A Study Of Parody In English Commercial Advertisements From The Perspective Of Conceptual Blending Theory

Parody is a kind of common rhetorical device. Its vivid and visual characteristics attract many attentions of audience. Although some previous scholars have studied a few aspects of parody in advertisement, most of the studies on parody mainly focus on the approaches of rhetoric, semantics and pragmatics. What’s more, these studies concentrate on the function and understanding of parody, which are short of development and innovation. This research studies the generation of parody in English commercial advertisements and the cognitive factors which affect parody generation from the perspective of conceptual blending theory.This research regards the two research questions in Chapter Three as its logic clue. One question is how parody in English commercial advertisement is generated based on conceptual blending theory. The other is what the cognitive factors that affect parody generation are from the perspective of this theory.Parody and conceptual blending theory have a high similarity structurally. Parody contains ontology and phantom. The word “fang” shows that two words or sentences are involved in a parody, and “ni” expresses the imitation and innovation of ontology. However, two or more input spaces which bear the frames and elements of parody are embodied in conceptual blending theory. These frames and elements are transmitted into blending space to be blended so as to interpret the new meaning of phantom.The following three conclusions can be found according to the cognitive research on parody in English commercial advertisement. First, the generation of parody is a success process. Second, the parody which contains more than two frames also can be studied via the multiple-scope network of conceptual blending theory. Third, mastering the relevant cognitive factors is the basis of exact generation of parody. Parody in English commercial advertisement can not only deepen the audience’s cognition ability, but also prompt people’s language communication ability.