我们试观察Raymond Chandler 在其所著的小说The Lady in the Lake中安排的句法风格标记：

An elegant handwriting, like the elegant hand that wrote it. I pushed it to one side and had another drink, I began to feel a little less savage. I pushed things around the desk. My hands felt thick and hot and awkward. I ran a finger across the corner of the desk and looked at the streak made by the wiping off of the dust. I looked at the dust on my finger and wiped that off. I looked at my watch. I looked at the wall. I looked at nothing. 

I put the liquor bottle away and went over the wash-bowl to rinse the glass out. When I had done that I washed my hands and bathed my face in cold water and looked at it.

从以上片断中可以看出，作者反复使用了两个句式：（a）“I”加 上verb phrase;(b)“I”加上verb phrase 加上“and”及verb phrase。作者重复使用以上两种句式，客观效果产生了单调感，正是这种单调感对渲染文中角色两种“无目的的情绪”起了重要作用。这似乎正是Chandler这段文字的风格意义。

英语中有特色的句法形式很多，反复使用于某一上下文中即形成风格的句法标记，如并列（coordination）、复合(subordination)、平行 (parallel)、对仗(antithesis)、省略(omission)、重复(repetition)等等。上述取自Chandler的引文用的是并列和重复。福克纳（W. Faulkner）经常用的句法风格手段则是“复合”和环扣式盘结扩展。从广义上说，在行文中以反复使用某种句法结构求得某种语言特征的风格手段，都表现为风格的句法标记，如破折句、疑问句、祈使句、绝对式结构以及不合语法句、俚俗句及歧义句的超常使用。

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