On The Meaning Construction Of Chinese Network Swearwords From A Perspective Of Conceptual Blending

Due to the introduction and growing maturity of the Internet, ways for people to express ideas, emotions are different from that in real life. Therefore, Netspeak, as a variant of social dialect, comes into being. In the Net environment, everyone is equal. The freedom of cyberspace enables those who are dissatisfied with the social reality or overwhelmed by the pressure of life to make use of such a virtual space to vent and release emotions, which leads to the casualness and vulgarization of the Network language. As a concomitant of the Internet, network swearwords are the products of the network society and can be regarded as a new linguistic phenomenon. There are certain social conditions for its existence. We cannot ignore the study of it because of its frivolousness. Network swearwords are rich in terms of form and meaning, and new words and new meanings are emerging in an endless stream. Compared with the swearwords used in real life, the network swearwords have undergone some changes either in form or meaning. The study focuses on the meaning construction of such a language variant and also discusses the factors that influence the meaning construction.Conceptual Blending Theory put forward by American cognitive linguist Giles Fauconnier and Marker Turner around the year of1990is a theory about meaning construction. In the theoretical framework of CBT, meaning construction of the network swearwords can be reasonably explained. Conceptual blending is the integration of the mental spaces. Within a completed conceptual integration network model, the interaction of the four mental spaces is the basis for the emerging of new meaning. When a linguistic event occurs, two input spaces are activated by the grounding box stored in speaker’s brain. And the third space, called generic space, generates the similar structure of the input spaces. Cross-space mapping takes place between the counterparts of two input spaces, and important elements are partially and selectively projected to the blended space. In such a process, the vital relations are also compressed and then through composition, completion and elaboration, the emergent structure arises. The meaning of network swearwords is an outcome of conceptual blending.By collecting network swearwords, the author finds that the formation of many new words and old ones with new meanings are actually the reflection the metaphorical thinking of human beings. Similarity lying in sound, form and meaning divides network swearwords into three categories. Specifically, netizens often use some homophonic words created through the similarity of pronunciation. And pictographs used as swearword in the Net are popular, too. The original meanings of these pictographs faded away in the Network environment, instead, new meanings are associated with their characteristic patterns. In addition, many words changed into network swearwords after the happening of hot events. The meaning construction of network swearwords is a manifestation of conceptual integration mechanism. The real meaning of the network swearwords in certain context is obtained through mappings and projections and it is under the cognitive operations. To understand the meaning of network swearwords, more background knowledge are needed. The meaning construction is influenced by many factors, including the cognitive context, social and cultural factors and the individual cognitive abilities as well. As a general cognitive mechanism, Conceptual Blending Theory provides a new theoretical perspective for the meaning construction of network swearwords.