| In the 1930 s,facing the decline of Western rhetoric,Richards took on the task of revitalizing the “discredited” subject of rhetoric,which had a profound impact on the emergence and development of “new rhetoric”.At present,scholars at home mainly focus on his contributions to literary criticism,linguistics,aesthetics and basic English teaching.Related researches on his rhetorical thoughts are mainly scattered in fragmentary comments,but have not formed a relatively complete and in-depth system.Some achievements have been made in the study of his rhetorical thoughts abroad.Therefore,there is still much research potential for Richards’ rhetorical thoughts.By studying Richards’ rhetorical works carefully,this thesis combs the connotation of his rhetorical thoughts and discusses its practical significance.On the basis of the review of the research status of Richards’ rhetorical theory at home and abroad and the discussion of the significance and value of the research on Richards’ rhetorical thoughts,this thesis analyzes the possible factors that influence Richards’ rhetorical thoughts.Then,it combs Richards’ rhetorical thoughts and practical meanings mainly from three aspects: philosophy of rhetoric,rhetoric of poetics and rhetoric of communication.It is found out that there are mainly three factors influencing Richards’ rhetorical thoughts.Firstly,Richards was influenced by positivism at his early academic stage and romanticism at his middle and late stage.He had been devoting himself to seeking the balance between the two opposite trends throughout his academic life.Secondly,the new rhetoric Richards launched was,to some extent,the criticism on and innovation of the Western classical rhetoric represented by Aristotle.In addition,Coleridge’s views on romanticism made Richards begin to pay attention to the rhetorical value of emotional language represented by poetry.Thirdly,Richards’ rhetorical thoughts was influenced by Chinese Confucianism,especially the philosophy of balance and harmony in the doctrine of the mean and the ideology of Mencius.Richards’ philosophy of rhetoric lays the foundation of his rhetoric of poetics and rhetoric of communication.His philosophy of rhetoric takes the study of“meaning” as its core,which criticizes the “proper meaning superstition” and “the doctrine of usage” in the traditional rhetorical sense,and affirms the multiplicity of meaning.Besides,he puts forward the idea that “thought is metaphoric”,and creates the interaction theory of metaphor based on the basic concepts of “tenor”,“vehicle”and “ground”,extending the study of rhetoric to the field of psychological cognition.Richards’ rhetoric of poetics mainly discusses his search for poetic language to make up for the gap between science and art under the background of rationalism and the prevalence of science.At the same time,he extends the study of poetic rhetoric to human imagination and emotional activities and affirms the rhetorical value of the poetic language in balancing the opposing impulses of human beings.Richards’ rhetoric of communication also takes literary inquiry as a media but with a communicative orientation and purpose.The common or similar experiences between communicators serve as the basis and premise of communication.And the valuable and successful communication requires communicators to use the empathy function of imagination to achieve harmony and balance between different experiences.This study discusses Richards’ rhetorical thoughts from different perspectives,which not only shows to some extent that rhetoric can integrate and reflect different subjects,especially literature,psychological cognition and so on,but also helps people eliminate misunderstandings and promote understanding and communication between people.In addition,digging out the connection between Richards’ rhetorical thoughts and Chinese Confucianism helps people understand the complementarity and commonality of the Eastern and the Western cultures. |
