【正文】 Wal Chi na. Ritualisti c acts ar e symbol ic. I n church wedding the br ide is handed over fr om the father t o the gr oom. Hol y eati ng i s symboli c of munion, bapt izng cleansing and r ebir th. The raising and lowering of a national fl ag certainly suggest meanings l ar ger than t he act s themsel ves. And fi nal y toasti ng and shaking hands on for mal or i nf ormal occasi ons. As rhetorical devi ce, symbol is dif er ent fr om met aphor , which is l iteral y false but figurati vely t rue. Unlike al legor y, whi ch r epr esents abstr act terms li ke “l(fā)ove” or “t ruth,” symbol s ar e percept ible obj ects. I n li terature almost anything—par ticular object s, charact er s, set ing, and act ions—can be symbolic i f the author wi shes t o make it so by either hi nt ing or insist ing that he materi al means mor e than i t l it er al ly does. Symbols are suggested through speci al tr eatment such as imagery, repeti tion, connotative language, or other arti st ic devices. I n F. Scott Fit zger al d’ s novel The Gr eat Gat sby, a huge pai r of bespect acled eyes st ar es acr oss a wildness of ash heaps from a bil lboar d advert ising the services of an ocul ist. Repeatedly appear ing in the st or y, t he bespectacl ed eyes e t o mean mor e than simply t he avai la bi lit y of eye exami nati on. A charact er in t he story pares it to t he eyes of God。t ypes of sent ence ar e used, what is thei r functi on? Sentence plexity: Do sent ences on whole have a simple or a pl ex str ucture? What i s t he aver age sentence length? Does plexity vary stri kingl y from one sentence to another? Is pl exit y mai nl y due to ( i) coordination, ( i) subordination, ( i ) juxt aposit ion of clauses or of other equi valent str uctures? I n what par ts of t he t ext does pl exit y tend t o occur ? clause t ypes: What types of clauses ar e favored—r elati ve clauses, adver bial clauses, or dif ferent types of nominal clauses? Are non fi ni te for ms monly used, and if so, of what ypes are t hey (i nf init ive, i ng f orm, ed form, ver bl ess st ruct ur e) ? What is t heir funct ion? Cl ause str ucture: Is there anything si gni ficant about clause el ements (eg fr equency of obj ects, adver bi al s, plements。 he hints that some sad, passi onate spi rit is broodi ng as it wat ches the pasing procesion of humanit y. Such an object i s a symbol: in l iteratur e, a symbol is a thi ng t hat refers or suggests more t han it s lit er al meaning. Ther e ar e quit e a lot of symbol s t hat appear in ordinar y li fe, f or t he use of symbol is by no means of li mited to l iterature and ar t. For inst ance, a dove is a symbol of peace, t he f lag is the symbol of a count ry, and t he cross is the symbol of t he Chri st ian religion. These are symbol s adopt ed by a whole soci et y and ar e recogni zed by al l member s of such a soci et y. There are other kinds of symbols, such as f igure 3, which may be abstr act symbol s. But symbols in l iterature works ar e dif er ent fr om ei ther of t he other t ypes. Gener al ly speaking, a l it er ar y symbol does not have a mon s oci al acceptance, as does the flag。 i ts syl labl es, t he nar ator tel s us, “cast an Eastern enchantment over me.” Even a local e, or a f eature of physi cal t opography, can provide ri ch symbolic suggesti ons. The caf233。 for inst ance, the ways sentences are connect ed. This is t he i nt er nal or ganizat ion of a text. Under cont ext , r oughl y the mat er ial, mental, per sonal , i nt er acti onal , soci al , i nsti tutional , cultural, and histori cal si tuat ion in which the di scourse is made, we consider t he external relati ons of t he l iterary t ext or a par t of the text, seei ng i t as a discour se presupposing a soci al r elati on between i ts par ticipant s ( author and reader, charact er and char acter, charact er and r eader , etc.) , and a shar ing of knowledge and assumptions by par ti ci pant s. Cohesi on: Does the text contain l ogical or ot her li nks between sent ences (eg coordinating conjunct ions, linking adver bi al s) , or does it tend t o repl y on i mpl icit connections of meaning? What sort of use is made of cr oss reference by pr onouns (she, it , t hey, etc), by substi tute forms ( do, so, et c) , or el lipsis? I s ther e any use made of el egant var iation—the avoidance of r epet it ion by substi ut ion of a descripti ve phrase ( as “the ol d lawyer” substi ut es f or t he r epet it ion of an earl ier “Mr Jones”) ? Are meaning connecti ons reinforced by r epet it ion of words and phr ases, or by repeatedl y using wor ds f rom t he same semanti c f ield? Cont ext: Does the writ er addr ess the reader dir ectl y, or t hr ough the wor ds or thought s of som e f icti onal char acter? What li nguisti c cl ues (eg fir st per son pronouns I , m e, m y, mi ne) ar e t her e of the addreser addr essee relati onshi p? What ati tude does t he aut hor im pl y t owar ds his/ her subject ? If a charact er ’s words or t houghts are r epresent ed, is t his done by di rect quot ati on, or by some other method (eg indi rect speech, f ree indi rect speech)? Ar e t her e si gnifi cant changes of st yl e wi th r espect t o di f er ent persons (nar at or or char acter) who i s supposedly speaki ng or thinki ng the wor ds on the page? What i s t he point of view of t he stor y? Are t he f requent shi fts of poi nt vi ew? I f so, i n whose voice is the nar rator speaki ng? Chapt er Seven Sym bol What is sym bol? Sym bol, i n t he sim pl est sense, anything that stands for or r epresents something el se beyond it—usual y an i dea conventi onal ly asociated wit h i t. Object s l ike fl ags and cr osses can f uncti on symbolical ly。 they point, they hi nt , or , as Henry James put it , t hey cast l ong shadows. Symboli sm The term symbol ism refers t o the use of symbols, or to a set of r el at ed symbols, which