A Study Of Pun From The Perspective Of Philosophy Of Mind

Pun, as an extensively used rhetoric device, has been applied in many genres, including literature works, advertisements, riddles, etc. Due to the function of brevity, humor and irony, pun has roused numerous researchers' interest for decades. The previous research studies were mainly conducted in a descriptive way, which focused on the definition, classification, scopes and function of pun. With the development of cognitive science, linguistic research has been increasingly focused on the role of human factors. Therefore, quite a number of scholars have attempted to analyze pun with cognitive linguistics, a new theory which offers insight into the generation and interpretation of the meaning of pun. Given the related studies with the said theory have not delve into the area of the psychological process of pun's generation, this thesis intends to reveal the generative process of pun through the study of subject's consciousness under the framework of the philosophy of mind.As a significant branch of philosophy, philosophy of mind mainly concentrates on mind, consciousness and the mind-body problem, i.e. the relationship of human mind to human body. Language representation is the reflection of mental representation. Therefore, the positive gains of the current study of philosophy of mind can be applied to linguistic research. In China, Xu Shenghuan made first attempt to reveal the characteristics and laws of language from the perspective of philosophy of mind. In light of this, this thesis aims to probe into the mental process of the generation of pun in the framework of philosophy of mind, particularly on intentionality, supervenience, event and usage event. The main objects are to explore the two questions(1) What roles does intentionality play in the generation of pun?(2) What roles does supervenience play in the generation of pun? Through analysis, this thesis comes to the conclusions: First, intentionality is the initial step in the productive process of pun, which controls the mental process. The starting point of the productive process of pun can be viewed as the direction and selection of the event in order to invoke humorous, satire and witty effect. Second, supervenience plays a decisive role in the selection of physical property and mental property. The interaction of mental and physical properties serves as the motive of the generation of pun.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one gives a brief introduction of the background, objectives, methodology and organization of this thesis. Chapter two is the literature review of pun, which reviews the previous study from the perspective of rhetorical, semantic, pragmatic and cognitive approach. Chapter three shows the theoretical framework of pun in light of the philosophy of mind together with a detailed analysis about the related concepts. Chapter four makes a detailed analysis on the generation mechanism of pun from the perspective of the philosophy of mind. Chapter five is the conclusion that includes major findings, limitation and suggestions for the further study.