Verbal Humor Analysis In Chinese And American Talk Shows Based On Conceptual Blending Theory

Verbal humor, as a kind of laughter-evoking form of verbal communication, has aroused scholars to conduct studies on verbal humor from aspects such as rhetoric, pragmatics, semantics, linguistics and so on. In recent years, studies on verbal humor from cognitive perspective spring up with the development of cognitive linguistics. In this thesis, the author tries to interpret the types of verbal humor in talk shows and the dynamic cognitive process of verbal humor in talk shows, and verify the hypothesis that the cognitive processes of both Chinese verbal humor and English verbal humor from talk shows are accordant based on CBT.The thesis, taking verbal humor examples from Chinese talk show Mr, Zhou Live Show and American talk show Allen Show and two episodes of Joe Wang’s talk show as data, employs four integration networks of CBT, namely simplex network, mirror network, single-scope network and double-scope network, to analyze the verbal humor at language level, situational level and cultural level in Chinese and American talk shows, presenting the dynamic cognitive process of the generation of humor effect.It is concluded that verbal humors at language, situational and cultural levels do exist in talk shows, that four blending networks, which explicitly display the dynamic cognitive process, are powerfully explanatory to verbal humor, and that the cognitive processes of both Chinese verbal humor and English verbal humor from talk shows are accordant, since the humor effect of both is realized by emergent structure. In addition, the thesis will be helpful to the programming of excellent TV talk shows.