Word order refers to the order in which words are combined in a statement. In general, the presentation of a language needs to conform to a grammatical specification and follow certain rules of order. However, sometimes due to the need for expression, deliberately changing the established word order will often produce unexpected novel effects, which can be described as a clever change in word order and interesting. In general, there are several main ways to use word order in a clever way:
(1) The word order is clever and easy, and the tone is very different
The change in the word order in the sentence can make the tone of the sentence expression very different. For example:
(1) It took me a quarter of an hour to convince him.
(2) It took me a quarter of an hour for me to convince him.
The order of the word "talent" in the above two sentences has changed, and the tone expressed is very different: (1) the tone of the sentence is to express that it is not easy to do this thing, and it takes a long time; (2) the tone of the sentence is to express that it is easy to do this thing, and it takes a short time.
(2) The word order is ingenious and easy, changing the semantic meaning
A change in the word order in a sentence can change the semantic emphasis of the sentence expression.
For example, in the past, a new county order, seeing that his predecessor approved the words "there is no solid evidence, there is a reason for the incident" on a backlog of cases, this county order learned that this murder case involved a major stake, involving famous and prestigious families, and it would be more difficult to thoroughly investigate the case, so in order to evade responsibility, he reversed the criticism of the case into "there is a reason for the incident, and there is no solid evidence" to report, resulting in a case that was originally suspicious and unsubstantiated, thus prevaricating and failing to pass the test.
Another example: In the late Qing Dynasty, there was a villain in Shou County, Anhui Province, who did nothing evil. One day, he broke into a neighbor's house, forcibly raped a sick woman who was bedridden alone, and abducted the jade bracelet she wore on her wrist. When the sick woman's husband learned of it, he asked someone to write a complaint and sued the scoundrel. Although the main family wanted to cure the rogues to death, they were afraid that the complaint would be written too bluntly and leak the truth and damage the family's reputation, so they used the obscure phrase "revealing the bracelet" at the key point of the complaint. After the paper was written, the lord's heart was not steady, lest the scoundrel not be severely punished. Therefore, he found the famous Liu Litigation Master in the township to help. Liu Lishi read the complaint again, carefully deliberated, and changed the phrase "unveiled and debunked" to "unveiled by the bracelet", which not only retained the implicit characteristics of the complaint, but also somewhat understood the crime of the rogue leprosy and rape.
Another example: Zeng Guofan, a major minister of the Qing Dynasty, led troops to fight against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and in the early days, he was repeatedly defeated in battles, and the emperor was very dissatisfied. One day, Shi Ye wrote a recital of "repeated defeats, rapid reinforcements", he read a large stroke of the pen, changed to "repeated defeats, rapid reinforcements". The emperor not only sent reinforcements after seeing it, but also greatly appreciated his tenacious fighting spirit. The word order is ingenious and easy, and the semantic meaning is very different -- "repeated battles and repeated defeats" are highlighted by a "defeat" word, indicating that the warriors are incompetent and repeatedly defeated, which makes people feel extremely distrustful of their abilities; "repeated defeats and repeated battles" highlights a "war" word, indicating that the warriors are brave and tenacious, and although they have been defeated again and again, they refuse to admit defeat, which makes people feel awe.
In September 1949, on the eve of the liberation of Yunnan, a large number of military agents sneaked into Kunming, shot and killed progressive students and arrested more than 90 patriotic democrats. Lu Han, chairman of the Kuomintang Yunnan Provincial Government who was preparing for the uprising, sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek to intercede for the arrested democrats. Chiang Kai-shek called back: "Excusable circumstances, there is no blame for sin (huàn, meaning "flee, avoid"). It can be seen that he is determined to get rid of these democrats. Luhan immediately took the telegram to Mr. Li Gengen, who had assisted him in planning the uprising, for countermeasures. After Li Gen saw it, he reversed the word order of the telegram and changed it to "the crime is inexcusable, and the circumstances are excusable." After reading the telegram, the head of the military command secret service in Kunming thought that Chiang Kai-shek's "en-wei parallel" should not only scare the democrats, but also win over the hearts and minds of the people. Therefore, we showed mercy to the subordinates of these patriotic democrats and dealt with them leniently. The word order is ingenious and the meaning is changed, thus cleverly preserving the lives of these patriotic democrats.
