概念整合理论下言语幽默分析

张茜敏

【摘要】幽默是一种普遍的语言现象，它渗透于人们生活的每个领域。幽默使得人们的生活丰富多彩充满意义，能够减缓压力，改善人们的精神食粮，更重要的是还能建立良好的人际关系。因此，来自不同领域的学者对幽默产生了极大的兴趣，并投入了很多精力。这篇论文从福科尼耶和特纳提出的概念整合理论角度对幽默进行了尝试性探索。通过分析人们对幽默效果的产生有了更好地了解。

【关键词】幽默 概念整合理论 心理空间

【Abstract】Humor is a pervasive phenomenon in language.It permeates every field of human life.It can make peoples life colorful and meaningful， reduce stress， improve peoples mental health and establish harmonious interpersonal relations.Thus， scholars in different fields have paid attention to it.The thesis attempts to explore the humor with the theoretical framework of the Conceptual Blending Theory put forward by Fauconnier and Turner.By this analysis， people will have a better understanding of humorous effects.

【Key Words】Humor； Conceptual Blending Theory； Mental Space

Ⅰ.Introduction：Humor plays an important role in our daily life.However， it is hard to produce a generally agreed definition of humor.In spite of that， people have not stopped the research of it.Nowadays， scholars from different fields are also doing research on it.This thesis will take a look at humor in terms of Conceptual Blending Theory put forward by Fauconnier and Turner.As an important part of cognitive linguistics， Conceptual Blending Theory supplies a new angle to the research of humor.

The research has both theoretical and practical significance.Theoretically， The theory is used as a new tool to analyze humor and it will be further verified and developed.Whats more， it provides the theory for other materials.Practically， by analyzing the humor with Conceptual Blending Theory， people may better appreciation of humor.

Ⅱ.The Basic Ideas of Conceptual Blending Theory

1.Mental Space Theory

According to Fauconnier and Turner（2002）， mental spaces are small conceptual packets constructed as we think and talk， they operate in working memory but are built up partly by acting structure available from long-term memory.

2.Conceptual Blending Theory

In the theory， elements of two or more “mental spaces” are integrated via projection into a new， blended space which has its unique structure.Blending operates on two input mental spaces to produce a third space， the blend.The blend inherits partial structure from the input spaces and has emergent structure of its own.

There are altogether four mental spaces in the Conceptual Blending Theory.

Input spaces： there are two input spaces： the event space and the present utterance space.And there exists a partial mapping of counterparts between those two inputs， which can be called cross-space mapping.

Generic space： generic space maps onto input1 and input2 which reflect the common， usually more abstract structure and organization shared by the two input spaces.Whats more， it defines the core cross-space mapping between them.

Blended space： the two input spaces are brought together and integrated， or blended.The result of this cognitive operation is a new blended space containing information projected from both input spaces.However， the blended space does not only draw on the input spaces， but is characterized by a new， emergent conceptual structure in its own right.

3.The processes of blending

The projection from the input spaces into the blended space involves three processes： composition， completion and elaboration.

Composition： it is the selection of the elements， frame or structures from the two input spaces and then provides relation available that do not exist in the separate inputs.

Completion： It supplies additional structure to the blend without our recognizing of it consciously.After new relations or structures are obtained， they are then projected into the blended space combining with knowledge of background frames， cultural and cognitive models and become one part of the blended structure.

Elaboration： Elaboration is envisaged in a highly dynamic fashion.

At each of the stages， there always occur new content， new structures， new features as well as many other new interpretations.

Ⅲ.The Analysis of Humor with Conceptual Blending Theory

Daughter： daddy， whats the name of the thing that exhales smoke？

Daddy： its chimney.

Daughter： since your nose also exhales smoke， then why is your nose called nose， not a chimney？

Daddy： …

On interpreting this dialogue， the two inputs or mental spaces appear： the input space of a chimney and the input space of the nose.There are similarities as well as distinct features between these two things： a chimney is a construction built by human beings， venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler， stone， furnace or fire place to the outside atmosphere， having no feelings.While a nose is the protruding part of peoples face.From above， it is very clear that there exists a common structure in the generic spaces shared by the two inputs.However， according to the content of the dialogue， only some of them are selected and projected onto the blended space.

