Research On Theme Realization In Wang Wei's Poetry From The Perspective Of Conceptual Blending Theory

Conceptual blending theory,originating from mental space theory,has become an integrated part in cognitive poetics since it appeared.Due to its strong explanatory power to linguistic phenomena,it is widely used for the study of literary texts.Conceptual blending theory involves four mental spaces including two input spaces,one generic space and one blended space.In the blending mechanism,some elements in the two input spaces correspond with each other to form cross-space mappings.Then elements from two input spaces are selectively projected onto the blended space in which composition,completion and elaboration help to generate an innovative structure called emergent structure.The emergent structure can create new information,new meaning and new knowledge that the original input spaces haven't included.The blending of mental spaces is very commonplace on account of the imaginative feature of classic Chinese poetry.Thus,more and more scholars at home and abroad start out to pay attention to studying its application in classic Chinese poetry.However,previous studies mainly lay emphasis on the interpretation of images or artistic conceptions or translation.Few scholars have made explorations on the blending processes in theme realizations.Therefore,this thesis takes it as the entry point to explore the realization of themes in Wang Wei's poetry.In the analysis of the classic Chinese poetry,the blending models concerned are respectively mirror network,single-scope network and double-scope network.In the mirror network model,images in Wang Wei's poetry consist of two input spaces with the same organizing frame.The elements in the two input spaces,which are mapped with each other,are projected onto the blended space.The themes are produced in the blending of the input spaces.The single-scope network can be adopted to explain the blending between abstract images and concrete images in Wang Wei's poetry.The two input spaces have different organizing frames and only the frame of concrete images will be projected onto the blended space as the basis for the interpretation of themes in Wang Wei's poetry.Similar to the single-scope network,the input spaces of the double-scope networks also differ from each other in their organizing frames.Yet parts of the two frames are projected together onto the blended space,resulting in the realization of the poetry themes through the operations of composition,completion and elaboration.The three networks of conceptual blending theory successfully elaborate on the blending processes of Wang Wei's poetry themes.It can not only help readers have a better understanding of the poetry themes,but also open up a different path for the interpretation of classic Chinese poetry,which is of theoretical and practical value.