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一、问题的提出
在向同行听课学习的过程中发现，很少有教师就英语语篇中的指代关系向学生提问。究其原因，师生普遍认为对指代关系的理解没什么困难，即使有困难也不会影响对语篇的整体理解。那么事实到底是否如此呢？带着这样的疑问，笔者在教学中特别留意了学生对语篇中指代关系的理解情况。通过课堂提问发现，学生对指代关系理解方面问题的回答多数情况下不能一步到位，需要教师提示后才能正确识别指代关系。通过与学生的交流发现，学生对语篇中的指代现象普遍不重视，觉得容易理解或不难理解，自以为不成问题。但事实上，他们对语篇中指代关系的理解往往一知半解，其结果是对语篇理解的肤浅或失误。原因在于英语中的指代现象比汉语普遍，其表现习惯又与汉语有所不同，从而给正确识别造成了障碍。因此，在高中英语阅读教学中，除了重视其他各类阅读技能和策略以外，也应该对语篇中普遍存在的指代现象加以适当的关注，以培养学生正确理解指代关系的能力。
二、指代现象普遍存在
所谓指代，是指为了行文简练，在文中使用一些替代词语来表示上文中已经提到过或下文即将提到的人物或事物（词或短语，甚至句子），以避免重复。在英语中指代是一种普遍存在的语言现象。请看下面一段文字：
In many ways my disability has made me grow stronger and more independent.I have had to work hard to live a normal life,but it has been worth it.If I had the chance to say one thing to healthy kids,it would be this:Just having a disability doesn't mean your life is not satisfying.So don't feel sorry for the disabled or make fun of them,and don't ignore them either.Just accept them for who they are and give them encouragement to live as rich and full a life as you do.
短短百来个词的语篇中就有十对指代关系，其中最后的“do”也是一种指代。
文中“but it has been worth it”一句，表面上看似简单，但要确切理解整句话的意思却并不容易。根据“something is worth doing”这个句型和分析上下文可以确定，这里的something（即第一个it）指a normal life，doing（即第二个it）指working hard to live，整句意为“but a normal life has been worth working hard to live”。语篇中第三个it前指one thing，this则后指“Just having a disability doesn't mean your life is not satisfying”一句。四个them和they均指代the disabled(people)。最后的do则指代“live a rich and full life”。
由此可见，正确识别语篇中的指代关系是正确理解语篇的一种有效手段。然而，许多学生对于像it，he，them，that，this，one，so，there之类的指代词不以为然，甚至“视而不见”，不屑一顾，结果导致理解偏误。虽然指代关系大多直接明了，但也有深藏不露的。这就需要引起教师的足够重视，切实帮助学生正确识别各种不同形式的指代关系，以便正确、深刻理解语篇含义。
三、指代关系种类繁多
根据划分方法的不同，指代关系可以分为多种类型。
1.前指和后指
根据指代对象的相互位置不同，指代关系可分为前指（又称回指、复指、反指）和后指（又称下指、预指）两种。所谓前指就是指代对象在指代词的前面，所谓后指就是指代对象出现在指代词的后面。例如：
The whole family had experienced such a storm before and everyone remembered the damage it had caused to stock and crops.There was very little we could do about the crops.But we needed to protect the animals in case the river flooded again.My older brother called his sheep-dog and began driving our small flock of sheep to higher ground above the river.
it前指a storm，而stock则后指the animals，包括his sheep-dog和our small flock of sheep。
2.句内指代和句间指代
根据指代词和指代对象所处句子的不同，指代关系又可分为句内指代和句间指代两种。句内指代关系的指代词和指代对象在同一句中，一般可根据代词的单复数形式去判定所指对象。句间指代关系的指代词和指代对象不在同一句中，情况相对复杂些。有时指代词和指代对象在前后句中，有时指代词和指代对象在相隔的两个句子中。例如：
The German shepherd runs off and noses around in the grass of Kenya's Laikipia Plateau."OK,Oakley," the dog's handler orders."Find it." Oakley sniffs until he comes to a bush,then stops,sits,and looks up at his handler.She bends to see what he has found:the waste of an endangered African wild dog.