(3) The word order is ingenious and easy, and the contrast is sharp
The change of word order in the sentence can form a sharp contrast, enhance the expression effect, and make a deep impression.
For example, the mantra of Cao Cao, a tyrant in the Three Kingdoms period, "I would rather bear others than others bear me", is well known to people. In this mantra, the word order of "I negative person" and "person negative me" is reversed, forming a strong contrast, which clearly shows Cao Cao's cold and selfish character and extreme egoistic philosophy of life, which is impressive.
Another example: In the old days, there was a restaurant xiao er, saw a big guy come in, greeted him with a smile on his face, and the big guy asked, "What is there to eat?" Xiao Er nodded and said, "You are old, what to eat and what to eat." After a while, a poor sour customer came in and asked Xiao Er, "What is there to eat?" Xiao Er said coldly, "What to eat." The same six words, because the two words "eat" and "have" have different positions, have completely different meanings, and have very different hospitality attitudes. In the sharp contrast, the ugly face of the little two snobs in the old social restaurant is vividly portrayed.
On December 19, 2018, the People's Daily published a signed article entitled "From "What to Eat" to "What to Eat"", which cleverly reflected the great changes in Yuanmen Village in the past 40 years of reform and opening up from the perspective of "eating". The title of the article cleverly uses the word order inversion method, which is clearly contrasted, the semantics are prominent, and the effect is excellent.
Another example: During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Nationalist government, as the rear of Chongqing, once circulated these four sayings - "The front is tight, the wounded lose ground; the rear is tight, drunk and dreaming of death." Zhang Youluan, a newspaperman, published a news article titled "The Front Is Tight, the Rear Is Tight," reporting on the social reality of the Kuomintang government in Chongqing. This headline used the method of clever word order, "eat tight" to write about the tense atmosphere of the war ahead; "tight eating" wrote about the face of the Kuomintang officials who were still drunk and drunk, drunk and dreaming, and did not care about state affairs. The report was wonderfully conceived and contrasted, allowing people to see clearly the reality of the Kuomintang and the corrupt and ugly faces of the Kuomintang rulers, and received excellent results and caused a sensation.
In fact, in real life, there are many examples of language applications that enhance the effect of language expression by cleverly changing the word order to form a contrast, such as: "Security issues should always be paid attention to, not afraid of 'ten thousand', afraid of 'just in case'." "Counterfeit and shoddy products should be strictly controlled, and truly achieve 'counterfeiting', not 'fake fighting'." Equals are habituation use cases.
(4) The word order is ingenious and easy, and the message is praise and depreciation
The change in the word order in the sentence can convey the author's praise and disparagement.
For example, according to legend, Ji Xiaolan of the Qing Dynasty was very resentful of the quack doctors who squeezed money, so he borrowed Meng Haoran's poem "Not only the lord abandons, many sick people are sparse", and through transposition, he cleverly changed the word order and became a new one: "The unknown is abandoned by the lord, and many patients are sparse." "It means that quack doctors have no real skills, and often have accidents, which leads to being alienated by people, and no one is willing to see him anymore." It is so-called: the stroke of God is a wonderful pair, and the word order is easy to mock the quacks.
