On The Generating Mechanism Of Internet Xieyinci Under The Perspective Of Autonomy-dependency Analysis Framework

In modern society, Internet influences many aspects of people’s life. Communicationsbetween people on Internet are increasingly frequent. Then the Internet language which canachieve special expression effects has come into being and is welcomed by netizens. Amongthe Internet language, Internet xieyinci (网络谐音词) occupies a large proportion. Internetxieyinci has the same or similar pronunciations, but different forms with the normal word usedin daily life. It is used by netizens to replace the normal word, expressing the meaning of thecommon word and achieving special expression effects. For example, netizens use Internetxieyinci “童鞋” to replace “同学” and they use Internet xieyinci “杯具” to replace “悲剧”.Theemergence of a large number of Internet xieyinci has caused the attention of many scholars.Many scholars study it from perspectives of rhetoric, culture and aesthetics discussing itsdefinition, classification, features, and causes of creation. However, only a few scholars havestudied the generation mechanism of Internet xieyinci from the cognitive perspective. Thesmall amount of researches on the generation mechanism of Internet xieyinci lack effectiveclassification. They only focus on the generation process of individual Internet xieyinci andignore the distinctions of generation processes between different kinds of Internet xieyinci.These researches are too general and lack system. Due to this reason, this thesis intends tostudy the generation mechanism of Internet xieyinci based on Xu Shenghuan’sAutonomy—Dependency Analysis Framework from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.The object of the thesis is Internet xieyinci under Chinese network environment. A newterm “xieyinci” will be used in this thesis which includes words both with the same andsimilar pronunciations to make a difference from “Homophones” which only includes wordswith the same pronunciations. Internet xieyinci which replaces the normal word will be called “xieyin expression” and the corresponding normal word will be called “base expression”.The theoretical basis for this thesis is Xu Shenghuan’s Autonomy-Dependency AnalysisFramework. This theory is mainly used in discussing the generation mechanism of languageexpression. The Autonomy-Dependency Analysis Framework points out that the languageexpression includes the explicit and the implicit expression. The implicit expression is thecomparatively complete meaning in speaker’s mind and serves as the autonomous element.The explicit expression is dependent on the implicit expression and serves as the dependentelement. The generation process of the language expression can be stated as: with theguidance of the intentionality, the autonomous element derives the dependent element by therelation of similarity/proximity. Then the autonomy-dependency alignment is formed. Theautonomous element is dominant to the dependent element and transmits its own intention tothe dependent element by nipping-along. Intentionality includes the intentional content andthe intentional attitude. The intentional content is the meaning expressed by the speaker andthe intentional attitude effects the choice of the language expression.In order to facilitate the analysis of Internet xieyinci generation mechanism, in this thesis,Internet xieyinci is divided into two main kinds according to the meaning relations betweenInternet xieyinci and the corresponding normal word. The first kind is that Internet xiyincionly represents the meaning of the normal word and the second kind is that Internet xieyincihas the new meaning based on the meaning of the normal word. According toAutonomy-Dependency Analysis Framework, the thesis provides detailed generationprocesses of the two kinds of Internet xieyinci and puts forward a unified generationmechanism of Internet xieyinci. Generally speaking, the generation mechanism of Internetxieyinci can be stated as: The generation of Internet xieyinci is triggered by speaker’sintentionality which includes the intentional content and the intentional attitude. With theguidance of the intentional attitude, the intentional content which serves as the autonomous element firstly drives the normal word which serves as the dependent element by the relationof similarity/proximity. The normal word derived in the first process can wholly or partlyrepresent the intentional content. Then, the derived normal word serves as the autonomouselement in the second derivational process. With the further guidance of the intentionality, thenormal word derives Internet xieyinci which serves as the dependent element in the secondderivational process by the relation of similarity/proximity.Based on the new classification of Internet xieyinci and Autonomy-Dependency AnalysisFramework, the thesis provides the systematic and all-around analysis of Internet xieyincigeneration process and a unified generation mechanism of Internet xieyinci. This thesis isexpected to be helpful for further studies.