【正文】 ven in our daily l if e. Our l anguage i tsel f i s symbol . The dail y gr eti ngs indicate t hat the pasage of muni cati on i s open. Ri ng i s a symbol of eternity. The sign of cross i ndicat es atonement . The Big Ben symbol izes London, the Great 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。 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。 he hi nt s that some sad, passionat e spir it is brooding as it wat ches t he passing pr ocesion of humanity. Such an object is a symbol: in li terature, a symbol is athing that r ef er s or suggests more than its l iteral meaning. There are quite a l ot of symbols t hat appear i n or dinar y lif e, for the use of symbol is by no means of l imi ted to li terature and art . For inst ance, a dove is a symbol of peace, t he f l ag i s the symbol of a countr y, and the cross i s t he symbol of the Christi an r el igion. These ar e symbols adopted by a whole society and are r ecognized by al members of such a society. There are other kinds of symbol s, such as f igur e 3, which may be abstrac t symbols. But symbol s i n lit er at ure works ar e dif ferent f rom eit her of the other types. Gener al ly speaki ng, a lit er ar y symbol does not have a mon soci al aceptance, as does the fl ag。 of tr ansit ve or intr ansi tive ver b const ruct ions)? Ar e ther e any unusual orderings (init ial adverbi als, fr onti ng of object or plement, etc)? Do speci al kinds of cl ause constr ucti on occur (such as t hose wi th preparator y it or there)? Noun phr ases: Ar e t hey relati vely simple or plex? Where does the plexi ty li e (i n pr emodif icati on by adj ecti ves, nouns, etc, or in pos tmodifi cati on by preposit on by preposit onal phrases, relati ve clauses, et c) ? Ver b phrases: Ar e ther e any si gnif icant depar tures fr om the use of t he simple past ense? For example, noti ce occurr ences and f unct ions of the pr esent tense, of the pr ogr essi ve aspect , of the perf ect aspect, of modal auxil iar ies. other phr ase types: I s ther e anything to be said about ot her phrases types, such as pr eposi tional phr ases, adver b phrases, adj ecti ve phrases? Wor d cl asses: Havi ng alr eady considered maj or word clases, we may consi der minor word classes ( eg f