A Comparative Study of Metalingual MarkersBetween the First 80 andLast 40 Chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions from aPerspective of Narrative Construction

By comparing the amount of metalingual markers in the opening and ending of the first eighty chapters and the last forty ones and topic switch, the author has found that the quantity ratio reaches 6: 3, 26: 8 and 154: 11 respectively. The use of metalanguage can reflect the author's writing styles objectively. Due to the fact that there is great difference in the use of metalanguage between the two parts, we can come to a conclusion that they should be written by different people.