A Study On Verbal Humor In Modern Family From The Perspective Of Conceptual Blending Theory

Humor,a pervasive language phenomenon,a crystallization of human wisdom,plays crucial roles in many aspects of life,especially in social interactions.Because of its popularity and interestingness,humor has gained tremendous attention from scholars in different fields for centuries,which leads to the emergence of a variety of significant and inspiring theories about humor.In recent years,theoretical achievements in different branches of linguistics have been exploited and incorporated into the exploration of some sophisticated forms of humor just as the subject of the thesis.Humor embedded in the situation comedy is more vivid,and also more authentic.With the preset background,the coherent plots and the distinct personality,the dialogues between characters bring not only sheer enjoyment,but also profound sense.The arising of conceptual blending theory offers a brand-new approach to the research of verbal humor.As one of the most infusive theories in the realm of cognitive linguistics,the theory has caught many scholars’ interests because of its mighty interpreting power.It is believed that the theory is a productive linguistic and inferential tool for exploring different kinds of phenomena.Many scholars,at home and abroad,have combined the theory with a variety of concrete language forms.The central point of conceptual blending theory is the dynamic aspects of meaning construction,which provides us with a thorough understanding of the internal mechanism of verbal humor,and facilitate its comprehension and appreciation.The research of verbal humor has entered a new stage through the analysis of typical discourse in sitcoms from the perspective of conceptual blending theory.Based on conceptual blending theory,this thesis tries to analyze verbal humor that is applied to American sitcom Modern Family by some qualitative research methods and further explains how verbal humor is generated and construed from the perspective of cognitive linguistics,with the aim of providing an insight into the perceiving and appreciation of humorous utterances in the sitcom.The paper falls into three parts: Introduction,Body,and Conclusion.The first part is Introduction.First,it presents a general view of the research history and present situation of verbal humor,explores the theoretical value and the practical significance of humorous dialogues in the sitcom from the perspective of conceptual blending theory.Meanwhile,it specifies the research questions and methods,expounds the research objective and the general information of the research object,including data collection and its artistic features and research value.Modern Family is one of the most successful sitcoms in America,with documentary style bringing real and practical data.But so far there are not many works studying verbal humor in Modern Family from the perspective of conceptual blending theory,which is also one of its innovations: to make an empirical analysis on the generation and construal process of verbal humor from the cognitive point of view.The second part is Body,consisting of three chapters.The first chapter is the literature review.In this part,it gives a general review of the research object,including the concepts,classification of verbal humor.Then,it presents the key concepts and relevant content of conceptual blending theory,such as mental spaces,conceptual blending networks,Wang Wenbin’s revised model on conceptual blending theory,and the connection between the two theories.The second chapter mainly presents the generation process of verbal humor in Modern Family based on the conceptual blending networks.Several typical humorous dialogues are selected from the sitcom Modern Family,categorized based on respective characteristics and analyzed by applying the four different types of blending networks.The network model of conceptual blending is central to the theory,which is a network of mental spaces composed of frames.The speaker constructs them based on contextual information and background knowledge.There are four subtypes whose emergent meanings are in different degrees of significance: simplex,mirror,single-scope,and double-scope.Specifically,conceptual blending is completed through three steps: composition,completion,and elaboration.During the operation,two input spaces,one generic space,and one blended space are interconnected by selective projection to form a blending network.In the process,the speaker blends the background information stored in his brain and the newly-inputted discourse information to develop an emergent structure.The production of humorous effects depends on the contradiction between current thinking and conventional thinking.Conceptual blending is a complicated mental process.Through a series of operations,the distinct features of the four networks are summarized,and the meaning-construction process is illustrated dynamically.The third chapter gives a detailed description of the construal process of verbal humor in Modern Family based on the revised model,proposed by Wang Wenbin.Based on the conceptual blending networks,the refined cognitive model mainly contains four processing steps in meaning construal,i.e.space access,space conflict,space transition and space confirmation.The four stages have independent function respectively though they connect with each other in sequence.The realization of humorous effects depends on,to a great extent,space conflict besides the partial similarity between spaces.Accordingly,the hearer has to comprehend the underlying or purposed meaning for the construal of humorous utterances.In the process,these steps would be tried repeatedly until the explanation is compatible with the context.All the elements of language in sitcoms are parts of a particular culture,which bear the enlightening quality,assume edifying significance and reflect a certain cultural value.Of course,the most reasonable and accurate explanation of the utterance would be found out with the help of the cognitive capability,cultural information as well as the situational context,because the verbal humor in sitcoms is closely related to the image of characters,the topic of discourse and language style.Therefore,the specific examples of verbal humor are analyzed in the light of the new model from three angles,namely language-based humor,situation-based humor and culture-based humor respectively.The last part is Conclusion.It summarizes the main findings,presents the specific limitations and brings forward some suggestions for reference.In sum,a more in-depth understanding of the generation and construal processes of verbal humor is of great significance.First,the study sheds light on language learning.With the help of diagrams,language learners can obtain linguistic operation,establish internal logic,and overcome cultural barriers,therefore improving effects of language learning.Next,socio-cultural communication benefits from the study.As an effective means of interpersonal communication,appropriate use of humor can reduce the conflicts and lighten the atmosphere.Finally,the study is conductive to the improvement in the quality of translation.Specifically,it can help translators to recognize the humorous points in the source language and try to find the equivalents of the target language,so as to maximally realize the original effects of humorous utterances.