The Meaning Construction Of Chinese Wisecrack And The Conceptual Integration Networks

The purpose of this dissertation is to verify that Conceptual Blending Theory (also called conceptual integration or blending), proposed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, is a general cognitive operation and serves a variety of cognitive purposes. By applying the blending theory to the meaning construction of Chinese wisecrack, this dissertation attempts to demonstrate the meaning of Chinese wisecracks can be explained through the Conceptual Blending Theory at the level of cognitive operation, and to offer an alternative perspective on the interpretation of Chinese wisecracks.This dissertation at first states two different philosophical views—Objective and Experiential views, and the accordingly based language study approaches. Through the review, it is clear that the cognitive approach is without the defects of other approaches based on the Objective view, hence is more powerful in illustrating natural language phenomena. Then it reviews one theory of cognitive approach--Fauconnier &Turner's Conceptual Blending Theory, the Conceptual Integration Networks and its elements. With fifty pieces of Chinese wisecrack chosen at random order as data for analysis, the application of blending theory is to be fulfilled in seven aspects: Input Spaces, the Generic Spaces, the Blend, Cross-space Mapping, Selective Projection, Emergent Structure and the Compression of Vital Relations. Then those wisecracks are classified according to the feature of integration networks—Organizing Frame. As the data analyses suggest, the meaning construction mainly involves in four types of networks: Mirror Network, Single-Scope Network, Double-Scope Network and Multiple Blends (also called Multiple-scope Network). Moreover, the hidden cognitive process of meaning construction of Chinese wisecrack, which is a kind of entrenched language phenomenon, can be revealed by those four types of networks to some extent.