A Metonymical Approach to Anaphora in English Texts

Abstract

Due to the fast development of cognitive linguistics, which makes the perspective of anaphoric studies become more abundant, we may propose a cognitive framework for metonymy in order to make analysis of anaphora in English texts. In this paper, the author is going to apply the theory of metonymy to the explanation of anaphora in English texts. First the author proposes the metonymic mechanism of NP anaphora, pronominal anaphora and zero anaphora in English texts. Then the author makes metonymical interpretation of these three kinds of anaphora by means of analyzing some typical examples. And the author reckons that the metonymic approach to anaphora could be regarded as a complement of the cognitive angle of view of anaphora.