The publication of Cohesion in English prompted various studies on cohesion and its ties,including reference.The present paper tries to conduct a textual metonymic study of reference so as to reveal its mechanisms with a semiotic metonymic model which integrates language,cognition and context into a tri-dimensional whole.Then,based on the different mechanisms generating referential relations,the paper categorizes reference into congruent reference and metonymic reference,making the reference system more delicate.