Humor And Conceptual Blending

Conceptual blending theory, a salient theory in western cognitive linguistic field, was brought forward by Fauconnier in the 1990s. This theory has attracted much attention both at home and abroad due to its forceful explanatory power. Fauconnier believes that conceptual blending (or conceptual integration) consists in all cognitive activities. Scholars have proved its explanatory power from various angles, but few of them apply this theory to humor analysis. Humor studies in China, as a matter of fact, are mainly constrained to the pragmatic domain; few papers, in which humor is studied from the cognitive perspective, mainly choose the relevance theory as the theory background. We maintain that the process of achievement of humorous effect is dynamic in nature, but most humor researches in China do not uncover the dynamic process of how the humorous effect is achieved.Therefore, we try to prove the conceptual blending theory's explanatory power on humor, and at the same time enrich the current humor studies in China from a new angle. Although the general idea of the abstract and complicated blending theory has been widely accepted and is fairly familiar to us, the four sub-networks of conceptual blending are less known, not to speak of their unique features. In this thesis, we associate the four sub-networks of conceptual blending with humor analysis, paying particular attention to the cognitive process of the achievement of humorous effect and distinct characteristics of the four sub-networks.This thesis consists of five chapters. The need for the study, the purposes of the study, and the structure of the thesis are introduced in chapter one. Chapter two is a brief survey on verbal humors. Diverse definitions and classifications of humor, three most often cited humor theories, and humor studies in psychological and linguistic fields, are introduced and elaborated in this chapter. Chapter three is a detailed description of the conceptual blending theory. Its development, its general idea, and its key notions, are all embraced in this chapter. Chapter four is the core of this thesis. In this chapter, the four sub-networks of conceptual blending are first clearly defined.Then these four sub-networks are employed to analyze some humors to prove the blending theory's explanatory power and demonstrate how the humorous effect is achieved. Finally based on a series of elaborate analysis, the features of the four sub-networks are summarized respectively. Chapter five is the conclusion part. The general idea of this thesis is restated, and the conclusion of the research is drawn. At the same time, its limitations are pointed out for the sake of further research.