| The present thesis attempts to apply conceptual metonymy to the study of episodic development in fictional narrative and aims to explore conceptual metonymy underlying the episodic development with the help of Labov and Waletzky's framework of narrative structure analysis. Fiction is often studied from the angle of structure analysis with the main purposes of finding out the structural principles of fiction, its language use and artistic features. As one member of the genus of narrative, fiction, however, has its own defining characteristics that can set it apart from other narratives. That is, fiction is always regarded as a form of literature which forms a fictional relation between words and the real world they refer to. It is just because of this characteristic that we sometimes find some structures and expressions in fiction are absurd and difficult to understand. In this case, the study of fiction only from the perspective of structural analysis will never be enough if we want to have a reasonable and better understanding of it. It is without any doubt that fiction as a form of narrative is full of language which can bring some artistic functions. But in additional to understanding the linguistic structures and their artistic functions, it is necessary to explore some theoretical framework to connet language and the world it refers to in fiction. In light of this, the present thesis adopts conceptual metonymy to serve as this theoretical framework. Conceptual metonymy is a fundamental cognitive phenomenon to both the writer and the reader of the narrative. Therefore, when constructing a fiction, the writer can employ metonymic concepts to make choices of languages. On the other hand, when reading the fiction, the reader's knowledge of conceptual metonymy and the real world will also contribute to the reader's understanding and interpretation of the fiction. In this process, the fiction, the writer, the reader, and the real world are linked by some kind of metonymic relation which will lead to the consistence between fiction and the world it refers to.Instead of studying a whole piece of fiction, this theis will apply conceptual metonymy to the study of some episode of one fiction with the purposes of finding out the metonymic representations underlying the fictional episode and their functions to its episodic development. To define what a whole episode is, Labov and Waletzky's framework of narrative analysis will be employed, and the analysis of conceptual metonymy will be carried out in each unit of this framework with some examples.Based on the analysis, this thesis finds out that there are many metonymic expressions in fiction, and these conceptual metonymy uses play a very important role in the development of episode. Among a number of metonymic concepts, the concepts SUBEVENT(S) FOR WHOLE EVENT, INITIAL AND ENDING EVENT FOR WHOLE and PART FOR WHOLE are the most basic patterns employed in the episodic development of fictional discourse. What's more, the reader is inclined to extend what happens to one character or a group of characters in fictional discourse to a social class or the whole society on the basis of metonymic concept of PART FOR WHOLE. This shows the fact that metonymic use is quite context-dependent. It also shows the reader's ability to infer a larger framework from concrete characters, events or objects. Narrative gaps can be bridged. Filling in the narrative gap creates abundant opportunities for the reader to interpret the fiction and form their own fictional world on the basis of their metonymic thinking and reasoning. Conceptual metonymy enables the writer to organize and construct episodic development in a way that can mark and select the salient and central parts in communication and reduce the effort in communication. On the other hand, conceptual metonymy is an efficient way for the reader to better understand the world the fiction refers to and have their own fictional world based on their understanding of the fiction.
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