Abstract：O. Henry’s masterpiece, The Gift of the Magi, is a simple story with a surprising ending, letting readers deeply understand what is love. There are few direct verbal dialogues in the novel. Instead, most of the information is conveyed non-verbally. Environmental language plays an important part in the non-verbal communication. In The Gift of the Magi, the description of the environmental language is particularly prominent. Environmental language can make the novel more attractive, pave the way for the development of the plot and deepen the characters.
This thesis mainly aims to analyze the environmental language in The Gift of the Magi, such as special information and time information. In this way, the function and importance of the environmental language in the novel can be reflected.
Key words: The Gift of the Magi; environmental language; function
中文摘要：短篇小说《麦琪的礼物》是欧亨利的代表作，简单的故事却带着令人惊讶的结局，让我们深刻体会到什么是爱。小说里很少有直接的语言对话，更多的是由非语言传达信息。环境语是非语言交际的重要组成部分，在《麦琪的礼物》中，环境语的描写尤为突出。环境语能够使小说更具吸引力，为情节的发展埋下伏笔，并且通过环境语加深对人物的刻画。
本论文通过《麦琪的礼物》，对小说中的环境语进行具体的分析，从而体现环境语在小说的作用以及重要性。
关键词：《麦琪的礼物》；环境语；作用
The environmental language is frequently used in all kinds of novels, but we usually neglect the value of it. Learning how to analyze and use the environmental language can strengthen our abilities of appreciating articles. By analyzing the environmental language in the Gift of the Magi, it can be found that communication not only can be conducted by the verbal language, but also by other ways, like the body language, the environmental language, etc. From the book Cross-cultural Nonverbal Communication we know that only 35% of the information is conveyed by verbal languages while 65% of the information is conveyed by non-verbal languages. In addition, the environmental language is one of the most important parts in non-verbal communication.
