A Study Of Chinese Pun From The Perspective Of Philosophy Of Mind

This paper studies Chinese puns from the perspective of philosophy of mind based on the following two aspects: First,pun,as a universal linguistic phenomenon,has been widely used in every field of life and has always been studied by linguists from different perspectives.Through the summary of previous studies,the author finds that the previous studies mainly focus on rhetoric aspect,semantic aspect,pragmatic aspect and cognitive aspect.However,previous rhetoric studies only focus on the euphemistic,ironic,humorous language expression effects of pun;Semantic studies only focus on the relationship between double meanings of pun while ignore the dynamic generation process of double meanings;Pragmatic studies only focus on the pragmatic factors of pun generation,explaining how people communicate through pun;Most of the cognitive studies just mechanically apply one theory or a combination of several theories,but ignore the initial conditions and variants in the process of pun generation.Second,nowadays,language study is paying more and more attention to the role of human factors in the use of language.In recent years,many scholars have applied some theories of philosophy of mind to the study of language and achieved fruitful achievements,such as Xu Shenghuan,He Aijing,Hua Hongyan,Liao Qiaoyun,etc.,but there are a few scholars who study puns from the perspective of philosophy of mind.Pun,as a kind of language phenomenon,is closely related to human cognition.The author thinks that regarding pun as the product of human cognitive mental process and then interpreting the subject's consciousness activity can make up for the shortcomings of previous studies,so it is very necessary and feasible to study pun from the perspective of philosophy of mind.Philosophy of mind originates from French philosopher Merleau-Ponty's(1945)Phenomenology of Perception,the main representative figures are George Lakoff(1999),J.R.Searle's(1983),etc.Philosophy of mind mainly studies human's mind and consciousness,and the relationship between body and brain.Applying the theories of philosophy of mind to language study is an innovative theoretical exploration in line with the practice of Chinese studies initiated by Xu Shenghuan,a famous scholar,in2010.It mainly discusses the relationship between language expression and mentalactivity.Therefore,this paper attempts to study the generation of Chinese puns used in poems,advertisements and allegorical sayings by applying intentionality,supervenience,physical property,mental property,event and usage event of philosophy of mind.This paper mainly discusses two questions: First,what role does intentionality play in the generation of Chinese puns;Second,what role does supervenience play in the generation of Chinese puns.The main findings of this paper: First,intentionality is the starting point of the generation of Chinese puns,which determines the selection and positioning of events.The subject uses Chinese puns so as to express intentional content with euphemistic,humorous and ironic intentional attitude.Second,supervenience controls the selection of physical property and mental property of event,and that mental property supervenes on physical property is the basis of the generation of Chinese puns.Exploring the role of intentionality and supervenience in the generation of Chinese puns can help us better understand the use of Chinese puns by subject in poems,advertisements and allegorical sayings.The contributions of this study have two aspects: In terms of theory,the author uses some theories of philosophy of mind to analyze the subject's mental activities during the generation of Chinese puns,which can provide a reasonable explanation for the application of Chinese puns and provide a new perspective for the future study of other linguistic phenomena in Chinese.In practice,by studying the generation of Chinese puns from the perspective of philosophy of mind,the author deeply interprets intentionality and supervenience accompanying the generation process of Chinese puns,and brings an important inspiration to the research of other linguistic phenomena in the future.