An Analysis Of Verbal Humor In American Sitcom Two Broke Girls From The Perspective Of Conceptual Integration Theory

Verbal humor is not only a hot topic in linguistic research,but also a common language phenomenon in verbal communication.Scholars at home and abroad have studied humor from the fields of linguistics,anthropology,philosophy,etc.As far as linguistics is concerned,previous studies on verbal humor are mostly conducted from the perspectives of phonetics,semantics,rhetoric and pragmatics.With the development of cognitive linguistics,scholars have done a lot of research on verbal humor from the perspective of cognition.As one of the most influential theories in the field of cognitive linguistics,the Conceptual Integration Theory has attracted much attention because of its powerful and unique explanatory power,which has been used to explain the cognitive mechanism behind many linguistic phenomena.The Conceptual Integration Theory was first put forward by Fauconnier in 1994.Its main function is to explore the cognitive process based on the integration of cognitive space and dynamic online meaning construction.Through literature collection,collation and reading,it is found that most of the previous studies on verbal humor are supported by Cooperative Principle,Politeness Principle,Speech Act Theory and Relevance Theory,while the researches on verbal humor are mostly static,but rarely involve the dynamic generation process of verbal humor and the network construction of humor meaning.Therefore,taking the popular American sitcom Two Broke Girls as the material,this study collects verbal humor in the sitcom and classifies it into situational verbal humor,language verbal humor and cultural verbal humor.Based on the Concept Integration Theory proposed by Fauconnier and Turner(1988),the author applies four basic network,namely,simplex network,mirror network,single-scope network and double-scope network to explain the dynamic process of its generating and understanding from three aspects of situation,language and culture.This study attempts to answer the following questions:(1)What kinds of verbal humor exist in American sitcom Two Broke Girls?(2)How can the different types of verbal humor be analyzed from the perspective of the Concept Integration Theory?The main findings of this thesis are as follows:(1)The Conceptual Integration Theory has a strong explanatory power for the production of verbal humor and the realization of humorous meaning in the sitcom Two Broke Girls.In the American sitcom Two Broke Girls,the author divides verbal humor into situational verbal humor,language verbal humor and cultural verbal humor.(2)Humor is produced throughout the process of conceptual and cognitive realization.The four specific types of conceptual integration networks present different patterns and characteristics,but the integration process must complete the three steps of conceptual integration,namely composition,completion and elaboration,in order to achieve a complete interpretation of the production of verbal humor and the realization of humor effect in the new structure.The conceptual integration network model and corresponding charts can better present the dynamic cognitive process and psychological activities of the addressee.This dynamic research breaks the previous static research on the analysis and interpretation of verbal humor.