Conceptual Integration Theory For The Explanation Of The Idiom Renovation In Chinese Advertisements

Idiomatic expressions are familiar, well-established and culturally-loaded set phrases. In some situations, these fixed phrases are not present in their original forms, but still can activate the meanings of the idioms in people's minds. With this cognitive characteristic, some Chinese advertisements intend to depart the fixed forms of idioms, such as using homophone replacements, adding other words and so on. All of these are called idiom renovation. Idiom renovation is frequently used in the innovation of advertisement language. Creative usage of idioms, proverbs and allegorical sayings contributes greatly to the enriching of expressions and techniques of advertisements. Idiom renovation tends to defy and deform traditional linguistic regulations and has penetrated into various aspects of human life.In this thesis, the Conceptual Integration Theory and Conceptual Integration Networks proposed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner are applied to the interpretation of the meaning construction of idiom renovation in Chinese advertisements from the cognitive perspective. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate that Blending, as a strong and indispensable cognitive instrument to be applied to meaning construction, can offer new insights and an alternative perspective on the interpretation of idiom renovation in Chinese advertisements.With fifty pieces of idiom renovation in Chinese advertisements chosen at a random order as data for analysis, the application of blending theory is to be fulfilled in six aspects: input spaces, the generic space, the blend, cross-space mapping, selective projection, and emergent structure. And these idiom renovations are classified according to the features of integration networks—organizing frame. As the data analyses suggest, the meaning construction mainly involves in three types of networks: single-scope network, double-scope network and multiple blends (also called multiple-scope network). The production, transference and process of meaning in idiom renovation can be revealed by those three types of networks to some extent.