语篇信息结构的认知分析

Analysis of information structure in text

在借鉴前人语言信息结构研究成果的基础上 ,本文通过对图画和语篇进行信息结构的对比分析 ,提出了语篇信息结构分析的项位分析方法。通过对语篇的信息结构进行项位图解 ,并与语言所描述的客观事物的实体信息结构进行相互参照分析 ,本文描述了语篇信息结构的主要特征 ,分析了影响语篇信息结构形成的认知基础。通过本文的分析 ,作者认为 ,语篇信息的整体结构是依循人的认知规律的 ,语篇信息的构成反映了人们的认知习惯。从语篇连贯性的角度看 ,连贯的语篇是按照人们的一般认知习惯、遵循普遍认知模式的语篇 ,因此决定语篇连贯性的因素不完全是所谓的衔接方式 (cohesion) ,而是该语篇是否依循了人的认知行为模式 (adhesion)。本文提出的语言信息的项位分析方法为语篇连贯性的认知基础、语言线性结构的认知基础、语言思维的认知操作等方面的研究提供了一个较为有力的工具。

Cohesion has been the mainstream research in discourse/text analysis. However, the main value of a text lies not in its cohesion, but in its function of information transmission. Therefore, analysis of information structure in text ought to be a very important component in discourse/text analysis. The present research is an empirical study to analyze the information structure in text in order to detect the underlying cognitive cornerstone for textual cohesion and for the relationship between linear language expression and its non linear reality. 30 Chinese college students were drafted to describe in Chinese a white black picture about three people and their surroundings. The 30 texts and the picture were decomposed into comparable information units. After comparative analysis between the picture and the 30 texts in the perspective of information composition, the researcher points out that: a) What underlies the textuality of a text does not lie in linguistic cohesion, but in the writers adhesion to his/her cognitive patterns; b) The linguistic linearity in expression and the non linearity of the expressed reality are interchangeable under the manipulation of cognitive modifications. The research also offers a method for information structure analysis — Item associate Analysis.