Interpretation Of Verbal Humor In Chinese Cross Talk With Cognitive Linguistics

Cross talk is a traditional Chinese bantering-style dialogue and verbal art which typically involves two performers who make comical speeches, employing various performance techniques. Verbal humor is the prominent characteristics of cross talk, and it is prevalent on TV, over the radio and even on Internet. It is loved by people from all walks of lives for its highly exaggerating and refined humorous language. It is a pity that we seldom think about what makes cross talk so interesting and how its charm can be kept. In this sense, the thesis aims to find out the linguistic rules and human beings'cognitive mechanism lying behind the laughter by the application of frame-shifting theory and conceptual blending theory so as to have a better understanding of cross talk and effectively utilize the cognitive techniques to produce more and better works of cross talk. This research also takes into account the particular background knowledge and contextual information that cross talk involves, together with the interactive goals necessary in the interpretation of them.Through an extensive study into cross talk from the perspectives of frame-shifting and conceptual blending, the current research reaches a conclusion that frame-shifting and conceptual blending play an essential role in representing the meaning construction process of cross talks. Frame-shifting theory appears to explain adequately the triggers of semantic reinterpretation of Chinese cross talks, while conceptual blending theory seems to apply neatly to cross talks involving concepts from different domains.The application of the above cognitive linguistic theories to cross talk analysis entails three meanings: firstly, applying the cognitive linguistic theories to cross talk analysis can achieve a better representation of the meaning construction processes of cross talk, hence achieving at a more in-depth understanding of the mechanism of cross talk and facilitating the comprehension and appreciation of cross talks. Secondly, applying the cognitive linguistic theories to analyze natural-language discourse can provide a general examination of the explanatory power of these theories, with an effort to find their strengths and weaknesses in analyzing real-world discourse and further to reinforce the strengths and improve weaknesses for better explanatory adequacy. At last, the research also hopes to establish a cultural bridge for foreigners interested in Chinese cross talk.