从“the dog's handler orders Oakley to find it”和“She bends to see what he has found”可知he=Oakley=the dog=the German shepherd。he与Oakley属于句内指代关系，而同时he与the dog、the German shepherd又构成句间指代关系。由此可推断出she指the dog's handler，属于句间指代。
3.代词指代和词汇指代
根据指代词的不同，指代关系可分为代词指代和词汇指代两大类。顾名思义，以各类代词作为指代词的指代现象即为代词指代。相对而言，词汇指代主要是指指代词为代词以外的词汇或者短语。例如：
Great Britain was the name given when England and Wales were joined to Scotland.It happened in 1603 when King James of Scotland became King of England and Wales as well.To their surprise,the three countries found themselves united peacefully instead of by war.However,just as they were going to get Ireland connected to form the United Kingdom,the southern part of that country,broke away to form its own government.
句中they为代词指代，指代对象为the three countries，而the three countries又为词汇指代，指代对象是Scotland，England and Wales，形成一个指代链。后面的that country则指代Ireland，属于词汇指代。
除了指代关系种类多以外，指代关系中的指代词也呈现种类繁多的景象，主要可分为以下几类：1)指示代词，如this，that，those，such等；2)关系代词，如who，whom，whose，which等；3)不定代词，如some，any，somebody，something等；4)部分人称代词（尤其是第三人称），如it，they，them，theirs，he，his，him等；5)具有指代作用的“the+形容词”“the+序数词”结构以及起指代作用的词汇等。
四、指代现象疑难重重
虽然难以识别的指代关系不在多数，但对于阅读理解而言，有一个指代关系不搞清楚就会影响对整个语篇的正确理解。下面列举的是指代关系中一些常见的疑难现象。
1.后指现象
在英语复合句中，无论是主句在前、从句在后，还是从句在前、主句在后，一般都是主句用名词，从句用代词指代主句中的名词。如果从句在前，主句在后，就出现“后指”现象。而在汉语复句中，则一般都是先提名词，后用代词指代前面提到过的名词，即用“前指”。试比较下面的例句及其译文：
(1)Even though he is older,John has nothing on Peter in school.
尽管约翰年纪大些，但在学业上他不如彼得。
(2) But his "own interest" was the last thing Shelley ever thought of.
可雪莱最不计较的就是他自己的“个人利益”。
“后指”的用法不符合汉语的表达习惯，从以上两例可见一斑。再如：
Although he(Nicolaus Copernicus)had tried to ignore them,all his mathematical calculations led to the same conclusion:that the earth was not the centre of the solar system.Only if you put the sun there did the movements of the other planets in the sky make sense.
根据英语“从句中用代词、主句中用名词”的规律，可知them指代all his mathematical calculations。另外，最后一句中的there为词汇指代，其指代对象应为前句中提到的(in)the centre of the solar system。
汉英表达习惯的不同是造成此类指代理解失误的主要原因。识别后指关系的关键是找准指代对象的位置。一般情况下，后指关系中的指代对象往往离指代词比较接近，大多可按“就近原则”找出指代对象。
2.链式指代
有的指代关系比较复杂，指代词指代一个词语，而被指代词语又进一步指代另一个更具体的词语，甚至句子，层层指代，形成一个指代链。例如：
In 1901,H.G.Wells,an English writer,wrote a book describing a trip to the moon.When the explorers landed on the moon,they discovered that the moon was full of underground cities.They expressed their surprise to the "moon people" they met.In turn,the "moon people" expressed their surprise."Why," they asked,"are you traveling to outer space when you don't even use your inner space?"
H.G.Wells could only imagine travel to the moon.In 1969,human beings really did land on the moon.People today know that there are no underground cities on the moon.However,the question that the "moon people" asked is still an interesting one.A growing number of scientists are seriously thinking about it.
