On The Reframing Of Intertextual Discourses From The Perspective Of Conceptual Blending Theory

Intertextuality is initially coined and theorized by Julia Kristeva(1969). As an essential textual feature, intertextuality is assumed to be a mixed juxtaposition of different texts, which entails that texts are built from snatches of previous texts by way of memory, revision and reconstruction. Ever since its appearance, it evokes a growing proliferation of studies from the perspectives of Semiotics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Systemic Functional Linguistics and Pragmatics. Specifically speaking,studies range from intertextual embodiment or patterns to embedded ideology in literary works, advertisements, news reports, etc. So far, cognitive analyses of intertextual discourses fail to arouse scholars’ due attention, and few attempts are made to take on detailed studies on the cognitive working mechanism of it. In light of inadequacies in the intertextual studies, 28 pieces of campus slogans for Girls’ Day,featured in metaphorical combinations of texts from different genres, are instanced to conduct a detailed cognitive analysis of intertextuality by adopting Frame Shifting Theory(Coulson 2010) and Conceptual Blending Theory(Fauconnier & Turner 1994,1997, 1998, 2002). In a nutshell, the paper is intended to depict the reframing processes of intertextual discourses.From the cognitive point of view, intertextuality is possibly considered to be a nonstandard blending of distinct frames. During the process of researching, frame reconstruction of intertextuality is manifested from two key points, frame shifting and frame blending processes. Under the framework of Frame Shifting Theory, the data are preliminarily accounted for from the angles of typical situations, default values,goal presupposition and nonconventional meanings. Then on the basis of three integration networks(Single Framing Networks, One-sided Networks and Two-sided Networks), the paper moves on to analyses of frame blending processes of the selected data with the aid of several figures.Through an extensive cognitive research on the frame reconstruction of campus slogans for Girls’ Day, it is conclusively shown that the interpretation of intertextual discourses undergoes a process of frame shifting. During the key process of reframing,the novel meanings, originating from emergent structure, are a partial projection from two different input spaces or frames activated by embedded intertexts. Hence theframe reconstruction of intertextual discourses is dynamic. It encompasses a blending process of different frames evoked by linguistic units.The cognitive research on reframing processes of intertextual discourses is an innovative attempt. It functions in refreshing the original understanding of intertextuality and exemplifying the feasibility of intertextual studies from the perspectives of Frame Shifting Theory and Conceptual Blending Theory. Thereupon,it provides great prospects for the rigorous and systematic cognitive researches on intertextual discourses.