An Analysis Of Humor With Conceptual Blending Theory

Humor is a ubiquitous phenomenon pervading many spheres of our ordinary life and communication. The study of humor has a long-standing history, whereas the previous studies were mainly from the perspectives of rhetoric, semantics, phonetics or pragmatics. In recent years, conceptual blending theory developed and elaborated by Fauconnier & Turner has opened a new window for cognitive studies of humor.In the light of this theory, this thesis devoted itself to elucidating and exposing the cognitive mechanism of humor and dynamic meaning construction process. A large portion of the examples are from very popular personages and comedy programs, such as famous cross talk actors Guo Degang and Hou Baolin from China, stand-up comedian Joe Wong from America, and an evergreen television program “Shoten” from Japan. Examples in verbal and caricature forms are vivid, funny, interesting, full of life, and typical of its kind to some extent, minimizing the influence caused by cultural differences on the audience or readers.The main body of the thesis has classified and parsed humor according to sub-types of networks summarized by Fauconnier & Turner. They are simplex, mirror, single-scope and double-scope networks. In the example for the simplex network, the input space of “adultery” provides the specific frame, and elements of the abnormal words and behavior of the wife and the husband are projected from another input, which ended up in the blend with an emergent “dual-infidelity” satire structure. In the example of mirror networks, Han Fuju’s father, a rich and willful old man, insists on putting on the opera “Qin Qiong from Tang fighting against Guan Gong from Han”. In the single-scope network, a non-verbal comic was employed to demonstrate MARRIAGE IS BONDAGE metaphor: although the two inputs have their respective frames, only the “bondage” frame serves to organize the blend, in which the husband cannot enjoy his freedom to drink because he is strongly tied up by the marriage. Finally, in the double-scope network, “boating” and “uterus” are distinct frames, however, when they are selectively projected onto the blend, an emergent structure in which “two ways to immigrate to America” appears.The original subject of the conceptual blending theory was native English speakers’ mode of thought. This thesis has examined the applicability of the theory to humor in the Chinese and even the Japanese languages. In sum, this thesis adopts a relatively new perspective to study and claims the mighty power of conceptual blending theory in creating and understanding humor. It also helps to promote our better comprehension, appreciation and translation of humorous language, so as to broaden cross-cultural exchanges based on humor researches.