The Art of Language in Broadcasting

Author: Lin Xingren
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1998-05-01
Features: Amphibious originally refers to a term in zoology. The class of amphibians refers to a class within the subphylum of vertebrates. They are characterized by the ability to live both in water and on land: larvae breathe through gills and are adapted to aquatic life; adults generally breathe through lungs and are mostly found on land, such as toads and frogs. The term "amphibious" is widely used, such as in amphibious plants, amphibious vehicles (amphibious tanks), amphibious ships (landing craft), and so on. I often joke that I also have amphibious characteristics. In 1959, I was admitted to the Department of Chinese Language and Linguistics at Peking University and studied under renowned scholars such as Wang Li, Gao Mingkai, Zhu Dexi, and Lin Tao. After graduation, I entered Fudan University as a graduate student under Chen Wangdao, the then president, a famous rhetoric scholar and linguist. This is one aspect of my amphibious life. After graduating from Fudan, I was assigned to Jiangsu People's Broadcasting Station. In 1989, I was transferred to the Jiangsu Broadcasting and Television News Research Institute, where I worked in the broadcasting and television system for 25 years. This is another aspect of my amphibious life. In my amphibious life, broadcasting is my main occupation, and it is the primary one. Linguistics and rhetoric are my secondary occupations, of course, but still relatively secondary. However, I have not cut off my extensive connections with the academic community, and I remain well-informed. I have served as a council member of the Chinese Rhetoric Society, a council member of the East China Rhetoric Society, the secretary-general of the Jiangsu Rhetoric Research Association, and a council member of the Jiangsu "Dream of the Red Chamber" Society. The amphibious nature of my life has given me a strong desire to combine two disciplines in the form of "A + B → C" in practice. Due to the influence of the Cultural Revolution, I was not assigned to a linguistic research or teaching unit and could not directly engage in grammar and rhetoric research. After working at the broadcasting station, I strove to embody the qualities of willows—growing wherever planted. Through years of work practice, I have grown to love broadcasting and have devoted my heart to it. Broadcasting practice has also urgently called for support from related disciplines and guidance from various theoretical frameworks. I thought: During my university and graduate studies, I majored in linguistics, specifically grammar and rhetoric. Broadcasting language, with its oral characteristics and processed nature, falls under the scope of applied linguistics, stylistics, and rhetoric, making it a subject of study in these fields. I could combine my professional work with research within my capabilities. Sometimes, I even excitedly thought that if broadcasting studies were combined with linguistics and rhetoric, a new discipline would undoubtedly emerge. There are many intersections and overlaps between the two disciplines, opening up broad spaces for combined research. The interface between them is multi-point, multi-dimensional, and multi-layered, not limited to a small aspect or range. I believe that a competent and highly skilled broadcast journalist and editor must have a solid foundation in news writing and must master knowledge in many related disciplines such as literature, grammar, and rhetoric. Therefore, for the past 20-plus years, I have continuously used my professional knowledge to serve broadcasting news work, actively fulfilling my duties while also conducting research on broadcasting language, news writing, and rhetoric techniques in practice, achieving certain results in areas with significant intersections and overlaps. During my amphibious life, I published four monographs: "The Rhetorical Art of Dream of the Red Chamber" (Fujian Education Press, December 1984), "The Pearl of the Language Art Crown" (Inner Mongolia Education Press, December 1986), and "Practical Broadcasting Stylistics" (China Radio and Television Press, September 1989). At the same time, I have published over 100 papers in national broadcasting and television periodicals and in journals of linguistics and rhetoric. These are my early works in broadcasting and rhetoric. Here, I have selected and compiled a portion of my papers, excluding the monographs, hoping to provide some convenience for friends in broadcasting and rhetoric. Some articles included in this book have attracted widespread attention in society. For example, "Broadcasting's Simulated Context and Broadcasting's Style" and "The Fixation, Variation, Exclusion, Penetration, and Innovation of Broadcasting Style" were successively awarded the first prize in the Jiangsu Provincial First and Second Broadcasting and Television Excellent Paper Awards. "A Brief Discussion on Ye Shengtao's Broadcasting Language Thought" was reprinted in the January 1985 issue of the Central People's Broadcasting Station's "Broadcasting and Production Business," with the editor's note stating that I had "put in hard work" to complete "this highly valuable paper." "Striving for the Purity and Standardization of Broadcasting and Television Language" was reprinted in seven or eight publications, including "China Broadcasting and Television." As for "The Adaptation and Limitations of Chinese Rhetorical Figures in Broadcasting Style," it represents a new achievement in the combination of rhetoric and stylistics. Based on the current state of broadcasting language and the stylistic issues encountered in practice, I boldly proposed the combination of broadcasting studies and stylistics. Regarding this idea, the renowned linguist Hu Yushu, a professor at the Department of Chinese Language at Fudan University, said, "I believe this is a challenging pioneering work. Lin Jun possesses both high linguistic attainments and rich experience in news broadcasting, making him the right person for this task" (Preface to "Practical Broadcasting Stylistics"). His guidance and comments greatly encouraged and motivated me. After years of hard study, "Practical Broadcasting Stylistics" was finally completed. It was praised by critics as "filling a gap in the research of broadcasting studies and stylistics" and as "China's first monograph on the study of Chinese broadcasting style." It is the crystallization of my efforts in combining broadcasting studies and stylistics, serving as an example of how the combination of discipline A and discipline B can give rise to discipline C.