A Cognitive Study Of Humor In Chinese Cross Talk From The Perspective Of Conceptual Integration Theory

Humor can be regarded as one of the most distinctive properties of traditionalChinese cross talk and the core of it. As a traditional Chinese style art performance，Chinese cross talk is deeply welcomed by people around the world. The study onhumor in Chinese cross talk has attracted many scholars’ attention. By far, linguistshave studied it under many different linguistic branches such as pragmatics andsociolinguistics. In recent years, as the development of cognitive linguistics, the studyunder this perspective has emerged.According to Fauconnier and Turner, Conceptual Integration Theory isdeveloped from Mental Space Theory and the crucial part of it is networks of CIT,including simplex networks; mirror networks; single-scope networks; double-scopenetworks and multiple networks. CIT has a strong explanatory power in explainingthe meaning construction of every aspect. This paper aims to analyze humor inChinese cross talks under the perspective of cognitive integration theory. During theanalysis, the importance of each network model and the on-line processing of humorwill be discussed with the combination of typical cross talk selections to each type ofConceptual Integration Network.The study shows that Conceptual Integration Theory has a strong explanatorypower in explaining humor in Chinese cross talks. It can explain the on-lineprocessing of humor more deeply so that we can get a better understanding of Chinese traditional art from a new angle.