Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1Background of the Research
回指表示有两个语言元素，表示一种元素（照应语）的解释依赖于与其他元素（前件）在一定程度上（黄1）之间的相关特征研船舶。话语分析研究，一般归类为直接照应间接照应照应。然而，照应的研究，大多数研究关注已支付直接照应相当长的一段时间。只有在最近几十年中，一些语言学者都集中他们的学习兴趣，间接照应。间接照应的意思是指没有照应语和它的先行词之间的关系，共同引用，必须构建与语用推理指关系。在国内和国外有关间接照应的相关研究主要包括语法的方法，务实的态度，认知的方法和心理语言学的方法。这些研究已充分证明间接照应广泛应用于人类的日常生活，并提出了间接照应的编码和解码受制于各种内部和外部因素，如话语的因素，心理建设，认知主体和务实的因素。从不同的解释方法的解释模型和间接照应的认知机制也不同于对方，留下了许多科目作进一步讨论。此外，大多数文本相关的研究，解决了他们的语言材料的间接形式照应照应，这是明确的名词短语，因此其他形式照应的或很少被讨论。因此，仍留有广阔的探索空间研究有关间接照应。Anaphora represents therelationship between two language elements, which means that the explanation of oneelement (the anaphor) depends on that of the other element (the antecedent) to some extent(Huang 1). In the research of discourse analysis, the types of anaphora are generally classifiedas direct anaphora and indirect anaphora. However, in the research of anaphora, most of thestudy attention has been paid to direct anaphora for quite a long time. Only in recent decadesthat some linguistic scholars have focused their study interests on indirect anaphora. Indirectanaphora means that there is no relation of co-reference between the anaphor and itsantecedent, and the referring relationship must be constructed with pragmatic inference. Therelevant researches at home and abroad about indirect anaphora mainly include the syntaxapproach, the pragmatic approach, the cognitive approach, and the psycholinguistic approach.These researches have amply proved that indirect anaphora is widely used in the everyday life of human beings; and proposed that the encoding and decoding of indirect anaphora isconstrained by various internal and external factors, such as the factors of the discourse, thepsychological construction, the cognitive subject, and the pragmatic factors. The explanationsfrom different approaches about the interpretation model and the cognitive mechanism ofindirect anaphora also differ from each other, leaving many subjects for further discussion.Moreover, most text-related studies settled their language materials on the indirect anaphorain which the form of the anaphor is definite noun phrase, thus other forms of the anaphorwere rarely discussed. Therefore, vast exploring space is still left for researches about indirectanaphora.
1.2Purpose and Significance of the Research
了解间接照应涉及认知推理的照应及先前。它是一个动态的思维过程，揭示了某些规则的认知。转喻，指人类所使用的对象和描述的一种方式，不仅是一种修辞手段，但也是一个重要的思考和认识世界的方式。它植根于人类的基本经验，并成为一种模式的思考和行动（莱考夫和约翰逊37）。转喻的思维是一种从人的心灵世界和客观世界之间的长期互动发展的认知能力。由于转喻的思维是人类一种重要的认知模式，它可以通过理解的语言，具体而言，解释文本间接照应。认知语言学的概念整合理论（CIT）提出在当前被广泛认为是提供了一个合乎逻辑的解释，人类的思维和认知机制建设的意义，以及作为一个通用模型。概念整合是一个基本的心理操作过程与AUNI的结构形式和经营动态，这可以解释人的行为和思维模式，包括转喻的方式。因此，概念整合理论可以引入转喻的运作机制的讨论，从而探索间接回指的认知机制，并解释文本的间接照应。这样的研究不能只提供一种新的方法进行研究的基本语言现象，而且还提供相关咨询的编码和解码的行为在人们的日常生活中，从而提供通信成功的启示。Understanding indirect anaphora involves cognitive inference about the anaphor and theantecedent. It is a dynamic process of thinking, which reveals certain rules of cognition.Metonymy, as a way of referring and describing objects used by human beings, is not only arhetorical device, but also an essential way of thinking and understanding the world. It rootsin the basic experience of human beings, and becomes a mode of thinking and acting (Lakoffand Johnson 37). Metonymic thinking is a kind of cognitive ability developing from thelong-term interaction between human mind and the objective world. Since metonymicthinking is an important cognitive mode of human beings, it could be adopted to understandlanguage, specifically, to explain indirect anaphora in texts. In the current filed of cognitivelinguistics, Conceptual Integration Theory (CIT) is widely considered to provide a logicalexplanation of human thinking and cognitive mechanism, as well as a general model for the construction of meaning. Conceptual integration is a basic mental operating process with auniform structure and operates dynamically, which could be applied to explain the way ofhuman behavior and thinking model, including metonymy. Therefore, Conceptual IntegrationTheory could be introduced to the discussion of metonymy’s operating mechanism, thus toexplore the cognitive mechanism of indirect anaphora, and to explain textual indirectanaphora. Such research could not only provide a new approach for studies about the basiclanguage phenomena, but also offer relevant consultation for the encoding and decodingbehavior in people’s daily life, thus supplying enlightenment for successful communication.
