A Study On Verbal Humor In Let’s Talk In Perspective Of Conceptual Blending Theory

Verbal humor is a form of language expression that widely exists in people’s daily communication.There are various rhetoric devices in Chinese,which also greatly enriches the content and form of verbal humor.However,the current research scope of verbal humor is limited especially in the perspective of rhetoric.The previous studies mainly focus on the verbal humor in foreign classic sitcoms and most of them are discussed from the perspective of semantics and pragmatics.Clearly,the depth and breadth of their researches have obvious limitations.This study selects the humorous discourses of debaters,hosts and guests in domestic online show Let’s Talk,which has attracted much attention in China.In addition,it adopts Conceptual Blending Theory as analysis tool to explore the cognitive mechanism of verbal humor and to reveal their meaning construction process.And there are two research questions needed to be resolved in this study:(1)Rhetoric devices are employed in verbal humor of Let’s Talk.(2)In perspective of Conceptual Blending Theory,the generation process of meaning construction and cognitive mechanism behind verbal humor in domestic online show Let’s Talk.According to research results,firstly,verbal humor in Let’s Talk is mainly expressed through ten rhetoric devices and according to their frequency,the distribution of different rhetoric devices in verbal humor is metaphor,pun,exaggeration,antithesis,distortion,parody,parallelism,contrast,personification and quotation.Metaphor is most widely distributed in collected data.A total of 333 pieces of verbal humor are collected in the show,of which 82 are metaphor verbal humor,accounting for the highest proportion of 24.6%,followed by 56 and 40 are contrast verbal humor and exaggeration verbal humor,accounting for 16.8% and12% respectively.Secondly,CBT has a strong explanatory power for interpreting the dynamic generation process of verbal humor,which is mainly realized through three processes,namely composition,completion and elaboration.Only the three steps are finished,verbal humor is produced and humorous effect is realized in the emergent structure.Besides,the four networks of CBT are all composed of four different but relevant mental spaces,which are closely related to people’s cognitive patterns and background knowledge provide a spatial network of meaning construction for humor research.And the speaker’s emotional attitude and cognitive insights can be reflected.In addition,the distribution of the four basic networks of the conceptual blending theory in the rhetoric verbal humor is as follows: the double-scope network accounts for the highest proportion of 37%,followed by the mirror network of 26%,and the remaining single-scope network and simplex network account for 17% and 20% respectively.In addition,the maximum frequency of double-scope network in metaphor verbal humor is 39%,while the maximum frequency of mirror network and single-scope network in contrast verbal humor is37% and 34% respectively.Finally,the maximum proportion of simplex network in exaggeration verbal humor is 40%.This study reveals the dynamic generation process of verbal humor and explains the underlying cognitive mechanism hidden behind it by applying Conceptual Blending Theory,which enriches the research on humor to a certain extent and helps people better perceive and understand humor.At the same time,it also deepens the understanding and application of CBT.On top of that,it plays a role in cultural dissemination and cultural exchange.