A Study On Cognitive Interpretation Of Non-literal Meanings Of Words In Chinese News Headlines From The Perspective Of Conceptual Blending Theory

Words in a particular language are relatively limited while meanings that we express by words are infinite.In communication,literal expressions of words are often endowed with non-literal meanings in the given context.Therefore,interpreting non-literal meanings of word is not only the basis of understanding sentences,utterances and discourse,but also an important perspective of language studies.Based on description and interpretation,this thesis selects 283 news headlines with words of non-literal meanings from 1,400 pieces of news of Hangzhou Daily in January of 2017,and interprets these non-literal meanings under the guidance of Conceptual Blending Theory.According to language features of non-literal meanings,simplex networks,mirror networks,single-scope networks and double-scope networks are applied to interpret non-literal meanings of words in news headlines with the examples in Hangzhou Daily.It is found that Input Space I contains common knowledge and its frame and Input Space II includes elements and the frame involved in the news;Generic Space reflects common structures of two input spaces.In Blended Space,there are elements and the frame(or frames)which are selectively projected from two input spaces,together with common structures from Generic Space;then through composition,completion and elaboration,non-literal meanings of words in news headlines are unveiled in Emergent Structure.In addition,Simplex and Single-scope networks are especially suitable for interpreting non-literal meanings in news headlines.Common knowledge and news context are indispensable to the interpretation processes.The frame in common knowledge plays an important role in the new frame of Emergent Structure while news context influences completion a lot.This thesis has verified that Conceptual Blending Theory can well interpret non-literal meanings of words in news headlines,and thus has expanded its application.Besides,interpretation of non-literal meanings of words in news headlines under the guidance of Conceptual Blending Theory has broadened the research scope of non-literal meanings.