A Study On Text Coherence From The Perspective Of Iconicity

Pierce C. S.(1940), an American sign foundation, divides the sign into icon, index and symbol. The Iconicity is the natural relationship between signifier and signified. Later, Haiman(1985) divides the icon into imagic and diagrammatic. Applied two theories into Carpentaria, we will discuss dominant and recessive mechanism, and they depend on each other.In this thesis, the author applies the Pierce’s Iconicity to text so that the readers can analyze the thinking meaning,and perceive the literature’s effect and experience the motion of the beauty in Carpentaria by Australian Indigenous writer Alexis Wright.There are many perspectives about text coherence recently, such as, Cheng Yumin(1989),Liu Chendan(1999) and Wei Zaijiang(2007) analyzed text coherence from cognitive understanding. Leng Hui(2012) analyzed text coherence from the angle of world outlook. The blending space theory of Fauconnier& Turner(2002) included conceptual integration theory and mental space theory. The text coherence is analyzed from iconicity perspective, and the method can make the form and content manifested, and strengthen the real artistic and the real meaning.According to the view of cognitive linguistic, the meaning of the real world is reflected by cognition in the linguistic structure, and people’s language form is influenced by cognitive processing and objective external structure of perception. Coherence is the meaning of the real world reflected in the structure of language, and cognition is a bridge between meaning and language expression, so textual coherence is based on the people’s cognition, or we can also say textual coherence must accord with the cognitive way of people. This thesis applies the cognitive linguistic theory to the text coherence so that we can discuss the cognitive mechanism of text coherence, which reflects the relationship between iconicity and text coherence, so that we can offer a new view to read the Carpentaria.In the thesis, there are three questions:(1)In Carpentaria, how does the author motivate the words, sentences, passages by using Iconicity Theory from Iconicity Theory perspective? How to reach the text coherence?(2) The text coherence is based on the Iconicity Principle. Can it further interpret the text and provide the interpretation with the theoretical assistance?(3) How to analyze the text coherence by using Sequence Iconicity,Quantity Iconicity, Distance Iconicity, Marked Iconicity and Metaphor Iconicity?This thesis uses qualitative and textual analysis, and it studies Alexis Wright’s award winning---Carpentaria. In order to analyze the text, the author builds a bridge between the real world and the text.On the one hand, what using these iconicity principles can make a seemingly incoherent text rechecks the text coherence; on the other hand, what the paper analyzes text coherence from the iconicity can dig the real value of Australia original culture and recognize the dreaming.