Another example: in the Guangxu Jiachen year of the Qing Dynasty (1904), the 70th birthday of Empress Dowager Cixi, the important ministers of the Qing court, in order to curry favor with Cixi, requested that the big birthday celebration activities be carried out, requiring the whole country to post a couplet with the same content: "One person has a celebration, and there is no boundary for longevity." "But Cixi was corrupt and incompetent in power, and on Cixi's fiftieth birthday, China suffered defeat in the Sino-French War and opened up Yunnan and other places; on the sixtieth birthday, the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle was defeated again, and Taiwan and other places were ceded; this seventieth birthday coincided with the loss of a large area of land in the three eastern provinces after the Russo-Japanese War. The famous scholar Zhang Taiyan thought of this, filled with righteous indignation, and wrote a couplet with a stroke of his pen:
Today's lucky Yihe, tomorrow's lucky Haizi, a few forgetful of the ancient Chang'an, billions of people anointed with blood, only one person qingyou
Fifty years cut Yunnan, sixty cut Taiwan, seventy years cut the three eastern provinces, thousands of miles of territory abandoned, every time there is no longevity of Xinjiang
The author has changed the word order of "one person has celebration, long life without frontiers" into "one person celebrates, ten thousand life without xinjiang" into the link, although it is only two words, but the meaning is very different, sending a mockery of Cixi. As soon as this link came out, people praised it and was rumored to be a good story.
Another example: also visiting the monastery, a Tang poem expressing pleasure was reversed by the Song dynasty Mo Zishan to express dissatisfaction. According to records, Li Shi of the Tang Dynasty visited Helin Temple, met the senior monks in the temple, and talked happily. So on the wall of the temple, he wrote "Titled Crane Forest Temple Monk's House" to express his cheerful feelings:
All day long in the drowsy dream, overheard the spring to climb the mountain. Because of the words of the monks in the bamboo courtyard, he had to float for half a day.
According to Bai Jue's (born in the Song and Yuan Dynasties) "Zhanyuan Jingyu", one day the Song Dynasty scribe Mozishan went to climb the mountain, met a snobbish lay monk, and the lay monk asked Mozishan for an inscription poem, which hindered his face and was not easy to resign, so Mozishan swapped the positions of the first and last sentences of Li Shi's "Inscription Helin Temple Monk's House" and became:
I had to float for half a day and overlook the spring to climb the mountain. Because of seeing the monks in the bamboo courtyard, he was drunk and dreaming all day long.
This poem of change of order, through the clever change of word order to send praise and depreciation, turns the praise of the original poem for the monks into a spicy satire on the snobbish monks, expressing the true feelings of their hearts, which can be described as wonderful!
(5) The word order is ingenious and easy, and the loops are linked
Palindromic union is a type of traditional couplet in China. It is a couplet with the same word for the upper and lower couplets, but the word order is reversed, which can be read both sequentially and backwards, which is quite interesting and is a strange branch in the traditional couplets in China.
For example, in the Qing Dynasty, there was a restaurant in Beijing called "Natural Residence", and the Qianlong Emperor once made a famous couplet on this:
Guest on the natural residence
Actually a guest in heaven
Shanglian is saying that guests go to the "natural residence" restaurant to eat. The lower link is the upward link upside down, which means that I did not expect to come to the natural residence to eat and feel like a guest in the sky. Cleverly conceived, amazing!
It is said that after the Qianlong Emperor came up with this palindromic couplet, he was very proud of it. Immediately treat it as an upper league, and ask the ministers for the lower league, and the ministers pondered, and no one could be right. Only the university scholar Ji Xiaolan impromptuly presented a couplet with the title of the Great Buddha Temple, a famous large temple in the east of Beijing:
People pass the Great Buddha Temple
The temple Buddha is bigger than the people
The upper link is to say that people pass by the temple of the Great Buddha Temple. The lower link is to say that the Buddha statues in the temple are so big that they exceed people.
And put Ji Xiaolan's palindromic union and the Qianlong Emperor's palindromic couplet together, and then form a new couplet:
Guests on the natural residence are actually heavenly guests
People are too big Buddha temple temple Buddha is bigger than people
The Qianlong Emperor made a good joint, and Ji Xiaolan joined forces well
Wonderful, it is really a combination of pearls, which is a commendable and praiseworthy, and has become a good story in the history of China's Yanglian.
In addition, such as "monks tour Yunyin Temple, temple hidden cloud monks", "fog lock mountain head mountain lock fog, tianlian water tail water even heaven", "Shanghai tap water from the sea, Shanxi Hanging Temple hanging west mountain", etc., are all palindromic joint works with a long artistic conception, a strong sense of picture, and self-extrusion, which will not be repeated here.