1.Intr oduction2.Figure-gr ound theory and its previous applications Pu nctuatio n is an indispensable elem ent in written English because it has many functio ns.As one o f the frequently used punctuation marks,the dash alsohas many functio ns.S cho lars hav e studied its functio ns from vario us perspectives,such as the syntactic perspectiv e,pragm atic perspectiv e,tex tual perspectiv e and rheto rical perspectiv e.In B ritain,Quirk,Greenbaum,L eech,and Svartv ik (1985)summarizes the fun ctions of punctuatio n into two categ ories:separation and specification.In America,Ko lln (1999,as cited in Yuan Ying,2003)discusses the function s of pu nctuatio n in writing fro m the perspectiv e of rheto ric.At hom e,so me com paratively pro minent studies are don e by Ma Shizhan (1991a,1991b),L uo Zho ngm in and He Gaoda (1997),Xu M ing (2001),Liang Li an d Wang Zho u (2001),Yu an Ying (2003),and Z hao Qiaoho ng (2011).But it seem s that many of the previous studies o nly describe the usag e and functions of it rath er than ex plain why it has these functions.T his paper attempts to reveal the underly ing reasons fo r the generation of dashes ’rhetorical functions fro m the cog nitive perspective by emplo ying the fig ure-g ro und theo ry.It is ho ped that this attem pt can pav e a new to the analy sis o f punctuation.2.1Th e main ideas o f fig ure-g round theoryTh e no tio n of figure and ground was first introduced by the Dan ish psycholo gist Rubin (Ungerer and Schm ind,2006)in his famou s face/v ase illu sio n in 1915and later integrated into the study o f perceptual organization by the gestalt p sy cho log ists like Ko ffka (L i Fuyin,2008).It is T almy that has introduced the gestalt theo ry into the linguistic study and app lied it systematically (L i Fuyin,2008).He d efined figu re and g ro und as follo ws:Th e Fig ure is a mo ving or co ncep tually mo vable entity whose path,site,or o rientation is conceiv ed as a v ariable,the particular value of which is th e relev ant issue.Th e Ground is a reference entity ,o ne that has a statio nary setting relative to a reference frame,with respect to which the Figure's path,site,or orientatio n is characterized.(T almy ,2000,p.312)Langacker in his book Fo undatio ns of Cog nitive Gram mar:T heo retical Prerequisites defines fig ure and ground as fo llows:I y,f “”f ()y is org anized and for which it prov ides a setting.(Langacker,1987,p .120)Bo th Talmy ’s and Lang acker ’s definition are in accord with o ne ano ther.Both of them think that the figu re is giv en the prominence and the ground is a reference point o r anchor.And the fig ure an d the g ro und can not only refer to two relev ant objects in an event o f mo tion or locatio n,but also refer to two relev ant ev ents in a tem poral,causal,o r other ty pe of relation.T he determinatio n of the fig ure,according to Gestalt psy cho logy ,should follow the Principle of Pr gnanz,which m ean s that objects with Gestalt pro perties are likely to be perceived as figures (Li Fuyin,2008).On the basis o f the Principle of Pr gnanz,T almy (2000)lists both the definitional and the asso ciated characteristics o f fig ure and ground in lang uag e.T he definitio nal ch aracteristics play the decisive ro le in the identificatio n o f the figure and g ro und while the asso ciated characteristics merely play an assistant ro le.When they are in con flict,the asso ciated characteristics sho uld be subject to the definition al characteristics.M oreov er,when identify ing the fig ure and g round,may be sev eral associated characteristics wo rk simultaneously.According to his definitional and the asso ciated characteristics,we can ex plain many figure-gro und phenomena in lang uag e.Kuang Fangtao an d Wen Xu (2003)mo dify and co mplement the table by ad ding one asso ciated characteristic,namely the leng th o f tim e.Th ey think that the figure has relativ ely sho rter tim e than the g ro und.They point o ut that figure tend to be bound ed and the mo re bounded it is,the mo re pro minent it is.And they state that in a time ax is with a sing le dimen sio n,bo unded ness may be realized by a time po int or a tim e seg men t with a starting po int an d an end point.Because things lacking in bound edness are inclined to be the ground,the unbounded tim e is most likely tobe the g ro und.Generally speaking ,the figure and the ground are asym metrical (Cro ft and Cruse,2004).However,their relatio ns can be manipulated thro ugh selectio n fo r attention.In th e face/v ase illusion,either the face o r the vase can be the figure while the other fades into the ground.This pheno menon is called fig ure/gro und reversal (Ungerer &Schmid,2006).Th is transitio n can occur no t o nly in this special example,but also in v ery co mmo n situatio n.Fo r ex ample,the same o bject can functio n as figure in x ,()()T (F)(G)T (F)(G)??Fi gur e and G r ound ：AC ogni t i ve E xpl anat i on of t he R het or i cal Funct i ons of E ngl i sh D ashes□Wu M ingli （School of Foreign Languages,Southwest University,Chongqing 400715）Abstr act ：Key words ：E ng lis h das hes have many functions .T he previous s tud ies of them are mainly from the rhetorical,syntactic,pragmatic and textualpers pectives,paying more attention to what the s pecific functions are rather than why these functions aris e from the cognitive pers pective.O n the bas is of the figure-ground theory ,this paper discus ses the underlying cognitiv e mechanis m behind the das hes ’rhetorical functions ,that is ,humans tend to make the s tres s ed thing s s tand out as the figure or enhance the s al ience of the figure.This paper holds that it is in this process that the rhetorical effects occur.das h;rhetorical function;figure;g round;cognitive linguis tics英语破折号修辞功能的图形-背景解读□吴明丽（西南大学外国语学院，重庆400715）【摘要】【关键词】英语破折号具有多种功能，以往对其的研究主要是从修辞、句法、语用和语篇的角度进行的，而且多探讨它具体有那些功能，却较少从认知语言学的角度探索为什么破折号能产生这样的功能。