在句间指代关系中，很常见的一种现象是后句的代词主语指代前句的名词主语。科学家思考的当然是the question，可见it指代的是前一句中的名词the question，而该question的具体内容则是月球人所问的“Why are you traveling to outer space when you don't even use your inner space?”这个问题，这才是it指代的真正对象。
链式指代关系比较复杂，指代词与最终指代对象之间还有别的词语作为过渡，这一过渡词语本身既担任指代对象，又担任指代词，具有双重身份。识别此类指代现象的要领是理清各指代成分之间的关系，形成正确的语义链，问题就会迎刃而解。
3.分隔指代
指代关系通常发生在本句内部或相邻句子之间，但有时指代词与指代对象之间被别的句子分隔，形成分隔指代现象。例如：
The discovery of a dwarfed "human being" who lived in Flores,Indonesia,up to 18,000 years ago is changing the way we think about the human family.This "Flores Human" was three feet tall and her brain was smaller than that of the average chimp.Yet she and her relatives apparently lived fully human lives.They seem to have made tools,worked together to find food and cook it,and perhaps even buried their dead with ceremony.
It was a major surprise to find tools associated with the new human family member.The tools are like those formerly seen only with European fossils from our own species,Homo sapiens,and the oldest of them were made 94,000 years ago.Homo sapiens is thought to have arrived in the island about 40,000 years ago,much too late to be responsible for the tools.If this tiny human made the tools,then the inside structure of its brain must have been more like our own than a chimp's,despite being just a third the size of ours.
从最后两句所表达的意思可看出，this tiny human不是指Homo sapiens；从第1段可看出，也不是指a chimp。而语篇的主题涉及的是“Flores Human”，从第1段的“They seem to have made tools”和第2段的“If this tiny human made the tools”可以互相印证this tiny human指的是Flores human。
由于此类指代中的指代对象与指代词相隔较远，无形中给识别带来了困难。理清人物或事物之间的逻辑关系是正确识别此类指代关系的关键所在。可循上下文逐步扩展寻找指代对象的范围，最终根据语义和逻辑关系确定指代对象。分隔指代多为前指。
4.隐形指代
有的指代关系，或者说，有的指代词所指对象并没有在上下文中直接显示出来，而是隐含在字里行间，需要读者去体会、推理、判断。例如：
Schipper,now a 17-year-old from Brisbane with a bright future of going to Athens for her first Olympics,yesterday recalled her time with Shane Gould five years ago.
"I was at a national youth camp on the Gold Coast and Shane had come along to talk to us and watch us train," Schipper explained."It seemed as if we had long been good friends.I don't know why.We just started talking and it went from there."
在该例中，the Olympics和the youth camp不可能是it指代的对象。虽然it前面刚刚提到talking，但实际上后面的from there指代了它。这里的there意为at that stage，moment，or point。也就是说，it是从那次谈话开始的。结合上文以及前一句的主题词good friends，我们可以推测出it指代的是“we had long been good friends”一句中隐含的friendship之意。
隐形指代的指代对象没有在字面上直接显示出来，这给识别和理解带来了一定困难。但只要我们仔细分析上下文语境，理顺语义关系，再进行合乎逻辑的推理，那么指代对象还是可以被挖掘出来的。
五、结论
语篇中的指代关系多种多样，有的容易识别，有的不容易识别。相对而言，英语使用指代词的频率要高于汉语，且英汉两种语言在指代的表现形式上存在不小差异，这无形中给读者正确识别英语指代关系设置了种种障碍。而正确识别指代关系的能力是阅读理解能力的重要组成部分，对正确、深刻理解语篇含义有着直接的影响。因此，在阅读教学中，我们完全应该也有必要关注对指代关系的正确识别，跟重视培养其他阅读技能一样重视培养学生的指代关系识别技能。要教导学生养成对指代词敏感的习惯，注意联系上下文语境，按照词语之间的语法关系、语义关系和语言逻辑，辨明指代关系，从而达到深刻理解文本的目的，这也有利于培养学生形成正确的思维逻辑。