A Cognitive Study Of Chinese Netspeak From The Perspective Of Conceptual Integration Theory

The contemporary cyber era ushers a new lifestyle and a new way of communication. Netspeak. as the result of technological innovation, economical development, linguistic acculturation as well as changes in human thinking pattern, becomes a frontier subject in the sphere of linguistics. The current study will focus on the meaning construction process of Chinese Netspeak from the perspective of the Conceptual Integration Theory (CIT). including the phonological, lexical, semantic variations of the Netspeak vocabularies and their applications in popular sayings. Chinese Netspeak here refers to the Netspeak on China-based internet, including Chinese characters. English words, figures, emoticons. symbols, code-switching, etc.As one of the most influential theories in cognitive linguistic field. Conceptual Integration Theory has attracted special attention from researchers both at home and abroad due to its strong explanatory power. Chinese Netspeak. as the new language variety as well as the new study material in linguistics, can be explored from the cognitive point of view with CIT. The present study endeavors to enrich the current study of Chinese Netspeak from a relatively new angel as well as to examine the explanatory power of Conceptual Integration Theory in this new language variety.This thesis consists of six chapters, which are organized as follows. Chapter One makes a new and clear definition to Netspeaks. The study focuses on the Netspeak popular among websites, chat room, blog, twitter, etc. Apart from the definition of key terms, this chapter also presents the study background, research significance and methodology of this thesis. Chapter Two makes a literature review of the previous studies on Netspeak. Chapter Three explores the theoretical foundation-CIT. Chapter Four is devoted to a detailed analysis of the stylistic features of Netspeak vocabularies respectively at the phonological, lexical and semantic levels. Chapter Five focuses on the dynamic meaning construction process of Netspeak in the framework of CIT. Chapter Six is the conclusion, where the major findings of the present study are summarized.