A CFR Approach To Oxymoron

The word oxymoron originates from the Greek word Oxusmoros. It is arhetorical device that combines two contrasting or contradictory terms together tocreate special effects with seemingly anomalous structure, arousing the great interestof psychologists, rhetoricians and linguists both at home and abroad. Until now,however, the study of oxymoron is mainly confined to its rhetorical effects, syntacticstructure, pragmatic function and translation strategy. There are few studies about therole of human cognition in its meaning construction and interpretation. Therefore,this thesis aims to take Conceptual Blending Theory and Frame-shifting Theory asthe major framework combined with Relevance Theory to analyze the dynamicinterpretation mechanism underlying the use of oxymoron.Fauconnier’s Conceptual Blending Theory mainly studies meaning constructionby holding that the semantic structure of vocabulary is dynamic. In contrast to thetraditional construction of meaning, it is from the perspective of simple spacerelation, which acts in accordance with the rules of mankind cognition. However, thistheory fails to give a thorough illustration of the systematic operational mechanismor take into consideration the influence of long-term memory and context onconceptual blending. Fortunately, Frame-shifting Theory of Coulson and RelevanceTheory of Sperber&Wilson are just used to complement and make up for thedemerits of Conceptual Blending Theory. According to Frame-shifting Theory,language interpretation could be divided into two steps. During the first stage, thedefault frame is initiated. During the second stage, when the new input conflicts withthe first frame, a new frame is initiated in order to integrate with the new informationand give another explanation to the former part. Relevance Theory regardscommunication as a kind of cognitive activity, in which people tend to achievemaximal contextual effects with least processing efforts. Conceptual BlendingTheory complements the shortcomings of Frame-shifting Theory which fails to attach great importance to the role of cognitive capability of human beings, andFrame-shifting Theory and Relevance Theory make up for the gap of ConceptualBlending Theory that fails to take long-term memory and contextual information intoconsideration. Therefore, based on the three theories of Conceptual Blending Theory,Frame-shifting Theory and Relevance Theory above, the author proposes CFR modelin order to better illuminate the seeming contradiction of oxymoron and make itpossible for the understanding of its underlying mechanism. According to theorganizing frame and the relation of four spaces in the network, oxymoron in theclosed database is classified into oxymoron of mirror network, single-scope networkand double-scope network to explain the cognitive process of the interpretation ofoxymoron. Among them, it is hard to find the data of oxymoron of single-scopenetwork.Oxymoron involves two input spaces and one generic space in human brain, andthese two input spaces are operated to project to the blended space. As these twowords are contradictory or incongruous in meaning and counterparts in these twoinput spaces are contradictory correspondingly, the input spaces have conflicts inmapping, making it hard for the blending process. Contextual analysis andframe-shifting provide the hearers with context, background, memory and logic toestablish relations between the two spaces to make the blending possible. Throughthis process, the contradiction of these two input spaces is eliminated, and oxymoronis successfully interpreted in the communication process.This CFR model integrates Conceptual Blending Theory, Frame-shifting Theoryand Relevance Theory, which could not only analyze the interpretation process ofoxymoron, but also have certain illustrative power in explaining the interpretation ofother rhetorical devices, such as paradox.