An Conceptual Blending Analysis Of Metaphorical Humor In Talk Shows

Humor, as a language phenomenon, is prevalent in our daily life. The humor research enjoys a long history with studies from a variety of fields such as philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Linguistically, humor has been mainly examined from semantic and pragmatic perspectives. However, with the development of cognitive science, an increasing number of linguists have begun to adopt a cognitive view for a better explanation. Conceptual Blending Theory, with its explanatory power on the dynamic meaning construction, has provided new insights into humor study and yielded fruitful results. Nevertheless, as to the application of Conceptual Blending Theory in interpreting humorous effects created by the use of metaphor, i.e. metaphorical humor, in talk shows, very little research has been done in this regard. Metaphor in the cognitive field is not merely a rhetorical device, but also a cross-domain mapping and a cross-space blending. The creation of novel metaphorical concepts through mapping and blending is also conducive to the generation of humor in theory.The thesis selects180metaphorical humors from the popular American talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show and conducts both qualitative and quantitative studies of them within the framework of Conceptual Blending Theory. By revealing the meaning construction process of metaphorical humor, the thesis confirms that metaphor can contribute to the production of humor in practice, demonstrates the explanatory power of conceptual integration theory on the generation and comprehension of metaphorical humor, and broadens the scope of humor study. Besides, combining the feature of talk show languages, the thesis also summarizes the factors influencing people’s understanding of metaphorical humor as well as its functions in conversation, with a view to helping readers achieve a better grasp of metaphorical humor in talk shows.