In the first input space， or the “nose space”， there are also many elements： a part of peoples face； having feelings， etc.But only the relevant elements and the abstract structure are chosen to be projected onto the blended space.Until now， the first step， Composition， is finished.Elaboration is an activity proceeds in the blended space.As a result， some characteristics of human beings nose are mixed together with some characteristics of a chimney in the blended space.Both the process of Composition and the process of Completion involve the activation of the background knowledge.The final interpretation cannot be attained in either input space only， or the simple cross-space mapping.It is completed through a series of principles and complex cognitive activities.A chimney with nose-like function and a chimney having the ability to exhale gases are represented in the structure.The abstract structure of humans nose is projected onto the blend in order to fill in the frame of human beings nose.As a result， the emergent structure appears in the blended space.

冯巩：真是牛年到了，都穿着新衣服呢？以后您穿衣服找我。您穿我的立领衫，站那就是易中天，穿着我的中山装，马上就变冯小刚，穿着我的黑马甲，美国总统奥巴马。

一胖哥们儿：冯巩，我呢？

冯巩：你穿上我的皮袍，坐下就是藏獒。

Four space models are set up in the analysis on how the humor is achieved.There are two input spaces： input1 is the fat mans thought or viewpoint， input2 is Feng Gongs answer.The common structure shared by the two inputs in the generic space contains “agent， action， result”.The elements of input1 can be： “the man， clothes made by Feng Gong， put on the clothes made by Feng Gong， one of the great figures in the world.” Similarly， in the input space of Feng Gong， the elements contain： “the fat man， put on the clothes made by himself， pipao， Tibetan Mastiff.” Based on the shared structure， some elements from the two input spaces are made possible to be the counterparts of each other through cross-mapping and are projected onto the blended space.

It is obvious to know that all spaces share the same event frame， which involves： “agent， action， result.” The two input spaces have the same organizing frame “the fat man puts on the clothes made by Feng Gong”.Whats more， the two input spaces also share much of the content.In the blended space， some elements from input1 are fused with the elements from input2.The element of “a great figure” from the input space of the fat man and from the input space of Feng Gong can not be fused together， because these two elements are totally different.It is the clash between “the great figure” and “the Tibetan Mastiff” that makes the humorous effect achieve.Therefore， the step of Composition is finished.The audiences background knowledge about the fat mans putting on the pipao， and the image of the Tibetan Mastiff， combined with the situation when the fat man asked the question help finish the step of Completion.The background knowledge is connected with the new relation and elements in the blended space to form the emergent structure that “the fat man is like a Tibetan Mastiff when puts on the pipao made by Feng Gong”.As a result， there appears the humorous effect.Therefore， the step of Elaboration is finished.In the blended space， the common organizing frame produces a richer frame that only the blend has.There are no clashes between the input spaces while organizing frame.And it is the clashes that make the humorous effect achieve.

Ⅳ.Conclusion： As part of our life， humor can be founded everywhere.This thesis has made a study on the production mechanism of verbal humor from the perspective of Conceptual Blending Theory.

As an essential part of cognitive linguistics， the Conceptual Blending Theory plays an important role in many researches.However， Conceptual Blending Theory also has its limitation.For example， the concept of conceptual blending is too general.

References：

[1]Fauconnier， Gill.（1994）.Mental Space.New York： Cambridge University Press.

[2]Fauconnier， Gill.（1997）.Mapping in Langguage and Thought.New York： Cambridge Press.

[3]Fauconnier， Gill.& Turner， Mark.（2002）.The Way We Think.New York： Basic Book.

[4]Fauconnier， Gill.& Turner， Mark.（1998）.Conceptual Integration Network.Cognitive Science， 133-187.

[5]赵艳芳.（2000）.认知语言学概论.上海： 上海外语教育出版社.

[6]蒋勇，马玉蕾.（2003）.SR与RT的整合性研究.外语学刊.（1）， 31-36.