Interpreting Mechanism Of Puns In Advertising: A Cognitive Approach

Pun is a figure of speech commonly used in English, in which some features in sound, form or meaning of a word, phrase or sentence are purposefully made use of to produce aesthetic sense in sound, form or meaning. Because of its peculiar rhetorical and pragmatic effects, pun is widely applied in advertisements to promote sales. Due to many scholars'efforts as well as the development of cognitive linguistics, the studies of puns in advertising have been enriched. However, the traditional research of puns in advertising mainly focus on their classifications, properties, rhetorical functions and expressive effects, the cognitive analysis of the interpretation process of puns in advertising is relatively few. Therefore, this thesis attempts to set up a comprehension model to analyze puns in advertising from the view of cognition and to discover the comprehension mechanism underlying puns in advertising.In the thesis, an integrated model, CFM (Conceptual Blending Frame-shifting Model), is set up by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of Conceptual Blending Theory and Frame-Shifting in the interpretation of puns in advertising. Then the model is applied to the analysis of various puns in advertising. Based on Wen Jun's classification and the proposed model, this thesis reclassifies puns. After analyzing, it is found that the interpretation of puns in advertising is a dynamic cognitive process during which two input spaces are established by frame-shifting, and then through the processes of blending, mapping, ultimately achieve the advertisers'intended meaning. The whole process is on the basis of linguistic context and background knowledge.This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter One provides a general introduction to the whole research, including the objectives, rationale and methodology as well as data collection of this thesis. Chapter Two gives a brief introduction to definitions, classifications and semantic features as well as functions of puns in advertising. It also discusses previous studies on puns in advertising by different scholars and finds out the room for further study. In Chapter Three, an integrative model is set up after an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Conceptual Blending Theory and Frame-Shifting. Chapter Four discusses the reclassification of puns in advertising and the application of the integrated model, in which the comprehension mechanism underlying puns in advertising is discovered. The conclusion is made in Chapter Five by presenting the thesis's contributions, implications, limitations and suggestions for the future study.