故事语法

不同的故事都有共同的组成部分和组织结构——背景、情节、原因和结局等，这就是故事语法（story grammar），它类似于一种图式，即讲故事的图式。故事语法的作用是给故事的写作者或阅读者提供一个框架，在这个框架的指引下，故事的各种要素可以顺利地找到自己的位置，并建立起相互联系，还能通过推理自动补上一些“缺省”的内容。一个容易被读者接受的故事都会遵循这样的图式。表11-3是索恩代克（Thorndyke，1977）总结的故事语法，他认为，故事语法是一个规则体系，第一条规则就是：一个故事由背景、主题、情节和结局等成分组成。而这四个成分又可以细分为一些下级成分，从而形成一个层次体系。表中星号“*”表示该成分可以无限重复。

表11-3　故事语法的规则体系

（来源：Thorndyke，1977）

索恩代克运用自己总结出来的故事语法对一些故事进行了分析。例如，下面这个故事中共有34个成分，可以用图11-6来表示它们之间的层次关系。(https://www.daowen.com)

（1）Circle Island is located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean，（2）north of Ronald Island.（3）The main occupations on the island are farming and ranching.（4）Circle Island has good soil，（5）but few rivers and（6）hence a shortage of water.（7）The island is run democratically.（8）All issues are decided by a majority vote of the islanders.（9）The governing body is a senate，（10）whose job is to carry out the will of the majority.（11）Recently，an island scientist discovered a cheap method（12）of converting salt water into fresh water.（13）As a result，the island farmers wanted（14）to build a canal across the island，（15）so that they could use water from the canal（16）to cultivate the island's central region.（17）Therefore，the farmers formed a procanal association（18）and persuade a few senators（19）to join.（20）The procanal association brought the construction idea to a vote.（21）All the islanders voted.（22）The majority voted in favor of construction.（23）The senate，however，decided that（24）the farmers'proposed canal was ecologically unsound.（25）The senators agreed（26）to build a smaller canal（27）that was 2 feet wide and 1 foot deep.（28）After starting construction on the smaller canal，（29）the islanders discovered that（30）no water would flow into it.（31）Thus the project was abandoned.（32）The farmers were angry（33）because of the failure of the canal project.（34）Civil war appeared inevitable.

图11-6　对故事Circle Island的分析

（来源：Thorndyke，1977）