Interdisciplinary Study Of Parody Based On English And Chinese Corpus

Researches on parody have been going on without stop since Aristotle broughtforward the word “parodia” and Mr. Chen Wang-dao mentioned “fangni” in1932.More than300papers and4books on parody have been written by dozens ofresearchers since then. However, there exists a gap in the study of parody frommulti-dimensional and interdisciplinary perspective, and this dissertation fills in thegap by integrating the relevant theories in linguistics with those in philosophy,narratology, language economics as well as Hehe theory.With the research method of combining theoretic analysis with case study, thedissertation researches on parody from five different dimensions, respectivelydescribing the cyclic process of parody’s generation, essence, concealment, presentsituation and correct use, and finally back to its newer and better generation, thusforming a closed multi-dimensional framework. This research is of significance inthree aspects. Firstly, with parody as a medium, it reveals the connections among fivedisciplines mentioned above by unifying and integrating them, providing reference forinterdisciplinary research of language. Secondly, it improves relevant theoreticalconstruction. For example, it puts forward the viewpoint of parodic narrative bydemonstrating the existence of parody narrative, which supplements narratology.Besides, it broadens the research area of language economics by applying someimportant concepts such as alternation, game theory, fetishism and diminishingmarginal utility to parodic research. Thirdly, it boosts intersections of disciplines, suchas the inner intersection of sub-disciplines in linguistics, the distant intersectionbetween rhetoric and narratology, and the interface intersection of linguistics withscience of system, economics and Hehe theory, with the aim of fostering newacademic realm and new subject research.The dissertation consists of nine chapters.Chapter one gives a definition to “fangni” and discusses its two inner keyelements. Chapter two is contributed to reviewing and commenting on parody studies bothinland and abroad.Chapter three probes into the generation of parody from the dimension ofphilosophy: Systematics Philosophy and Language Philosophy.Firstly, enlightened by the Information Theory, the generation and acceptance ofparody equal to the encoding and decoding of information, on which basis,“TheModel of Parody’s Generation and Acceptance Based on Information Theory” isconstructed. Secondly, four basic characteristics of the Dissipative Structure Theoryput forward by Progogine provide parody with material base, platform for existence,and multi-dimensional creation model. Besides, the theory also gives guidance to howwe can avoid negative deviation of parody. Based on these, we draw a sketch map ofthe formation of parodic dissipate structure, presenting the application of naturalscience in linguistics. Thirdly, linguistic philosophy explains parody’s characteristicsof language game, namely, its diversity, family resemblance and regularity.Chapter four reveals parody’s essence from the dimension of linguistics. Theresult of research shows that Conceptual Blending Theory in cognitive linguisticsoffers mental mechanism for parody construction, and the generic space plays animportant role in avoiding parody’s negative deviation.The case study of “central word+externalized communicative appellation”reorganizes the representation methods, which means that association view is also anessential part of representation means apart from the experience view, prominenceview and observation view. With this, re-sequencing of the representation means incognitive linguistics is made according to the thinking order. Besides, the researchresults reveal that the choice of externalized communicative appellations is made onthe basis of politeness principle, self-belittling and others-esteeming is the internalmotivation.As far as pragmatics is concerned, the Relevance Theory explains that the innerrelationship between noumenon and profile model lies in their relevance inpronunciation, word meaning and discourse. The generation and understanding ofparody should follow “Three Laws in Language Use”, namely, law of force constancy, law of autonomy and law of economy. Under these laws, the effort payout inparody-making is constant; the process of parody making shows people’s autonomyand novelty, the utility maximization is represented, but the marginal utilitydiminishes. The use of parody is the reflection of the Least Effort Principle, forparody makes speech-saving possible and guarantees speech effort. By using it, theaim of effort-saving and effort optimization is realized, which makes parody becomethe achiever of the45°angle mentioned in the Least Effort Principle.Onomatology draws out the naming function of parody, since the making ofapartment names with “yuan”(园) as generic term gives an illustration for it.Chapter five studies things concealed in parody from the perspective ofnarratology. Parody is also proved to be one kind of narration according to rhetoricalnarratology and the existence of events in it. Its narrative features lie in that thephilosophy of parody narrative originates from intertextuality, while its languagebares the characteristic of defamiliarization, and its narrative power comes fromimitation and analogy. With all these, stories from one to another are told bymeans of parody.Chapter six puts present using situation of parody under consideration. Languagemisuse in advertisement roots in parody fetishism, which is the result of theevolvement from the primitive fetishism, to commodity fetishism and further tosymbol fetishism. The main reasons of this phenomenon lie in three aspects, namely,seeking prompt success and instant benefits in product selling, overemphasizingnovelty and diversity of the advertisement language as well as blindly pursuingcelebrity effect. To advocate correct parody generation and abandon parody fetishism,we must diminish media influence, convert consuming self-identity and cast awayplaying language tricks. Above all, the key is calling for an ultra-utilitarian aestheticculture.Being the primary principle of economics, the alternation theory also applies toparody research. There exist two kinds of alternations in parody, namely extrinsicalternation and intrinsic alternation, which are also called alternations of form andconnotation. Intrinsic alternation is sub-divided into two kinds: alternation between innovation and construction, as well as alternation between form and effect. It provesto be the root of language innovation and the important guarantee of language layoutand harmony, which deserves research. The balance of parody alternation can bereached by following the strategy of opportunity cost and relevant linguistic tactics.According to the Game Theory, parody is the reflection of language game.Parody game is divided into two types, firstly, the game between noumenon andprofile model and secondly, the game between creator and recipient. The research onparody game shows that the choice of language is a game and parody game may bringus certain expressive effect in language use.Chapter seven analyses parody use. Parody misuse leads to language disharmonyin the aspect of speech sounds, vocabulary, grammar and the combination of languageunit, which embodies the feudal consciousness, juggles language idioms, slanderscelebrities and hurts people’s feeling. To avoid this, we must abandon undesired valueorientation, eliminate economic negative influence and advocate construction ofharmonious language.Chapter eight constructs a multi-disciplinary framework for parody. Based on theresearches from chapter three to chapter seven, this part analyses and summarizes theintrinsic quality and its role revealed in all the above dimensions, and brings forth thisframework. The author shows, in a diagram, all the dimensions mentioned in thedissertation, and explains their situations and orders, which plays the role oftheoretical model for multi-disciplinary research of some language phenomena.Chapter nine makes a conclusion for the dissertation, we also points out thedeficiencies in the research and forecasts future researches in parody.