A Cognitive Approach To Meaning Construction Of Puns

Pun, as an effective rhetorical device, is employed widely in our daily life. For a long time, the study of puns has been focused on the discussion of their rhetorical effects, pragmatic functions and translation. This paper, shifting the focus to the cognitive perspective, analyzes the meaning construction processes of puns in term of prototype theory, gestalt perception theory and blending theory and so on in order to offer an alternative method to interpret puns.In the Introduction, I expound why I choose pun as my research target and what I expect to achieve through the analysis as well as the methods to carry out my study.Chapter two encompasses the already existent achievement on puns which attached more emphasis to their rhetorical effects, pragmatic functions and translation.Chapter three is about the main theories that will be referred to in my later study and the characteristics and advantages of cognitive linguistics.Chapter four is the main part of the paper. I choose some Chinese and English puns at random as data for analysis. Prototype theory, gestalt perception theory and blending theory are to be employed in the meaning construction of puns.Chapter five is the conclusion.