Study On The Form-Meaning Interaction In Pun Construction And Its Semantic Mechanism

Pun,as a common language phenomenon,has been regarded as a rhetorical device for centuries.Based on former scholars' abundant researches of syntax,pragmatics and other aspects of linguistics,this thesis attempts to regard pun as a new form of pun construction and study its form-meaning interaction under the construction theory.The adoption of conceptual blending theory(CBT)and coercion theory aims to reveal the semantic mechanism of pun construction.Construction theory and CBT are two fundamental theories of cognitive linguistics.In the process of studying pun's semantic mechanism,this study adopts a new perspective in studying pun construction,trying to find the interaction between meaning and form and they depend each other in the process.In pun construction,the thesis explains the relation between form and meaning by phonological pun construction,morphological pun construction and ambiguity of pun construction,in which the relations between the syllables,words,puns and meanings to illustrate the form and meaning relations.By studying its form meaning relation through the syllable coercion and semantic coercion interaction,the thesis concludes that the form remains stable,while the meaning has changed a lot.This research also studies pun construction from the perspective of the CBT which provides a cognitive perspective of blending.The language phenomena in pun construction are analyzed by conceptual mapping between conceptual blending and mental space processing.The semantic of pun's meaning is triggered by the speakers' intention in the mental world and the elements of two inputs spaces are evoked by the meaning.The hinges of these pun constructions lie in the same part or the double meanings of words in the pun construction.The generic spaces are the common features of these pun constructions.Then their meanings are produced by blended space and emergent structure.The diagram of CBT makes us understand this process more easily.In order to understand the pun constructions' meaning,the scholars also have to know the meaning of the phrases' neighbour words,which make us change our original specification.By phonological coercion and semantic coercion,they make pun construction more concise and meaningful.To make up the explaining fussy process deficiencies of the CBT theory,this thesis studies the pun construction by coercion and context to make it more concise.It alsofinds the interaction between words and words,words and meaning,meaning and meaning and meaning and form.If the words meanings and the other parts meaning mismatch,the coercion will arise.The conclusion achieved in this thesis lies in the following points.First,pun can be analyzed under construction theory.Second,the conceptual blending theory is applicable to pun's explanation,and we can blend different kinds of pun construction into CBT diagram.Third,by using similarities of sound or form of expressions,pun construction makes coercion possible.By this thesis,the author hopes the study can make contributions to the study of pun and cognitive linguistics.