Chapter 2 Literature Review
In this chapter, the definitions of anaphora, indirect anaphora, nominal indirect anaphora,metonymy, and textual metonymy are clarified; the classifications of anaphora, indirectamphora, and metonymy are discussed. Then, a review of the studies about anaphora underthe concern of textual metonymy is presented, with the defect and dispute of certain studies.At last, the theoretical framework—Conceptual Integration Theory, is briefly introduced,preparing for later analysis and discussion.
2.1 Related Studies of Anaphora
2.1.1 Definition of Anaphora
Anaphora comes from its Greek origin “anapherein”, which means carrying back or referringback. In rhetoric, anaphora means the repetition of the same word or group of words at thebeginning of several consecutive sentences or verses to emphasize an image or a concept.Such consideration about anaphora just focuses on its function of substitution in the syntaxlevel. With the development of discourse linguistics, the study about anaphora has beenexpanded from the syntax level to the discourse level. Quirk et al. (1985) consideredanaphora as the concept that a word or a phrase in the text is used to refer to another word orphrase in the same text. Anaphora is also defined as the relationship between two languageelements, which means that the explanation of one element (the anaphor) depends on that of the other element (the antecedent) to some extent (Huang 1). Such definitions further clarifiedthat the relationship of textual anaphora is a kind of meaning explanation based on thecontext in the text and the external knowledge.
Chapter 3 Methodology ..........27-37
3.1 Study Method and Research Feasibility .........27-28
3.2 Construction of the Corpus ......... 28-31
3.2.1 Source and Theme of the Corpus ......... 28-31
3.2.2 Scale of the Corpus .........31
3.3 Encoding of the Texts in the Corpus .........31-32
3.4 Results and Findings .........32-37
Chapter 4 The CIT Approach to Textual Metonymy of Nominal .........37-71
4.1 Operating Mechanism of Metonymy in CIT .........37-45
4.1.1 Metonymy and Mental Space Mapping ......... 38-40
4.1.2 Metonymy and Integration Networks ......... 40-43
4.1.3 Metonymy and Optimal Principles ......... 43-45
4.2 CIT Perspective on Textual Metonymy .........45-65
4.3 Textual Functions of Nominal Indirect Anaphora ......... 65-69
4.3.1 Textual Space Optimization Function ......... 65-66
4.3.2 Textual Interpersonal Function ......... 66-67
4.3.3 Textual Cohesive and Coherent Functio ......... 67-68
4.3.4 Textual Rhetorical Function .........68-69
4.4 Enlightenment on Textual Encoding and Decoding .........69-71
Conclusion
By conducting a study on the textual metonymy of nominal indirect anaphora in Englishsports news of the DIY corpus, this research found certain textual distribution features ofnominal indirect anaphora: This language phenomenon was mostly used in short-distancetextual context. In long-distance textual context, the form +NP was the most frequently usedone. The most frequently used form was +NP, then NNP and NP; the form NN was the leastused one in the texts. In short-distance textual context, these four forms of anaphor were moreused in the same sentence than in the former sentence. To study the cognitive mechanism ofnominal indirect anaphora under such distribution features, the Conceptual IntegrationTheory was adopted as the theoretical approach, and a series of analysis and discussions werecarried out.
With analysis and discussion, this research deems that as a thinking process, textualmetonymy operates in the conceptual integration network that constructed by four mentalspaces, not only as a process of mapping and projecting, but also as the embodiment ofconcepts. By testing with the cases in the corpus, this research proves that textual metonymyhas a strong explanatory power on nominal indirect anaphora. The cognitive mechanism ofnominal indirect anaphora could be explained by CIT: the anaphor and its antecedent triggerprovide elements and relations for the two input spaces in the conceptual integration network;by inference and metonymic thinking, connections between the four spaces are constructed with mapping and projecting; the most related elements and relations are compressed into theblended space to be integrated together; the production of the blended space is the emergentmeaning—the understanding of the intended reference of the anaphora and a deeper cognitionon the text. Textual metonymy plays a crucial role in this process.
This research finds that the semantic constraint, the pragmatic constraint and the personalconstraint have great influence on the cognitive process of nominal indirect anaphora, and tosome extent, partially decide the result of cognition. Together with the cognitive mechanism,these influential factors explain the textual distribution of nominal indirect anaphora. Byanalysis, this research proposes that cognitive background, specific context, intentional andemotional tendency, and pragmatic factors should be taken into great consideration in thecognition of nominal indirect anaphora.
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