论“欧·亨利式的结尾”的认知机制——以《警察与赞美诗》为例

On the Cognitive Mechanism of O Henry's Ending——A Case Study of “The Cop and the Anthem”

常规关系是一种认知思维方式,是人类认知和把握世界的一种工具。它不仅可以帮助人们理解话语含义,还能使人们理解和把握各个事体之间的相互关系,对人类行为或事物的运作规律进行预测和判断,从而做出相应的反馈。小说的理解和欣赏也是一种认知活动。以《警察与赞美诗》为例,读者对小说的解读基于常规关系。读者除了借助背景知识中的固有常规关系理解小说之外,随着读者与作家、作品的不断互动,读者还会建立临时常规关系来解读作品。这部小说结尾违反了固有常规关系却遵循了临时常规关系,便产生"既出人意料又合乎情理"效果,这就是"欧·亨利式的结尾"认知机制。

Stereotypical relation （SR）, a type of cognitive thinking, is a tool by means of which human beings understand and grasp the world. Apart from helping understand utterance implicature,it helps people understand and grasp the relations between events so that they are able to forecast other people＇ s action and the result of the running event, and hence giving proper responses. It is also a cognitive activity to appreciate a novel. As can be seen in the case of ＂The Cop and the Anthem＂ ,reading and understanding the novel is based on stereotypical relation. The reader not only utilizes the built-in stereotypical relations in his/her background knowledge to grasp the novel, but also sets up temporary stereotypical relations to help interpret it. As the end of the novel violates the built-in stereotypical relations but follows the temporary stereotypical relations, it appears to be a big reasonable surprise ,and that is the cognitive mechanism of ＂0 Henry＇s Ending＂.