpoint construal profiles the experiencer’s subjectivity, represented by picture noun phrases, logophoric structure and free indirect discourse, which, in third person narrative context, may imply double viewpoints, blending or digressing, carrying empathic or ironical overtones.

An Overview on the Types of the Approaches to Understanding English Idioms, by XU Jingliang, p. 37

Currently, the researches into the approaches to understanding English idioms are mostly conducted from one angle, such as comparing the differences between English and Chinese cultures to access idiom meanings. However, classifying the meanings of idioms, by referring to Leech’s seven ways of classifying meanings, discloses two features of the mechanism of their meaning construction: one is the complexity of motivations; and the other is the heterogeneity of means of expressing meanings. The former suggests that the motivations are multi-originated, including folklore, culture, conceptual knowledge, etc. The latter reflects their cognitive bases, relating the cognitive models of metaphor, metonymy, emblem and conceptual blending. Thus, it is proved that the approaches to understanding English idioms should be hybrid, composed of three types, such as the approaches of folklore, culture and cognitive models.

Who Is in Charge of the Body and Mind of Jake’s Avatar?: A Cultural and Cognitive Approach to Identity Construction, by YANG Bo, p. 41

Combining the perspectives of cultural study and cognitive linguistics, this paper studies the identity construction (splitting and integration) of Jake, the protagonist of Avatar. Firstly, the interrelationship between embodied mind, identity construction and cultural model were reviewed with supporting examples from some details of the movie, and it was found that culture shapes and changes the way of our thinking and the way we look at ourselves and others. Then the interaction between Jake’s Subject and Self in terms of control, conflicts and essence was analyzed mainly with Lakoff’s metaphorical systems of self concept. In the paper, Fauconnier & Turner’s multiple blending network was adopted to explore the process of Jake’s identity construction and the seeking of his true Self. Finally, this study suggests that the cognitive linguistic approach to the exploration of character and identity has its own special features and advantages, which is surely a useful complement and reference to cultural, literary and stylistic approaches that deal with the same topic.

Reclusive Tu Fu: Textual Values of Rexroth’s Translation of Tu’s Poems, by GE Zhongjun & TANG Jiaping, p. 47

By analyzing Tu Fu’s shifting image as a Taoist recluse in the West and reflecting on the influence of Taoism on Rexroth’s translation of Tu Fu’s poems, this paper aims at a new explanation of creative Chinese poetry translation and a new interpretation of translated texts as independent works of art.

The Effects of Synchronous Online Peer Review on English Majors’ Writing Motivation and Writing Performance, by WANG Li, p. 52

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of synchronous online peer review on English majors’ writing motivation and writing performance. Using an experimental research method, this study conducted an experimental English writing course using synchronous online peer review. The subjects were measured by Writing Motivation Rubrics and English Composition Rubrics before and after the test and filled out a form of course feedback questionnaire after the test. Statistical results showed that the subjects did not display significant differences in writing motivation but displayed significant differences in writing performance. Based on the findings of this study, the implications and suggestions for future research were discussed.