本研究探討 Kenneth Burke 戲劇理論學說中「典例」概念的重要性，由於「典 例」是種符號行動，並據以成為人們「生活的裝備」，聯結「戲劇理論」（dramatism） 下「動機」、「行動」及「語言」的三個關鍵架構，作用在於呈現符號行動在複雜 脈絡下的簡明題旨，藉以彰顯出言者動機。「典例」是Burke戲劇理論的導論，更是五因分析方法的指導原則。基此，本研究欲加論證，五因分析不應流於拆解文本，成為定名標籤的語言遊戲；作為探究言者言說動機的主要方法，五因分析應以歸結出「典例」作為研究目標。

本研究也不贊同將「典例」視為自成一格的文本分析方法，甚至衍生出相關研究步驟，並將五因分析作為印證「典例」的輔助方法。如此恐導致研究取徑上有疊床架屋之嫌。本研究歸結指出，在理論上，「典例」的作用在於促成「認同化」（或是「誤認」），藉以引導（或框限）受眾認知；在批評方法上，則是五因批評原則與目標，彰顯需要直接反映論述文本的本質，進而在語藝批評探求出真正符應文本內涵的「故事」，進而探查言者如何藉符號行動形塑「認同化」的過程。

This paper focuses on the importance of representative anecdote, as propounded in Kenneth Burke’s dramatism. Representative anecdote is equipment for living and becomes a symbolic action of the speaker. Moreover, the representative anecdote connects to the three key structures, namely, “motive,” “action” and “language”, of the dramatism with the function to show the concise topic of the symbolic action under the complex context, thereby manifesting the motive for the utterance of the speaker. Representative anecdote is the introduction to Burke’s dramaturgical theory and the principle of pentadic criticism. Thereupon, the paper intends to expound and prove further that pentadic criticism should not merely focus on the text and becomes a form of linguistic game of name labeling. The pentadic criticism, as the main approach to delve into the motive for the utterance of the speaker, should be used to conclude the representative anecdote as the objective of the paper.

This paper further expounds and proves that theoretically, the purpose of representative anecdote is to foster a sense of identification (or misidentification), thereby limiting the perception of the target audience within a particular framework. As a form of method of criticism, the principles and objectives of pentadic criticism manifested the need for direct reflection of the substance of textual discourse, and through rhetorical criticism, discover the anecdote that truly corresponds to the implications of the text, and based on which, determine how speaker employs symbolic actions to shape the process of identification.