A Study On Integration Of Images In Classical Chinese Poetry From The Perspective Of Conceptual Integration Theory

As a general cognitive method, the Conceptual Integration Theory (CIT) put forward by Fauconnier and Turner has a strong explanatory power of the process of people learning the objective world. Images abound in classical Chinese poetry. This thesis takes advantage of Conceptual Integration Networks to study how images construct imagery and meaning in classical Chinese poetry from the cognitive level, aiming at proving that this western cognitive linguistic theory can also provide an available theoretical framework for analyzing classical Chinese poetry. Meanwhile, this study explores a new applicable field for CIT and provides a new perspective to interpret classical Chinese poetry.After classifying and studying classical Chinese poems, the author finds that the cognitive mechanism of images in these poems can be analyzed by three major types of integration networks——Mirror Network, Single-scope Network and Double-scope Network. Three classical Chinese poems are selected to be the research objects in this thesis. The integrating process of images in these three poems is elaborated through the three network models respectively. Other important aspects like Cross-space Mapping, Selective Projection, Compression of Vital Relations and Governing Principles in the blending process are analyzed. All these analyses testify the great power of CIT in explaining ancient Chinese poetic discourse.